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LETTER FROM THE RECTORY
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LLYTHYR O'R RHEITHORDY

April 2010

Rector of Llandudno
Which is your favourite resurrection story? Is it St. John’s account of Our Lord’s appearance to the disciples in the upper room on the evening of Easter Day and his appearance in the same place a week later when Jesus showed himself to ‘doubting’ Thomas? I’m sure that most have had doubts about our faith at one time or another and so can identify with St. Thomas and take heart at the Lord’s words ‘Happy are they who find faith without seeing me.’

Or maybe it’s the story (also in John’s Gospel) of Mary Magdalene mistaking the risen Jesus for the gardener and only recognising him when he spoke her name. We all need to know that Christ loves each of us and calls us by our name.

Perhaps it’s the account of Jesus’ last words to his disciples right at the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel when He commanded his followers to make men and women of all nations his disciples and to baptize them which appeals especially to you. This ends with his promise to be ‘with you always to the end of time.’ What a comforting assurance of his presence with us nearly 2000 years later!

I love all the resurrection stories but I think my favourite of them all is St Luke’s account of the walk to Emmaus. In this we read of the two disciples who meet Jesus as they walk along. They do not recognise him even though he helps them to understand the significance of what has happened. When they arrive at Emmaus the disciples invite the Lord to have a meal with them. St Luke tells us: ‘when he had sat down with them at table, he took bread and said the blessing; he broke the bread, and offered it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.’ They rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the Apostles describing ‘what had happened on their journey and told how he had made himself known to them in the breaking of the bread’.

I  relate to this story in particular because I know the Lord in the breaking of the bread too – each time I celebrate or worship at the Eucharist. Unlike the disciples at Emmaus I have never seen Christ with my eyes but I do ‘see’ him in the Eucharistic bread and wine. There, I know him to be my crucified and risen Lord, a Lord who wants to make himself known to me.

Whichever your favourite Easter story is – one of those I have mentioned or perhaps another – you will love it because it will speak to you of the presence of the risen Lord in your life. Please do read it and reflect on it in the days ahead. But it would be good for all of us to widen our reading to take in more of the Gospel accounts of the resurrection over this Easter period - to read them, and prayerfully reflect upon them and so to deepen our sense of the presence of the risen Lord in our own lives.

But at Easter we also need to come together as Christians to worship the risen Lord. The Easter Liturgy on Holy Saturday evening is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the witness of the scriptures to the risen Lord and, as the great Easter Candle is lit, to rejoice in the light that his conquest of death brings into our world. Above all, though, like the disciples at Emmaus, we need to know him in the breaking of the bread as we celebrate the Easter Eucharist together.

May you all have a blessed Easter and be filled with the presence of the risen Lord.

Fr John


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