Ahead of Palm Sunday Archbishop Leo Cushey appeared on BBC Radio Scotland this morning (Friday 31 March) to give his Thought for the Day. Listen below or on our YouTube Channel.

Transcript

Good morning!

I’m sure, like me, you occasionally hear folk say, “Now that is what gets me out of bed in the morning!”

But when the clocks go back or go forward, like they did last weekend, it makes me wonder: which do you prefer, the clocks going back or going forward?

Personally, I’ve recently noticed a thing: I think I like both of them…!

After the autumn equinox, when it’s getting definitely darker, an extra hour in bed is no bad thing to have, and when it’s dark, because we’re made the way we’re made, we are naturally inclined to rest.  I sometimes wonder if our ancestors used to like to hibernate a bit….

But now, as the days get longer, there’s more light – and to state the obvious, the light wakens us up.

Because we’ve been built the way we’re built over many millennia, deep down somewhere, we kinda like that.  So, that means getting out of bed when it’s light is a lot easier than when it’s dark – as anyone starting a nightshift will tell you.  A

nd it’s funny how, if it’s light and you have a day off, it’s a lot easier to make a move early in the morning.  Now, that’s something to get you out bed in the morning.

We also use light and dark in our language and in our culture in a moral way too.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday.

Christians at this time of the year ponder the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and his death on the Cross.  Light and darkness are important motifs in the way the story is told among us.

We are confident that the death of Jesus took place in the spring and around this actual time of year, but there is also a providential element that as Jesus gives us the light of life, it happens as nature wakes up, and as we find ourselves springing just a little more willingly from our slumbers.

As the daffs emerge, the trees bud, and the bunnies abound, I hope the light of life and the longer days bring a renewed spring to your step too.