The Catholic Weekly 19 April 2020

9 19, April, 2020 catholicweekly.com.au Ph: 4620 8822 or 9708 6972 www.KenneallysFunerals.com.au ‘ Servicing greater Sydney and the Macarthur area’ Why choose Kenneally’s  Servicing the Catholic Community  Family owned and operated  After funeral bereavement support available  Tailored options for your personal finances  Affordable pre-paid and pre-arranged funerals Prompt and Personalised Care Thousands turn out for the funeral of Antony, Gelina and Sienna Abdallah at Our Lady of Lebanon co-Cathe- dral on 10 February. Photos: Giovanni Portelli Some will say ... I’m not going to believe such hysteria and wishful thinking. Fair enough: faith is a gift, freely accepted or not. But even if you don’t believe in Jesus or are unsure, He believes in you. He died and rose to save you.” Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP boy Antony and his dad Dan- ny prayed right here and went to the statue of Saint Anthony: the name saint of the boy. Little did they know that was the boy’s last day on earth. For Antony and Geli- na and Sienna Abdallah, with their cousin Veronique would be killed. Their parents, Danny and Leila are with us today in St Mary’s Cathedral, joined also by Veronique’s parents, the Sakrs. And we extend all of us, our continued love for them and condolences on the deaths of the four children. We all shared in their grief, but we marvelled at Leila’s strength and dignity as she and Danny forgave the al- leged drink driver whose ute caused the death of the chil- dren. Today those parents will bring forward the gifts at the offertory and bring forward the memories of their beloved children. Leila reminded all of us of the preciousness of hu- man life and of her gratitude for her own loved ones. She professed her Christian faith that her children are now with God and that her family will be reunited one day. And she called us all to prayer and charity. This was no ordinary hu- man response: it was a super- human one, a supernatural one, an Easter one. Yet this is not a family of superheroes or saints: these are ordinary people who by God’s grace could do extraor- dinary things in the most ter- rible of circumstances. And it is precisely for this sort of thing that we are saved. As Leila read to us this morning from St Paul (Col 3:1-4), it is our faith that gives us confidence that Antony, Angelina, Sienna and Vero- nique “have been brought back to life with Christ” and that enables us to let go of “earthly thoughts” like an- ger and revenge, self-protec- tion and the rest, and dwell instead “on heavenly things” like peace and love, and the glory our young ones now share with Jesus. Good Friday tells from what we are saved. Easter Sunday tells for what we are saved. And the Easter sea- son which begins today and extends to the end of time proclaims loud and clear by whomwe are saved: Jesus Christ, our sure and certain hope of the resurrection. Some will say: well, that’s a nice story but no thanks. I don’t really believe in God. I get that: the Resurrection can seem too good to be true. Like the apostleThomas, we might say that until I’ve got my paws on the risen Jesus myself, I’m not going to be- lieve such hysteria and wish- ful thinking. Fair enough: faith is a gift, freely accepted or not. But even if you don’t believe in Je- sus or are unsure, He believes in you. He died and rose to save you. “Shalom, Hi,” He says today to the women at the empty tomb (Mt 28:1-10). “Peace,” He says to you. “No need to be afraid anymore. I amwith you always!” This is the edited text of the homily by Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP for Mass of the Day of the Resurrec- tion of the Lord, Broadcast from St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Easter Sunday, on 12 April 2020 Portraits of the Abdallah children are held aloft by mourners at their funeral on 10 February. FROM THE ARCHBISHOP