Newsletter 5: 31 March 2020
Dear Colleagues
An extraordinary Easter
As we continue to make sense of the current crisis for humanity across the globe, history and our Faith are important touchstones. The Spanish flu pandemic emerged at the end of World War I, killing more than 50 million people worldwide. In 1919 the virus reached Australia. A staggering 40% of the population was estimated to have been infected, with approximately 15,000 fatalities. The crisis led to the closure of schools, churches, theatres, pubs, race meetings and agricultural shows, plus the delay of victory celebrations. The result was not only economic hardship, but significant interruptions in education, entertainment, travel, shopping and worship. Australian historian, Dr Peter Hobbins sheds light on those times.
Despite the disruption, fear and substantial personal risk posed by the flu, tens of thousands of ordinary Australians rose to the challenge. The wartime spirit of volunteering and community service saw church groups, civic leaders, council workers, teachers, nurses and organisations such as the Red Cross step up.
They staffed relief depots and emergency hospitals, delivered comforts from pyjamas to soup, and cared for victims who were critically ill or convalescent. A substantial proportion of these courageous carers were women, at a time when many were being commanded to hand back their wartime jobs to returning servicemen.
This encouraging insight to the Australian character, that endures today in abundance among our Marist educators, also reminds us to be hopeful for an end to the current pandemic.
Pope Francis provides encouragement for us with his simple faith filled words. Speaking last Friday during what he termed an “Extraordinary moment of prayer”, Pope Francis reflected on the familiar Gospel story in which Jesus calms the storm, as an allegory for the COVID-19 crisis. He said:
The storm exposes our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and priorities. It shows how we have allowed to become dull and feeble the very things that nourish, sustain, and strengthen our lives and communities ….
The Lord asks us, and in the midst of our tempest, invites us, to reawaken and put into practice that solidarity and hope capable of giving strength, support and meaning to these hours when everything seems to be floundering.
The Lord awakens so as to reawaken and revive our Easter faith.
This coming weekend we celebrate Palm Sunday. It will be a Holy Week like none other experienced before. As schools across the country are operating alternative offsite learning arrangements, and with our Churches now closed, let us heed the call of the Holy Father and do all in our power to awaken and revive our Easter faith. The current storm will pass. Like our forebears in 1919, and as believers in Christ risen, may our actions and words be of hope for one another, our students and their families this extraordinary Easter time.