We are coming up to the end of the year. It is time to give thanks for what we have done and for what we have been gifted throughout the year.
I would like to thank you all for your support throughout this year. This is my first year as National President. The responsibilities are significant and it would not be possible to achieve what we have without your support.
My gratitude is, however, tempered by grief. A key mentor figure in my life has passed to his eternal reward. My predecessor as Queensland State president, Ron Munn, died recently in hospital aged 79. I saw him recently and he was in good spirits, his bass voice as strong as ever.
Fatherly Love
Ron was like a father to me. He cared about me as a person, not just for what I could do to achieve this or that objective. He did not see me as an instrument, but as a human being. And this is what I tried to pay forward as Queensland State President and what I try to emulate as National President. (See the obituary on page 20.)
We are not an organisation of campaigns or research or publication or formation – as important as any of these things might be. We are fundamentally a Movement of people trying to do good in their lives where and how they can.
We are a Movement of people by people and for people. This means that it is our relationships to each other that count. It is how we help each other every day to get better.
We are not a Movement fixated on policies or parties, because we are fundamentally focused on what those parties and policies exist for – making the world a better place for all of us, for our children and their children.
Ron always respected the importance of family and children, not just as an abstraction or a slogan, but as a living breathing messy thing.
After he retired, he would check up on me to see how I was doing and how my family were doing, not just in terms of social pleasantries, but to see if we were happy and well and needed help with anything. He and his wife Jenny were still dropping in with “extra supplies” this year before he went into hospital.
Ultimate Triumph
Our world is more dangerous and uncertain than ever. We know about terrible things half a world away that we are powerless to affect. Under such circumstances, sadness is natural and defeatism an understandable temptation.
However, like Ron and like B.A. Santamaria, I am certain that God has already won and that all we must do is our little bit.
God became man as a helpless baby, like all babies. Just by being born, Jesus had already done his bit. But, of course, he did more. He gave us the way to be like God. It didn’t involve great feats but trust and faith.
So, as we head into the Christmas feast soon, I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
