Thought for the Day, 13 April 2006

Dom Antony Sutch

On Monday an inquest jury in London found that Tom Hurndall, a 22 year old photo-journalism student, had been unlawfully and intentionally killed by an Israeli sniper in Gaza 3 years ago. A month after his murder James Miller, a British cameraman, whom I knew as a pupil when I taught at Downside school, was shot dead in the same town by another Israeli soldier. The Holy Land, as with many lands, is a place of political, social,racial, religious and military tension.Today Christians recall and re enact an event which happened just under 2000 years ago in the same Land, in Jerusalem.

The country was under Roman occupation and the tensions must have been very much as today. This is the story of the day of the Jewish Passover Feast which Jesus was to celebrate with his disciples. A story which is filled with the extremes of human character and drama, that could indeed be told of many such days and situations. He was betrayed, spent hours in anguish alone without fiends watching with him, even had one of his closest friends publicly deny that he even knew him. He was to be arrested and taken to trial as his friends deserted him. In this mess of the human life story there were also to be moments and acts of sublime love and generosity. Overall Jesus was to give himself freely for others. This is seen by us as the act of salvation. As he said to Pilate this was his destiny and meaning "For this I was born, for this I came into the world".

At the Feast Jesus had washed the feet of his disciples, a living symbol of love and service. He then broke bread and gave it to them and the cup of wine for he said " is poured out for many".

This is the event Christians re enact today. We gather to remember the story of this Last supper. It is the foundational story of our faith.the one in which we find the meaning of our lives: and which offers meaning to all lives. As Timothy Radcliffe notes" The Last Supper is the clash of brute force and the power of sign. There is the power of Pilate and the power of the weak and vulnerable man who takes bread and breaks it and shares it in the face of death". It is as if a moment of despair, meaninglessness is turned into one of pure faith and hope.

Vaclav Havel wrote " Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out". That may not seem the case for Tom Hurndall and James Miller and it didn't seem the case for Jesus. But the story is not yet finished.