Good Friday 2026 (Year A)

Homily

By the Most Rev Bishop Don Sproxton
Auxiliary Bishop of Perth

Friday 03 April, 2026
St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth

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As I walked into the cathedral, I sensed that the liturgy had already begun. It began when you the assembly of God’s people gathered and all was ready for us to celebrate the awesome mystery that is Good Friday.

I had the sense also that we stand in a tradition that goes back to the beginning of Christianity, when Christians celebrated yearly the passion, death, resurrection and ascension on the night of the resurrection of Jesus.

The prayers that we about to use are practically the same as those first used by the Bishop in Rome in those days. We are using them again in the same faith, that we believe in the loving mercy and care of God for each of us and all the people on the earth.

An interesting memory came to me as I was preparing for today. It came because I know that as the atmosphere for the day is restrained and solemn, we gather to celebrate the triumph of the cross. We will all have the chance to venerate the cross which will be brought into the cathedral and shown to us.

The liturgy is hope-filled and not doom-laden. It stirs up a joy and a desire to rejoice at the great thing our Father has done for us. The cross is the focal point, not as an instrument of torture and death, and is placed before us for veneration because it is the means of our redemption. It is the great sign of victory: the victory of Christ over death and the powers over the world that seek our eternal destruction. It is the sign of the love of the Father, perpetually on display.

So, what was the memory.

It was of the meeting I had with Sr Irene McCormack, the local girl who became a Josephite Sister, and taught in many of our schools in WA. The catholic college in Butler is named after her.

This meeting turned out to be the last I would have with her. She was about to return to Peru to her beloved people in the remote area she and the other sisters worked. Even though she knew the risks in returning, she told me that there was nothing more she wanted but to return to those children and families she served in the Peruvian mission.

At that time, a terrorist organisation, the Shining Path, was going around trying to intimidate poor people so that they would join in the revolution this group was fostering against the government. Anyone who got in their way was killed. The sisters were on their list because they were teaching the children and helping the villagers in simple community development. Shining Path guerrillas came to the village, and Irene was rounded up with the village leaders and executed before the other villagers.

They were good people, doing good things for the poor, for the sake of Christ.

I wondered what she was thinking in those last moments of her life. How do you face such a barbaric death? All your life and your service of others flash through your mind, and all you have left is your faith and the hope that all will go well for those you have loved and must leave.

Her faith that urged her to go to Peru also had encouraged her to serve the people to the point of death. She believed in the victory of Christ that was won on the cross. And she believed that because of the offering of Himself on the cross, Christ had redeemed humanity. She believed that the spirit of Jesus had been working within her each day giving her strength to change her heart, to learn how to be a humble servant for others and to trust that whatever she would suffer, the Father would use for those people.

As things turned out, the terrorist group was finally defeated. The people live now more peacefully. More services, especially the opportunities for education and the chance to live more dignified lives are available to them.

Irene followed her Lord, the good and faithful Son of God who taught the way, another way, to that of the world. Jesus too paid the price for proposing the way of love, integrity, reconciliation, peacemaking and unity.

But He has bequeathed to us something most powerful. From the cross He breathed His Spirit on us. His Spirit is the spirit of strength, truth and love. Then, after His death, the water and blood flowed from His side, which we recognise as the gifts of Baptism and the Eucharist, signs that He remains very close, is present to us, empowering us to grow in faith and love, to have the courage to work on a change of heart and be humble servants for His sake.

The body of Jesus was taken to the tomb and laid to rest. Jesus learnt “to obey through suffering, but having been made perfect,He became for all who obey Him the source of eternal salvation”.

The cross is the sign of our redemption and the power of Christ at work in our lives each day to save us, so that we can really follow Him out of the tomb to new life.