A celebration of springtime, the tsunami and divine energy: (April 2005)

At Easter we celebrate and share in the mission of Christ. In the springtime of the year we share in the Church's greatest celebration.

In the liturgy of Holy Week we recall Christ's passion and death and his glorious resurrection. We remember also how on the eve of his passion he left the great gift of the Eucharist to His church.

The church invites us to share in these celebrations for it is in sharing in them that the Holy Spirit is enabled to act in us, and realise more fully in us, the wonderful mystery of life in Christ which was God's gift to us in baptism.

This is not without great significance for the life and work of a member of the Society of St Vincent de Paul. As the recent incredible response to the tsunami disaster shows, compassion for those who suffer is one of the more noble aspects of being human.

Fr Perry Gildea - Vincentian Fathers

Cliftonville Road, Belfast 15

But for the Christian, there is an added perception and incentive and one, which motivated St Vincent de Paul and Frederic Ozanam. That is the understanding that in serving the poor we are serving the person of Christ himself.

This is because he has chosen to identify himself with them. Christ came to proclaim the presence of God's kingdom on earth. He accompanied this proclamation with the assertion that the sign of this kingdom was that the poor had good news brought to them.

The Christian having been baptised is anointed with Chrism, "as Christ was anointed priest, prophet and king".

The Christian is anointed to carry on the mission or work of Christ. It is important that we recognise the model of kingship, as Christ understood it.

It was not a "kingdom of this world" it is a kingdom where the king is a good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. It is a kingdom of service to others.

This is the calling of the Vincentian and it needs to be nourished by encounter with Christ in the liturgical celebration of the great moments of His life, in the Eucharist and the sacraments. These are the divine source of our motivation and energy.

The end of Easter week also saw the end of Pope John Paul II's struggle with illness. Elected Pope as a vigorous 58 year-old he rapidly emerged as one of the world's most significant leaders.

History has still to tell the full story of the effects of his confrontation on communism, especially in his support for the solidarity movement in his native Poland. But it is especially as the "pilgrim Pope" that he caught the world's imagination.

Wherever he travelled he drew large enthusiastic crowds of both the faithful and many others of different religious affiliations. He was a bridge builder seeking dialogue and healing around the globe. He was indefatigable too in his defence of that most precious of all gifts - human life, in all its ages.

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One could not doubt that the source of all other human rights and the basis on which they must be defended is the very right to life itself.

This was apparent in his defence of the unborn and the elderly, but also in his appeals against the death penalty, and his condemnation of war as an acceptable solution to international dispute.

In his later years, beset by failing health which gradually reduced him to an ever-greater dependence on the assistance of other even to move from place to place, he never gave up his ministry.

He was a living example of his belief of the infinite dignity and value of every one even the disabled, the old and the feeble. In the last few weeks of his life he conformed even more to the image of his Lord as suffering servant.

In his great energy, his enormous output of writings, and his commitment to the Gospel, he has served the church exceptionally. We indeed are blessed in having lived during his papacy. He set standards and proclaimed ideals, which should inspire every Vincentian.

Fr Perry (April 2005)

Pope John Paul II