The Church Of The Holy Rood -- Wool, Dorset, U.K.
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The Church Of The Holy Rood -- Wool, Dorset, U.K.
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This month the letter is written by Revd Judith Hill:As I am writing this in Holy Week we have just heard the shocking and dramatic news of the earthquake in Italy, in which many people were killed and many more left homeless. By the time you read this other news will be dominating the media headlines, but for those who have been affected by this disaster, its effects are ever present. I was reminded of this on opening my newspaper on Maundy Thursday- 9 April, that 15 April is the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 football fans were crushed to death. In all of this we might ask ourselves, ‘Why does God allow such terrible things to happen to His people?’ ‘Why does he allow innocent people to suffer?’ Trevor Hicks lost his two daughters in the Hillsborough disaster tells of his twenty year journey through rage and despair to faith and acceptance. Writing in The Times he says, ‘It still hurts just as much. People say time heals- it doesn’t. But it does help you to cope because you learn how to handle it better; you go from raw pain to managed pain.’ He and his wife Jenni would howl at God who had taken their children. ‘Even if you take one, you could have left us the other- why both?’ He often wonders how he got through. But it made him realise what was important in his life, accepting that he can’t change what has happened. He goes on to say. ‘I can wish for it, pray for it, beg for it, steal for it, but it won’t make any difference. So I’m stuck with it. I’ve got to make the best of it.’ It is beyond our comprehension what has happened. We are not God. We will all face difficult situations at some time in our lives but as Christians we have ‘hope’ in a God who loves us, a God who was prepared to send his son into the world and live among us, fully human and to suffer and die for us. We believe in a Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead on Easter Day and walks with us still today through the events of life. Abbot Christopher Jamison — a Roman Catholic Benedictine monk from the BBC TV series The Monastery — describes ‘hope’ as, ‘the capacity to keep going in the midst of apparent disaster- the ability to persevere in love and faith when things are apparently going wrong.’ As a Christian community we are all called to support, comfort and pray for those facing difficult times. We cannot fully understand God, but as we are reminded in Paul’s letter to the Romans, ‘We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.’ Judy
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