All that consoles is not fake

The Bishop of Oxford's Easter Message

Human beings have always suffered but we are today, perhaps, more conscious of that suffering than ever before. Because of pain killers, enhanced healthcare and a better diet, most of us in the West suffer less physical pain than our forbears. Paradoxically this has had the effect of making us believe that all suffering can be eliminated and has heightened suffering which can’t be eliminated as an obstacle to faith.

For this reason much of the art and literature over the last hundred years has been stark and sombre in its depiction of the human condition. Furthermore Christian art and literature has focused on the way in which God shares in our human anguish, so the predominant image has been that of Christ on the Cross.

The difficulty has been to convey any sense of the victory of Christ over evil and death. It is all too easy to depict the Resurrection as simply a reversal of the Cross, a happy ending tacked on at the end, something which is unbelievable because it seems too good to be true to the facts of the brutal existence we know. This suspicion is further reinforced by our suspicion of any form of wishful thinking, summed up in lapidary form by Iris Murdoch when she said that ‘All that consoles is fake’. But why should all that consoles us be fake? What she asserts is simply an assumption, nothing more. It is an assumption, very widely shared in our society, that we should question from a Christian standpoint.

From a Christian point of view, Christ’s life and death is a victory, not just a moral victory but a divine victory that will ultimately be reflected in the way things go and are, the actual state of affairs. For His Resurrection, however we understand it, is a promise that God’s purpose of love disclosed in Jesus Christ, cannot ultimately be thwarted. Within time or out of time, God’s good purpose will prevail.

Sometimes we wonder whether God was justified in taking the risk of creation. In Christ we know that He can make evil yield good, can turn human ill will and suffering to good effect. So in saying ‘Christ is risen’ and in replying joyfully ‘He is risen indeed’, we express our confidence not only that creation is good but that all that has gone wrong in it can ultimately come good. Christ’s saving purpose is at work and that purpose is not limited by death.