Shared in the diocesan e-newsletter, Thursday 2 April

Towards the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, one of the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, Lucy and Edmund Pevensie learn that they will not be returning to Narnia.  Aslan comforts the children saying, ‘But I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name.  This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.’

Holy Week, and particularly the Sacred Triduum, brings us close to Jesus. We are the disciples who are ‘with him’ (Mk 3:14) as Jesus enters Jerusalem, celebrates the Last Supper, suffers, dies and rises from the dead. As Easter begins the intensity of that closeness fades as we return to ordinary life.

In the accounts of the Resurrection, Mary of Magdala stands weeping outside the tomb. When she finally recognises Jesus, he says to her, ‘Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father’ (Jn 20:17). Jesus is not pushing her away. Rather, he is inviting her to know him no longer as the teacher (Rabboni) she followed, but as the risen Lord.

The intensity of the Sacred Triduum allows us to know Christ through his mysteries so that we can follow him more deeply in the ordinary life that follows. Like Lucy and Edmund, we do not return to our lives as if nothing has happened. We enter Eastertide knowing Jesus not only through the events of his Passion, Death and Resurrection, but as the living Lord who is with us.

Fr Michael Glover
St Mary's College, Oscott

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