18th April, 2021

​My dear friends,

As we know, Covid-19 has caused all sorts of problems in the United Kingdom, and our hearts go out in loving sympathy to all who have lost loved ones, all recovering from ‘long Covid,’ and all who are tired and anxious.
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In the United Kingdom, we have the great blessing of the National Health Service and its wonderful doctors and nurses, who have worked so tirelessly during the pandemic – devotedly supported across the country by St John Ambulance.

Things have been much harder in other parts of the world. One of these is Papua New Guinea, where since February 2021 there has been significant increase in Sars-Cov-2 cases and widespread, uncontrolled transmission of Covid-19. A few days ago the World Health Organisation issued an international appeal for medical assistance to Papua New Guinea. St John Ambulance in Papua New Guinea – which has been providing community healthcare and emergency services in the country for many years – has responded by setting up a field hospital with 296 beds on behalf of the government. The hospital’s main purpose is to isolate and care for patients suffering from Covid-19.

St John Ambulance in Papua New Guinea appealed for assistance in the pandemic. Their appeal was taken up by the Johanniterorden or German Order of St John. A doctor, four paramedics and two nurses from Johanniter International Assistance from Germany and Austria arrived at Port Moresby on 13th April ago to assist St John Ambulance.

It is a reminder that when we join St John, we become part of a great international family of men and women who seek to do their utmost to care for the sick and prevent suffering, Pro Fide et Pro Utilitate Hominem, ‘For the Faith and for the Benefit of Humanity.’ We pray for everyone from the Order of St John, the Johanniterorden and the Order of Malta working so hard to care for others during the coronavirus pandemic.
With my continued prayers and all good wishes,

​                                             The Rev. Dr  ROBERT BEAKEN, County Chaplain
Members of the Johanniter International Assistance helping St John Ambulance in Papua New Guinea.
EASTER 3 – 18th APRIL 2021.

Gospel: St Luke, chapter 24, verses 36-48.
I recall an old soldier once describing the liberation of a Prisoner of War Camp in Germany in 1945. He wrote that one day an American soldier suddenly walked through the camp gate into the courtyard, which was full of Allied P.O.W.s. All activity was suddenly frozen. The American soldier looked at the P.O.W.s, and they looked at him, afraid that he might be a dream. Eventually the American soldier said something, showing that he was a real person and not a figment of their imagination, and the courtyard burst into a frenzy of cheering and shouting soldiers.

            It was a bit like that in St Luke’s description of Christ’s appearing to the disciples in the locked room after the Resurrection. St Luke writes: ‘While the eleven and their companions were talking about what they had heard, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”’ The disciples were not merely surprised, they were terrified: they thought that it was the ghost of Jesus, come back to haunt them. Christ, seeing their terror, said,
 
Why are you frightened, and why do these doubts arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself.
Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you see that I have.
 
The Lord then showed them his hands and his feet. Did they gingerly reach out and touch him? Or brush against him? Or feel his breath? Whatever, he convinced them that it really was him – not a ghost – risen from the dead in his normal body, which had somehow been transformed by the Resurrection. Then, just to show that he was properly himself, Jesus ate a piece of fish. Ghosts don’t eat fish.

            One of the key doctrines of Christianity is the Resurrection of the Body. When, after the Day of Judgement, we get to heaven, we shall be recognisably ourselves. We shall have bodies like that of Jesus after the resurrection: we shall have the same body that we have now, except that it will be a bit different. Jesus, if you recall, was able in his resurrection body to appear in a locked room and to hide his identity from the disciples walking to Emmaus. We shall probably find that in our resurrection bodies there is no pain or illness,  for these – like sin and death from which we shall also be liberated – are the consequences of the Fall. In heaven, God’s kingdom will truly have come. We shall be as God has always planned and wanted us to be.

            I enjoy visiting art galleries and I was once struck by a marvellous painting entitled The Resurrection, Cookham, painted by Stanley Spencer between 1924-26. Spencer shows the Day of Resurrection in the churchyard of Cookham Parish Church, his own village church. The risen Christ is in the background, looking helpful rather than threatening, clutching a pair of babies. The dead are raised in the resurrection and climb out of their graves; it is all very gentle, no one is in a hurry. One woman sniffs a flower, another brushes specks of dust off her husband’s best jacket. In the top left hand corner some of the faithful are boarding a boat for the journey to heaven, looking like rather peaceful holiday-makers going for a boat ride on a Bank Holiday. Everyone is perfectly recognisable in their resurrection bodies, but no one is crippled, suffering, or in pain. All are suffused with the peace of God which passes all understanding. 

            Not surprisingly, then, because of Christ’s resurrection, Christianity has a high view of the body. St Paul wrote that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. We are not just souls trapped inside the body like prisoners in gaol, but souls and bodies fused together, according to God’s carefully worked out plan. In previous centuries some Christians have despised their bodies and have whipped and flagellated themselves, thinking that they thus helped purify their souls. Others have said that it doesn’t matter what you do with the body, what you do with the soul is what counts. Both attitudes are misguided.

            We are supposed to use our bodies to serve and worship God. When you think about it, God went to enormous trouble to give us our bodies. We should look after our bodies, which are God’s handiwork which He has entrusted to us. We certainly should never despise our bodies, even when we are unwell. We should pray for strength from the Holy Spirit to cope in such difficult moments.
A final reflection: I said at the start that the doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body is a key doctrine of Christianity. May I suggest that we should regard our bodies as a pledge from God of our own future resurrection body and of life in all its fullness that awaits us in the kingdom of heaven.