Cogges Parish newsletter May 2003

From the newsletter ...

The toppling of an evil regime

These were the headlines following the events in Iraq on April 9, when American troops were welcomed into Baghdad and helped the Iraqis pull down a statue of Saddam Hussein. But as we have seen, the removal of the evil regime is only the beginning of the story. In a country that has suffered under an evil dictator for so many years creating a new way of life is going to be a difficult process. Once the source of the Iraqi people's fear and repression was removed, their freedom led to anarchy.

Having prayed for Iraq before the war, that the evil regime might be broken without the suffering that war inevitably brings, we must go on praying for a new stability in the country, with freedom not fear, justice not abuse, love not hate, at the heart of its new government.

Ten days later, on Easter Sunday, we celebrated the toppling of another evil regime. Nearly 2000 years ago Jesus Christ, by his death and resurrection, overcame the evil caused by our determination to live our lives independent of God.

Our selfish living, our sin, has separated us from God as well as harmed our relationships with one another. Jesus, the only person who ever lived a perfect life, offered his life for us when he died on the cross. In the Bible we read "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us". When Jesus died on the cross, his greatest agony was not the torture of the nail pierced hands and feet, the crown of thorns, the taunts of the crowds or even the slow brutal death, but the fact that for the first time his relationship with his Father was broken as he took the punishment for sin in our place.

God, our Father, accepted Jesus' death in the place of the punishment of death that we deserve. All we need to do, is accept Jesus' gift of forgiveness and a new start to life, which we have just celebrated this Easter, and live our lives for him, rather than for ourselves.

As I am praying for Iraq, I am also praying for this community that freedom not fear, justice not abuse, love not hate, will be at its heart. Only when Jesus Christ is at the heart of all we do will this be possible.

Pauline Page

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