When asked to describe the mystery of Easter Carl Knudsen responded with the following story. ‘Years
ago an old lamplighter, engaged in putting out the street lights one by one, was met by a reporter who
asked him if he ever grew weary of this work. After all it was a lonely job and the night was cold and
damp. ‘Never am I cheerless’, said the old man. ‘For there is always a light ahead of me to lead me on’.
But what do you have to cheer you when you put out the last light?’ asked the news writer. ‘Then the
dawn comes’, said the lamplighter. One light after another did Jesus put out the light of popular acclaim,
the lamp of patriotic approval, the lamp of ecclesiastical conformity – all for the sake of God’s love,
which burned in his heart and showed him the way. At last the light of his life was to flicker out on the
hill called Calvary. What then? We hear Jesus’ voice, ‘Into your hands I commend my spirit’. And then
came the dawn. All did not end on Calvary because the cross was a passage to eternal life. We
celebrate today the Christ who lives and by whose rising a new day has dawned for all humankind. Our
belonging to Jesus precludes any hopelessness or pessimism; any hiding or wandering aimlessly in the
dark.
Fr. Kevin.
Eadestown Parish 