The Catholic Leader - 21 April 2019 - Issue 5548

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The Catholic Leader, April 21, 2019
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IT is a difficult task to change peo-
ple’s attitude or mind-set, as anyone
engaged in education will readily
tell you.
To change whole personalities, to turn around
life’s patterns, needs a miracle.
Twelve men, unlettered in the main, yet
skilled in the practical aspects of the fishermen
trade, once followed Christ for diverse reasons.
Some dreamt of an earthly kingdom in which
they would have power and prestige.
Others imagined they would be endowed with
great supernatural powers.
All however bathed in the reflected popularity
of the new teacher from Nazareth.
The shame of their leader’s public execution,
however, shattered all such dreams.
In fear, they huddled together in the upper
room, behind locked doors and then retired to
their old working haunts, the shores of Lake
Galilee.
In these two places they were totally trans-
formed by a power, which, measured by its all-
pervading effects, must have been supernatural.
And what a transformation it was.
They went out fearlessly to proclaim to the
whole known world, that “He has Risen”, and
this despite encountering opposition and ridicule
on all sides.
Now no longer petty factions, bickering
among themselves as to “who was the greatest”;
no longer weak and indecisive; no longer beat-
ing a coward’s retreat in the face of opposition,
but strong and courageous, united to seed the
world with His words and His ways.
I often think that such a transformation is the
greatest proof of the Resurrection.
Yes, even in mighty Rome, then the centre
of political power, wealth, munificence and
materialism, they had the courage to preach the
ridiculous idea that a person, crucified as a com-
mon criminal under Roman law, was in fact God
Incarnate.
That was just as absurd to the Romans as the
idea of a supreme Deity is to today’s professed
atheists, or the idea of chastity to today’s sexu-
ally permissive society.
How sincere were these twelve transformed
men?
The proof of their sincerity lay in their spilled
blood.
Nor did it all end with Roman swords blunted
by Christian bodies, or wild beasts satiated with
Christian blood.
The cycles of the years have spun away into
history, yet each cycle has produced millions of
transformed hearts, minds and voices to echo the
cry...”He has risen”.
In our own times, great eternal truths have
been dissolved away by the acids of disbelief,
selfishness and ignorance.
We need now more than ever, brave follow-
ers of Christ, to witness to the fact that, despite
the hopelessness which seems to have settled
over us, despite our inability to solve the major
world problems, a radical transformation is still
possible.
It is the “Light of Christ”, that same power
which long ago transformed simple fishermen
into giants of apostles, which can still radically
change our materialistic, pleasure-loving, selfish
society into a “kingdom of justice, a kingdom of
love, peace and understanding.”
This Eastertide, let us, encouraged by our
Lenten prayer, self-denial and almsgiving, be
bold enough not only to hope and pray for such
a transformation but also with uplifted voices,
confidently proclaim “He is risen ... He is risen
indeed’.
Fr Frank Freeman is a Salesian of Don Bosco.
He has been the editor of the Australian Sale-
sian Bulletin for many years.
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FAITH IN LIFE By Fr frank freeman
The resurrection lies at the heart of our faith
He is risen: This
15th-century paint-
ing from the Royal
Library of Turin
in Italy shows an
empty tomb de-
picting the Resur-
rection. Easter, the
chief feast in the
liturgical calendars
of all Christian
churches, com-
memorates Christ’s
resurrection from
the dead.
Photo: CNS