The Catholic Leader - 21 April 2019 - Issue 5548

26 / 28

26
The Catholic Leader, April 21, 2019
Easter Messages
The holy time of Easter
reminds us of the power
of faith, possibility
and opportunity.
We thank our many supporters
who partner with us to make a
difference in people’s lives.
1300 236 822
At Easter, we celebrate
Jesus risen from the dead
and we sing with gusto
“Alleluia”.
Our faith tells us that it happened
and yet do our lives truly reflect that
it happened?
I mean, because Jesus rose from
the dead, death does not have the last
word in His life and ours.
But we don’t have to wait until we
are dead to experience what resurrec-
tion actually means or can mean in
the here and now.
There is no need for believers to
live their lives on earth as if they are
already dead. Christians are sup-
posed to reflect on the outside what
they believe on the inside.
If Jesus’ death and resurrection is
ever going to change us then we need
to live our lives accordingly.
His resurrection continually
reminds us that there is much more
to each of us than meets the eye and
that our souls are immortal.
Our bodies will decay or turn to
dust, but our souls will forever live
with God.
We therefore must live with a
purpose in this life so that we can
prepare for the new life to come.
To live without purpose is to live a
“rudderless” existence.
We will inevitably run into an
obstacle that can sink us and none of
us wants to end up at the bottom.
As I reflect upon the Church I
serve at present, now as a Bishop, I
cannot help but admit to you that I
have felt at times as if the good boat
has been sailing on a sea of “trou-
ble”.
It is as if God in Jesus Christ is
saying to the Church “give me back
the steering wheel” or at least focus
on me for I am the one who saves.
Our sea of trouble needs to be
navigated and our Church must
help us all to focus on
the end goal, which is
Christ Himself.
He is the one who
goes on ahead of
us and says, “Come
follow me”.
As a person of
faith, I like you have
had challenges that
have come my way.
No one can escape
these challenges in one form
or another but what must keep us
focussed is the promise of a glorious
future precisely because our Lord
charts a way forward if we remain
close to Him.
What are the obstacles in our lives
to believing in this kind of future?
What is holding us back?
Why isn’t our “Alleluia” at Easter
like the kind of roar that is heard by
a crowd at a football match?
Such is the cheer that has the abil-
ity to capture on the outside what we
feel on the inside.
The time is right if not overdue for
the Church, which is all of us, to go
back to the basics of our faith and
focus on Jesus.
We must “live him and breathe
him” in season and out of season
because if we really know him, we
will never be alone or at sea.
Once we authentically know him,
which is different to knowing about
him, the joy in our lives that may
have been there before will come
alive again.
It’s the kind of joy
required in our Easter
Alleluias this Easter – a
joy in the Gospel that
Pope Francis has
written so power-
fully in his Apos-
tolic Exhortation,
Evangelii Gaudium.
In that Exhortation,
the Pope has reminded
us that our joy in believ-
ing is a powerful force, im-
pelling us to want to go out and share
the good news with others.
So as we prepare to celebrate
Christ’s resurrection, his victory on
behalf of us all, over death, let us
renew that joy which surely lies at
the heart of the Christian message
with a cry that sums up the whole
of that message – the whole of our
lives – and that response must be:
“Alleluia”.
Even our Holy and wounded Ro-
man Catholic Church as an institution
is crying with the rest of us.
Our collective “Alleluia” will put
past wrongs right.
Bishop Timothy J Harris
of Townsville
The time is right to get back to basics
He is risen: A angel points to the empty tomb of Christ in a panel from a
14th-century Italian altar piece. ` Photo: CNS