Mission & Identity

The Lord is truly risen, alleluia.

To him be glory and power

for all the ages of eternity, alleluia, alleluia. 

(c.f. Lk 24:34; cf. Rv 1:6)

Welcome to Term Two and the joy of the Easter Season. 

One of the readings for Easter Sunday is taken from the first letter of St Paul to the faithful in Corinth. 

You must know how even a small amount of yeast is enough to leaven all the dough, so get rid of all the old yeast, and make yourselves into a completely new batch of bread, unleavened as you are meant to be. Christ, our passover, has been sacrificed; let us celebrate the feast, then, by getting rid of all the old yeast of evil and wickedness, having only the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Cor 5:6-8)

Leaven is a well-known image in the Bible. In baking, yeast is used to leaven the dough: that is, to make the dough rise into the tasty bread we enjoy in everyday life. As a metaphor, yeast is a pervasive influence that transforms that which it encounters. St Paul uses this metaphor to stir our hearts and minds in several ways. 

First, he reminds us that “even a small amount of yeast is enough to leaven all the dough.”  The small habits we practise can accumulate into big impacts, whether for good or ill. St Paul pleads with us to take responsibility for our lives and to remove all the small habits, that over the course of a week, a term, a semester, a year, will lead us a long way from where our hearts truly want us to be.

As our senior students come to know, it takes a whole year of careful and deliberate study to fully prepare for the challenge of a two-hour examination in November. For all in our community, our spontaneous response in the very moment of a significant challenge will be largely determined by the little habits that form our character. There is no real difference between the academic, well-being, character, cultural, and personal goals of a St Patrick’s education – they are distinctions of the one vision of a flourishing human person. The leaven of our regular habits largely determines if we are to succeed in living according to this vision.    

Secondly, there is no time to waste in taking responsibility to mend our habits where needed. In the Jewish tradition of the Passover, unleavened bread is prepared because we are not running to our own timetable, but God’s. In the journey from the slavery of sin to the freedom of love there is no time to wait for the bread to rise. We should act with an urgency, and put aside all self-interest this very moment, to follow God’s loving plan for us. Too much is at stake to waste time. 

Thirdly, we are to make ourselves into the unleavened bread we are meant to be. It is our task to travel with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth that remains when bad habits are set aside. People are innately good. When we remove the puffed-up distortions of self-interest, forego the pursuit of power and pride, we encounter ourselves in our original form: we are made in the image of God. “God saw all that he had made, and indeed it was very good.” (Gen 1:31)

The death Jesus is a confronting reality. But that is not the end of the story. Jesus’ resurrection is the revelation that love is our true nature: we are made by love, in love, for love. When we choose to love, when love is understood as always acting for the true good of our neighbour (St Thomas Aquinas), we are choosing to cooperate with the God who is love (1 Jn 4:6) to have life to the full (Jn 10:10).  May our Term together flourish in the liberating joy of the Easter Season.