Journeys

In our third reading [of Easter Vigil] we hear of the efforts Moses made to lead his people to safety. Indeed

the Bible contains many stories of such journeys. There is the Christmas story of the flight of the

Holy Family from Herod, the journey of the Magi, the Passover flight of the Jews. The struggles and

suffering of Moses’s people are well documented in the Old Testament. They were regularly hungry,

cold and thirsty. They were often under attack from hostile forces. Often they lost hope and lost

faith, felt abandoned and turned away from Moses and God. It would be nice to think that such

stories as these were part of a historical narrative that has long since been solved by civilised society.

But every evening, on the TV news we are reminded that this story of brutal dispossession and

fearful escape has marched right into the 21st century.

There are over 13 million refugees in various parts of the world as I speak. We don’t have to imagine

what life is like for them. We can see how it is. It is a story of muddy refugee camps and terrible daily

trudging through strange landscapes without adequate clothing or food. It is carrying frail old people

and small crying children on their backs, the sound of little children coughing in the cold nights, the

story of bodies in the sea and babies scattered like carrion in the flotsam of the outgoing tides. It is

the story of machine guns and razor wire and jackboots and tear-gaz. But most terribly of all it is the

story of rejection. There must surely be no worse pain than the pain of being rejected in the hour of

most desperate need. What must it be like to leave everything you own in the world, to run from a

merciless oppressor- and God knows there are no scarcity of oppressors in the world today, from

Syria to the Taliban , to Isis, to South Sudan,- to seek desperate refuge and meet implacable

rejection. Rejection that is all the worse, all the more hypocritical for being couched in the insincerity

of diplomatic speechifying and political manouvering.

Jesus tells us that the most important commandment bar none is Love. We have just had the

ultimate story of persecution and rejection. We have seen the spear and the nails and the crown of

thorns and the cross of crucifixion.  We have seen Christ spat at and crucified. How can we see these

awful things and not see the millions of fellow human beings who are being crucified daily? Is our

religious belief one thing and our humanity another? The truth is that just as God became flesh

through the life and death of his Son Jesus Christ He becomes flesh also in the life of every

frightened, hungry, cold and desperate refugee.

As Christians we have just completed our own Lenten journey. It was supposed to reflect Christ’s

journey into the wilderness. The bible tells us that Jesus spent 40 days and nights alone wandering

through the arid sandy dunes of Sinai. He experienced thirst, hunger, aloneness and most probably

intense fear of attack by wild animals or robbers.  Ultimately he would be beaten, rejected and

executed in a most horrible way. Christ’s journey brought him through Calvary to the agony of the

cross and the dark place of the tomb but ultimately to the glory of the resurrection on Easter

Sunday. As we celebrate this victory over evil and despair tonight we cannot but think about the

lonely, frightened and despairing refugees who daily travel their own Via Dolorosa carrying the

heavy burden of abandonment and rejection.

Do we as Christians offer them only the tomb or do we have the courage to offer them the

resurrection of our love and compassion as fellow human beings? Surely this is the great challenge

of this time.