Message from Bishop Michael Lewis

Greetings to all at Holy Trinity Dubai at this central, definitive time of the Church's year.

The core of the Christian faith is found, concentrated, in the week that begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Easter Day. The last week of Christ's life on earth is for us Holy Week. In it, and in Christ, we see our salvation. In it, and in Christ, we see the truth of who we are.

He enters Jerusalem as a king, feted by the crowds who strip palm leaves and shout Hosanna. But most are not expecting the sort of king he proves to be. This is the Jesus who enters the Temple and overturns the tables of the mercenary cheaters. Soon he will be killed, and the fickle crowds will loudly approve. No wonder Palm Sunday of the Passion is celebrated in blood-red vestments.

He gathers his faithful but confused disciples in the upper room. Peter tries to stop him from washing their feet. A king, a messiah, shouldn't do what a servant should do. Yes, he should, says Christ; and so must you. He shares bread and wine with them and calls the bread his body and the wine his blood. They eat, but are stupefied. Tomorrow, looking appalled on the cross, they will remember his talk of body, and his talk of blood, and his command: do this, always, in remembrance of me. And slowly the days will come when they realize they can rejoice in the meal and the command. No wonder Maundy ("Command") Thursday is celebrated in vestmests of glorious gold or white.

Then abruptly they go out into the cold of the Kidron valley. In the Garden of Gethsemane he prays in agony at what is coming. Into his prayer, and the disciples' dozing, burst the soldiers and Judas. He is taken, unresisting. He is imprisoned by the high priest, arraigned before Pilate, condemned and flogged, and made to carry the crossbeam on which he is then for three hours crucified. Only Mary his mother and John his beloved friend dare to stand close. No wonder this Friday is celebrated with starkness: behold the wood of the cross. But on this cross hangs the one who is saviour, and true king, of all the world. Therefore no wonder that the wisdom of the Church calls this Friday Good.

He is lowered, and buried in the unused cave-tomb given by a rich man. The grave is sealed. He is dead, as all human beings certainly die. Some of his disciples are tempted to lose all hope. Others, notably some of the women, watch and wait, on this Saturday whose proper name is Holy.

And on the border between darkness and light, as Saturday begins to turn into Sunday, all human certainties are challenged and subverted. The women find that the stone that sealed him in is rolled away. The slab is empty of all but cloths. They seem to see beings in white: are they angels? Then Mary Magdalene, in extreme distress, thinking she is addressing the graveyard gardener, finds she is in the presence of the risen Christ. She knows him by the way he says her name.

And this is the Paschal mystery. This is the resurrection. This is the Anastasis, Christ's standing up again to call us to stand up with him: his resurrection - and ours; his victory over sin, hopelessness, and death - and ours. And the risen Christ is the Jesus we know, and we know him best by the way in which, from our birth to our death, he says our name.

On Easter Day and throughout the great and holy season of Eastertide, may we say from the bottom of our hearts, in church and everywhere, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

+ Michael