ST PETER CHANEL & ST JOSEPH CHURCH, BERALA, 20 MARCH 2026
Roald Dahl’s book Matilda sold half a million copies in six months, won the Children’s Book Award, and inspired a BBC audiobook, a Danny DeVito movie and a West End and Broadway musical.[1] It tells the tale of Matilda Wormwood, a clever and generous soul, who loves to read, play practical jokes, and stand up for anyone being treated unfairly. This endears her to her teacher, Miss Jennifer Honey, but not to the terrifying Principal Trunchbull, who is nothing like our wonderful Sr Cecilia Joseph! Matilda’s headmistress bullies children by locking them in a punishment cupboard lined with nails and glass, and targets Matilda whenever she does something good.
What so provokes the principal? It’s Matilda’s cleverness, kindness and bravery—which Trunchbull experiences as a silent reproach. There are many twists and turns in the story, some comic, some tragic, but you’ll have to read the rest for yourself… I would note in passing, however, that when a capable and good-natured new principal arrives, the school’s atmosphere and curriculum greatly improve, and Matilda is promoted to Year 6, where she now devotes her considerable brainpower to learning!
In today’s Gospel (Jn 7:1–2, 10, 25–30), Jesus sends His disciples ahead to Jerusalem for the harvest Festival of Sukkot (or Tabernacles), and then goes up secretly Himself, almost in disguise. But He cannot help Himself and He starts preaching openly again. He continues saying uncomfortable things about the Father who sent Him; about who He is Himself; about who we are in relation to Him; and about how we should live as a consequence. This caused the religious authorities, like Trunchbull, to start plotting His demise.
Why did they hate Him? Some of it was about power: Jesus challenged the people in charge and held them to account when they said one thing but did another, or when they were harsh toward those who needed mercy. Some of it was about popularity: Jesus drew disciples away from them with teaching and actions that seemed more authoritative, indeed godly. But in their minds He was also a blasphemer, claiming to be God or at least closer to God than any human being. And He was a compromiser, making too many exceptions for people. Then, just before today’s incident, He gave one of His most explosive teachings: that unless we receive His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, we will not have eternal life; only through Him will we live forever (Jn 6:22-59). So confronting was this lesson that many of His students abandoned Him. All this made His going up to Jerusalem quite dangerous…
The idea that goodness provokes hostility was not new. In the century before Jesus the Book of Wisdom was composed and there we hear some people say, “Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man to ambush him, for he is inconvenient to us. He criticises our actions, reproaches our sins, highlights our infidelity… Let us try him with insult and torture, to see how gentle and forgiving he really is. Let’s condemn him to a shameful death, and see if God vindicates him.” (Wis 2:1,12-22), It’s not that Jesus is a goodie two-shoes moral show-off, or a carping critic of others. What really annoys them is that, whether by words or example He shows up their unrighteousness. We sympathise: sometimes good guys make us uncomfortable too, because they are like a mirror, showing us what we could be and should be, showing us how far short we fall in the ways we love God and neighbour. But they are exactly the friends we should choose, since they will challenge us to be better people ourselves.
Something else about Jesus, really gets under their skin: “He claims to know God personally, calls himself the Son of God… and calls God his Father,” the Book of Wisdom goes on. Jesus was more than just a good guy, a clever guy, a brave guy. He is goodness in the flesh, God’s own Son come into His vineyard to walk and talk with us, as one of us. To model for us how to live a godly life. To highlight what our priorities should be. To remind us that life isn’t about the three P’s of popularity, power and prosperity, but about the three W’s of wonder, wisdom and witness. It’s for asking the big wonder questions about God, the universe and ourselves; for finding the big wisdom answers of all you learn at school and the deep wisdom of the Gospel; it’s for giving the big witness to Christ by serving others, putting their needs ahead of our own, even when no one is watching.
My dear young friends, this is not always easy. When your school patron St Peter Channel was sent with six others as missionaries to the South Pacific, he had only been professed in the new Marist Order for three months and was already their superior. The journey took nearly a year by sea, via the Canary Islands, around the tip of South America up to Valparaíso Chile and the Gambier Islands, then on to Tahiti, Wallis and Futuna, for the mission to Tonga. They laboured in Futuna for three and a half years, learning the local language, helping the people through cyclones and other hardships, baptising, catechising, anointing the sick and dying. Peter Chanel was known in the local language as “the man with the kind heart”. But the local chief was jealous and sent warriors to get rid of him. Kindness, at Matilda found, as Jesus found, as Peter Chanel found, is not always rewarded with like kindness in this life. But we persevere in it anyway, as this is the way of loving God and neighbour, the way of righteousness.
As Easter approaches, we know we will soon see something extraordinary: that meanness and fighting are not the last word, that love is stronger than hatred, evil, death. And so, between now and Easter, I leave you with a little challenge: each day, try to do one thing you think Jesus would do, Matilda would do, Peter Chanel would do—one act of cleverness, kindness and courage, one choice to put someone else’s needs ahead of your own. For if Goodness was strong enough to rise from the dead, it’s strong enough to live in each and every one of us too.
God bless you my young friends!
[1] The novel was published by Jonathan Cape in 1988. Audiobook versions of Matilda include: 1989 by Jenny Hanley, 1993 by Jean Marsh, 1994 by Ron Keith, 1998 by Kate Winslet and Miriam Margoyles, 2004 by Joely Richardson. The feature film was directed by Danny DeVito in 1996. The two-part BBC Radio 4 version was in xxxx. The musical Matilda thew Musical ran in the West End of London and on Broadway in 2010-11. A film adaptation of the musical was released in 2022.
INTRODUCTION TO MASS FOR ST PETER CHANEL CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL FRIDAY OF THE 4TH WEEK OF LENT, ST PETER CHANEL & ST JOSEPH CHURCH, BERALA, 20 MARCH 2026
St Peter Chanel Catholic Primary School was established in 1925 and I must say that you are all looking pretty good for hundred-year-olds! Your school was started by Josephite Sisters and now has Dominican sisters and lay staff; it began with only 64 kids and now has about 380. It aspires to instil in each one Wonder, Wisdom and Witness—educating them for eternity. And by all accounts it is achieving some outstanding results. So, it is my delight as Archbishop to visit the school today and to celebrate Mass with you. I acknowledge your principal Sr Cecilia Joseph OP, and the other sisters, staff, families and parishioners; but above all I welcome the students of wonder, wisdom and witness…
