Into the belly of the beast

Easter 2023

“Men of science offer us health, an obvious benefit; it is only afterwards that we discover that by health, they mean bodily slavery and spiritual tedium.”

GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 1908

“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

Matthew's Gospel

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Every human being finds themselves thrown into life, into being.

We do not begin the story and we do not end it. We have a finite number of breaths and heartbeats whilst we feel our way through the world. But we never make our way alone. We are bound and shaped by family, history, and culture.

Our destiny is also shaped by the contemporary: the events and the spirit of the current age. And in this regard, we have all lived to see strange and monstrous things beyond our comprehension.

We face these things at Easter, and this is how we come to face God.