You Just Can’t See It!

The Apostle Paul tells us in his epistle to the Corinthians; “If there was no resurrection then everything we talk about is meaningless.” Indeed we fall into the abyss of Kant and the existentialist philosophers. We are all lonely individuals searching for our own meaning and purpose in life. We are like the hitchhiker.This month we are going to engage with people of faith who for a time just couldn’t see it. For them the resurrection was a fairytale the product of the fertile imagination of emotional gullible people. If you sometimes have such feelings journey with us this month and please share your thoughts so that this site becomes more interactive. Our prayer this month will focus on the struggles of different Biblical characters “trying to see it” but more often than not missing it. In week one after Easter we will take time to reflect on the meaning of the cross in the light of the Resurrection. It allows us to look at suffering beyond suffering. In week two our prayers and reflections will deal with Peter’s feelings post resurrection. In week three we’ll reflect on the challenge the resurrection brought to the religious traditionalist. Our prayers will engage with our own religious bias In week four the theme of ” you just can’t see it” will seek to engage with those who struggle and live with doubt knowing they are part of a faith community. Thomas will be a character around which our prayers will be based. In our section going further we hope to prepare study material for those who want to think and share a bit more deeply around the prayers and readings. The resurrection invites us to think not only as individuals but as community. It does this by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer revealing by faith that we can and must receive for ourselves but never by ourselves. It is to strive to understand what it is to be united with others into the resurrected Christ in a Communion that gives us life and freedom. Even these two words communion and freedom set up a paradox in our thinking. Paul seeks to answer these questions reminding us that this communion has let us understand in part what it means to have the “love of God being shed abroad in our hearts.” This love invites us to move from the abyss to the place of hope and expectation. It invites us to understand our existence as one philosopher and theologian has put it as “the one and the many in Christ.” Here then is the mystery of Communion displayed and worked out in the relationships which create community and which we call Church.