Monday, April 11, 2011 | Last Updated Monday, April 11, 2011 12:03 Pacific/Honolulu

Bishop's Message for Easter

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Aloha ke Akua:

In the Spring of 1940, Father Kenneth Bray addressed the graduating seniors of St. Andrew's Priory School for Girls.  Now Father Bray, an episcopal priest and graduate of my own seminary in New York City, had many ministries in Honolulu throughout the 1930's and '40's.  He was the priest for St. Mark's Church, Kapahulu, and for the Hawaiian congregation at St. Andrew's Cathedral.  He was the coach of both the baseball and the football teams at 'Iolani School.  In fact, the famous "One Team" motto and spirit celebrated at 'Iolani come from Father Bray.  His picture and bust are prominent in that School's athletic facilties.

He was also the chaplain at the Priory.  And so, on a Spring day in 1940, as the young women prepared for graduation, he addressed them:

A friend of mine has two photographs of himself on his mantelpiece-- not because he is vain, but because he wishes to point a lesson.

The one photograph is of himself in Captain's uniform, and is labeled "Peace"; the other is of himself in Priest's vestments and is labeled "War".

The lesson he wishes to teach is that it is only during Peace that any effective War can be waged against those things which promote and provoke war.

Today, we have peace, while the world is at war.

And tonight, you alone are enjoying the proper climax of a graduated procession which, for years, has progressed from Kindergarten, the grades and through High School-- while your cousins by the million in China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and England, who have made the same journey, class by class, in step with you, have only the cimax of destruction despair and death.

It is for you in Peace to wage War for them.

For this War you have the only effective Weapon.

It is the Catholic Faith---Faith in the one God, and Father of us all.

The Faith that demands Love and Justice and Sacrifice, on the part of the individual and the nation in their every transaction.

The Faith that teaches us to live not for ourselves, but for God.

Not for ourselves, but for others.

This Catholic Faith has educated you at the Priory.

It has educated you well only if it has made you an active force for Fellowship, Righteousness and Love.

While others must lie helpless in war, you who are in peace must take up the burden of the Gospel of Incarnate Love in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

This is your Graduation Duty and Privilege.

God bless you, and help you to be Worthy.

How sad it is that seventy-one years later, the world still knows the pain of war.  Just as his students from 'Iolani would be off to war within eighteen months, so the sons and daughters of the Islands are again caught in wars in far off lands.  Like that generation, people are again worried about bank failures and home foreclosures.

And yet, this Easter, the same active force -- the Gospel of Incarnate Love -- gives our lives meaning:  the active force of Fellowship, Righteousness and Love.

In the story of Good Friday, there are three crosses on the hill.  I suggest the Christian journey is one with three crosses:  Fellowship, Righteousness and Love.  In good times and bad, there stand the three crosses.

The Love of God is present in the first cross:  the death of Jesus Christ on Good Friday.  The first cross is the very symbol of our faith.  It is the God of the Cross who gathers all that is broken, sinful and alone in our lives into the divine life and overcomes death itself.

The fellowship of believers is present in the second cross.  Those first disciples shrank from Jesus at Good Friday and that first cross.  But soon, those disciples stepped up and suffered for their faith.  Through the centuries, Christians have suffered and have been martyred for their faith.  The cross of Fellowship stands before each of us.  Does our faith make a difference?

The third cross is that of righteousness.  This is the cross of world suffereing:  The judgment of God upon injustice.  On the road to Calvary, Jesus turned to the women and said, "O Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your children."  Where there is selfishness, hatred, violence, cruelty, lust and anger, there stands the cross of righteousness to point a new way.

The Cross of Love, the Cross of Fellowship, the Cross of Righteousness

These crosses only have meaning after Easter.  That is what Father Bray knew, that is what we know.  Christ has died, Chris is Risen, Christ will come again.  That is the message of Easter.  The suffering is not over--Jesus calls to follow through his love into fellowship to live in righteousness.

Father Bray knew -- we know that it is through the love of God that we can see the world through the eyes of love.  At Easter, the cross has meaning.  All that is broken, lost, hurt and alone is taken into God and made holy at the resurrection.  In the fellowship of Christ - in our suffering - we become the hands of God to act for God and the very lips of God to speak the words of love.  Living in Righteousness, we are called to be the voice of justice.  Our hands are the hands of God to feed the hungry.  Our voices are to call our the cry for peace.

Fellowship, Righteousness and Love:  That is the meaning of Easter.  Through the cross, the world is transfomed and we - you and I - are the Body of Christ bringing Love into the world.

So, like Father Bray, we look at a world in war and a time of financial crisis.  We are called to the same place - into an Easter faith that demands Fellowship, Righteousness and Love.

For those who are helpless in war, we must again take up the burden of Peace.  For those who are homeless and hungry, we must take up the burden to house the homelss and feed the hungry.  We must take up the burden of Incarnate Love.  Love in life for the Love of Life, and for the Love of God.

This is my prayer for us this Easter:

Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification:  Give us grace so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve you in pureness and living in fellowship, righteousness and love:  through Jesus Christ your Son and our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Aloha ma o Iesu Kristo, ko makou Haku,

+Bob

The Right Reverend Robert L. Fitzpatrick

+ Keali'ikoaokeakua