VICAR'S LETTER
17
Sundon Road
Streatley
April, 2006
Dear
All
In Mark 8, Jesus maps out his own spiritual journey and the journey he hopes to inspire us to make:
"Anyone who wishes to be a follower of mine must leave self behind; he must take up his cross and come with me. Whoever cares for his own safety is lost; but if a man will let himself be lost for my sake and for the Gospel, that man is safe. What does a man gain by winning the whole world at the cost of his true self."
It is a journey in three stages.
Stage 1: Leaving self behind
The self that Jesus had in mind is the self that emerged from the Garden of Eden after the Fall. It is a self that contains good. It is made in the image of God. But it is a self that has become self-centred. It puts itself in the place where God should be. One remembers that Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil after they were told that doing so would make them like gods. This is the self that is to be left behind. Jesus seeks to do so throughout his ministry by focusing exclusively on what God wants and what others need.
Stage 2: Taking up the Cross
The self can be suppressed for long periods. While doing what God wants and meeting the needs of others conforms to what-the self wants to do, it has no occasion to assert itself. When, however, doing what God wants or meeting the needs of others comes into conflict with what the self wants, then it makes itself heard. This is the conflict that Jesus finds himself engaged in during Holy Week. He finds himself forced to choose between obedience to God and the demands of self. He chooses for God, and the power of self is finally broken.
Stage 3: Recovering the true self
With the power of the old self broken, the true self is free to emerge. We see it gradually doing so during the hours Jesus spends on the cross. What shines from that cross is all that is noble, beautiful, gracious, gentle, and generous in man. The process is completed on Easter Day. In the Garden of the Resurrection the harmony that once existed in Eden is restored. Man and God are effortlessly at one. This was the journey that Jesus himself made. This is the journey on which he wishes to inspire us to follow him. He wished to restore not just himself but all mankind to harmony with God. This is what he prayed for just before his arrest. Having prayed for his disciples, he went on:
"But it is not for these alone that I pray, but for all those who through their words put their faith in me; may they all he one: as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, so also may they be in us."
Over Passiontide, Holy Week, and Easter we will follow Christ's spiritual journey. The hope is that by doing so we will be inspired to make our own spiritual journey and to play our part in making real the dream for which he died - the dream of a world in which God and man are once more at one.
A very happy Easter.
All best wishes,
Roger