Monday, 24 March 2008

Never mind Easter - show him your cross!

I am pleased to say that I did not embarrass myself this Easter, or at least not as much as I nearly did a few years back.

Whilst I am not particularly religious, I do understand the general concept of Easter, and whilst having some sympathy with the views of comedian Alan Carr, ("...a long weekend is great but I can't help thinking that if Jesus had just held on a bit longer we could have had a full week's holiday!") I do realise that this does tend to trivialise this important religious festival.

Neither was this (i.e. the trivialisation point) my intent a few years back when on this same weekend I noticed a family friend, Phillip, walking through our village.

At the time (and I should point out that I don't have 20:20 vision) I was in my car and Phillip appeared to be struggling to carry a large wooden object, and was not helped by the fact that a large group of fellow villagers who were walking behind him, were offering him no assistance whatsoever!

"Shall I stop and give him a hand?" I asked MN&D, to which she gave me a withering look and asked "Don't you know what he's doing?".

I think this may have been a rhetorical question, because as I started to reply, that "Yes, he's struggling to carry that big wooden cross..." I suddenly realised that Phillip, the village's Vicar, was staging a re-enactment of Christ's journey.

I also fully appreciate that had this modern day re-enactment concluded with with "Christ" arriving at the crucifixion site, in the front of a Mondeo estate, with his cross hanging out of the back of the said car, that some of the religious and symbolic significance may have been lost.

However, whilst my willingness to help was somewhat inappropriate, at least my heart was in the right place!

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