Message from Bishop Robert, 28 March 2023

One of the questions asked of the candidates at an interview I was chairing recently was what were they passionate about?

It was a great question, passion is that strong, motivating force that drives a person’s life. It might be about sport, or a hobby. If we are lucky, it might be our work, and it will be something that we want to share with others, that they might become as passionate about it as we are.

At the heart of our Diocesan vision is just such a passion, a deep desire to share the life that is to be found in Jesus Christ, that we and those we meet may come to know life in all its fullness. I am especially aware of this as, in this Passiontide, we enter into the events of Holy Week that take us to the heart of God’s passionate love for us.

The events of this coming week, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem; Jesus sharing the last supper and washing the disciples’ feet on Maundy Thursday; his betrayal, trial and crucifixion on Good Friday; Jesus’ burial and ultimately the resurrection of Easter morning where light triumphs over darkness, love triumphs over death, and gives us hope for the future. Here, we find courage to walk all that lies before us, the joys and sorrows, challenges and possibilities.

This is God’s passionate care for us in the totality of our lives, the whole of who we are that we might be the best of what we are, just as God desires for us.

Of course, God calls us to act in response to that love he shares with us, but in these coming days, as we live these great events, the invitation is simply to be caught up in God’s amazing work, to stop and look in awe and wonder, to know that ‘love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all’.