Friday, 5 August Issue 11/21 THE RECTOR - St Aloysius

THE PRINCIPAL
On 6 August, the world marks the anniversary of the dropping of the
atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, a second bomb was
dropped on Nagasaki. More than two hundred thousand deaths
would result from those two bombs. Tragically, neither of the two
attacks rate as the most horrendous events of the war in terms of
civilian casualties – the siege of Leningrad, the capture of Nanking,
not to mention the Holocaust itself, immediately come to mind. Yet
in our imagination, the dropping of the A-bombs marked a new stage
in warfare. We are confronted with the juxtaposition of the amazing
extent to which we human beings are able to achieve technologically
with our corresponding capability to inflict horror on our fellow
human beings. This remains an enduring challenge for humankind.
Peace Park memorial at Hiroshima
Albert Einstein wrote in 1946 of his fear about the way science and
reason could be used to increase our capacity to destroy: “the unleashed
power of the atom has changed everything except our modes of thinking and we
thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe”. It is good to pause this week to
remember all those who suffer in war, to recommit ourselves to be
peace-makers and to work for a more just world in which violence is
overcome. The dropping of the A-bomb is also a reminder that the
progress in knowledge is not a panacea for the human condition and
that the moral and spiritual dimension of the human needs constant
nourishment.
Coincidently, 6 August also marks the feast of the Transfiguration,
where Jesus allowed His disciples a glimpse of himself as their
transfigured Lord, as one whose humanity is united intimately and
fully to His divinity. The most fundamental question in Christian
faith is ‘who is this person?’. Ultimately most Christian theology,
spirituality and worship comes back to the response that we give to
this question. More personally, our faith responses to the question
determines the claim that Jesus has on us and the nature of the
relationship we are invited to have with Him.
In this ancient feast, we also celebrate something of the transfiguring
power of God, a God at work in our human story, both respecting
our integrity and freedom as human beings, while bringing new
possibilities to us, even to overcoming death itself. This ‘good news’
stands in stark contrast to the temptation to despair, which events
such as Hiroshima can place before us. We are caught up in the
mystery of God. Though not an orthodox believer in God, Albert
Einstein himself, wrote of the sense of mystery in life:
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source
of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no
longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes
are closed. This insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear,
has given rise to religion. To know that what is impenetrable to us really
exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty
which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms –
this knowledge, this feeling, is the centre of all religiousness. In this sense, and
in this sense only, I belong in the ranks of a devoutly religious man”.
Our great religious feasts are not
only ritual and memorials of past
events, but have an on-going role
in revealing something of the
fundamentals of the human story
and of God’s relationship to that
story. One of those fundamentals is
Christian hope. We are believers in
redeeming love, namely, that no
person and no situation are beyond
the power of God’s love. We are
realists in acknowledging the
propensity within the human to
inflict pain and sorrow, and thus the
reality of evil, but we also assert that humankind is in the image and
likeness of God, and that our capacity to love and to be loved
underpins human existence.
We welcome to the College two staff (Mr Masahiko Hamasaki and
Mr Takaharu Iwasaki.) and fourteen students from Kaisei High
School in Nagasaki, Japan. The school has had a real cosmopolitan
feel over these last weeks with groups of exchange students from
Poland, Italy and Japan with us, as well as individual exchange
students from France and Italy. As always we have relied on the
generosity of many families to host these visitors.
A highlight of the school social calendar is the Year 9 Ballroom
Dancing with Loreto. The boys, and girls, were in high spirits and
some considerable talent was shown. At the end of the night, the top
four pairs were chosen by popular acclamation: Nick Lonergan,
John-Paul Field, Charlie Hill and Tom Wells, and their partners.
Congratulations to our Year 10 Drama students who competed at the
State Shakespeare Festival. In the solo section, Felix Lush came
second, as also did our Mash Up group of Hugh Logan, Tom
Lawson, James Mullan and Ryan Greves.
Congratulations to our Year 10 CSDA Debaters who were runnersup
to Santa Sabina in the grand final of that competition.
In the School Sport Australia Swimming championships in
Melbourne, the Junior School’s Lucas Anderson (Year 6) had the
honour of being the Junior Boys’ captain in the NSW team. Lucas
took silver in the 100m backstroke and bronze in the 200m individual
medley and 50m Backstroke. Matthew Jepson (Year 11) was also
competing at the championships and won gold in the 200m Freestyle
and the 400m freestyle.
In Saturday sport, our First XV recorded an excellent win (28-8) over
Cranbrook, while the First XI went down (1-2) in a very tight
contest. The Firsts Tennis side had a clean sweep to stay well in the
hunt for the CAS title as did our Firsts’ Debaters. The Firsts
Volleyballers went down to Grammar. Many of the younger teams
also had excellent results. The 7Ds had a great 2-1 win in front of
their enthusiastic supporters, while the supporters were perhaps even
more enthusiastic as the 13As overturned the first round with a
magnificent victory. The comeback story, worthy of the Rabbitohs,
was the 10As – down 0-3 at half time, a different team emerged in
the second half to draw level at 3-3. In Cross country, William
Austin-Cray (Year 12) was fifth in the CAS in the Seniors, and the
U16s’ team was second.
Congratulations to our Junior Secondary Chess team which has
reached the Metropolitan North Regional finals of NSW Secondary
Schools competition. Our Intermediate and Senior teams were both
runners-up in their qualifying groups.
Finally, please keep in your thoughts and prayers our Year 12
students who commence their HSC Trial Examinations on Monday.
Our Drama and Music students have already completed their HSC
Trial Performances.
Chris Middleton SJ
2