The Weekly Times - TWT - 17th April 2019

Wednesday 17 April, 2019 THE WEEKLY TIMES 13
EASTERCHURCHSERVICES
A reflection on Easter
from a local Parish Priest
By Father GREG MORGAN
STORIES about people bravely rescuing others from dire situations have an uncanny
ability to captivate our attention and admiration.
Take last year’s account
f the rescue of that young
hai soccer team which had
ecome trapped by rising
oodwaters in the cave they
ere exploring.
The unfolding drama capured
the imagination of
he whole world as we witessed
how those skilled
ivers first found them,
nd then concocted a darng
plan to get them all out
afely, against all the odds.
Even the Thai Navy
EALS, who participated in
he rescue, said that they
ere “not sure if this is a
iracle, a science, or what”
hat they were so successul.
It was as if that soccer
eam had come back from
he dead!
What we Catholics and
hristians celebrate at Eastr
is that God concocted
omething similar for us.
nd it is this astounding
ne-off event which still inpires
us to be better peole,
and strive for a better
orld, year in year out.
The message of Easter is
good one and it is timeess.
It may not be believble
to some people, but it
s one that deserves to be
ondered.
Seeing us trapped in a
hopeless situation from
which we unable to save
ourselves, mortal beings
that we are yet with an ardent
longing to live forever,
God sent his Son into the
world to get us safely back
to our Heavenly Maker.
In doing so an unforgettable
scene was created in
history, etched into our consciousness
like the images
of the Thai cave rescue and
recounted for us by the eyewitnesses
who participated
in the unfolding drama.
We call it Holy Week, the
last week Jesus spent on
earth in his non-resurrected
form. It is also the most important
week in the Christian
calendar.
A man enters Jerusalem,
mounted on a donkey, to
the roar of the welcoming
crowd. Only that man we
also believe to be equally
the Son of God. His name
is Jesus, and he came to
rescue us from the certainty
and inevitability of death.
We call that Palm Sunday.
He then celebrates a final
meal with his followers,
indelibly etched into their
collective memory when he,
the Master, humbly washed
his disciple’s feet as a sign
of gratuitous service. We
call that the Last Supper.
He then goes off to an
olive grove to pray for the
strength to get through the
ordeal ahead of him. The
grove and the prayer is
called Gethsemane, and the
ordeal he will face the Way
of the Cross.
This perhaps incredible
tale to some is what we
Christians have recounted
from one generation to
the next for close on 2000
years. Yet we are constantly
on the lookout for modern
day metaphors in real life to
deepen our understanding
of this event, and appreciate
what Jesus did for us.
The Thai cave rescue
helped make that event
more graphic. For like the
divers who had to escort
those young boys and their
coach out through the dark
and murky waters of that
intricate cave, so too did
Jesus find a way out for us.
We often find ourselves
trapped in bad habits that
are hard to break, which
hurt ourselves and others, in
which we say and do what
we know we shouldn’t, and
fail to do or say what we really
should. And we find it
hard to break the inertia and
indifference which rob us of
the energy to do something
for others.
We call that sin. It is like
the rising floodwaters of
that cave. Dark and perilous.
A threat to the promise
of eternal life. There seems
to be no way out of them.
The divers who went into
that flooded cave knew the
risks, but the stakes were
equally high. The soccer
team faced almost certain
death in that cold flooded
cave if they didn’t act decisively
on their behalf.
One of the divers didn’t
make it out alive. I was
deeply moved when news
of his self-sacrifice became
known, and of the widow
and family he left behind in
order to secure their safety.
He paid the highest price for
them to be saved.
Holy Week is our week of
remembrance of the incredible
deed that Jesus, whom
we believe to be the Son of
God, did for us. We especially
celebrate the day he
rose from the dead. We call
that Easter Sunday.
But we also remember
with gratitude and admiration
the supreme sacrifice
on Good Friday that he
made. He, too, paid the
highest price for us, we be-
lieve that he sacrificed his
earthly life that we might
have a beautiful life beyond
the murky curtain of death.
At a press conference, to
thank the rescuers for their
incredible bravery and skill,
one of the boys reflecting on
his experience said that it
had taught him to be “more
careful and live my life to the
fullest.”
That is what we take away
with us from Holy Week. A
renewed desire to live our
lives better and to the fullest,
so that our limited time
in this world not be wasted,
and in some way to imitate
Jesus’ self-sacrifice on the
Cross for others, in gratitude
to the One who “loved
us and gave up his life for
us”.
For if our lives have been
rescued by Jesus like those
boys in that cave, and there
is an afterlife with our Maker
in Heaven, then we have a
lot to thank our divine rescuer
for.
Personally, my hope this
Easter is to be inspired to
help rescue others from
the “rising floodwaters” of
a modern way of life lived
centred on ourselves, our
wellbeing and a comfortable
existence.
By doing so, we can miss
the opportunities to do
something heroic for others,
something admirable,
involving gratuitous service
and sacrifice, because we
have developed the bad
habit of living basically for
ourselves.
Once again, I invite you
all to get down to your local
churches and delve into the
message of Easter for yourselves,
like those intrepid
divers, two and a half miles
from the entrance to that
cave.
The Christian year really
starts and ends with Holy
Week, these eight days of
reflection which start us all
off on a good heading for
the year ahead. It is meant
to be a celebration of the
power of love over evil, of
selflessness over selfishness,
of life over death, and
not the other way round.
So have a beautiful Easter,
reflecting on what Jesus
has done for you. It could
help us to be “more careful”
with what we do and say,
and inspire us to “live our
lives to the fullest” over the
coming year.
And it could be more riveting
and edifying than even a
visit to the Easter Show!