The smell of summer

Spiritual reflection to start the day in Holy Week with Rev Richard Frazer of the Church of Scotland.

Good morning.
Holy Week is the most profound period in the Christian Calendar, and it begins this weekend. For some it can feel odd to devote so much time and attention to the tragedy of a week that concludes with a brutal execution, the Crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday.

But, of course, his end is only the beginning. There is something universally significant in the story. Death, loss and tragedy often usher in something deeper. What we hold on to in this time is not so much a ‘fingers crossed optimism’ that things will turn out alright in the end. There are things about this story that have echoes in our own human experience where happy endings are not inevitable.

The human experience of loss and tragedy often underwrites an extraordinary growth in wisdom, strength and depth of humanity. A minister I admired brought home an ancient Arabic proverb that he treasured; ‘February weather, with its sad cold blasts of wind, with the smell of summer in it’.

The mystery of Holy Week is that odd juxtaposition of a man broken and abandoned to suffering but at the same time constrained to go on loving. We call it Christ’s Passion. However reluctantly, he will not run away from suffering and pain, the winter of human experience which all of us go through. But he knows that winter can be the prelude to summer.

Christ of the scars and the tender heart, as we approach this Holy Week, help us to learn to trust that through embracing the deep pain and inexpressible joy of what it is to be human we might grow in grace, compassion and understanding. Amen.