Galilee -
the place of his growing up,
work, ministry
and transfiguration -
where he invited
the discouraged disciples by the lake
to breakfast of bread and fish;
‘It is the Lord’, one said.

Jerusalem -
the place of the dénouement
when the weakness of God
confronted the terror of humankind
with human courage
and divine love -
remains for ever etched
on our universal memory.

Over three hundred years
after this betrayal of love
and judicial execution -
we, his disciples,
began to represent
that drama of unrequited love -
with representations of
our heartfelt Lenten penitence.

At about the same time,
the first great desert disciple -
the abba Antony -
said to abba Pambo:
“Trust not in your own righteousness.
Be not penitent for a deed that is past and gone.” [i.e. - having once repented.]
Why? - because the Lord of all was raised!

Yet the churches
through seventeen centuries
continue the sorrowful drama -
that was once - and is passed -
with penitential dismissal of joy
and gladness
in Lenten self deprecations
awaiting the resurrection -  

'Awaiting the resurrection’?
How can this be
while each day we sleep and rise
in the sure and certain faith
that he died and was raised? -
- that, as with the disciples by the lake
we eat and drink with this Lord
as often in love we turn to him in Eucharist?

How can we put away, ‘pretend’,
that somehow, for six weeks,
we are still awaiting the one
who loves us
and all humankind?
Maybe it is only a matter of words?
A sort of ‘hide and seek’ game
with the Lord who has come to each one of us?

But if so -
how can we respond to the
living expectation visible
in the eyes of young women
and men who seek truth and life
in the cities and towns of Europe
when they come to question
our six weeks’ dramatic playing of gospel?

It will be Spring
before we come
to the celebration of Easter -
the transformation once made
of him who in Galilee
transformed the lives
of women and men
to be his friends.

Lord
may we have the courage and love
that you displayed
when you came to the ‘trial’.
For only in real life,
rather than in cyclical representations,
can we be linked in heartfelt love
with both you and our neighbour.