How are you doing? How are we ALL doing in these tricky and difficult times? Some better, some not so good, I’m sure. I recently heard someone talk about the three stages of difficult times: heroic - disillusioned - hopeful.

Where are we on that journey?

We began full of heroism. People are helpful, people are valiant, people put themselves at risk in order to help others. And we’ve seen this in so many areas already in the first days of this pandemic. We are doing our best, we have family or friends working at the front line, in hospitals, supermarkets, schools …. There are cheering stories of what some are doing to help, the hours they are working, the risks they are taking in order to do all they can in such circumstances. And we are grateful to them for what they are doing.

And then comes bad news – someone we know, someone close to us, maybe a family member or good friend, becomes ill, succumbs to the illness, is taken into ICU. The shocking news of our Prime Minister too. And we fear the worst. Who is running the country? Who is control? No-one? The ground slips underneath our feet, our security is threatened, and at the same time our income is also under threat or may already have slipped, slithered, drained away. Where can we turn?

We are disillusioned – or worse. Will this never end? Is it really going on for 12 – 18 months as some have suggested? We know we can’t do this. Disillusionment sets in. We’re in this for the long haul and it’s exhausting, unbearable, undo-able.

Or is it?

Because, eventually, the end WILL be in sight, the number of cases WILL drop, there WILL be good stories of many who recover from the illness. Hope will fill us and we will move forward together and individually as we see that there will be an end. Maybe we realise we’ll emerge stronger – changed yes, but shaped and sharpened by what we have been through. Hope will dawn and grow in us and we’ll press forward towards the light of hope and new beginnings. There’ll be the most huge celebrations and rejoicings. A world party perhaps; family and friends will rejoice and hug and BE together.

And isn’t that the story of Holy Week? Where we are right now. Sunday was Palm Sunday, the day recalling Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, celebrated by the crowds, hearing the cheering and the shouting and the celebrations and joy. HOSANNA! they all shouted. “Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hail to the King of Israel!” (a) It was all very heroic in the face of those turning against Jesus. They’d tried to stone him (b) and the religious leaders were planning and plotting to end it all (c)

They wanted him dead. (d)

Yet in the face of danger, here’s the heroic King of Kings, coming on a mere donkey,

and there’s defiance to the danger and heroism in the heat of the moment.

It's followed by disillusionment. By things going badly wrong. By betrayal, loneliness, isolation: danger, death. The heroic seems to have been in vain and the secure ground has gone.

The leader become the led and the triumph becomes the down trodden.

Had it all been worth it? And the darkness of Friday and Saturday seem overwhelming. Hosanna becomes crucify, life seems finished. (e)

It’s the end of life as we’d known it.

But wait. There’s more.

We know the end of the story. Crucify becomes a Hallelujah - there’s hope and there’s joy. There’s new life and new beginnings. It’s different - but it’s better.

Easter Sunday is coming.

So hold on. Hold on to Hope.

We are the Easter People and Allelujah is our song

Those words of St Augustine, quoted by Pope Paul John II, have perhaps never been more appropriate than they are this year. St Augustine went on:

“Now therefore, friends, we urge you to praise God. That is what we are all telling each other when we say Alleluia. You say to your neighbour, “Praise the Lord!” and he says the same to you. We are all urging one another to praise the Lord … But see that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions.”

Move from disillusionment to hope; from death to life; from despair to joy. We are an Easter people and we know the end of the story - death has been conquered and Christ is Risen.

Let’s raise an Alleluia!

(a) John 12:13-14, NLT

(b) John 11:8

(d) John 11: 47-57

(e) John 19:30