Articles - From the Vicar

It's true, we cannot reach Christ's fortieth day;
Yet to go part of that religious way,
Is better than to rest:
We cannot reach our Saviour's purity;
Yet are bid, 'Be holy ev'n as he'.
In both let's do our best.

Who goeth in the way which Christ hath gone,
Is much more sure to meet with him, than one
That travelleth by-ways:
Perhaps my God, though he be far before,
May turn, and take me by the hand, and more
May strengthen my decays.

From The Temple by George Herbert.

To journey in the steps of Christ is the calling of every Christian. Lent affords us the opportunity to do so with a heightened awareness that it is the Cross, what George Herbert calls 'Christ's fortieth day', where that journey ends. Most Christians, at least in the west, are not called to endure the suffering that Christ endured; but to do our best to share Christ's journey to the Cross, to do our best to make his purity the standard by which we judge our own behaviour, is better (to paraphrase Herbert) than doing nothing.

The final two lines quoted above go to the heart of the matter. The transcendent God who, through the prophet Isaiah, promises the people of Israel: 'I will take hold of your hand' is the incarnate God who, in Christ, takes our hand and shows us his unfathomable love on the Cross. May God bless each of us on our Lenten journey.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay