Day 26, Sunday, 14 March TO LAUGH OR TO CRY

 

RETREAT IN LENT 2021

Day 26, Sunday, 14 March

TO LAUGH OR TO CRY

A story on the news recently told of a mother in Sierra Leone receiving back her daughter who had been rescued from traffickers who took her to Mali. Joy and tears appeared together on her face. She had wept for her daughter but now her tears were turned to joy. ‘Those who sow in tears sing as they reap’ (Ps. 126).

Midway in Lent we read from the Chronicles of Israel (2 Chron 36:14-23). ‘Their enemies burned down the Temple of God, demolished the walls of Jerusalem … and the survivors were deported to Babylon’. It was a total disaster. But then, after ‘a sabbath rest’, (Holy Saturday?), Cyrus, king of Persia, is aroused by the Lord to issue a proclamation; ‘Rebuild the temple! Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him! Let him go up’.

We then go to John’s gospel (John 3:14-21) where we read of the ‘lifting up’ of Jesus on the cross. ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life’. And a medieval crucifix in the castle of Xavier, in Spain, shows a laughing Christ on the cross. In his agony he is full of joy; he is a bleeding warrior who has conquered his enemies.

We are caught in this maelstrom, this whirling tumult, of pain and victory. This is our life. For some their share of suffering seems unbearable. Think of Tigray, the Eastern Congo or Burma, where a nun pleads with the military on her knees to stop their violence against the people. But then you see two of the soldiers also going down on their knees as they watch her intently.

These readings tell us; ‘do not give up’. ‘Do not lose heart’. ‘Keep pressing against the frontiers of evil and opposition. They will eventually give way’. The sufferings of people in Zimbabwe will eventually give way to a new life of dignity. I have just been reading about families in England in the 1930s: the poverty of the people and the heartlessness of the government. If a family member got sick it was a disaster for the whole family. The cost of medical care drained them. The writer could have been describing Zimbabwe in the 2020s.

In England, all this changed after the war and, together with many countries, the people now enjoy social security covering health, unemployment and old age. It will happen here too but not until there is a change of mind among those who run our country. ‘Those who sow in tears will sing as the reap’. That change of mind will come when it is contagious, when it spreads and no vaccine will stop it.