Mission Report

by Director of Mission, Mr Geoff Brodie

Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed!!

May all the joy, graces and blessings of the Easter Season be with all our families. The wonderful mystery of the Resurrection is a source of hope and endurance through all the trials of life. Love is stronger than death! To take this revelation into our hearts and live in that knowledge changes the way we experience the world and the way we act in our communities. In faith, we can share in the creation of God’s Kingdom on earth.

In this time of lockdown, many find themselves with extra time on their hands. We are spending more time with our families. Hopefully, families have transformed the challenges of the lockdown into moments of gentle abiding with each other and the re-discovery of what truly gives us life. To give some sense of this, I would like to quote Bishop Robert Barron.

Aristotle said that the best activities are the most useless. This is because such things are not simply means to a further end but are done entirely for their own sake. Thus watching a baseball (cricket!!!) game is more important than getting a haircut, and cultivating a friendship is more valuable than making money. The game and the friendship are goods that are excellent in themselves, while getting a haircut and making money are in service of something beyond themselves. This is also why the most important parts of the newspaper are the sports section and the comics, and not, as we would customarily think, the business and political reports. In this sense, the most useless activity of all is the celebration of the Liturgy, which is another way of saying that it is the most important thing we could possibly do. There is no higher good than to rest in God, to honour him for his kindness, to savour his sweetness – in a word to praise him.

At this time we are offered the gift of doing useless things without families. Out of the cupboard may come the board games, the jig saws, baking, walks (for fitness of course), story-telling, watching movies, all simply spending time with those we love because we love them. There is no need for any reason – in fact, there is no other reason. Jesus said the Greatest Commandment is to love God and neighbour. If the greatest good is to abide with and praise God in the liturgy, our useless times with our family are also sacramental in the way they transform us to abide in the excellent and good gifts of life.

May this Easter offer some of the most useless times for all of us.