Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP is the ninth Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney. He practised law before joining the Dominican Order, and is one of the world's leading bioethicists.
'Cheers,' people
say as they raise their glasses, 'Your health'.
We are rarely conscious that such a toast is
a prayer - for health, healing, safety, happiness- for ourselves and each
other. The Risen Christ returns to us on Easter day and, raising a glass full
of the new wine of the kingdom, He says: Shalom.
Not just "Hi". Not just "I'm
back!". No: "Shalom, peace, salvation, your health." Then He
shows us His wounds.
Peace and wounds - they seem to go together.
Peace negotiations only come amidst tensions, perhaps after terrible violence.
The Mass represents the greatest wound ever inflicted, inflicted upon God Himself,
and the greatest ever peace-talk. So the bishop or priest begins Mass with the
Easter greeting, 'Shalom, peace be with you,' and immediately, just like the
Risen Lord, shows us his hands.
We say it many times during Mass: peace, the
Lord be with you, God's Spirit be with your spirit. We pray for that peace that
heals not just the Victim but the perpetrators.
In recent months I have been blessed to
experience a growing sense of this healing Easter peace, amidst the brokenness
of my illness. Although it can be difficult to remain at peace while we are
suffering, it is often in radical woundedness that we most appreciate the
healing peace of Christ. "The peace that only Christ can give" is
more than resigning ourselves to suffering. It enables us somehow to consent
actively to our burdens and to unite our suffering to the suffering of the
crucified Christ.
We all need this Easter peace. No one is
exempt. Our resistance to God lacerates our own souls as much as Jesus' body.
We see the effects of sin in the dysfunction in ourselves and our society, in
the brokenness of relationships and of a world that is clearly not as it should
be.
Suddenly, out of the darkness of the grave,
steps the Word of light. "Shalom", He says, not just "stop
quarrelling" but "here, have my sort of peace, a deep, abiding
harmony, that heals division, roots out violence, brings fullness of
life."
Easter-time-peace is the kind of peace that
calls for healing amidst all the woundedness, for a grace-that-heals even after
death. The One who has risen from the tomb shows that every break with God,
each other, ourselves, however grave, can yet be healed; that nothing can
separate us from the love of God; that whatever we've done He will take us
back. His open arms are not just displays of hurt and healing but arms wide
open with welcome for the returning soul.
Of course this healing peace has come at a
cost. The protestant pastor martyred by the Nazis, Dietrich Bonheoffer, spoke
of 'cheap grace', the illusion that such welcome healing and healing welcome
can come easy. But there is no Easter without Good Friday, no resurrection
without the cross, no healing but for the wounded. Unlike the easy words of a
toast, Easter shalom costs. It costs Christ His very life.
Yet even after He has paid the ultimate price
for our salvation, Christ does not lord this debt over us. Rather, He shows us
His wounds and offers us His peace. He does not force us to accept Him, but He
offers forgiveness and mercy and asks that we extend that same forgiveness and
mercy to others.
Sometimes we are sceptical about God's offer
of mercy. We think we are unworthy; that we are too far gone or are beyond help
or we think we are too worthy; that we don't need anyone's help least of all
God's. But it is precisely when we are at our lowest, when we feel most
helplessness, that we can most appreciate the crucified Christ who, himself
hanging helpless on the Cross, continued to thirst for our salvation. Certainly
that has been my own experience during the Lent that stretched for me from
Christmas to Easter.
In this Year of Mercy, the Church is being
re-called to Her important mission: to forgive sins, to preach the Gospel, and
to heal a fallen and anxious world. As Easter comes and goes we can think it is
all about a private experience of inner peace. It is that, certainly, but not
only that. The Great Co-Mission is to join Christ in extending His arms, His
wounded and glorified hands, to all. That's the task of every Christian not
just the clergy. What we receive through Easter we must pass on to others.
No end of celebrations of ashen and cruciform
repentance, of watery and oily rebirth, no end of pastoral planning and years
of mercy, will bring real and lasting Shalom unless we accept that great
commission.
"Cheers, Happy Easter, your
health", Jesus says, "now get going."
The blessings of
this holiest of seasons for you and all your loved ones.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Archbishop Anthony Ficher OP continues to recover
from Guillain-Barre syndrome. On 16th March he wrote:
Dear friends,
Thank you all for the thousands of prayers and expressions of concern for me, that have come by email and letters, with gifts and cards, in so many different ways since I got sick at Christmas time.
As you know, I have had a serious sickness, Guillain-BarrĂ© Syndrome, which left me paralysed from the neck down. I’ve made significant progress but I still have some way to go. This will require continued patience and courage and hope from me, and also from the priests and faithful of Sydney.
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