Fifth Sunday of Easter 2026 – 6pm Mass
Welcome to all of you who have gathered this evening. Here in this sacred place, week by week, we are drawn together from many places and many stories and formed again into one people in Christ.
There is something quietly powerful about this gathering. We do not assemble ourselves. We are called. We are drawn. We are gathered in—out of the many fragments of our lives—into something greater than ourselves. And what happens here is not just remembrance, though we do remember; it is not just nourishment, though we are fed. It is encounter. It is life.
This evening, in the Gospel, Jesus gives us words that are among the most profound ever spoken:
“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
Those words are not an abstract teaching. They are a claim—personal, direct, and all-encompassing. And this evening, I would like us to dwell especially on the first of them:
“I am the Way.”
The earliest Christians took that quite literally. Before they were ever called “Christians,” they were known simply as followers of “the Way.” Their faith was not first a set of ideas, nor a moral system. It was a path—a lived journey in Christ.
And that is still true for us.
To say that Christ is the Way is to say, first of all, that we are pilgrims. We are not settled. We are not finished. We are on the move—sometimes with confidence, sometimes with hesitation, sometimes even feeling lost—but always being led.
Christ is not only the destination—he is the way itself.
He is also the Way in the sense of a pattern for living. His words, his actions, his compassion, his truthfulness, his self-giving love—these are not simply things to admire. They are the shape of the life we are called to live.
Catholic faith is never just what we believe. It is how we live what we believe. It is a way of being in the world—marked by mercy, by fidelity, by hope, by courage.
And Christ is the Way in yet another sense: he is the process by which we are brought to the Father. Through his death and resurrection, he has made our journey possible. He has taken our human story—fragile, wounded, uncertain—and opened it into eternal life.
So when Jesus says, “I am the Way,” we are not being given directions. We are being given a person.
In the first reading today, we hear of the early Church at a moment of tension. Needs were being overlooked. Some were being left out. The apostles responded by widening the circle—calling forth others, commissioning them, laying hands on them for service.
It is a moment of growth, of adjustment, of listening—and of courage.
And perhaps, in a quiet way, that moment speaks to us here in Tasmania.
We too are a Church on the way. Not static. Not complete. Still being formed. Still being called.
In the coming year, we will begin preparing for an Archdiocesan Synod to be held in 2027. That is not simply an event to organise. It is a path to walk.
A synod is about listening—deep listening—to the Holy Spirit, to one another, and to the needs of our time. It is about discerning together how Christ is calling us, here and now, to live more faithfully as his people.
It is, in the deepest sense, about rediscovering the Way.
And that will ask something of all of us: in terms of openness, conversion, and trust.
If we believe Christ is truly the Way, then we have to be willing to walk where he leads—despite our hesitations and misgivings.
But there is consolation and reassurance: every time we gather here, we are reminded that we are not alone on the journey. We are gathered, we remember, we are fed with the bread of life, and then we are sent.
Sent back into our homes, our workplaces, our communities—not as spectators, but as witnesses.
The world does not need more commentary about the Way. It needs people who are walking it.
So, this evening, in this Eucharist, let us not simply hear those words again. Let us receive them. Let us entrust ourselves to them.
And let us ask for the grace—not just to know the Way—but to walk it, together, with courage and with hope.
Most Rev. Anthony J. Ireland
Archbishop of Hobart
3rd May 2026 (6pm).