Homilies – November 2024
HOMILY
ARCHBISHOP CHRISTOPHER PROWSE
CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF CANBERRA AND GOULBURN
SUNDAY 10TH NOVEMBER 2024
THIRTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B)
JUBILEE MASS
ST THOMAS AQUINAS CATHOLIC PARISH CHARNWOOD
Readings: Isaiah 63:7-9 Colossians 3:12-17 Gospel Matthew 11:25-30
We have gathered today to thank the Lord for the many blessings over the last 50 years of the existence of this wonderful parish of St Thomas Aquinas Charnwood.
I think our first response is to see ourselves reflected in today’s Readings.
The Readings, especially the First Reading, gives praise to God for His many blessings. Let that be our predominant sentiment today.
From the prophet Isaiah he says, “Let me sing the praises of the Lord’s goodness, and of his marvellous deeds…the great kindness…his mercy…his boundless goodness.”
As we gather far and wide today from people who are presently or were in the past members of this parish, let us also find many reasons to thank God for His marvellous deeds amongst us. In the Sacraments, celebrated here over this Golden Anniversary year, the Lord has shown us and in the pastoral care of His people, great kindness, mercy and goodness.
As the Lord has done in the past we also pray that in the future He, “lifts them up, carries them, through the days of old.”
We particularly thank the Lord for the many years of the founding Parish Priest of Charnwood, Fr Neville Drinkwater.
He died in recent years, and if he was alive today his 100th Birthday would be on the 11th November, that is tomorrow. Fr Neville certainly lived out the Second Reading of St Paul to the Colossians in his service of this parish for so many years he showed, like Jesus, “he loves us, clothes us in sincere compassion, in kindness and most of all in humility.”
His pastoral leadership here was a real living out of St Paul’s exaltation, “Let the message of Christ, in all its richness find a home with you.”
To look back simply on the last 50 years in gratitude and leave it at that is never worthy of Catholic evangelisation.
I often think of an image when it comes to anniversaries of parishes. It might seem strange but I find the rowing boats on Lake Burley Griffin give us a good symbol of what a day like today can really mean. Rowing in a team means rowing forward by looking backwards. When you look at a rowing team gliding beautifully through the still waters of the lake you see them all moving in a forward direction but they are all seated with a backward view. They do both at the same time. We do the same. We look back with great praise of God but at the same time we move forward with great hope for the years ahead.
I see this beautiful theological tension that St Thomas Aquinas would be proud to articulate in the lovely message written in today’s booklet for the Mass. It says, “As well as giving us pause to reflect on the past, this Jubilee year also focuses our attention on the future. At the beginning of 2024, the MSC (Missionaries of the Sacred Heart) took on the pastoral care of Charnwood. This has opened up new possibilities for the parish as it is now called to work with Kippax on pastoral initiatives and other joint activities. While Charnwood and Kippax remain separate parishes, they now operate together as the Parishes of West Belconnen.” This is a wonderful summary of where we are at the moment and where we are heading. It is like our compass point for the years ahead.
As always, our main aim is to become an evangelising community. The recent Assembly of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, using the synodal method of Pope Francis, gives us a wonderful way forward and a methodology to do so. Making Jesus known and loved is not an optional extra but it is the perennial focus of all parishes including this one on this Jubilee day. So, I encourage you to use the gifts of the recent Assembly and to start imitating what we did over that weekend into parish life here and make it part of the D.N.A. of the parish in the years ahead.
I would like to make one pastoral observation on this point. So many of our parishes describe themselves as welcoming communities. Whereas that is all well and good, it is not enough to be a welcoming community in a synodal Archdiocesan parish in the future. Welcoming is good but it can become a little static and passive. We just sit back patiently waiting for people to come and if they come we try to welcome them. Quite often, however, they don’t particularly feel welcome and don’t always come back a second time. For this reason it is not only necessary to be a welcoming community but also to be an invitational parish. An invitational parish is more dynamic and less passive. It actually goes out seeking people and draws them in by proposing to them linkages in the parish Sacramental and pastoral life. This is something to think about when the Archdiocese encourages you along these lines in the future.
Finally the synodal vocabulary that is becoming refreshed in the Church, all comes from the Vatican II Council. It originates from our Baptism and the responsibilities we have via our Baptism to bring people home to the Lord. Some people do this in a most extraordinary way. It is not that they are particularly gifted or talented, it is something more than that. The Church uses the word “Charism” in this regard. It is bringing people home to Jesus, not just as individuals but as a whole parish community.
What is the charism of St Thomas Aquinas parish Charnwood? I was thinking about that this morning and looking over our history here over the last 50 years. One expression came to my mind that you might want to consider as a possible charism for your parish. The expression is, “serving in humility.” Certainly Fr Neville Drinkwater served in humility and I welcome today Sr Colleen Howe who has retired but has served this community for many years in such a humble way. Maybe these leaders point to this “serving in humility” charism throughout the parish. This is something for all of you to consider.
So let us now continue with our Mass and ask the Lord to bless all those who have been part of this parish over the last 50 years and who have now died. This is the month of November when we recall with love those who have left us in faith. May they rest in peace!
We look forward to the future, like the rowing boat, knowing that in Jesus Christ we look to the past with great gratitude in the Tradition of the Church and at the same time we look forward to the new evangelising energies and charisms that have been raised up in this parish for the generations ahead.
Thank you for all that you have done in this parish. Only the Lord can reward you. Let us work together for many years ahead.
HOMILY
ARCHBISHOP CHRISTOPHER PROWSE
CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF CANBERRA AND GOULBURN
ST CHRISTOPHER’S CATHEDRAL
17th NOVEMBER 2024
THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B)
AND MASS ONLINE
Readings Daniel 12:1-3 Hebrews 10:11-14, 18 Mark 13:24-32
In these closing weeks of the Liturgical Year centred on the Gospel of St Mark, we move into the Biblical tone of apocalyptic literature.
This presents a very “end of the world” tone and dramatic back ground to the saving events of our faith.
This is a little bit like a dark velvet clothe and in front of it are placed beautiful gems. These gems seem to come up more brightly with a dark background. Likewise, a dark brand of apocalyptic literature is full of cosmic chaos and disaster. This is not to frighten us but simply to let us see the brilliance of Christ’s presence in our midst and His final judgement of us all.
In the centre of all this the saving gem that is emphasised is, Jesus. Everything else falls apart. This is our one hope. It is sometimes expressed: “The future belongs to God.” Because God is love, hope and mercy the future is bright and not bleak.
Therefore, life’s key question in this apocalyptic context which stresses “End Times,” is not “how can God fit into my life?” This is a dead end question and has its priorities wrong. The correct question for life as we move towards Christ’s Second Coming is: How can I fit into God’s life?
Here God does not become secondary but primary. Here we become secondary and not primary. It is like what is sometimes called the “Copernican Revolution.” Copernicus was a Polish astronomer. It is his discovery that the Earth revolves around the Sun and not the Sun around the Earth which was a pivotal discovery. A pivotal spiritual discovery in our lives is not that God revolves around us but we revolve around God. We should all make the “Copernican Revolution” starting in this Mass.
Two important conclusions arise due to this key question in life.
First of all we are to wait in hope and not despair, for the end of the world.
I was waiting at a dentist’s not so long ago. As I was waiting I looked through the glass windows of the waiting room down onto a busy road. There was a bus stop. Many people were waiting. I noticed they were all attending to their mobile phones. Every now and again they participated in what I call the “two step dance” of your life.
First of all they lifted up their head. Secondly they moved their body forward looking to see if the bus was coming. Although complete strangers, they all did the same thing…looking up and moving forward. I noticed this also at the Assembly day at St Clare’s. Around in the small circles, for people to listen to each other they had to look up at each other and lean forward so they could hear clearly what was being said. It strikes me that as we await for the Lord’s Second Coming we too always lift up our head and place our focus on Jesus. We lean forward towards Jesus in repentance and joyful hope.
Secondly, let Jesus’ light shine in us.
Today we have up to 11 university students with us from the Australian National University. Father Alex Osborne has been preparing them, over the last several months, to become Catholics. This is truly wonderful. In times when we feel young adults are not particularly interested in matters of a Religious nature, these young people show us this is not the full story.
I welcome them and look forward to offering them their First Holy Communion in this Mass.
In the Early Church, to become a Catholic was normally at the age of these young adults. It wasn’t just three or four months but three or four years in preparation. Maybe we should go back to that. In the 4th Century one of the great Saints of the time, St Cyril of Jerusalem (313-386), wrote much about the Religious instruction to be given to adults who were preparing for Baptism.
He explained that the Baptism for us is both a tomb and a mother. In other words, at Baptism something dies but something is born. It is a tomb in the sense that we die to self, egoism and placing ourselves at the centre of life. We ask god to put it to death. From this death something beautiful is born. The Baptism font becomes the mother of our new life in Christ. Our Baptism in the gateway subject which gives birth to the spark of eternal life within each one of us. The light of Christ, indestructible and everlasting is placed deep within us. We are to care for this light and make it shine in us forever. It is not a museum piece that we have been given, static and inert. It is alive, active and we call it the Holy Spirit.
Other commentators have often mentioned that in our biological life we live and then we die. They say that in the Christian life through Baptism this is reversed. We die to ourselves and then we are born to life. It is death and then life not the other way around.
Let us think of these profound thoughts regarding Baptism as we all move to our final home in Jesus Christ.
Our “Gospill” for today is as follows: The future belongs to Jesus. Therefore the future is full of hope.
HOMILY
ARCHBISHOP CHRISTOPHER PROWSE
CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF CANBERRA AND GOULBURN
ST CHRISTOPHER’S CATHEDRAL
24th NOVEMBER 2024
THIRTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B)
SOLEMNITY OF CHRIST THE UNIVERSAL KING
AND MASS ONLINE
Readings: Daniel 7:13-14 Revelation 1:5-8 John 18:33-37
The apocalyptic tone of the Scriptures continues on this last Sunday of the Liturgical Year. Recall from last week, the apocalyptic tone means the future is presented in a dark cataclysmic way but there is brilliant hope because the future belongs to God.
This is seen in the First Reading. In the prophecy of Daniel we hear him say, “I gazed into the visions of the night…” This is brought to greater focus in the Second Reading from the Book of Revelation were it is said, “It is he who is coming on the clouds…this is the truth. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
With this highly dramatic tone, it is therefore surprising to find that in the Gospel today the Church has chosen the passage in John’s Gospel, whereby we have the interview of the Lord’s trial before Pontius Pilate.
Here it is hardly the King coming on the clouds in all splendour. Indeed, He is presented in the trial as the wounded and bound suffering messiah. It is our King but it is not quite the King we thought would be coming. Is this a contradiction? Here in the trial of Jesus by Pilate the suffering King faces the powerful representative of the most ruthless military force of antiquity, the Roman Empire.
It appears in this scene that Pilate is conflicted. We know already that three times he has declared publically that he finds Jesus innocent. But, here he is about to send Him to be crucified. Of note, is that despite this unequal encounter, Jesus and Pontius Pilate do encounter each other eye to eye. Whenever in the Gospel Jesus encounters somebody eye to eye, the person is transformed in some way although not immediately. This has led over the years to all kinds of stories regarding Pontius Pilate later in his life. Some have even said that he converted to Christianity. We do know that there were concerns regarding his wife, her dreams and counselling of Pilate to think twice about the condemnation of Jesus. These are stories that are best placed aside at this stage. The point however is that when people are placed in eye to eye contact with Jesus, His love and mercy wins the day eventually!
Of course the fatal mistake that Pontius Pilate makes is asking the wrong question. Basically his deepest question to Jesus is, “How are you going to fit into my life?” Such a question is full of arrogance and self-conceit.
The real question is, “How do I fit into your Kingdom of truth and love?” This is based on humility and it is not the question Pilate is asking at this stage of his life.
Let us recall, that when we pray the Scriptures we are not listening to some historical statement of the past only. The Scriptures also have a lot to say about our life. Indeed, the Gospel today may help us to reflect on the fact that we also put Jesus on trial. We also bring to the Lord the wrong questions of life.
We observed this last week when we meditated about the wrong question of our lives, “How do you Jesus fit into my life?” The real question is, “How do I fit into your life oh Lord?”
These primal questions are not to be asked only of individuals but indeed of the whole Church and its agencies. We welcome today, in a very special way, leaders from our Education agency of the Archdiocese. In a particular way we welcome Mr Ross Fox who is soon to resign following eight years of wonderful leadership as our Director of Education. I will leave it to his colleagues to articulate his contributions more fully. However, at this moment he has contributed much to securing Government funding for our schools and introduced a high impact Educational strategy of teaching which is receiving National and now International recognition.
Thirdly, he has also done much to increase the enrolments of Aboriginal children in our schools. These now number up to 1,000 which is a record high.
We also welcome the Education Commission that has worked with Ross over these years and who are also retiring. We thank you so much for your great work.
We welcome today the incoming Education Board of the Archdiocese. With the incorporation of Catholic Education on the 1st of January 2025. We welcome them today as they prepare to take on this vital mission in the months ahead.
However, getting back to our meditation on the Scriptures today, it is also right that the Catholic Church, its parishes and agencies ensure they ask the right question in regard to Jesus the King of the Universe.
This means practically that we do not ask the questions, “How does King Jesus fit into our Church life and Catholic agencies, especially Education?”
The real question is, “How does the Church and its agencies, especially Education, fit into the Kingdom of God and the reign of Jesus the King?”
As we have learnt from our recent Assembly and the International Synod on Synodality, such questions can only be answered when we are led by the Holy Spirit and encounter the Holy Spirit afresh in our lives through conversion. It also means listening carefully to the Spirit working through our Baptismal identities to become Missionary Evangelists in our world today.
As we continue now with the Mass on the Solemnity of Christ the Universal King, let us make sure that we are placed in a situation where Christ is indeed nothing less than King of our hearts and we love and show mercy to the world as servants of the Gospel.
I leave you with the “Gospill” today coming from one of our popular hymns. The “Gospill” is, “Hail Redeemer, King divine…King of love on Calvary.”