The Catholic Leader - 22 April

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The Catholic Leader, April 22, 2018
Regional - Northern NSW
Advertising feature
Bishop shares
Easter wisdom
By Joe Higgins
CALLING Catholics to see them-
selves with Jesus during Easter,
Lismore Bishop Gregory Homem-
ing’s message engaged those stories
where men and women met with the
Risen Lord.
He focused on the stories – the road to Em-
maus; St Thomas in the upper room; and St
Peter, St John and St Mary Magdalene at the
empty tomb.
“The Easter season runs from Easter Sunday
until Pentecost Sunday, making it the longest
special season in the Church’s year,” he wrote.
“The Sunday gospels of the Easter season are
about Jesus’ relationship with us and with the
Church.”
They were stories of Jesus and ordinary men
and women who loved, he wrote.
“The journey to Emmaus is a very puzzling
story,” he wrote.
“Why are the two disciples walking away
from Jerusalem?
“As they talk to Jesus, who they have as yet
not recognised, they speak of the women, who
going to the tomb and finding it empty, saw
angels who tell them that Jesus is alive.”
Bishop Homeming recognised the negativity
in the disciples.
It was this negativity, he wrote, that often
clouded followers, so much so they could not
even hear and believe the words, “He is alive”.
“Cynicism and negativity, which destroy hope,
can so overwhelm us that we cannot see what is
in front of us,” he wrote.
Of the story of St Thomas, he wrote that it
spoke to rationalists who did not believe some-
thing until it could not be doubted.
“There are some things, in fact perhaps the
most important things in life, which cannot be
proven scientifically,” he wrote.
“Love is one example of this.
“It is by love that we know that we are loved,
not by calculation.”
Bishop Homeming wrote it was through pres-
ence that Jesus removed St Thomas’ intellectual
doubts, but through love that Thomas came to
believe.
The final story of the tomb was a message of
presence.
St Peter entered the tomb and left it without
knowing or believing, the bishop wrote.
When Mary Magdalene met Jesus in the gar-
den beside the tomb, she did not recognise him;
when she did, Jesus reprimanded her for clinging
to him.
“Jesus says to us ‘do not cling’ to your memo-
ries because if we do, we will not recognise Him
today,” Bishop Homeming wrote.
“The real issue in each of these events is this
– why didn’t the disciple recognise Jesus and
believe?”
It was St John who believed unconditionally
and was the one to be emulated; he knew Jesus
was alive because he “recognises the one he
loves is alive, not dead”.
“The meaning of Easter is love and its lesson
is this – Jesus will come into our lives, as He
did with the other disciples and will, if we open
ourselves to Him, touch us so as to remove the
obstacles which we cannot remove,” the bishop
wrote.
ST Mary’s Catholic College, Casino, focuses
on innovative and supportive learning environ-
ments for students, and has the resources to
know and encourage each student.
This is what prospective students and their
parents will discover at the college’s annual
Open Night on Monday, May 7 from 5.30pm.
Families can see exactly what St Mary’s has
to offer their child in secondary education.
“Our school as a community works together
to support each other, and to provide a secure
place for each student to learn and grow,”
principal Aaron Beach said.
“We offer unique support services for
students, including a homework centre where
students have the opportunity to work on their
school projects in a supervised environment,
after school.”
St Mary’s has students who represent the
college in different sports at regional, state and
national level.
“We currently have an Australian-ranked
tennis player, a student in the Gold Coast
Suns’ development squad, representative rugby
league and rugby union players, and A-grade
netballers,” Mr Beach said.
St Mary’s offers a “compressed curriculum”
for the Higher School Certificate.
This is where senior students study half of
their HSC course in one calendar year through
to HSC examinations, and then study the re-
mainder of their course in the following year.
“This ‘compressed curriculum’ allows
double the traditional amount of class time and
enables students to better immerse themselves
in their course work by focusing on fewer
subjects,” Mr Beach said.
“We are seeing great improvements within
individual student results. Importantly, there
seems to be some relief for students from the
pressure of doing the HSC.”
St Mary’s offers counselling services,
programs for students with additional learning
needs, including literacy and numeracy work-
shops and programs for gifted and talented
students.
“As a smaller secondary school, we are re-
ally able to offer individual attention that can
often be missed in a larger school setting,” Mr
Beach said.
Holistic
approach:
“St Mary’s
Catholic
College,
Casino,
focuses
on innova-
tive and
supportive
learning
environ-
ments for
students.”
St Mary’s offers innovation
‘By the grace of God I keep going’
GEORGE (Bill) Whibberley turned 95 in April.
An unwavering faith in God’s love, belief in serving
others, and strong self-discipline help this nonagenar-
ian to still say, “There are not enough hours in the
day”.
Bill thinks nothing of the fact he doesn’t need spec-
tacles to read, play music or complete The Catholic
Leader crossword each week.
“I am frustrated that my legs can’t get me where I
need to go as fast as I would like, but I am still able
to learn every day through reading and I get real joy
from playing music every now and then,” he said.
Bill is reading Life on the Edge, The Coming of
Age of Quantum Biology and the most recently played
piano sheet music is When I’m Sixty-Four.
Bill is a well-recognised face in the Scarness com-
munity near Hervey Bay. He has spent countless years
involved in serving the community and says he will
always look after others in need, even though he can’t
volunteer as much these days.
One of the ways that he feels he can help is through
a gift in his will to his parish and local charities.
“My wife Anne Marie Therese and I celebrated 60
years of marriage only one month before she passed
away,” he said. “God gave us five children and I’m
humbled to have such a beautiful family; they’re all
good kids with kind hearts.
“My life has been blessed and I want to share those
blessings with others who need a hand.”
Bill’s strong service ethic most likely stems from
his own difficult childhood in Lancashire, England.
He was forced to fend for himself at just 13 and
joined the Royal Air Force at age 16 in 1939, just
before war broke out.
This was the beginning of a long and distinguished
career for Bill, starting as a wireless operator and
moving to air gunner and then pilot.
Bill retired in Australia in 1988 after serving as a
senior technical instructor in the Navy.
Among his many medals, including the Medal
of Ushakov, Bill’s most recent accolade was the
Quinn Medal awarded by Brisbane Archbishop Mark
Coleridge in recognition of his long-term generosity
towards charities of the archdiocese – which include the
Priests Foundation, Holy Spirit Seminary, Centacare’s
Pastoral Ministries and the Mary MacKillop Brisbane
Catholic School Access Fund.
Bill Whib-
berley:
“My life
has been
blessed
and I want
to share
those
blessings
with others
who need
a hand.”
Serving:
Bill Whib-
berley
(left), with
some of
his war
med-
als; and
(right) in
his Royal
Air Force
days.