Homily – July 2017
ARCHBISHOP CHRISTOPHER PROWSE
CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF CANBERRA AND GOULBURN
SUNDAY 29 JULY 2017
SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)
ST JOHN THE APOSTLE PARISH KIPPAX
First Kings 3:5, 7-12, Romans 8:28-30, Matthew 13:44-52
What an extraordinary grace filled question God asks Solomon!
Solomon, the son of the great King David, is being asked by God “ask what you would like me to give you.”
If God asked you that question what answer would you give? I suppose most Australians might be inclined to ask for something of a financial dimension. Maybe paying off their house mortgage or buying a new car or looking after the kids in a better way with holiday’s, etcetera.
But Solomon moves completely away from a material financial response.
He is aware of the enormous responsibility he has now to lead God’s people. He meditates out loud to God and describes himself as a servant of “a people so many its numbers cannot be counted or reckoned”.
He then asks for an extraordinary gift to help him in his servant leadership…”give your servant a heart to understand how to discern between good and evil, for who could govern this people of yours that is so great?”
This truly pleased God. Indeed, it’s almost as if God was testing him to see what type of leader he would be.
Solomon’s request for discernment pleased the Lord so much that he said that this “since you have asked for this, and not asked for long life for yourself or riches or the lives of your enemies, but have asked for a discerning judgment for yourself…I give you a heart wise and shrewd as none before you has had and none will have after you.”
We’ve all heard the expression “the wisdom of Solomon”. Here is the biblical basis for that expression.
The gift of wisdom is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It’s the gift that we’ve been given in full measure in our Confirmation. It truly helps us to discern what is right and wrong and prudently responds to the will of God in the everyday circumstances of our lives. Maybe we to should be as wise as Solomon and ask for the same gift in this Mass.
We return to the parable section of Matthew’s Gospel.
Here wisdom is at play in the different parables in which the Lord talks about the unfolding of the Kingdom of God.
The interesting thing is that some people discover something great, and others look for something great. And there can be others that discern something great in their lives. But whatever it is, if it is to help serve the Kingdom of God then it is pleasing to God.
The main point here is that it’s not something that I do for God. It’s something that God does in me and invites me through my own free will to participate in servant leadership with Jesus Christ the great servant King!
So when somebody finds a treasure hidden in a field “he sells everything he owns and buys the field.” “Again, the Kingdom of God is like a merchant looking for fine pearls…he finds one of great value… he goes…sells everything…and buys it.”
There is a sense of enjoyment and total commitment to the task in seeking something beyond ourselves. The Kingdom of God theme is the major preaching theme of Jesus in the Gospels. It is the reign of God slowly but surely enveloping the entire cosmos in the embrace of God’s merciful love.
Let us hope that not only in the days ahead but in our entire life ahead that we will be able to “leave everything and follow Jesus”. In other words, that the reign of God and it’s unfolding in our lives and in our world becomes such a top priority in all that we do and say.
So, let us as we continue the Mass now, ask for the gift of wisdom to become more and more like Jesus in service of the Kingdom of God.
ARCHBISHOP CHRISTOPHER PROWSE
CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF CANBERRA AND GOULBURN
SUNDAY 16 JULY 2017
FIFTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)
ST CHRISTOPHER’S CATHEDRAL, FORREST
Isiah 55:10-11, Romans 8:18-23, Matthew 13:1-23
The Gospel of today of the Sower and the Seed is one of the Lord’s most well know and beautiful parables.
For me, it has always been an example of the extravagance of God the sower. God throws seeds in any place hoping that it will produce fruit. It could be seen as somewhat strange that the sower would throw seed indiscriminately over the ground regardless of whether it was fertile or rocky. There is always a hope in God who throws the seed of His grace and love towards us all that no matter what the soil would be like that it would, in the fullness of time, move to produce a fertile harvest.
So God extravagantly invites all of us to the banquet of life and not just those interested or receptive to the good news.
When we look at our own Sacred Tradition, we see that one seed of grace placed in the heart of humankind bore extraordinary fruit. I am thinking of Mary the Mother of God. When God planted the seed of His grace within her, the Saviour came forth from her “yes” to God’s invitation to be the Mother of God. Our ancient commentators have said that she conceived first in her heart before she conceived in her body. But in her “the word was made flesh” and we are the beneficiaries of the fertility of her “yes” to the invitation of the Archangel Gabriel.
I am also thinking too of the seed that was thrown on rocky ground in one of the scripture passages. My mind drifts to the repentant thief on the first Good Friday at Calvary. We recall how Jesus was crucified in between two hardened criminals. One of them became what we now call the repentant thief. On the Cross just before he died he turned to Jesus and said in his agony, “Jesus remember me in Your Kingdom”. Jesus’ response from the throne of the Calvary Cross back to him was the following, “Today I assure you, you will be with me in paradise”.
So here we have almost like the first canonisation of a Christian Saint! Although he had clearly led a very hardened life, and the receptivity to God was likely to have been very rocky and inhospitable, he repented at the last moments of his life and became fertile soil for the grace of God’s forgiveness and conversion.
So let us always remember that there is always hope with the Lord. No one is hopeless in the eyes of Jesus.
Even when we read in recent times some rather depressing statistics about belief in Australia from our more recent census we have to realise that even in the rocky ground of Australia’s religious belief today that the seed of God’s love is thrown in an extravagant manner upon us all. Grace always works with our free will and as the Lord offers us His love bountifully we believe that the Holy Spirit is moving in our midst in the most extraordinary and unexpected ways. The “yes” of Mary and the late conversion of the repentant thief continue on in our own days as well!
I would like to offer you a rather well known saying that seems to have a lot of spiritual depth to it when we think of God’s love and hope and patience with us.
The expression is, “Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God knows how many apples are in an apple seed”.
Finally, I would like to make a brief mention about the patience of God as one of the lessons from the parable of the Sower and the Seed.
Our local farmers are very patient as they now wait for the rains to come in this very cold winter that seems to have very little rain attached to it.
They seem to be confident but realistic that the rains must come. One said to me “Bishop, I can’t do much with dry dirt. But I can do a lot with mud!”
But the farmer waits for the rains to come, and in so doing imitates the Lord who waits for our coming to full knowledge of His presence in our life as saviour and redeemer.
At the moment I am entertaining for a few days as guest of the Archdiocese a Catholic Bishop from South Korea.
From his Diocese came forth one of the great South Korean Saints, St Andrew Kim.
St Andrew Kim was a fourth generation martyr! His father, his grandfather and his great grandfather and some of their families were all martyrs.
There was such inhospitality and aggression towards the initial proclamation of the word of God in South Korea. Over many decades thousands and thousands of Christian Missionaries were persecuted and put to death in the most abominable manner. They all exhibited extraordinary patience over a long time.
Yet, as a second century Church Father, Tertullian, has stated, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church”. From the bloodbath of decades of martyrdom in South Korea has come a very vibrant Catholic community. Vocations are plentiful and the numbers of Catholics in South Korea are rising at an extraordinarily high rate.
Let us learn too about the patience of God in our present day in Australia. Let us never lose patience that God’s work amongst us is bearing some fruit even if in a certain moment in time we don’t see much evidence of it.
As God has been patient with us, let us be patient not only with others but with ourselves.
Archbishop Christopher Prowse
Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn
ARCHBISHOP CHRISTOPHER PROWSE
CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF CANBERRA AND GOULBURN
SUNDAY 9 JULY 2017
FOURTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)
ST CHRISTOPHER’S CATHEDRAL, FORREST
Zechariah 9:9-10, Romans 8:9, 11-13, Matthew 11:25-30
Some of the most comforting words in the whole of the Gospels are in today’s Gospel. Jesus offers words of great consolation to the overburdened by saying, “Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
The two words that are pivotal in this beautiful and consoling passage are the words “yoke” and the word “burden”.
The word “yoke” needs a little bit of explanation. It is not really a word that we use much in today’s urbanised culture. But in the time of Jesus the yoke was fundamentally important. It was generally made of word and was placed comfortably between the shoulders of one or two or even more oxen or donkeys as a means of ploughing the fields.
There is a lovely legend that suggests that Jesus, the son of a carpenter, was an expert at making wooden yokes in his time and place.
To be an expert in this particular work means that the yoke would have to be, as it were, “tailor made” for the beast of burden and so that there would be no irritation to the oxen’s shoulders.
It does sound a rather quaint legend. It does give some sense to the meaning of the expression,“rest for your souls” because “my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
The second main word is “burden’” The burden is described by Jesus as “light”.
We are reminded by St Paul in the second reading that there are two types of lives to be led, either the unspiritual life or the spiritual life.
Even if the burdens of life are heavy, once we live in the spiritual world of Jesus, “who has made His home in you”, then no matter how heavy the burden, it is still light. There is the sense that Jesus carries our burdens and we are called to carry the burdens of others in imitation of the Master.
People often describe Jesus as the “great burden-bearer”. It is a beautiful expression and we must be the burden bearers of others in the name of Jesus. For this reason sometimes people should call us “Christophers”. Christopher is the Saint who carried “the burden” of Jesus and we are to carry the burden of Jesus who we may see in the distressing guise of the marginalised and the poor.
But always our motivation is to be Christ to others.
Recently I was in a parish sacristy before Mass. Prior to Mass a lovely lady visited the sacristy and informed me that I would be consecrating some of the Hosts which she would then after Mass take to the nearby nursing home. I thanked her for this gesture of “a burden-bearer”. She looked at me and just simply said, “Well somebody has got to do it!”
As she left the sacristy I wondered about her response! I hope it was just simply an Australian way of deflecting congratulations and humbly taking on necessary responsibilities in the Church. I hope that was the case. It did leave me with a doubt that she was doing it because, in fact, she felt guilty if she didn’t do it and there was nobody else to take her place! Let’s all monitor our intentions when we do the work of the Lord. We are doing it as Baptised Christians. It is our pleasure and our joy to do this. We are to be Christophers to others! We never do it in a sense of feeling guilty if we don’t or feeling that there is nobody to take my place!
I have learnt lots about different “Christophers” over the years, especially from our Aboriginal brothers and sisters.
I remember once getting to know a parish in the Diocese of Sale. There was a wonderful Aboriginal woman present there. She already had a big family of her own, I think she had eight children! But people commented to me that in fact she was the “mother” of well over 15 children! By that they meant that she was the foster mother of many Aboriginal children who for one reason or other were deprived of a family upbringing of mum and dad. She was a great motherly figure and often said to me that it is just as easy to cook for fifteen as it is for eight! But she never drew attention to herself. It was others who told me about her great skill as a foster mother. She was always uncomplaining and yet in her humble background as a child she had much to complain about!
So as we continue with the Mass now let us be “Christophers” and carry the burdens of others knowing that when we do that in the name of Jesus we will always find rest for our souls and also rest for the souls of others.
Archbishop Christopher Prowse
Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn
ARCHBISHOP CHRISTOPHER PROWSE
CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF CANBERRA AND GOULBURN
SUNDAY 2 JULY 2017
THIRTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)
St Benedict’s Parish, Narrabundah
Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Mass
Readings: 2 Kings 4:8-11; 14-16 | Romans 6:3-4; 8-11 | Matthew 10:37-42
The readings today encourage a culture of hospitality and welcome to arise from our love of God. In loving God we love each other. In God’s love for us and in His hospitality and welcome for us, there is a moral demand to show likewise hospitality and welcome to others, especially the battlers.
From this culture of hospitality and welcome come the blessings of the Lord.
We see this beautifully exemplified in the first reading today from 2 Kings. This lovely reading is based on an experience that an elderly married couple have with passers-by.
The elderly couple notice that a man, who the wife perceives as a holy man, often passes by their home with his assistant. Over a period of time she mentions to her husband the following, “Look I am sure the man who is constantly passing our way must be a holy man of God. Let us build him a small room on the roof and put a bed in it for him and a table and a chair and a lamp; whenever he comes to us he can rest there”.
So the couple do exactly that. And the holy man and his assistant begin to lodge there when they pass by.
We then come to know who this holy man is. His servant is identified. His name is Gehazi. We now know it is not simply any holy man, it is the great prophet of God from the Old Testament, Elisha.
He asks Gehazi in spirited gratitude to the couples’ hospitality, “What can be done for her?” Gehazi answers, “Well she has no son and her husband is old”.
This is a very telling observation. For a woman to have an elderly man who presumably predeceases her and who has no son, her future life looks very grim. Remember we are talking about times in antiquity where there is no government infrastructure, or pensions or nursing care facilities. All of it is dependant on the extended family. If you have no extended family, and you are a woman, you will immediately find yourself as one of the poorest of the poor in society.
Upon calling her, Elisha says, “You will hold a son in your arms this time next year”.
Here is the miracle promised but not yet fulfilled. An heir will come. This woman will have a future. God will give her blessings full of grace because of her hospitality and welcome to the stranger.
There is the link everybody. In imitating God, the God of hospitality and welcome, the blessings of God will flow down upon us all.
In the Gospel today from Matthew, Jesus refers quite directly to this beautiful Old Testament passage. He too talks about welcome and hospitality and the blessings that God will give as a result. Jesus says, “Anyone who welcomes a holy man because he is a holy man will have a holy man’s reward”. He then goes on to say, “If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, then I tell you solemnly he will most certainly not lose his reward”.
The second reading reminds us of the greatest welcome and hospitality that God has ever given us. The hospitality of God is expressed in the most fullest way by sending His Son Jesus Christ into our midst. By the death and resurrection of Christ we too are taken up into God’s hospitality and welcome through, with and in Jesus our Saviour. St Paul reminds us of this in a summary phrase when he says, “As Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life”.
So we have an important lesson in all the readings today about hospitality and welcome. By nurturing this culture the blessings of God will flow down upon us.
So it is strengthened by the scriptures today and the hospitality and welcome of God we gather for this Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mass.
I particularly thank Ms Sally Fitzgerald and all those who have gathered here. There are quite a lot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at this Mass and I greet you and I thank you for your humble welcome to us at the start of Mass to your country.
We must never forget that it is not so much that we are welcoming Aboriginal people to this Mass, but Aboriginal people are welcoming us. They are welcoming us to their ancient homeland. They have been here for over 60,000 years. They have come to know and love our land and have so much more to teach us. Migrant Australia has been here just over 200 years and we are still learning to come to terms with our history here in this beautiful land of Australia.
Please do feel, dear Aboriginal friends, my love and support and solidarity with you in all your tremendous challenges in life.
It is to Australia’s shame that we still have some incredibly distressing statistics on most social and economic barometers regarding Aboriginal disempowerment.
Our prisons are still overrepresented by Aboriginal people, and health and welfare issues are chronic in our indigenous communities. There has been some progress made in more recent decades, especially in education, but we still have a long way to go.
So in this Aboriginal Mass we pray that Australia will continue to be the Australia God wants it to be by making sure the Aboriginal voice is heard and accepted. This last sentiment is the sentiment of St John Paul II when he visited Alice Springs over thirty years ago.
Last year I had the honour of attending a national gathering of Aboriginal leaders and Catholic leaders in Alice Springs to commemorate this thirtieth anniversary of the Pope’s visit. There was a wonderful occasion when we truly listened to each other with what we call “receptive listening”. We heard from Aboriginal leaders what some key terms meant to them (for example ‘initiation’ and ‘symbols’). And then we heard what these words mean to our Catholic theological tradition. We then tried to see where there was an overlap of understanding on these basic topics.
But it was a good time of truly trying to listen to each other and appreciate each other.
In doing so, we were offering hospitality and welcome to each other. From these gatherings we pray that the blessings of God will help us to come together as truly one country both indigenous and migrant under the Southern Cross of Jesus our Lord and Saviour.
Archbishop Christopher Prowse
Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn
ARCHBISHOP CHRISTOPHER PROWSE
CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF CANBERRA AND GOULBURN
SUNDAY 2 JULY 2017
THIRTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A)
ST CHRISTOPHER’S CATHEDRAL, FORREST
MIGRANT MASS
Readings: 2 Kings 4:8-11; | 14-16 Romans 6:3-4; 8-11 | Matthew 10:37-42
The readings today encourage a culture of hospitality and welcome to arise from our love of God. In loving God we are to love each other. In God’s love for us and in His hospitality and welcome for us, there is a moral demand to show likewise hospitality and welcome to others, especially the battlers.
From this culture of hospitality and welcome come the blessings of the Lord.
We see this beautifully exemplified in the first reading today from 2 Kings. This lovely reading is based on an experience that an elderly married couple have with passers-by.
The elderly couple notice that a man, who the wife perceives as a holy man, often passes by their home with his assistant. Over a period of time she mentions to her husband the following, “Look I am sure the man who is constantly passing our way must be a holy man of God. Let us build him a small room on the roof and put a bed in it for him and a table and a chair and a lamp; whenever he comes to us he can rest there”.
So the couple do exactly that. And the holy man and his assistant begin to lodge there when they pass by
We then come to know who this holy man is. His servant is identified. His name is Gehazi. We now know it is not simply any holy man, it is the great prophet of God from the Old Testament, Elisha.
He asks Gehazi in a spirit of gratitude to the couples’ hospitality, “What can be done for her?” Gehazi answers, “Well she has no son and her husband is old”.
This is a very telling observation. For a woman to have an elderly husband who presumably predeceases her and who has no son, her future life looks very grim. Remember we are talking about times in antiquity where there is no government infrastructure, or pensions or nursing care facilities. All of it is dependant on the extended family. If you have no extended family, and you are a woman, you will immediately find yourself as one of the poorest of the poor in society.
Upon calling her, Elisha says, “You will hold a son in your arms this time next year”.
Here is the miracle promised but not yet fulfilled. An heir will come. This woman will have a future. God will give her blessings full of grace because of her hospitality and welcome to the stranger.
There is the link. In imitating God, the God of hospitality and welcome, the blessings of God will flow down upon us all.
In the Gospel today from Matthew, Jesus refers quite directly to this beautiful Old Testament passage. He too talks about welcome and hospitality and the blessings that God will give as a result. Jesus says, “Anyone who welcomes a holy man because he is a holy man will have a holy man’s reward”. He then goes on to say, “If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, then I tell you solemnly he will most certainly not lose his reward”.
The second reading reminds us of the greatest welcome and hospitality that God has ever given us. The hospitality of God is expressed in the most fullest way by sending His Son Jesus Christ into our midst. By the death and resurrection of Christ we too are taken up into God’s hospitality and welcome through, with and in Jesus our Saviour. St Paul reminds us of this in a summary phrase in the second reading when he says, “As Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life”.
So we have an important lesson in all the readings today about hospitality and welcome. By nurturing this culture the blessings of God will flow down upon us.
This is an important message for us as we gather for this Migrant Mass.
I thank Father Peter My and all the others who have gone to a lot of trouble to gather the many groupings of migrant peoples and communities from this Archdiocese here to this Mass. You are all very welcome. I particularly acknowledge the welcome that has been given to us by our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. But they are never to be considered as migrants. The oldest living culture in the world are our First Australians and they have lived in Australia for over 60,000 years. They can hardly be described as migrants. All the rest of us are migrants.
I thank the Lord for all of you new Australians who have come here bringing your faith to this new but ancient land. I know that there are many struggles that you have. There are times of loneliness and great financial difficulties, especially in the first years of your time here. But you are now most certainly the strength of Australia and our common future. We hope that government legislature will really appreciate this and assist you particularly and be more generous on legislation, particularly matters pertaining to citizenship and family reunions.
Let us continue our Mass now thanking the Lord for offering us His hospitality in Jesus Christ and gathering under Mary and all the Saints, especially the Saints of your mother countries as we gather around the Eucharistic Lord and are fed in Word and Sacrament from the God who is showering down His loving hospitality and kindness all the days of our lives.
Archbishop Christopher Prowse
Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn