Archbishop of Sydney

His Eminence,
Cardinal George Pell
Cardinal Priest of the Title of S. Maria Domenica Mazzarello

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Home > Our Archbishop > Sunday Telegraph Column 2002 > Article	Printable Version

Easter 2002

By + George Pell
ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY
31 March 2002

Recently a heard of a woman who ran a soup-kitchen in one of the slum townships in Africa. At different times both her daughter and her four-year old grand-daughter had been raped by local men, more or less outside the soup-kitchen. She knows the rapists and often sees them on the street, but the breakdown of justice means that they have gone unpunished for their crimes. She was asked how she could do so much to help her neighbours; how she could keep going, despite all the suffering of her family. Her reply was astonishing: "Because God is with me."

Non-Christians are often puzzled and occasionally infuriated by the serenity of Christians under the most appalling sufferings. Our African woman is not mad or unfeeling. She has to deal with her enormous suffering every day. And yet despite this she is at peace and continues to hope. She can do this because what she has suffered is not all there is. Over and above this, there is the reality of God's love.

This story takes us into the heart of the Christian mystery. This woman is suffering her crucifixion but knows something of resurrection too.

Jesus Christ provoked a following of devout disciples, bitter enemies, and most people who were not sure what he was about during his three year ministry.

He died nailed to a cross; a fate reserved to slaves and foreigners. He rose from death three days later; a claim long dismissed as fraudulent by his enemies.

More people claim to know about Christianity than really know Christ and his story. A little knowledge can prevent us from ever getting to the truth, act like an inoculation so that we can never "catch" the Christian mystery in all its beauty. Christianity only comes at a cost.

It is part of being human to be puzzled; for good people sometimes to be mistaken. But ill will or large evil in our heart also make it difficult to understand.

As Edwin Muir wrote about the crucifixion
"Some who came to stare grew silent as they looked,
Indignant or sorry. But the hardened old
And the hard-hearted young, although at odds
From the first morning, cursed him with one curse.
Having prayed for a Rabbi or an armed Messiah
And found the Son of God. What use to them
Was a God or a Son of God?"

What use indeed even today! People still object to being told that politics or philanthropy is not the first Christian priority. Nobody wants to make Jesus King as some did 2000 years ago, but some do want to reduce Christ to being chief opposition spokesman to governments.

Some government policies can deserve opposition on Christian principles. Christian faith would be meaningless if it was not expressed in good works.

But Christianity reaches far beyond public life today. Christ calls us to follow in the depths of the human heart with consequences in eternity.

a The Christian claim is not simply that Christ died, but that He rose again; that he was divine as well as human.

"Did a God
Indeed in dying cross my life that day
By chance, he on his road and a on mine?"

That is still the question.