Be not afraid

 Traveling back to Sydney on Saturday afternoon, I reflected on the ordination of the two young men to the priesthood and a gathering of Cursillistas at a country retreat centre. Both were joyful encounters where people gathered to celebrate the risen Christ who seeks to bring life and hope to our world. Amid these occasions, we were all shocked by the senseless murder of innocent shoppers in the Bondi Junction shopping centre. We pray for those who lost their lives, for those who are recovering from the injuries they suffered, and for the families who seek to support them. We pray for the first responders and the many brave people who sought to support people traumatized by this event. Then just as we sought to make sense of this tragedy we heard of the fresh attacks arising in the Middle East. This seems to be a never-ending story of violence and retribution that haunts us still.

Yet amid these stories of violence and senseless killing, we witness Jesus enter the upper room and proclaim peace be with you. This paradox of his presence addresses our deeper fears that we are doomed to death and destruction. There is a fear that we can become isolated in our upper room when the eddies of destructive fear whirl around us. Jesus helps to recognize that the resurrection is actually an encounter with the divine person who seeks to share life with us. This is not an abstract concept but rather a real encounter with the person who can bring hope to our world. Who holds out the promise of reconciliation and forgiveness. This seems almost impossible to be true yet it is what we are called to witness in our lives.

Thus on Sunday morning, we gathered at St Mary's Cathedral to pray for the unborn and to witness the sanctity of life in the March for Life to NSW parliament. The gospel speaks to us that in the face of a culture of death that seeks to make the weakest and most vulnerable voiceless we are called to proclaim a culture of life that cares for them. This often means entering into the messiness of life where people confront the issues of suffering, isolation, and death. Yet we witness many Christian people who accompany these vulnerable people to make choices not just for themselves but for people placed in their care. Good stewardship is found in supporting women who have difficult pregnancies, providing palliative care for those at the last stage of life, and providing shelter to those who seek refuge and protection. As a culture, we are called to inculturate the Gospel in our current age by proclaiming that Jesus is Risen. The proclamation is made in the concrete events of our daily lives. Bringing healing to those whose lives have been torn apart and forgiveness that sends to reconcile broken hearts.

Doubt and Belief

 We live in a skeptical age where everything is questioned and everyone is believed! This paradox of thinking and trusting in the goodness of another seems to be disturbed each day. Who speaks the truth confronts us at every turn. We look for vested interests and no longer take things at face value. This can breed a certain cynicism that distrusts everything and everyone which is unhealthy for the individual or the community in which they live. Yet we see so many examples of how power can be misused, where influence can mislead and opinion can misrepresent. This is almost our constant fair that we are fed through our media, our conversations, and our reflections.

Yet amid this confusion and uncertainty we meet the risen Christ with all our living questions. We seek life to be different but do not want to invest our belief in another blindly. We need to experience it with our own eyes and our own hearts. Into this scene walks Thomas who seems to ask the most plausible of questions, unless I see it for myself and touch the reality I refuse to believe. I think we can all have a heart for Thomas as he is called to touch the living heart of Jesus. We live in a very material age where we are called to touch the reality of what is true. There is a hunger to understand and experience things for ourselves. We know how easy it is for our lives to be manipulated for the interests of another that we have a longing to experience it for ourselves. It is the discovery of being present to what is real.

This is at the heart of our Easter journey because unlike Thomas we are called to believe without seeing and touching the wounds of Christ. However, we know that the wounds that Jesus experienced can be discovered even in our own age. The innocent suffer, people are unjustly condemned, people can be exploited for what they have not for who they are, and we are confronted with the reality of evil almost daily. It would be easy to lose heart and retreat into our own castles. Jesus, however, liberates us from what imprisons us. Jesus seeks to meet us with compassion that touches our fears and our doubts. It is this radical honesty that allows us to see our questions in a new light. It calls us to meet Jesus as the risen Lord who frees us to live a new life. A life that takes our questions seriously but transforms them into a compassionate life of belief. It calls for our minds and hearts to be in sync with each other. No longer are we abandoned to our own devices but we discover Jesus who listens to our inmost prayers. He enters into that locked room and offers us peace to touch his wounds. May we trust in him who can even appear in the places where we try to shut out the world. In that place where we discover who we are called to be for the good of the world.