The echoes of Silence

The silence of remembrance is deafening in a city usually bursting with a cacophony of noise. During those moments of remembrance, if you happen to be out on the streets, in a supermarket, the sudden cessation of activity, the pausing of the daily clamor is tangible and moving.Stopping to focus on the lives lost this time and the lives lost before, so many echoes of  silenced souls flooding forward to fill the void.  The only disturbance being the gentle automatic pokes of modernity from the self service tills, the message tones of phones, the technology that has no understanding of loss. We remember lives pointlessly lost at the hands of tragedy or evil and other lives given for us in the fight for justice and freedom. Then creeping into my mind at the height of the silence the remembrance of the one life that meant all lives lost have a meaning. Those brief seconds can seem like an eternity, as my heart heaves with the weight of what is lost, what has been sacrificed and  then also what has been received.
Yesterday was Corpus Christi, a time when we focus on the Body of Christ. We take Jesus out onto the streets, process him through the community so people can see hope in the middle of all the despair. The hope that Jesus brings us is desperately needed at the moment. Society is hungering for a meaning to the utter evil unfolding around us. It is easy to forget that before us there was a darkness, there has always been a darkness permeating our societies. Despite this encroaching darkness there is a light burning in it's midst to strengthen us in the disorder to guide us through the confusion. The tears of weeping, the weight of loss, can be transformed by love. The darkness can be washed by the blood of sacrifice and reveal a new world of unity. Each time the darkness comes knocking, love comes answering even stronger, the sacrifice is not meaningless and in the loss we can see the hope Christ has given us.
Walking Jesus through the streets in the burning sunshine seemed somehow so appropriate.We needed a time of hope, even though it was followed by more tragedy, it gave us a reminder of the burning light that will carry us through. The procession may have been challenging in the heat and the weight of his sacrifice weighed down on those clergy who carried him. It was never meant to be an easy path to follow. True love is hard, involving real sacrifice, tears and pain, but through it all, he holds us and guides us with his love. He summons us all to the call of his love. He summons us to share his body and his blood, to consume it, to take him into our very being. That we might walk out today and show him in all we say and do. Then we can ensure every action we make today is one of love, hope, tolerance and reconciliation. Then we can stand together and stifle the darkness.