Posted on: 1st March 2021

The dark side cannot create; it can only corrupt.  So wherever you see spectacular wickedness, before you go off on a thoroughly enjoyable rant of condemnation, look for the good that got corrupted.  We want to say there goes a damned goat because it makes us feel more like a saved sheep.   

I only mention this now because it is Lent, and Lent is a funny time.  Contrary to popular belief (corruption again) Lent is not miserable.  It’s a time of anticipation; of the sort of looking-forward-to that we had as children on Christmas Eve.   

We look forward to a Resurrection which shows us that this life is not all there is; that we are not made for this life alone, but for the fullness of eternity.  I am come that you may have life! Life in all the crazy, wild, glorious abundance you can image.  And then some. 

At St George’s Crypt we also believe in life before death.  Yes, we see misery, wretchedness, rage and despair.  But we also see those things turned around; repented, healed.  Often that means letting go of intolerable guilt and shame.  Not to pretend it didn’t happen; not to pretend it didn’t matter.  Rather to look evil in the face and say to it, You too were the means of grace; a necessary station on the journey.  Julian of Norwich says as much, in her most famous line, too often decapitated.  Yes, she says, 

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.  

But she has just said, Sin is necessary. But all shall be well….   

Just as only good gets corrupted, so evil is turned to good; because the light shines in the darkness, and shall never be overcome.  

So the Crypt itself is a material sign of hope.  A place that was a tomb - a place of darkness and death - has become a place of light and life.  Above all, of Hope.  Hope in all that shall be; hope for all that has gone before.  Happy Lent! 

Written by Roger Quick