Reflections on Holy Week and Easter 2023

A blessed Easter to you. As we bathe in the joy of the Easter light I am struck by two questions:

1. ‘So what? We have had the most amazing Holy Week and Easter but so what? If it doesn’t change us and make us better Christians what was the point? 
2. How has the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead changed us this Easter?

Holy Week and Easter in Truro Cathedral were extraordinary, deeply moving, challenging and at times agonising (the sung Gospel Passion was beyond painful on Good Friday.) On Easter Day we had three monumental services. I was in the cathedral on my own from 4:00 am, getting ready for the first service which some 80 people attended all in the very dark of the early dawn. Over 500 people at the 10:00 Sung Eucharist and over 300 people at Choral Evensong. It was exhaustingly joyous. Then on Easter Monday, I took the morning Holy Communion with just one other person, quiet, gentle and contemplative and equally as moving.

All of this, as wonderful as it is, means nothing if we are not prepared to be and indeed are changed by God’s Holy Spirit, through the Resurrection. If we do not become better Christians, better disciples and better people who, in attitude, language and behaviour become more like the Resurrected Jesus, then all we are doing is simply telling stories.

My challenge, to myself and to you then, is this: What, in the light of the truth that Jesus is alive, are we going to change in our lives? What are we going to try harder at? What are we going to become better at? Are we going to be better people? Better Christians? Better disciples?

Over to you.