The Catholic Weekly 17 May 2020

9 17, May, 2020 catholicweekly.com.au FROM THE ARCHBISHOP Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP presides at the Anzac Day Eve Memorial Mass 2019 PHOTO: GIOVANNI PORTELLI There’s no avoiding the tragedy of war, the violence, death and grief, the psycho- logical and spiritual damage all round. But there can be a beauty amidst the ugliness of war; meaningless as it seems, there can be higher values served.” Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP lics doubled fromone third to two. Beyond Australia similar contradictions in the effects of war on faith and faith upon war have been observed. A re- cent study in Nature: Human Behaviour concluded that the experience of war generally increases people’s religiosity, especially amongst thosemost affected. But old and new atheists see war as one of the best ar- guments both for the deadness of God and the danger posed by the zeal of ‘God-bother- ers’. Arguably our celebrations of Anzac Day andmany war memorials are at once deeply spiritual and deeply secular. These seemingly contradic- tory reactions to war and reli- gion are reflected even in our readings tonight. The choice of first reading from the Book of Wisdom ( Wis 3:1-9) would seem to categorise our fallen in war as “the virtuous” whose mettle has been tested in fire, whose self-sacrifice has been accepted by God as a “holo- caust”, and whose “hope was rich in immortality”. Yet the same reading rec- ognises that for the onlookers, perhaps especially the fam- ilies, what the fallen experi- enced seemed like punish- ment and annihilation. Try as wemight to roman- ticise war, especially when seeking to bolster the war ef- fort or manage our grief and anxieties, the hard realities of sacrifice break through. And though sacrifice is a deeply spiritual notion, it’s often ex- perienced as less than uplift- ing or redemptive. Our Gospel tonight ( Jn 12:23-8) casts some light on the paradox of war and spir- ituality. Jesus teaches that a worthy death is like a wheat grain that falls to the ground and is buried, but ultimately yields a rich harvest ( Jn 12:23- 28). There’s no avoiding the tragedy of war, the violence, death and grief, the psycho- logical and spiritual damage all round. But there can be a beauty amidst the ugliness of war; meaningless as it seems, there can be higher values served. As I observed at last year’s Anzac EveMass, the quintes- sential Anzac for many Austra- lians is John Simpson Kirkpat- rick, theman with the donkey who devoted himself to saving others but never fired a single shot himself. The sacrifices of war can make sense precisely when they express some higher commitment to honour, loyal- ty, faith, hope, love and peace. In this time of pandemic there’s been plenty of talk of “the war on COVID-19”. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said “We are in a war against this virus.”The Queen hinted at this in her rare speech on 5 April, saying of our fallen “we’ll meet again”. And President Trump has called himself a “war-time president”. Such dramatic talk under- lines the scale and internation- al reach of the pandemic, the deaths it threatens, the need to co-opt people’s energies and ideals, the sacrifices it will re- quire of all of us but especially of health professionals and the isolated, the pragmatic deci- sions leaders must make. Only a ‘war’ could get peo- ple to put ordinary life on hold, to forgo football and pubs, and to even have their gin distill- eries turned tomanufacturing hand sanitiser! Of course, the analogy with war is imperfect and could even be distorting. But the spiritual resources we bring to the present chal- lenges and the spiritual effects this period of self-sacrifice may have on us may be simi- lar. As this ‘war’ continues we will need to dig deep into our personal and national char- acter if we are to respond with the courage of the Anzacs to whatever troubles our souls. May we demonstrate in the present crisis that we are wor- thy of those who carried us through previous emergencies and who endured and perhaps transcended the psychological and spiritual trauma of their times, making of their sacrifice by God’s grace something re- demptive for us all. This is the edited text of the homily by Archbishop An- thony Fisher OP for the Vigil Mass for Anzac Day live- streamed from St Mary’s Basilica, Sydney, on 24 April 2020. 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 ‘Catholic clarity for complex times’ Listen to our Podcast every Thursday Ordinary Catholics having a relaxed, informal and searching conversation To subscribe go to https://www.thiscatholiclife.com.au HIGHLIGHTS Special Episode: Coping with Covid-19 Episode 41: Virtual Worlds Episode 40: Destroying Sex