The Third Day makes many connections. First I didn’t think I could walk three days in a row and secondly it was the Third Day.
To begin with, after many distractions, I left the coast and began to go inland. This was a proper walk. I dawdled about and noticed nature and some daft stuff including a free bike which might have helped. But it was after all, the Third Day.
I tried every shop I came across just because I could. One was a craft shop (impossible to miss that out), one was a post office and in the third shop I was given a free croissant. As welcome as it was unexpected, things were looking up. I’d got free food and it was the Third Day.
There was an intriguing church at St Hilary, just one of very many open Parish churches I would visit on the walk. This one had several old stone crosses in the churchyard, which is a feature of many old Cornish villages and a reminder of the Way of the Saints. Second the inside was skilfully decorated by people of all ages who had been nurtured by the place over the years and made some interesting sculptures, embroideries and paintings there. In this unexpected place made a mark in my memory and resonated with my Remembered Bible. The whole gospel was set out before me in one form or another. It was indeed the Third Day.
This year it is still Lent. A few brave flowers peep out to distract us. Kind people deliver vegetables to our door. Once a week we banish fear from the streets by clapping our clean hands. Although we are still some way off we know the gospel story, so we have already heard the story of the Third Day.
Of course it’s not an easy story, and in these times there are pockets of cells in our bodies it may find hard to permeate. Yesterday two NHS nurses died of COVID-19, courageous women who’s cells were overwhelmed. How I long for the Third Day, for them and for us all.
When we were in South Africa in 1994 (it was the first democratic elections), Lent seemed very long and Passiontide a real ordeal as day after day communities felt the pressure of communal violence and fear. Yet when the Third Day came, it somehow seemed unreal and unreasonable to wear our best clothes. Tomorrow will be Palm Sunday, I made be a little hoarse but I hope I can raise a shout.
From the remembered gospel:
Jesus said to them, remember this, I will be handed over to my enemies, I will suffer, be killed, entombed and buried, but on the Third Day….
Remembering the examples of the Cornish Saints: Buryan, Morwenna, Petroc Michael and Hilary, and all those who walk the Way today,
May we walk carefully, cheerfully and courageously,
Mindful of the company of the Holy Three:
Creator, Companion and Spirit,
To whom be Glory, Glory, Glory now and forever.
JAL: 04.04.2020