Lent and Easter in Australia today

Lent and Easter in Australia today – in our busy lives, the power of ritual, (whether it is based on community practice, national days of remembrance and memorial or religious tradition) –  can offer us solace and healing. All over the world, Easter is the high-point of the Christian calendar. After the six weeks of Lent, the 40 days which represent Christ’s temptation in the wilderness, we come together to celebrate the grace and mercy of God through the power of Christ’s resurrection. 

Christian Discipleship demands ‘Falling in love with God’. It is a paradoxical call, at once very simple, yet very demanding. Its territory is tolerating messiness and imperfection. For it involves having learnt the ‘hard’ truth of what Richard Rohr OFM often points out about the spiritual journey: “You can’t come to God by doing it right – you come to God by doing it wrong, otherwise, you don’t fall in love with God, you fall in love with yourself.” Rohr reminds me of Tony de Mello SJ’s paradoxical saying, “Be grateful for your sins. They are carriers of grace”. Sooner or later – we must all come to the realisation that only God can save us from our fears and our addictions.

Many of us need to ‘hit a wall’ in order to have a chance of waking up to the reality that we are living insane lives as long as we believe that we can ‘control’ things on our own. When we wake up to the real world, we find God patiently waiting for us, ready to help, ready to save us and make us whole. That is the resurrection in our lives – often ‘frozen’.

The mysteries of Holy Week and Easter invite us to be open to receive the grace of encouragement. For Mary at the foot of the cross, and for all the disciples, Golgotha was a moment of anguish. Everything seemed to have been lost. Jesus himself cried out: “Father. Father. Why have you abandoned me? …. and there was darkness over the world”. Yet within their discouragement and anguish those first disciples, Mary among them, discovered through their eyes of faith that there were new signs of life. They remembered Jesus’ words: “when a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it bears much fruit”. However difficult to understand the mystery, the empty tomb on Easter Sunday morning proclaims unexpected new life. 

As Christians we especially rejoice on Easter Sunday that Jesus has risen and saved us, through our weaknesses and wounds. But that is the ‘Good News’ many of us find challenging to accept. Easter Sunday is a good time to reflect on why perhaps sometimes we can resist God’s deep love for each of us. Pope Francis reminds us that “this is a time of reading the times, not looking back, always looking forward! Like one who is at the helm of a boat: to see if the course is right the helmsman does not look behind him, but looks forward, keeping an eye on two or three stars that give orientation”. (Pope Francis)

This week we gathered together as a College for our Easter Liturgy. Under the leadership of Ms Monica Riberio, our Religious Education Coordinator,  the students effectively captured the key events and message of the Easter Triduum which is at the heart of our Catholic faith. The theme of the service was ‘Follow my son to Calvary- ’ where we experienced the Stations of the Cross through Mary’s eyes. Our liturgy truly brought to life our College motto ‘La Verite – The Truth.’ as we engaged with this well known story and foundational belief in our faith through the eyes of Jesus’ mother. Pope Franics reflects on the important witness and model Mary was and is in the passion story by stating that “The Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus and his first disciple, shows us the way.” She followed her son and took on herself her own part of the suffering, of the darkness and bewilderment, and she walked on the road of the Passion, keeping alive in her heart the lamp of faith.” (Pope Franics).

We pray that we too continue to keep the “lamp of faith” alive in our hearts this Easter.

Loving God, help us to find you once again. 

Our search for you asks us sometimes to be still, 

For You are all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness. 

You call us ‘fellow workers.’ 

May this Easter season renew our energy to serve your kingdom of justice and peace. 

Amen.

Venerable Nano Nagle, Pray for us.

Mrs Melissa Vassallo, Acting Assitant Principal