i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture
Thoughts about life, faith and scripture, often prompted by the Bible readings set for the Sunday but taking a ‘sideways look’ that you might not get in a church sermon.
Why i-Llan? Well, I am based in Wales and a Llan is the enclosure where a group of Welsh Christians would gather in community, living and worshipping together. And i- for the virtual community of the internet.
i-Llan: connecting faith, life and scripture
i-Llan: 20th April 2025 – Easter joy in difficult times
Can we sing the Easter Alleluia when we aren't feeling like it?
i-Llan is part of alisteningspace.uk
Welcome to i-Lla, a podcast connecting faith, life and scripture. This episode is about East joy in difficult times.
On Easter Sunday, churches resound to the cry, ‘Alleluia, He is risen!’ For, as St Augustine said, ‘We are an Easter people and alleluia is our song’.
‘Alleluia’ is a shout of praise to God expressing joyful amazement at the resurrection. But supposing that’s not how you’re feeling this Easter Sunday?
We live in the linear dimension of time: chronos-time, clock-time. Each year, the church follows the time-line from Christmas, through Lent and Holy Week to Easter, then on to Ascension and Pentecost. Hymns and prayers reflect the mood of each season. But the facts of our life may not be in tune with that. Life can’t be programmed according to the seasons of the Church, and we may be celebrating something on Good Friday or grieving on Easter Sunday.
Every morning, we are bombarded with bad news: devastating wars, squalid squabbles, sordid misdemeanours, lies and counter-lies—not to mention piles of rubbish and the cost of living. We may be Easter people, but it often seems that we are still living in a Good Friday world!
Yet, every morning, the sun rises (even if it is hiding behind clouds), birds sing, loving smiles are exchanged, acts of kindness carried out, family occasions celebrated. All good news which doesn’t get reported.
The crucifixion was a public event in front of crowds; the resurrection witnessed privately by a few. For those who experienced it, it was bewildering and frightening as well as joyful, but it changed them, and the world, for ever. And it can change you.
Often, the promise of the resurrection is spoken of in terms of chronos-time, what happens after death. But it’s also about kairos-time, God-time. And, in God-time, crucifixion and resurrection co-exist, as the marks of the nails remained in the hands of the risen Christ.
The fact of the resurrection does not prevent suffering, but it enables us to know God’s living, loving presence with us in suffering and brokenness. It enables us to trust that evil does not have the last word. Inner peace and joy are possible in the midst of pain. We live in kairos-time as well as chronos-time, and eternal life is a quality of life we share in now as well as hope for in the future.
So, to quote Pope John Paul II quoting St Augustine,
‘Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and alleluia is our song.’
Whatever your circumstances or mood today, I hope you can sing, whether in major or minor key:
‘Alleluia, He is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!’
So I pray:
Whether in joy or sorrow, may your Easter be filled with blessings.
May you meet the risen Christ,
hear him speak your name,
and feel the loving touch of God upon your life. Amen.