Good afternoon from London where it is really sunny.

Earlier I went for a walk in the park. Nobody would suspect that the country was in such turmoil as life just seemed to go on with joggers and cyclists.

Of course Today too is Holy Thursday, the day that Jesus celebrated the first mass and the day before he died.

I guess the afternoon of Holy Thursday was just another ordinary afternoon too. Certainly the disciples had no idea that later that night Jesus would be arrested and crucified the next day.

Reflecting on the rapidity of it all I can’t help but reflect on those people enjoying themselves in the park today and who may find themselves with the Coronavirus tomorrow and in hospital next week.

And also to think that one of them may be our good friend just like Jesus was to the apostles.

It really makes us think of how rapidly life can change from one day to the next.

Now we have an advantage over the disciplines, we know the rest! We know that Jesus will resurrect on Sunday and the sad story has a happy ending just like in the movies.

And so too with this Coronavirus must we remind ourselves that the current sad state of the world will not go on forever, that we will come out of it and learn from it and the world will be a better place.

Of course right now we can’t see that and many of us may run away in disbelief and fear as the disciples did while others may deny Jesus like Peter but we must do our best to believe in faith.

Indeed 4 years ago on this very evening I left Australia not knowing what my future had in store.

Good Friday I spent in the air wondering if I would ever survive the biggest of all the breakdowns I had.

After 3 months fighting for my life a miracle happened and things began to improve. 4 years later here I am in London, resurrected once again.

Of course at the time I doubted terribly that things would ever be ok and yet beneath the doubt I trusted blindly!

To some this type of trust is silly and makes no sense but such is the nature of our faith.

We are called to trust and believe in God’s plan and God’s power when when in our own human minds we don’t see how.

One Lady with an iron faith was Jesus’ mother Mary. She stood at the foot of that cross and believed, not in what her human eyes were seeing, but in what the eyes of her faith were seeing, the resurrection.

I’m sure Mary must have found it very hard to see all the unbelief around her, the sense of hopelessness and despair of the apostles. I imagine she kept silent on the Saturday after good Friday as walking up to the apostles and saying

“Don’t worry, He will rise from the dead tomorrow”

May well have been met with as much enthusiasm as explaining the power of Jesus and of prayer to our world leaders.

Yet on Easter Sunday Jesus did rise and the rest is history. Yes there was much suffering and many deaths and yet this is how our church was born.

And so today, let’s not be like the disciples who lost faith and went back to their jobs of fishing but let’s rather be like Mary who prayed and waited for the glory of the resurrection.

During this period of a certain crucifixion of our world due to the virus, let us as Christians be people of joy and of hope because Jesus has the victory, death is already conquered and this virus too will pass.

Blessings to you all

Michael