This year was meant to be one of our big celebration years, our 180^th Anniversary of continuous Catholic Education in the Campbelltown area. However, things have not turned out that way so far. For us today, now regathered once again as a complete College community (albeit still in a kind of “remote” sense), it is an opportunity to start afresh. The events of the year have caught us by surprise. None of us would have imagined that we would end up in isolation, having to socially distance from one another. To facilitate being protected from the COVID-19 virus, we transitioned very quickly to remote learning and the word “Zoom” entered our everyday conversations. We have now started to come out of “iso”—another word that has crept into our language.

Whilst in “iso” we reconfigured our lives to suit our changed circumstances. With restaurants limited to providing take away only, we did lots more home cooking. With not being able to go out of our homes to visit relatives and friends, we spent time doing the gardening instead. Suspension of opportunities for sport and other after school activities gave rise to substitute pursuits such as cleaning our rooms, reading, and binge watching our favourite tv series. With social media as the usual means of communication nowadays, being in “iso” made us realise how important it is to be in each other’s presence rather than encountering each other via a screen. With fewer cars on the roads and many factories forced to stop production, the air we breathe became clearer and cleaner. Birds, insects, and plants started to thrive in the newly refreshed air. And we, too, came to realise that we have now the opportunity to be newly refreshed.

This “re-start” liturgy provides for us a time for reflection and consideration. We do not re-start in order for us to go back to how we used to be and do. In our comprehending the lessons of this year, we re-start, newly refreshed, so as to go to new and better ways of being and living. Let us take all the goodness from the experiences of this year so that we may truly transform our lives. Let us also recapture our understanding of the Benedictine values we are focusing on this year: PAX (peace) through the lens of justice and stability. And this being our 180^th Anniversary year, we especially recognise the value of stability as a community founded on the Person of Christ.

Throughout this time of social isolation, we have been watching television advertisements and hearing various prominent persons advising us that “we are all in this together”. To honour this recent call to unite as one human family, we have brought to our Catholic Liturgy this morning not only our usual Catholic prayers and readings. We have also added Scripture readings from two other religious traditions: Hinduism and Islam. The three readings we will hear and reflect upon today each have something to inform us about stability. It is no accident that the word “catholic” actually means “universal”. God’s message of peace, justice, and love is a universal message and we as Catholics can acknowledge and celebrate God’s message wherever and whenever it is proclaimed. In our Liturgy today, in our acknowledgement of our common humanity, let us be open to hearing the voice of God no matter how and where it is spoken.

Angelo Gattone - Mission Coordinator