Purple magnolia

Preached at St Paulinus on Easter Sunday, 8 April 2007, 10am Mass. You may have heard on the news that Somerfield did a survey of its customers to find out how much or how little their customers knew about the real meaning of Easter. Unfortunately, Somerfield revealed quite a lot about its understanding of Easter, when in its press release it said that people were ignorant of the fact that Easter eggs celebrate the birth of Jesus. Now, you might groan, I did when I heard this. But I've been thinking that this typo that some poor employee of Somerfield made, is unwittingly revealing, and perhaps should cause a rethink. Eggs are about birth, actually – in an obvious way, we all come from eggs : and so in one way it should indeed be more natural to associate eggs with Christmas rather than Easter. So I have a proposal to make. That at Eastertime, instead of eggs, we give and consume fruit. But lest there be a revolution, I'll allow it to be fruit made out of chocolate. Wh

Preached at St Paulinus on Maundy Thursday, 6 April 2007, 8pm Mass Why was Jesus betrayed by Judas? Those who wanted to arrest Jesus did not need help to find him. Jesus says himself, "Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a bandit? When I was with you day after day in the temple you did not lay hands on me." (Luke 22.52 – 53). He was not the least bit secret in what he did, the authorities had no need of Judas: the arrest could have happened without Judas' help. So why is Judas involved? I think it happens this way, so that Judas was at the last supper. It can be easy to forget sometimes, as we are so familiar with the last supper, and we rehearse it so often at communion, that these words "This is my body" "This is my blood" were said to a group of people, a group which was falling apart, a weak group of people. Tonight the disciples fail to accompany Jesus in prayer in Gethsemane. Tonight, one of them betrays Jesus. There

A meditation given at St Paulinus on Holy Wednesday, 4 April 2007, 9.30am Mass. I wonder what made Judas join the group of disciples in the first place. Perhaps (like most of us, I suspect) he initially fell in with Jesus' crowd not so much out of conviction as circumstance. Perhaps he was dissatisfied with his previous life, lonely, searching for something, unemployed maybe - and welcomed the chance to become part of this group. That stuff they believed – well, he wasn't too sure about that – there was certainly some good teaching there – but more important for him - here was a chance to make a living, of sorts. He was pleased to be accepted as part of the group Judas was a quiet disciple, until the last few days of Jesus' life. He does the things that they all do. They lived together, ate together, talked together. Judas makes the mistakes of them all – when they don't understand Jesus, when they argue with each other – and he shares in the joys of all, for ex

A reflection given at St Paulinus on Holy Tuesday, 3 April 2007, 8pm Mass. Peter, also known as Simon, plays a strangely peripheral part in the events of this week: strange for someone who was to become so important. He doesn't perform any of the key actions in what happens to Jesus – characters like Judas, Pilate and Herod are much more important. Peter – as a human being – was I'm sure all too aware of his own failures. He knows that he's gotten so many things wrong before. He knows that Jesus got angry with him when he said that he didn't want him to die. Jesus called him "Satan", and a "stumbling-block." (Matt 16.23) He knows that he said exactly the wrong thing up on the mount of transfiguration, when he suggested building tents for Moses and Elijah and Jesus. He knows that he isn't worth much – and yet Jesus has all these high expectations of him: Jesus said to Peter "You are Peter, the Rock; and on this rock I will build my chur

A meditation given at St Paulinus on Holy Monday, 2 April 2007, 8pm Mass. "Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead." What was it like for Lazarus? Lazarus – we read in John - died of an unnamed illness; and I think it's safe to assume that he died younger than average. So from his point of view, he's been in pain perhaps, lying on his bed, not knowing what was going to happen, seeing the worry on the faces of the people around him. As he flits in and out on consciousness, at some point he sleeps finally, he dies. And then – what happens – he wakes up. I guess feels well. Where is he? He's lying on something cold and hard – not the bed he went to sleep in. It's very quiet. He's got some fabric – a bandage or something - wrapped around his face. But through the folds he can see that he's in a cave or something. It's dark, but there's light streaming in from the entrance.