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An Easter message from the Archbishop of Wales

Posted on: April 10, 2020 3:13 PM
Archbishop John Davies
Photo Credit: The Church in Wales
Related Categories: Abp John Davies, Easter Message, Wales

Mae'r neges hon hefyd ar gael yn Gymraeg (gweler isod)

Most, if not all, of us might wish to live in world where everything is certain, everything is predictable and everything is controllable. We’d know where we are. Of course, as recent events make crystal clear, it’s wishful thinking rather than reality to expect such things.

Just when we thought, whatever our political views, that the result of the General Election in December 2019 would mean that the seemingly endless political writhing and posturing around the Brexit event would soon be over, came both the warning and then the reality of devastating storms which wrecked lives, homes, livelihoods and hopes. And then, and still now and for a good deal of the  foreseeable future it seems, Coronavirus sweeps much of the world, leaving it, in many places, in lockdown, a pattern of life imposed upon us, for our good and the good of others, the like of which few have ever before experienced. A cloud of sickness and distress hangs over many nations, communities and families; precious lives have been lost, healthcare and other services are reaching breaking point, and an entire way of life, thought to be unassailable is in tatters. Fears for the future, personal, economic and national abound., and loneliness, isolation and anxiety are characteristics of the lives of millions across the world and in our local communities.

But there, in the very heart of it, amidst all the mess and worry and suffering and inconvenience and darkness, are love and light; love and light which nothing can extinguish; love and light shown willingly, gladly, and sacrificially in countless acts of goodness, kindness, gentleness and generosity, shown by millions of people unwilling to see their fellow human beings, their brothers and sisters, suffer a moment’s more pain and sorrow if they can help it. They demonstrate the things of the Kingdom of God, things which lie at the very heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and which echo the Old Testament prophets’ call for justice and peace.

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was thought by those who worked and plotted to achieve it to bring an end to what he stood for, an end to what he demonstrated, and an end to the kind of life that he said everyone had a right to experience, and for which others had a responsibility to work. This is life, in an evidently frail and fragile world, that is, nevertheless, as full and as just as it can possibly be, life in a world where even the least of those, Christ’s brothers and sisters in the flesh and blood of humanity count, matter and are treated with justice and with dignity.

Jesus’s demands for that justice and dignity for others challenged and interfered with the selfish hopes and controlling habits of others – the powerful, the manipulative, the arrogant. Their darkness despised his light; their oppression was threatened by his love. So, he had to go; put to death in front of a baying, mocking crowd, on a rubbish dump outside the walls of their carefully controlled city.

For those who had seen in him such great hopes of a new and just order, a bitter blow; the old order still in place. But as history, history not fairy tale, tells us, something more was to come, that showed, after all, that this old order was not for ever. Jesus lived. Jesus lives. The reign of love wasn’t and isn’t quite so easily put aside.

Easter is about facing down the darkness, seeking to call a halt to the pain, and pouring God’s unstoppable love into the lives of the hurting and vulnerable. All around us now just that is happening at the hands of those who are paid to do it and those volunteers who simply can’t stand by and see others suffer; and it happens time and time again whenever disaster strikes, whenever darkness comes and whenever fear threatens.

This Easter is unlike any I have known, unlike any most of you will have known. But at its heart is the truth that all generations have known, when hearts bleed, love steps in.

If your heart is bleeding, if you are hurting, if you feel threatened, alone or anxious, I hope that you find assurance in the promise that countless people in countless different ways will always believe in you, will always care about you and will always know that you matter. And they are working to bring resurrection to you now. God the Father, who sent Jesus that we might know the reality of his love, is using them to reassure you of this love for you. Here is a certainty and here is a prediction upon which we can rely and which we can trust, even if the days are dark and hearts are heavy.

Archbishop John Davies
The Church in Wales


Mae’n debyg y byddai’r rhan fwyaf ohonom yn dymuno byw mewn byd lle mae popeth yn sicr, lle medrir rhagweld pob dim a lle medrir rheoli pob dim. Fe fydden ni’n gwybod lle’r ydym. Wrth gwrs breuddwyd gwrach yn hytrach na realaeth yw disgwyl pethau o’r fath ac mae digwyddiadau diweddar yn dangos hynny yn glir iawn.

Yn union fel y credem, beth bynnag ein safbwynt gwleidyddol, y byddai canlyniad yr Etholiad Cyffredinol ym mis Rhagfyr 2019 yn golygu y byddai’r gwingo ac ymhonni gwleidyddol oedd yn ymddangos yn ddiddiwedd o amgylch digwyddiad Brexit, drosodd mewn dim o dro, y daeth y rhybudd ac wedyn y realaeth o stormydd ofnadwy a ddifethodd fywydau, cartrefi, bywoliaeth pobl a’u gobeithion. Ac wedyn, ac yn dal i fod yn awr ac am gryn dipyn o’r dyfodol rhagweladwy fe ymddengys, mae Coronafeirws yn ymestyn dros lawer o’r byd, gan ei adael, mewn llawer o leoedd, ar glo, patrwm o fyw a orfodwyd arnom, er ein lles ein hunain a lles pobl eraill, yn annhebyg i ddim a welodd fawr neb o’r blaen. Mae cwmwl o salwch a gofid yn gorchuddio llawer o genhedloedd, cymunedau a theuluoedd; collwyd bywydau gwerthfawr, mae gofal iechyd a gwasanaethau eraill ar y dibyn, a ffordd gyflawn o fyw, y credid ei fod yn ddiysgog, yn chwilfriw. Mae ofnau am y dyfodol, personol, economaidd a chenedlaethol ym mhobman, ac unigrwydd, arwahanrwydd a phryder yn nodweddion bywydau miliynau ar draws y byd ac yn ein cymunedau lleol.

Ond yno, yn gwbl ganolog, ymysg yr holl lanastr a’r pryder a’r dioddefaint a’r anghyfleuster a’r tywyllwch, mae cariad a goleuni na all dim ei ddiffodd; cariad a goleuni a ddangosir yn llawen, ewyllysgar, ac aberthol mewn gweithredoedd dirifedi o ddaioni, caredigrwydd, addfwynder a haelioni, a ddangosir gan filiynau o bobl yn amharod i weld bodau dynol eraill, eu brodyr a’u chwiorydd, yn dioddef eiliad yn fwy o boen a galar os gallant wneud rhywbeth amdano. Dangosant bethau Teyrnas Dduw, pethau sydd wrth galon Efengyl Iesu Grist, ac sy’n adleisio galwad proffwydi’r Hen Destament am gyfiawnder a heddwch.

Credai’r rhai a fu’n gweithio a chynllwynio i groeshoelio Iesu Grist y byddai hynny’n dod â diwedd i’r hyn y safai amdano, diwedd i’r hyn a ddangosai, a diwedd i’r math o fywyd y dywedodd fod gan bawb hawl i’w brofi, ac yr oedd gan eraill gyfrifoldeb i weithio drosto. Mae hyn yn fywyd, mewn byd amlwg fregus, sydd serch hynny mor llawn ac mor gyfiawn ac y gall byth fod, bywyd mewn byd lle mae hyd yn oed y lleiaf ohonynt, brodyr a chwiorydd Crist yng nghnawd a gwaed dynoliaeth, yn cyfri ac yn cael eu trin gyda chyfiawnder ac urddas.

Fe wnaeth galw’r Iesu am y cyfiawnder a’r urddas hwnnw ar gyfer eraill herio ac ymyrryd gyda gobeithion hunanol a gormesgar pobl eraill – y grymus, y cyfrwys, y trahaus. Roedd eu tywyllwch yn casáu ei oleuni; roedd ei gariad yn bygwth eu gorthrwm. Felly, roedd yn rhaid iddo fynd; ei groeshoelio o flaen tyrfa groch, watwarus, ar domen sbwriel tu allan i furiau eu dinas drefnus.

Ar gyfer y rhai oedd wedi gweld gobeithion mor fawr o drefn newydd a chyfiawn ynddo, ergyd ddirfawr; roedd yr hen drefn yn dal yn ei lle. Ond fel y dengys hanes, hanes nid stori tylwyth teg, roedd rhywbeth mwy i ddod, a ddangosodd, wedi’r cyfan, nad oedd yr hen drefn yma am byth. Bu’r Iesu fyw, mae’r Iesu yn fyw. Nid oedd, ac nid yw, mor rhwydd roi teyrnasiad cariad o’r neilltu.

Mae’r Pasg yn ymwneud â wynebu’r tywyllwch, galw am ddiwedd i’r boen, a thywallt cariad anataliadwy Duw i fywydau’r rhai sydd mewn loes a’r bregus. Mae’n union hynny’n digwydd o’n cwmpas ar hyn o bryd diolch i’r rhai a gaiff eu talu am wneud hynny a’r gwirfoddolwyr hynny na all sefyll o’r neilltu a gweld eraill yn dioddef; ac mae’n digwydd dro ar ôl tro pryd bynnag mae trychineb yn taro, pryd bynnag y daw tywyllwch a phryd bynnag y mae ofn yn bygwth.

Mae’r Pasg hwn yn annhebyg i unrhyw un a welais i erioed, yn annhebyg i’r un a welodd y rhan fwyaf ohonoch chi. Ond wrth ei galon mae’r gwirionedd mae pob cenhedlaeth wedi’i adnabod, pan mae calonnau’n gwaedu, mae cariad yn camu mewn.

Felly os yw’ch calon yn gwaedu, os ydych yn brifo, os ydych yn teimlo dan fygythiad, yn unig neu’n bryderus, gobeithiaf y gallwch ganfod sicrwydd yn yr addewid y bydd pobl ddirifedi mewn nifer ddirifedi o wahanol ffyrdd bob amser yn credu ynoch, bob amser yn gofalu amdanoch a bob amser yn gwybod eich bod yn cyfri. A’u bod yn gweithio i ddod ag atgyfodiad i chi nawr. Mae Duw y Tad, a anfonodd Iesu fel y gallem adnabod realaeth ei gariad yn eu defnyddio nhw, i’ch sicrhau chi am y cariad hwn atoch. Mae sicrwydd ac mae darogan y gallwn ddibynnu arno ac y gallwn ymddiried ynddo hyd yn oed os yw’r dyddiau yn dywyll a chalonnau yn drwm.

+John Cambrensis