WORD OF THE WEEK
APRIL is the month of new beginnings. Spring is all around us. Longer days and warmer sunshine bring colour to gardens and hedgerows. There is new life, as lambs frolic in the fields.
This year, more than ever, April brings us the opportunity for new beginnings and the promise of new life, with the gradual vaccination of the population and the gradual easing of lockdown.
This will enable us to meet family and friends, to travel further afield, and to resume familiar activities.
It may also encourage us to take up new activities or establish new priorities.
How will Covid have changed us? What might we now do differently? Will it make us more determined to fulfil those intentions we have always delayed for a later date?
It could just make us more determined than ever to seek pleasure for ourselves, whilst we have the opportunity.
But we also think of those who have suffered most as a result of Covid: those who have lost loved ones, or lost their employment, those who contracted the virus and still live with poor health, and those who bear the mental scars of what they have suffered over the past year. Then we remember the example of those who have worked throughout the year, and taken risks with their own lives, in order to save others and to care for them.
April also brings Easter. It reminds us of Jesus, who devoted his life to sharing the love of God and helping others.
Yet he was rejected by those in authority and suffered an unjust trial, followed by a violent and agonising death.
Yet at Easter, Christians believe, he rose victorious over death, and now offers new beginnings and new life to all who will follow him.
That will involve new priorities and living for others, not just for ourselves.