As a result of the unprecedented nature of the bush fires that are being experienced throughout Australia, together with the extraordinary political debate that has been provoked by the fires, the Director of the Edmund Rice Centre, Phil Glendenning, has written an Open Letter to the Prime Minister. Please click here to read the open letter.

Thirty years ago, six Jesuits, their cook, and her 15-year-old daughter were murdered at the University of Central America in San Salvador by Salvadoran government forces. These academics were killed for being outspoken advocates for the poor and suffering in a country wracked by years of violent civil war. Their concern was to work for a more just society according to the vision more recently expressed by Pope Francis of the Church as a field hospital for the wounded, a poor church for the poor. According to the gospel, we are reminded that our actions reveal our commitment to it which is ultimately the building of God’s upside-down Reign.

Luke provides another encounter between Jesus and those who oppose him. We sense the deceit in the moment and an attempt at entrapment. The encounter begins with a question is about ‘resurrection.’ They are  people who describe themselves being the ‘devil’s advocate’ in a discussion in which they have no belief or position. The ‘Sadducees’ here do not believe in the resurrection.