“EARTH has not anything to show more fair. Dull would he be of soul who could pass a sight so lovely…”

So opens the famous poem by William Wordsworth, reflecting on the beauty of the early morning in London from Westminster Bridge. I hardly need to comment on the contrast with the images beamed around the world after the recent attack — nothing beautiful on the bridge at that moment. And yet, almost immediately there were those men and women of courage and skill seeking to offer their help and support for those affected. The same contrast is evident too when considering the saddest sights of starving children in Africa and then seeing and hearing of the brave and committed aid workers together with the hugely generous outpouring of concern around Red Nose Day.

As the great Christian festival of Easter approaches there is the same contrast again — an innocent man tortured to death after trumped up charges followed by the extraordinary claim by many of his followers that his cruel death was not the end of the story. Whatever happened then, his first followers did not seem to be seeking revenge for his death, or suffering from PTSD or depression — quite the reverse.

I have been asked many times why so much suffering is allowed by a supposedly loving God. It is the hardest question. I cannot explain it. What I do know is that wherever people work together to relieve suffering that that is love in action — that is the call to us all, whenever, wherever, for whoever and however we can. Such a response is indeed the godly one — to work together for the common good as the old prayer book describes it.

Rev Jill Bentall