At the last school I taught in the kids sang a hymn with the words, ‘That’s why Friday’s Good -not bad.’ I think it sums up the theology of the day. Yes, it’s horrific that anyone should die that way, but in the case of Jesus, he chose it, and conquered death. Obviously you need faith to accept such an outrageous statement.

I am sad that there does seem to be such a lot of anti-religious feeling in the world. Religion ges the blame for a lot of stuff. I’m thinking of Islam as well as Christianity. I have taught such lovely muslim children and really respect their religion. It all gets distorted by fanatics. Christianity has its fanatics too. I cringe at some of the things I hear. Little child preachers in America for one, and anti-abortionists killing (!) doctors for killing babies (!)

Then I notice that some of the anti-Christian people are homosexual. I wonder what hurt they have received at the hands of the church. Divorced people, too, made to feel outcasts by out-of-date catholic teaching. It’s about time the church took another look at moral theology and joined the real world. And I honestly believe we can do that by going back to our roots. What would/did Jesus do? It’s all about love. His life and death showed that love has tobe tough, but he really had a knack of seeing what was in peoples’ hearts.

End of homily!