Reflection by Fr Michael Willemsen;

Parish Priest- Our Lady Help Of Christians, Narre Warren

 

The Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal on Good Friday reminds me of the story of a schoolteacher in an overseas country, who was assigned to teach children on long-term stays in city hospitals. The teacher received a phone call from a school, requesting that she visit a particular child. She wrote down the boy’s name and listened, as his classroom teacher revealed that the boy’s class was studying nouns and verbs. The hospital teacher went to the boy, in the burns unit of the hospital. She was not expecting to find the young boy so badly burned and disfigured. Although hesitant, the teacher felt she couldn't just turn around and walk out. So, she said to the boy who was covered in bandages, “I'm the hospital teacher, and your classroom teacher asked me to help you learn nouns and verbs.” The boy didn’t know what to say, he just stared at her with his big sad eyes, his eyelashes wet from recent tears. The teacher began anyway and stumbled through a simple lesson, feeling ashamed at putting him through such a seemingly unnecessary exercise.

The next day, the teacher came again. A nurse on the ward asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” Before the teacher could finish her apology filled with shame, the nurse interrupted her: “No, you don’t understand” she said. “We’ve been very worried about him. But, since you were here yesterday, his attitude has changed. He's fighting back; he’s responding to treatment. It’s as if he’s decided to live now.” The teacher stood there in stunned silence. 

After eventually recovering months later, the boy explained to the hospital teacher that he’d given up hope, until she came. And, that he figured: they wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and verbs with a boy who was about to die. He realised that he had given up on himself, but others hadn’t. 

This story reminds us of what is possible whenever there is hope. It reminds us that hope is something given to us because it is directed towards what is beyond us. And, it also invites us to acknowledge that on the one hand, we can easily succumb to a sense of hopelessness at times, yet on the other hand, we believe in the possibility of redemption. 

The story of the suffering and death of Jesus on Good Friday starts out bad because it begins with the triumph of lies over truth, of injustice over justice and evil over goodness. Jesus was falsely charged of crimes he did not commit and unjustly sentenced to a death he did not deserve. A chosen Apostle betrayed him, his other trusted companions deserted him and his right-hand man denied him. The people he loved demanded his crucifixion and chose to have the criminal Barabbas released in his place. Jesus is scourged, mocked, forced to carry his cross before he is nailed to it and dies after a few hours. He is then hastily buried in a tomb. To many, that seemed to be the end of the story. 

However, His death was not the end of the story. The mission was not lost, because death was a necessary part of it. There was to be one more chapter. And this was the most important chapter, because in it, Jesus is raised from the dead in glory and majesty in fulfilment of Scripture. Like the boy in the hospital burns unit, Jesus’ forlorn followers, who thought all was lost, had their hope restored. 

As pilgrims of hope in this Jubilee Year, we have hope because we have faith. Faith in Christ risen.