Mission Report

by Assistant Principal -Mission and Identity, Mr Geoff Brodie

We return to Term 2 in the second week of our Easter celebrations. May the peace and joy of this wonderful season be with us all in our College community.

Easter is the experience that defines us a Catholic school in the Edmund Rice Tradition for “if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is in vain.” (1 Cor 15:14) Let us start this term by reflecting on three gifts of Jesus’ Resurrection.

First, our knowledge is completed by our faith. Consider a world where people did not believe one another, and our knowledge was limited to our own experience. Progress in our community would be impossible. In contrast, when we trust the achievements of our heritage, and the wisdom of those in our community, our starting point is the gift of others. Faith in Jesus’ Resurrection is to participate in Jesus’ perfect love, so that our starting point is the gift of eternal life with God (Jn 11:25). We simply need to say ‘yes’ to Jesus in faith, in the same way we trust others every day.

Secondly, the goodness we strive for in our lives is perfected by the hope of the Resurrection. Hope is the power by which we firmly and constantly endure in the vocation God has set out for each of us. Without hope we would never take on challenges or confront the difficult questions. We do such things in the hope of a good outcome. Our true happiness with family, friends, and with God, is always a great act of hope that together we have the wisdom and the courage to transform all challenges for the good.

Thirdly, for justice we long for in the world is perfected by charity. Saint Augustine said quote “Love, and do what you will.” This is not the permission to follow any whim, but the invitation to always seek the good of our neighbour and to be endless in our generous compassion and mercy. Because God has loved us first, we can love without limit. Jesus forgiving his persecutors was an act of charity. Through charity, justice is not giving people what their actions deserve, but offering the forgiveness and mercy we all need to start over again.

Easter is the invitation to grow in knowledge through faith in Jesus’ perfect act of love on the Cross; to grow in our goodness through hope in God’s wisdom; and growth in our work for justice with unbounded charity and mercy. Our history books and our current world are full of examples of when we ignore this path. May our choices and actions this term be enriched by little works of faith, hope and charity, so we may come, freely and joyfully, to share in the grand plan of God’s eternal love.