You and I cannot speak of the resurrection of Jesus Christ with authentic joy without reference to the events of Good Friday. Easter Day derives its wonder from the fact that it was the Saviour of the World, crucified and - to use a popular metaphor of today - degraded by the force of evil, who through his Resurrection provides for all time the decisive disclosure of God’s victory over death, darkness and despair. We do however have to accept that the Good Friday death was a real death, and that resurrection presupposes a death.

A few months ago I attended a conference of bishops where graphs, diagrams and bar charts were used with great aplomb on impressive computerised presentations to demonstrate how the Church in western society may indeed become much smaller, but that it would then have great opportunities for growth and resurrection. I have since often reflected how, at that meeting, we all seemed strangely reluctant to accept that the Church might have to face, not a “near-death experience”, but the complete disenchantment of Good Friday before Resurrection could come. And Good Friday was a real death.

Do we actually want resurrection, given what it first entails?

In the life of all our churches, we would have to face the total death of so much that - in our paranoia and vanity - we regard as essential, if the God of life is to give us the resurrection of faith.

In the political life of our country, north and south, we would have to accept the total death of a great deal that, in our fear, prejudice and materialism, we regard as our inalienable rights, if the God of life is to give us the resurrection of trust.

In the life of the world (especially in the Middle East at this time), we would have to submit to the total death of our arrogant assumption that western civilisation is inherently superior, if the God of life is to give us the resurrection of hope.

In our own lives of discipleship, we would have to embrace the total death of our individualist self-absorption and self-interest, if the God of life is to give us the resurrection of life eternal.

May the God of all Life bless each one of us, in a joy-filled celebration of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from death.