A message for the Easter season

Resurrection is about new life. What’s really important about Jesus’ resurrection is that it was not resuscitation. Jesus was truly dead, and God raised him to new life in some way we can never fully understand (we’re not meant to!).

It may be that thinking about new life is the most helpful way to make sense of Jesus’ resurrection. He lived again, and continues to live, but in a new way. The gospel stories of his appearances to his disciples and many others make this clear. He was in some way recognisable as the person they had known and loved, but he was also different.

I think the questions I am left with go something like this:
What sort of new life do I need?
What sort of new life does the world need?
What sort of new life do the people I love need?

We can offer these questions as prayers and trust that God will show us what the answers can be. In my experience God usually responds to our prayers by coming back to us suggesting some sort of action we then need to take!

This line from Mary Oliver, a contemporary poet, has stayed with me. She writes:
‘Tell me what you want to do with your one wild and precious life’.

Every good wish this Easter season, which lasts for 50 days and takes us to the great feast of Pentecost.

 Canon Peter Seal