Fr Robert Hendrickson

“It is winter in Narnia,” said Mr. Tumnus, “and has been for ever so long…. always winter, but never Christmas.”

Dear Friends in Christ,

I always try and stick to the liturgical season as much as possible. So, for example, when it’s Advent I try and not get too caught up in Christmas planning, buying, &c — because it’s still Advent! When it’s Lent we try not to leap ahead to Easter — which is harder here because the weather changes so early. But we don’t buy Easter candy and the like — because it’s still Lent!

I have to say though that I am finding staying in this season hard! I am ready to be through this pandemic season and to be on with life.

There’s that evocative description of Narnia I quoted at the top — that’s how this last year has felt. We started the pandemic, in earnest, during Lent. It has felt like a year of always Lent and never Easter. It was certainly not an Easter or a Christmas like we’d ever had before. For that matter it was not a summer, fall, or winter like we’ve had before either.

I suppose though, there’s another quote from Narnia I’ve been pondering too:

“They say Aslan is on the move- perhaps has already landed." And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different.

I’ve had the sense, all through this long time of isolation, endurance, loss, and lament that God is on the move. Beneath the surface of all that we see, God is on the move and stirring something in us, around us, and through us. When I ponder that, I feel quite different, as Lewis might have said. I feel hope.

The children didn’t know who Aslan was and yet, hearing he was on the move, they were stirred in various ways:

At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.

God is on the move this spring. God is on the move this Lent. God has been on the move all along, through this whole last year even when we’ve not seen nor sensed nor felt it.

What we’ve experienced is not a Lent without Easter — but an Easter rumbling and churning and roiling and turning and creeping and immense. It is on the move.

Can you feel it too?

Fr Robert