2 minute read
Archdeacons’ Column
By The Venerable Mike Komor & The Venerable Rod Green
Imagine trying to catch the torrent of a waterfall in a cup.
Advertisement
That’s rather like trying to grasp the full meaning of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus - the events that form the focus of Holy Week and Easter – according to one Christian writer, Géza Vermes. The sheer enormity and significance of the events are too large for anyone to comprehend properly; the best we can do is to catch a few of the drops of water. Truly, our cup runneth over.
We are now at that point in the year when we are once again about to enter into the mystery of Christ’s passion, crucifixion and being raised from the dead, and through God’s grace we have the traditions, customs and practices of the Church to help us at least begin to understand that which is beyond human comprehension.
There are many different symbols of Easter used by the Church, each of which in its own way points to the truth of what the festival means. One of the least used, but perhaps among the most powerful, is that of the butterfly. Everyone learns as a schoolchild that butterflies come from caterpillars. The transition from one to the other is an extraordinary, some might say miraculous, process that is astounding in its complexity. To become a butterfly, a caterpillar forms a cocoon or a chrysalis, and then digests itself. But certain groups of its cells survive, turning the soup into eyes, wings, antennae and other structures of the adult insect. Truly, out of something that gives the impression of being dead comes something new that is both beautiful and glorious.
It’s not hard to see why this is such a powerful symbol of resurrection. While there was continuity between the body of Jesus that hung on the cross and the resurrected Christ encountered by his disciples, there was also change; what was dead had become fully alive in a way that no human before had experienced. The old had passed away; behold, the new had come. Alleluia!
In another sense, and admittedly on a scale of far lower significance, the diocese is about to witness another kind of rebirth, as we prepare to welcome our new Bishop, Mary Stallard.
