From the Rector

 

 

 

Dear Everybody, hello again.

 

The world is a strange, beautiful, and terrible place.  When we watch nature programmes on television, we usually see one species feeding on another.  Animals, birds, insects, fish, and even viruses, parasites and fungi.  Life feeds off life.

 

We humans feed off life as well.  But the life that we feed off is not just physical.  We need emotional, mental, and spiritual food as well.  In order for all aspects of our lives to be healthy, they need to be nourished.  Sometimes, because one area of our life is undernourished, we overcompensate with another.  Comfort eating because of emotional upset is commonplace.  But it isn’t healthy.

 

One of the services at Easter-time is on Maundy Thursday, when Christians remember that, at the Last Supper, Jesus told us to feed on him spiritually.  He was giving his life, so that others could have life.  And early Christians we often accused of being cannibals, because of this teaching.

 

But for all of us, whether we have a formal belief or not, the measure of a spiritual person is this.  The most spiritual person is not one who consumes many spiritual things, but one who allows others to feed off them spiritually.

 

In all the tragedies that surround us in our daily lives – children who are born damaged or who die in road accidents, adults who die because of mistakes or negligence, communities that are decimated by war or natural disaster – we are heartened by the number of people who give of themselves, to the point of ultimate sacrifice. 

 

God bless you this Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter.

 

David Head