I happened to turn on the radio in the car recently and caught the very end of the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2 as he was bidding farewell to his listeners. He was about to go away for the holiday weekend and it wasn’t a “bye for now” (Do you remember that with Jimmy Young?) or “See you soon” kind of thing, he actually said, ‘Have a great and meaningful weekend’. I thought that was interesting. Even on Eastenders last week, I heard some characters who had given up things ‘for Lent’.

Maybe I’ve got it all wrong, but somehow I feel that the outside world is actually more aware of what is going on in Church over this Easter than ever before, or, at least compared to a number of years ago.

Is it just because it has arrived so early this year, or is it just the result of a more politically correct society where everybody’s opinion on things is validated by everyone else? The ones who should have the most meaningful weekend of all, are the ones to whom all this actually means something!

We truly had a memorable Holy Week last week with our own Bishop, Harold Miller. It is a week where much is said; there are always a lot of words, and what the Bishop said to us meant a lot. But on Friday evening we held a Tenebrae for the third year in a row.

It’s a very uncomplicated and a very moving ceremony where we simply read passages from the New Testament and then we extinguish nine candles as each participant in the passion and crucifixion story denies Jesus or in some betrays him. This happens until we are left with one single Christ candle representing Jesus all alone on the cross until that too is extinguished when we read, “He gave up his spirit”.

Some have said it is the most meaningful part of the week. To make sure we could see the readings at the back of the Church, because we were all in complete darkness (apart from the nine candles), I brought with me Simon’s Homer Simpson torch which he got from Santa last Christmas. (David McIlhagger also had brought a smaller and handier torch which we used). On a night when we were all trying to be incredibly serious and sombre, I read what it said on Simon’s torch. Homer Simpson is saying, “If something’s hard to do, it’s not worth doing”. On such a night, I couldn’t help laughing. It seemed to be the almost antithesis of all we were about that week.

I don’t know if you’ve ever watched The Simpson’s, but if you watch it in a certain frame of mind, it can be very funny. I know a very intellectual clergyman (from Connor Diocese, actually) who is almost obsessive about the Simpsons and gets all his philosophy from the programme. I’m not sure what that actually says about him or the programme!

In a famous episode entitled Homer the Heretic, Homer has this conversation with “God” or God’s representative about the meaning of life. After a bit of a talk, the final sentence is from God who says, “OK, the meaning of life is....”

At this point, the credit music starts and the show ends. So much for philosophy! Seemingly, the writer’s original idea was that a commercial would come after this scene and before the credits, thus having the commercial interrupt God’s explanation to humorous effect...seemingly. In all honesty, I don’t get it! In fact if you listen in to any of the great ‘acts’ which, seemingly, purport to offer an insight in to the meaning or significance of life, we are left very dissatisfied. That goes for the likes of Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to the Matrix Revolutions to Red Dwarf.

Should we be surprised at this? I don’t think so. We don’t have all the answers ready to hand, of course not, but what last week and today show us is that we have in the person of Jesus all we need to know! He is all we need to know. He gives us meaning because he transforms our lives.

Our old friend, Tony Campolo, begins one of his famous books with an incredible statement, quoting St. Paul to begin with, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for I know of no situation or predicament in which humans find themselves to which Jesus does not have answers...how is it that we seem to go anywhere but to Jesus for the answering of our problems and the satisfying of our needs?”

How is it, indeed, especially when we see what else is on offer through popular culture or even contemporary and age-old philosophy. How is it, indeed?

I hope these last number of days have highlighted your faith in the person who is truly the Way and the Truth, and Life itself.