Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane gave this talk at the Powerhouse of Leaders Gathering at Brisbane Powerhouse, New Farm, on April 4. Brisbane Catholic Education organised the gathering for student leaders from Catholic schools of the archdiocese
ON July 26 this year I will be 75 years old. For young people it probably sounds very old. For myself it doesn’t seem old at all.
Nevertheless whether I am 75 or 100 doesn’t really matter because not far ahead we will meet Jesus face to face.
I live in the hope that in the not too distant future Jesus will bless me with resurrection, not unlike the resurrection that Jesus Himself experienced after His own death.
Death can be considered a disaster, or an entry into new life that is available to each and every one of us.
Does death need to be a cause for anxiety? For some people “Yes”. For others it is the beginning of new life.
Late last year one of the most brilliant priests in Queensland, perhaps in Australia, Dr Tom Boland, a remarkable historian, said on his deathbed, “I feel like a school boy going home for holidays.”
Twenty-four years earlier my rector at Banyo Seminary said something similar but not quite the same before he died.
He said, “I will soon know the mystery of the guardian angels.”
Knowing that mystery is not the great desire of most people but rather the desire to meet Jesus face to face.
I talk about these matters not to cause people to be morose or fearful but rather to grasp life in our hands in order to live life out to the very best of our ability.
Life is given to us to rejoice, not to be miserable.
As a gift from God it is meant to be used to change the world to the best of our ability, despite the crosses we always carry.
After years of study and prayer as priest and bishop I came to realise that the key to Christianity is love, love of God, love of ourselves and love of all people because they are children of God.
Is it easy to love all people? Sadly it isn’t, nevertheless we exist to love just as God exists to love, just as Jesus exists to love, just as all of us exist to love.
We are made to respect each and every person as children of God because God loves all people.
I mentioned a thousand times after the World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008, and would like to mention again, the words of a young woman.
She asked after I delivered a speech to the pilgrims of Brisbane, “How do you fall in love with Jesus?”
I did my best to explain until a young woman took the microphone and said, “I fell in love with Jesus only after I realised that Jesus had already fallen in love with me.” Her answer was quite brilliant.
Jesus brought us into existence through love, keeps us in existence through love, and expects all of us to love Him in return and all people with whom we come in
contact.
We may not understand, but each and every one of us is precious, otherwise God would not have brought us into existence.
Yesterday I sat beside a friend from 50 years in the past who played basketball with me in Goondiwindi in 1962.
He is a superb person who never spoke a mean word about anyone and who cares for all people whom he knows. God wants us all to be that type of person.
Yesterday my friend was very ill and slept the whole time I sat beside him. I prayed for him with a tear as I remembered our relationship 50 years ago.
Life is short indeed but we are made to live forever as God desires.
The mere spark of life here and now means much but not as much as living in God’s presence beyond death.
As Christians we must remember what our faith means. It is not meant to be miserable despite the crosses we carry.
Jesus lived for only 33 years. Yet in that time He saw evil that surrounded Him, and changed the world by love through His death and resurrection.
He not only changed the world but He changed us as well.
He challenges us to see the new world that he established and to see ourselves as new people in His new world.
Is there evil in the world still? Of course there is.
But it is an evil that has been conquered by the love of Jesus Christ and will continue to be conquered into the future.
When I was your age I decided to become a pilot in the airforce. It was not to be because God called me to priesthood.
After I became a priest I went down to Sydney to see if I might be able to work for Mother Teresa of Calcutta in India.
Again God seemed to call me to continue working as a spiritual director in the seminary here in Brisbane.
Then suddenly I received a call from God to become a bishop in Cairns, and then once again another call from God to become an archbishop in this archdiocese.
I have never ever regretted these calls from God and I have never been happier in my life than I am now.
My great desire is to do good and to make the world a better place filled with God’s love.
I don’t always succeed but I do my best.
If I was to give advice I would like to keep it as simple as possible:
– In the first place we must love God and Jesus Christ. We must try to understand Jesus as much as we can and if we do so we will be the happiest people imaginable.
– In the second place we must pray always, asking God to direct us where He wants us to be. It does not matter how much evil may have been present in our lives, God goes on loving us no matter what we may have done.
Just remember Mary Magdalene in Scripture whose life was changed by Jesus.
Remember St Augustine of the 4th Century who abandoned God, then came back to God through God’s Holy Spirit.
Never forget St Francis of Assisi who changed his life forever in order to change the world.
There are a thousand other saints whose lives were changed by God’s call to them.
The same can happen to us if we only open our minds and hearts to Jesus.
– In the third place make sure we open our eyes to see the new world of Jesus and the new people that we are because of Jesus.
– Let us never waste our lives. They are all too precious. Never forget that, whether they be 50, 70 or 100 years.
We are a mere spark in the world of God but an important spark at that.
Remember we are made to live forever not just as a flash in God’s time but as a life forever.
– Try to do good in this world in the time that God gives us. We are not going to change the world as Jesus did because we are not Jesus, but we can do good to bring the world to the fullness that God wanted it to have.
– Never forget to praise and worship God especially in our great act of worship, the Mass. Seek to follow the will of God as Jesus did in His life. Don’t ever follow false Gods whether they be of money or possessions in our very secular world.
– Finally make sure you ask Mary the mother of Jesus to pray for you, as well as being inspired by Mary the mother of Jesus and St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, who will be our inspiration always.
Make Jesus Christ the centre of your lives. Seek to understand Him until we meet Him face to face in the marvellous world that lies ahead.
May God bless you always.
