The Waiapu Church Gazette May Ist, 1944. EASTER IN WARTIME

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 35, Issue 3, 1 May 1944, Page 4

The Waiapu Church Gazette May Ist, 1944. EASTER IN WARTIME

The Easter season has comedo us once again amid the turmoil and anxiety of world-war. At first sight it might seem that the new' era, the new message, and the new hope for mankind which began with the Resurrection morn have been brought to nullity by this great modern tragedy of national strife. "-" Yet it must be repollected that the Resurrection morn was preceded by the tragedy of Calvary and that we of this age -can no more preceive the working out of the Eternal mind than could the first Christians or their opponents m the year 29 A.D. If Annas Caiaphas and the Pharisees, with Pontius Pilate, King Herod, and the .Emperor Tiberius had been told that the crucified Leader had left behind Him a body of ideas and a small body of men who believed m these ideas and that the innate potency of the ideas transmitted through the burning zeal of the faithful few would transform mankind and replace the temporal empire of Rome by a spiritual empire more powerful and more durable, with what scornful laughter would they have received this statement! Yet the seemingly impossible happened, and the New Way, as it was called, gradually sup^ planted the old way. At first, of course, and through Jong centuries, the emphasis m Christian teaching was on the supernatural elements and upon the doctrines of the Church m. relation to these and eternal life. In our own day, though the supernatural remains an essential m Christianity, more and more emphasis is being laid upon applied Christianity — upon the

teaching and of the Founder as they- can be worked out m social amelioration and also — mockery though it seems at present— in smoothing away the ragged boundaries between contending nationalities. Darkness shows us worlds of light we never saw by day. Similarly, the darkness of the war reveals new hopes for mankind. And those hopes are indissolubly intertwined with the teaching of peace and goodwill. The Allies do not fight a war of conquest. They fight to achieve a peace m which the doctrines and spiritual principes that were finally liberated among man m the year of the Crucifixion may be brought at long .last," to some degree of practical realisation. No greater mistake can .be made than to place the golden age of religion m the early days" of Christianity. This age of ours itself is, or ma|; be niade, an age of gold — an age for the transmutation of the more voilent elements m man's nature into" the gentler, more humane, and more brotherly elements of the higher man that is potential m all human beings. If Easter be regarded not as something final and not as a mere historical event, albeit a most pregnant and notable one, and if it can be regarded as a season of spiritual rebirth even m Hhe midst of calamity, then there is hope that the dark horizons that encompass the world at present may again be suffused with "the light that never was on sea or land," and that, out of the dread shadows, of tragedy, \ mankind may emerge into that brighter and more beautiful world which Christianity has -to offer.

In one respect, at least the triumph which, soon or late, will end this war must resemble the Easter triumph. It will be the outcome of anguish beyond reckoning, of sacrifice, heroism and patience. , But suffering is not enough, not even when allied with intelligence. We must go one step farther m the assimilation with Easter; we must wijl that our victory shall be> the victory of all mankind, and that our sacrifice shall be for the good of all men, even our enemies. / /These things are easy to write but hard to practise. War is the greatest breeder of "synicism and as it draws out over the years, we find it more difficult to believe that justice is more than a word, or that reason, love and pity . are indestructible. Yet it is only those who hold fast to these Christian values who can hope to reconstruct the world ; to lose them would be the ultimate defeat. "This is the victory," said the Apostle, "which overcomes the world— even, our faith"; no- less certainly is it the means by which the World can be rebuilt. —Herald-Tribune, Hastings