Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in docks.
Welcome to Day 48 of our Lenten 2026 series,
In the Wilderness,
Still Held,
Where we've journeyed all the way through Lent in John's Gospel and then spent the days of the Easter Triduum reflecting on the scriptures that are associated with each of those days.
So as we come to Easter Monday,
The day after the Resurrection,
I invite you to gently allow yourself to rest and to settle,
To be,
To take a deep breath in and out to allow yourself to rest fully into this moment.
Feel your body supported by the surface beneath you,
Quietly allow your attention to rest right here.
And as you arrive here,
Invite a sense of gratitude,
Gratitude for this time and gratitude for the journey of the last 47 days that has led you here.
Perhaps your heart remembers the path,
Ash Wednesday,
Where we returned to the centre,
The quiet,
Slow work of surrender,
The honesty of grief and release as we walked through the wilderness together,
And then the movement through Holy Week,
Step by step,
And then the astonishment of Resurrection.
Just take a moment to think back over the journey that we've had.
What we need to remember,
Though,
Is the Resurrection isn't the end of the story.
It's not the final chapter,
Rather it's the unveiling of a life that now invites you to live a new way.
Now in the Gospel of John chapter 17,
We encounter the final prayer of Jesus before the cross.
Now it's important to remember this is not a sermon,
It is a prayer.
And in this prayer,
We hear the life of Jesus laid bare.
The heart of it can be summed up in one phrase,
That they may all be one.
So the heart of this prayer is oneness,
Not sameness,
Not agreement,
But a deep participation in divine life.
There's no prayer here about us escaping the world,
Like I know some people try and interpret it.
Jesus prays,
Though,
That we will live differently within it,
That we might inhabit it with a love that transforms,
Rather than with fear or force.
Now,
Easter invites us to see,
Not to acquire.
It's not about transaction,
Getting something out of what's happened.
It's about revelation.
Through the life,
Death and resurrection of Jesus,
We're shown that love does not retaliate,
That trust doesn't collapse under suffering,
That life can't be extinguished by violence,
And that humanity is fully transparent to God.
So what we realize then is Jesus has never been speaking all the way through the Gospels when he's been teaching about this kind of life.
What we know then,
Looking back through the cross at the whole life of Jesus,
And including that Passion Week,
Is that Jesus had embodied it for us.
And then,
In his resurrection,
What he does is he invites us into that life.
And the cool thing about this prayer in John 17,
Is that it opens the way to three interwoven circles of life.
The first circle is oneness with God.
The intimacy that Jesus lives,
That we saw Jesus in his relationship with God,
Is offered to us.
This is not about believing from a distance.
This is about literally getting in and participating in God,
Abiding.
There's that favorite word of mine again,
Abiding.
Trusting,
Returning again and again to the sacred center.
Feel this invitation,
Your life held in the embrace of the divine.
And the second circle is a oneness with each other.
And through this we learn that the spiritual life is never,
And should never have been,
Something that's private.
The resurrection creates a new way of being human together,
Where compassion and presence and forgiveness are lifted high and above things like competition,
Control and resentment.
And the proof of resurrection life is found in how we treat one another.
And you might question and allow your heart to do the talking when you consider how might your actions today,
Moving forward,
Reflect this oneness with each other,
This kind of life.
And the third circle is a oneness with creation.
Finally,
Jesus' prayer opens us to a wider belonging.
Everything's held within divine love.
Resurrection reveals a world saturated with life.
As you breathe,
Sense the air around you.
As you walk,
Feel the earth beneath you,
The living world that holds and sustains you.
Walk gently,
Be grateful,
Be reverent.
And as Paul told us in Romans chapter 1 and verse 20,
See in the very creation that surrounds us,
God revealed.
So here on this Easter Monday,
As we begin to look forward to what's next,
The question is,
Just like the disciples,
What now?
Not what now as in belief or achievement,
But living.
How will we live inside the life that Jesus has revealed to us over this journey through the wilderness and then through Holy Week to resurrection?
Well,
The invitation is simple and lifelong.
Abide in love,
Practice presence,
Embody mercy,
Become people who heal rather than divide.
Resurrection life unfolds in the small,
Hidden,
Faithful choices of every day ordinary life.
See the months ahead as a continuation of the pilgrimage that we started some 48 days ago.
The practices remain the same.
Return to stillness,
Notice God's presence,
Respond with love and remember our belonging,
Our oneness.
And as we do,
The prayer of Jesus becomes our prayer.
So as we walk forward through this Monday and into the remainder of the year,
May we carry resurrection quietly into the ordinary spaces of our lives,
Our homes,
Our workplaces and our communities.
May it be a resurrection that's shared through love rooted in the centre of life.
So as we draw this reflection to a close,
Receive this gentle commissioning.
May the life revealed in Easter continue to unfold with you.
May the prayer of Jesus become the shape of your life and may you walk through the coming days as a quiet bearer of peace.
Take one last deep breath in and out.
Feel the presence of God in this moment,
Steady,
Enduring and inviting.
And let the journey continue.
And to help that journey continue,
I invite you to join me again tomorrow as we bridge into where we're going next.
So until tomorrow,
May grace,
Hope and love enfold you and keep you today and always.
Amen.
Until tomorrow.
Bye for now.
