To be read out at all Masses
Sunday 18 April 2004
One of the signs of Spring is the return of birds that migrate for the winter. You see them wheeling in great flocks around the sky in autumn, and wonder who is in control and who decides when to go. The other great mystery, of course, is how they know where to go. This was the subject of a report in the paper a few weeks ago.
The story was about swifts. They're like swallows, and most people can't tell them apart, but please don't write and tell me what the difference is. They migrate over long distances, and part of that long journey is over sea. Now clearly they can't stop for a quick sleep in the middle of the journey. They'd drown. They don't stop for a sleep; it appears that they sleep while they're flying. The amazing bit is that while they sleep (or while part of their brain shuts down) they don't fly off course. While they're asleep, it seems that their minds and bodies are making all the adjustments necessary to take account of the wind and other things that could cause them to drift off course.
It would all be a lot easier if they didn't have to sleep. But they do. We all do. But we're not sure why. We know what happens when we don't get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation is one method of torturing people without leaving marks.
Today the world around us is coming back to life after its long sleep through winter, a sleep that allows nature to conserve its precious resources as it retreats from the cold.
After the intensity of Lent and Easter, the Church refers to this Sunday as Low Sunday, in contrast to the great 'high' feast of Easter. It is almost as if we need to take a rest, have a bit of a spiritual sleep.
The story of the creation of the world in Genesis ends with God taking his rest on the seventh day, the sabbath. For that reason, Genesis says, the sabbath becomes a holy day for all the people of God. So important is this notion that it is enshrined in the Ten Commandments, and the wording makes it the longest of all the commandments. It is an important part of our relationship with God.
A day of rest is vital part of our normal rhythms, and a way of ensuring that our energies are not completely drained so that we become less effective in all we do and experience - and that includes our relationships with one another.
The tradition of the Lord's day, the sabbath, has been eroded enormously in the past twenty years or so - it all seemed to happen in a very short time. There are many reasons for it. Sunday shopping was one of the most obvious threats to the Lord's day and perhaps has had the greatest impact. And it is not just that many people choose to go shopping on a Sunday, but it signalled that Sunday was not special after all, and so things that were not done on a Sunday were now permissible. Not so long ago there was no theatre on a Sunday; betting was forbidden and the big sports events were confined to Saturdays. But it's not just that all of our time is now taken up; we're encouraged to think that we have to be busy all the time, so that in fact for many people the most precious commodity they speak of is not family, friends or health; they speak of time as their most precious possession.
The first word that Jesus uses to greet his disciples on his appearance to them in the upper room in today's gospel is 'peace'. It is a powerful and wonderful gift to wish to someone, because it's so important. It means all sorts of things, but has particular connotations in our world today, where so many peoples and nations do not have real experience of it. There are children growing up in our world today who would have no idea what peace means.
But it also means a personal attitude and disposition. Whether we are at peace depends largely on what is happening around us. But some of it is our own responsibility and making. And we will only make peace for ourselves if we make time for it. Then what we do with that time is most important. Because one thing that will get squeezed out of a busy life is time for reflection and prayer. Our only hope for any sort of successful prayer and a decent relationship with God is to make time for it. Likewise, our only hope for a decent relationship with our children and spouse, parents and friends, is to make time.
I hope that if you have had a busy time recently, whether in school or college (as teacher or learner), at other places of work, in the parish or in the family, that you are able to take time, and look to God for guidance.
On the seventh day God had completed the work he had been doing.
He rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing.
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day
he rested after all his work of creating
May God bless you and your families with peace in this Easter season.
Rt. Rev. Kieran Conry
Bishop of Arundel and Brighton
