As we crack open the chocolate eggs next Sunday, we’ll hardly notice their fragility. Chocolate eggs come so cheaply these days, that our children can break open half a dozen if they’ve got a host of indulgent aunties. Perhaps Easter should be a season to notice fragility. Our society is actually quite fragile – it only takes a politician’s idle reflection on a possible shortage of petrol to cause a run on the garages, and suddenly, all our transport plans look at risk. It only takes a sudden illness, an unexpected funny turn or worse, to cause all plans to be put aside, and the anxieties of eternity come into focus.
To all facing fragility this Easter, there is a message of hope: the Christian Church believes in a God who takes on human fragility, and who shares it with us, even to the point of breaking, and a broken body is put into the tomb on Good Friday, so that a healed and renewed body might emerge on Easter Day. The Church is about finding new strength in God’s actions on our behalf, and it is my prayer that if you’re faced with fragility this Easter, whatever the circumstances, that you’ll find hope and strength in God’s actions for you.
And I hope we’re building a Church that works with the fragile, that can roll up its sleeves and bring the energy of God to bear where it is needed in society. That’s why the egg is the symbol of Easter, for out of the breaking always comes the hope of new life.
The Bishop of St Asaph, Dr Gregory Cameron
