A Brave Pope

The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, shocked me and the world last night as he announced his resignation, but as the dust has started to settle, it is time to consider the enormity of this humble act. The Holy Father is acutely aware of the weight of the tradition that a Pope should die in office, and that the last pope to resign did so in 1415. In resigning he is admitting not only his advancing years (he is 85), but his inability to keep up the frenetic pace of the Papal ministry. His brother Georg reported said that for health reasons he has been advised not to travel long distances by air, further weakening his ability to carry out the modern Petrine office.

Please pray for Pope Benedict, and for the Cardinals who will convene in Rome for the consistory to elect his successor.

There is a lot to pray for during this Lent!

 Fr Matt

POPE RENOUNCES PAPAL THRONE

Vatican City, 11 February 2013 (VIS) – The Holy Father, at the end of today's consistory for causes for canonization, announced his resignation from ministry as Bishop of Rome to the College of Cardinals. Following is the Holy Father's complete declaration, which he read in Latin:

"I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is."

"Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer."

http://www.vis.va/vissolr/index.php?vi=all&dl=26c5547c-7ea3-3625-2e10-51191b83d912&dl_t=text/xml&dl_a=y&ul=1&ev=1

Here I am Lord

For those who are part of the adventure of Catholic faith, there is a crucial word that must be understood.  Vocation, which comes from the Latin vocare, to call, is key. In Catholic circles it was common to use the word vocation to refer to the call given to priests and religious brothers and sisters. People have often said to me: it is great that you have a vocation. I have always felt uneasy about that use of the word, because I believe that anyone who has a fire and passion to help others shares a vocation. Pope Benedict makes it very clear when he says: 

Each of you has a personal vocation which He has given you for your own joy and sanctity. When a person is conquered by the fire of His gaze, no sacrifice seems too great to follow Him and give Him the best of ourselves. This is what the saints have always done, spreading the light of the Lord ... and transforming the world into a welcoming home for everyone.[i]

[Educators, if they are to excel, need to embrace their vocation, for teachers are called and nurtured, they are not merely employed. Many start the journey of educating others to find that they are not called. Some become frustrated because they can’t see what they are doing as a vocation, the responding to the call of God.]

In the scriptures we hear Isaiah accepting his call, realising his vocation. Isaiah had a vision of God calling him to follow him, and naturally was terrified. He was not qualified to be a messenger, to be a prophet. His faith was not strong enough nor could he speak in public. That all may have been partially true did not matter because God called him. This was not just a job or a career path: this was his life. His life became extraordinary because he chose to follow his passion: Alexander Solzenitsyn, reflecting during many years of imprisonment in communist Russia for speaking the uncomfortable truth declared:  “Only those who decline to scramble up the career ladder are interesting as human beings. Nothing is more boring than a man with a career.” [ii] That is not to say that we should not strive for greatness, for we should strive for excellence in every part of our lives. It more properly asks us whether we are following our passion, whether we are accepting the challenge that God lays down for us, whether we accept our calling, our vocation.

The other day, at the Professional Day at St Mary’s College on prayer, I noticed people who, at the start, were not at all confident in leading others in prayer or contributing to a shared prayer. That is understandable, and that reticence is part of the journey for us all. However, I did notice that people encouraged one another, drew each other out and shared skills so that the goal was achieved. Now that is an example of living a vocation.

None of us have all that we require to be the perfect Christian, the perfect parent, the perfect educator or administrator, but if we know that this is our path and have humility, we will be successful.  Even when the going seems so tough, God is the one who will keep us on track if we let him. St Augustine, writing around 400AD, said: a cripple limping in the right way is better than a racer out of it. [iii]

In the Gospel, Peter, who knew infinitely more about fishing than Jesus, was being told how to fish. Naturally we would expect Peter to respectfully ignore Jesus, but in humility he decided to accept the challenge and give the fishing another go, even though they were fishing at the wrong time on the wrong place. He stayed close to Jesus, listened to him and was rewarded more than he could have imagined with the great catch of fish.  

God calls each one of us to a unique path of life. May we listen and hear. May we be able to say, with Isaiah: Here I am, send me!

Homily, 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time year C, 10th Feb 2013, OLQP Broome.  

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[i] http://www.zenit.org/article-34570?l=english  Rome April 3 2012

[ii] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

[iii] Augustine of Hippo

Standing Up

A few years ago a Vatican department wrote to the Australian Bishops giving them a few tips. One of them was that the Australian sense of egalitarianism can work against the emergence of greatness. There was a bit of outrage about this, but it has to be said that the tall poppy syndrome is deeply rooted in Australian cultures, both indigenous and non-indigenous. We are expected to not excel too much lest we get too proud of full of ourselves. That in itself is a fair call, but the natural consequence is that we hang back with the crowd and underachieve.

In Jesus time the cultural constraints were similar. You followed in your father’s trade and did not make too much noise about it: you certainly never tried to be better than your father. The rage of the people of Nazareth, unacceptable to us, was justified in the cultural mores of the time. Jesus seemed not to ‘know his place’ and therefore threatened the stability of the society.

That is all true, but we know that Jesus had something more. He knew God.

Jeremiah comforts the people of Israel with a radical disclosure. God knows them, God cares for them, and God protects them. How easily the people of Israel forgot that time a time again. How easily we forget it as well. Jeremiah reminds the people of Israel that God wants them to brace for action, he wants them to stand up and take their place in society: Stand up and tell them all I command you. How can the people of Israel do that, how can we in our turn do that? Simple: God knows us, God protects us, God calls us.  Jeremiah tells us: They shall fight against you but not overcome you. True, life is not a walk in the park, it is an adventure, and as all adventures are, it has the full gamut of experiences from the sublime to the terrifying.

This is the life that Jesus grasped. This is the challenge he stood up and claimed in front of his kin in the synagogue in Nazareth. The secret is that it is our challenge as well, shared by Jesus with us, shared by Jeremiah with us in the knowledge that we do not do it alone, for we take up the challenge together, and it is divine.

Our faith urges us forward to take up our place. St Paul talks of growing up spiritually. He speaks of seeing his life and future more clearly. He speaks of the three pronged base of his growth: faith hope and love, the three gifts that come directly from God that spur us into action, that spur us forward to be more, to be greater, to rise up above the blanket of mediocrity that can stifle and suffocate good people.

There will be great challenges for you and me this year, this month and even this week. Use your faith to claim them, the rise up and make a difference to your life, our town and the world.

Homily OLQP Broome 2nd  Feb 2013, Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

He Dreamed a Dream

A few weeks ago I watched Les Miserables in Sun Pictures. There is that extraordinary scene where Fantine, the destitute and despairing mother played by Anne Hathaway, meets Jean Valjean. He sings “I Dreamed a Dream’, lamenting how she dreamed and trusted, but now the terrible end of death is in sight. Valjean enters and pledges to continue her dream that “love would never die, that God would be forgiving.”

Fantine dies peacefully, but the world is changed because of her dream.

We need to dream!

 In 2009 Susan Boyle, a middle aged, poor, rural, Catholic Scottish woman who embodied everything that was not a pop star, dreamed that that her voice could lift others. She sang Fantine’s song on Britain’s Got Talent. Her instant success lifted the spirits of millions who felt pushed down because they didn’t fit in to the perfect mould of the ‘beautiful’ people.

In our liturgy today there are two dreams. Two men, six hundred years apart, stand in a public place, unroll scrolls and dream out aloud.

Nehemiah tells the story of the Babylonian Captivity. In 586BC the Persians conquered Jerusalem and deported most of the population to modern day Iran. Eighty years later, with their spirit, culture and faith largely in tatters, they came home. Standing in front of them, Ezra dreamed of renewal, a rebirth of faith, culture and hope. He galvanised the battered nation and urged them forward. They responded.  After seventy more years of hard work this was symbolised in the dedicating of the new temple in Jerusalem in 516BC.

Centuries later, Luke began his Gospel recording how Jesus spoke to a nation in chains. Colonised by Rome and oppressed by a religious system that had lost its way, Israel was in captivity of spirit and body. When Jesus stood in the synagogue in Nazareth, his home town, he spoke to a dejected and cowering people. He was an educated man, and knew that he could lead a people by taking a risk and dreaming out aloud.

After all, the worst they could do was kill him.

Jesus dreamed and two thousand years later we are being invited to share the dream. The difference between his dream and Ezra’s is that Jesus has a dream that is timeless. For the reign of God to be alive in our midst, it needs to be lived in each and every generation. The text Jesus read started to be fulfilled in the first century AD, and is being fulfilled today, even as we speak.

Dreamers are not considered highly in our culture, and the word itself is often used as a put down, but Jesus was not talking of idle dreamers who would see no action and no commitment. Christian dreamers are filled with passion, energy and hope. They know that they can’t do everything themselves, but can be part of a greater reality. St Paul reminds us that we are all part of the one reality, even though we do different things with our different abilities. “Now you together are Christ’s body; but each of you is a different part of it.”

You and I need to dream. We dream seeking for a brighter future, a more perfect reality, a world more like the kingdom of God. We look around us and have the choice to bury our heads or to stand up and listen to the dream out loud, to accept the hope that is offered to us and put it into practice in our lives and parish today. We can’t do it alone, but working together we can achieve wonderful things. 

The dream is alive and active in Broome today, even as we speak: you are invited to live the dream in Christ.

Homily, 3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C, OLQP Broome,  27^th January 2013.

Santo Nino in a New Land

I am told that in some parts of the Philippines, the Christmas season is not considered over until this feast has been celebrated, and over the last week many of you have spent quite a lot of time preparing for the celebration today. In a real sense, the Feast of Santo Nino began here in Broome a week ago and culminates today.

During the time of preparation I saw people who have a wide range of gifts and talents come together to organise this event.  There were those who could plan, organise, sing, play music, create, construct, clean, dance, serve, and read. All who were involved are part of the Church, who share in the one spirit, just as St paul tells us in the letter to the Corinthians. As part of the one reality, the one family of the church, we come with what we have to offer to make this community, this parish, and this town a place where God’s Spirit shines. In doing this, the faith and life that is inside us is able to emerge.

So what has Santo Nino got to do with this?

In this beautifully constructed shrine, we see the tiny statue of the Christ Child, the Holy Infant, Santo Nino. When we look at him, he doesn’t really look like an infant because of his dress and crown, but even more so because of his face. His face is not that of an infant, it is of a much more mature and wise boy. This is where we will start to discover the gift of the Christ Child.

The Christ Child comes to us with the energy, faith and trust of youth. He has not learned to be afraid or embarrassed in the way that we do as we grow. He is who he is: young, vibrant and he will set out to conquer the world! He is the one who calls us here today. He is the one for whom we have prepared this beautiful celebration, and he asks us to join him.

In many places in the Philippines, and here after Mass, women will dance holding the image of Santo Nino, celebrating and rejoicing. This is tradition of many years in that country that has now been brought to us in Broome. You are called to live your faith. In some who come to Australia I see that strong faith made weak by a materialism and easy life that is enjoyed by many in this country. Santo Nino calls you as he calls all of us to hold him high and be happy, be joyful and be proud of our faith.

To prosper in our faith we need to support one another, to be there for each other and to encourage one another in faith, not to hold each other back. Today’s gospel shows us how Mary encouraged Jesus as a young man to begin his ministry and lead people to God. He did this when people were together, happy and enjoying themselves. The other day I was told that this feast is largely a cultural one for many people, not a religious feast. The person who said that did not realise that our religion is incarnational. Jesus became one like us so that we could be raised is be like God. Christ is with us when we are celebrating, dancing, building one another up, defending the weak, caring for the poor. During this Mass we bring all those feelings, thoughts and actions together and put them in front of the image of Santo Nino and remember that God is here with us. Soon we will bring bread and wine to celebrate and remember that the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross continues to hold and nurture us in this country at the start of this New Year.

Filipino people were the first Catholics in Broome, the first parishioners. The challenges faced by Fr Nicholas and his band of Manillamen as they were called were great, but they did not give up and the faith of the church in Broome is the result. Now the numbers of Filipinos is growing again and you have brought us this gift of the Feast of Santo Nino. May we all be encouraged by your faith and vitality. May you proudly hold your statues of Santo Nino high and proclaim the wonders of God among all the peoples . 

Homily Feast of Santo Nino, 20th January 2013, 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C, 

Our Holy Families

The Christmas crib tells us of a wonderful story that is almost too good to be true. In fact, many believe that it is not true, that it is just a fairy story. This clear, clean story is wonderful for our young children, but as we grow older it loses its punch. However fondly we experience or look back on our childhood, we cannot identify closely to this family. For us it is one that just exists in books and art. The Holy Family, for all intents and purposes, comes from another planet.  

As we mature we need to leave behind the glossy story and look at what is in the scriptures and tradition; for it is there that we will find the Holy Family, living and true.

The Jewish tradition was similar to that of our Aboriginal cultures in Australia. Women were promised to older men who took them as wives when they were mature enough to assume the duties of married life. Acceptable as it was then, this is not the ideal of any young woman today. Mary was pregnant before Joseph had taken her to his home, and with paternity unclear (at least publicly), there was huge trouble brewing. Socially, Joseph made it worse by accepting this woman into his house, probably bringing more shame on an already suffering extended family. Banished to a cave on the edge of town, they camped out with shepherds and then went on the run from Herod. Finally, in the Gospel passage today, Mary and Joseph lose their son, not in the supermarket for five minutes, but for three days!  This is the real story of the real people who are in our crib. It is by contemplating this reality that we can connect it with our own.

This Family is Holy because together they strive to do God’s will. Holiness is the spiritual quality derived from participation in the life of God. It is empowering, it lifts us up and we come to the realisation that we can become so much when we live in God. In this encounter we realise our own lack of completeness (or to put it another way, our own unworthiness), but rather than being beaten down by this realisation, we are lifted up by the same Christ we see in the stable.

Put under a microscope, it could be aside that the Holy Family was unique, at best unusual, and this is our invitation into their life, their holiness.

In our families we live with many contradictions.  The family is the basic unit of society, and any society that has denied this has fallen into chaos. The family, consisting of a mother, father and children, is the best forum we can use to engender generosity, love and stability; it gives the best chance of providing security, culture and identity.  We need strong families: anything else is second best, or in modern parlance, not ‘best practice’. This may be the case, but last week I heard commentators on the radio giving advice on how not to end up in family fights on Christmas Day.  The family is the best safety we can offer for our infants and youth, yet we acknowledge that the majority of physical and sexual abuse happens in the family home. In our families we can experience the best and worst that human nature can exercise.

So what can you and I with our varied and unique experience of family life, take from this feast celebrating the domestic life of Jesus Mary and Joseph? The Holy Family began a journey when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary. It was never a smooth journey, and there were many tears, disappointments and heartaches. Mary and Joseph made it through because of their unswerving trust and faith in God’s promise, their huge capacity to accept each other, to forgive others, and hope in what lay ahead. This Holy Family is our family, their experiences our experiences, their faith our faith and their God our God.  

As we embrace the aura that surrounds the crib, resolve to make our families places of trust and faith, of forgiveness and acceptance, of hope in the future and like the unique family of Nazareth, places of encounter with God.

Homily on the Feast of the Holy Family, 30th December 2012, OLQP Broome.

Blessed are they who Believe

Yesterday I saw in the news that Richard Dawkins, one of the world’s leading academic proponents of atheism had said in an interview broadcast worldwide on Aljazeerah TV that: being raised Catholic is worse than child abuse, and further that the mental torment inflicted by the religion’s teachings is worse in the long-term than any sexual abuse[i]

Just in case you think that Dawkins is isolated and that his thoughts are not those of others, on Friday I was told that my name came up in conversation at a workplace function in Broome. The general consensus, as reported to me, was that Fr Matt was a good bloke, but that Catholic stuff is all a bit weird. The Catholics at that workplace agreed that the priest was not a bad bloke, but did nothing to answer the charge that all that Catholic stuff was a bit weird. Instead they all went a bit quiet, accepted the accusations, and missed the opportunity to stand up for their faith.

Today, if you and I are under any misapprehension that out beliefs are held by a majority of people and are not under attack, even by fellow Catholics, we are clearly wrong. In many ways we are back to where we began.

The nativity scene we have in front of us is very familiar, but before the euphoria of Christmas night, let us take a moment to consider the main players. We have the location, an shed or cave in a backwater town of a remote and troublesome Roman province. Shepherds are there, the lowest on the social rung: they slept outside with their animals. If they were in Broome they would be in the open on Kennedy Hill or the other side of Demco. Then we have two people who are truly extraordinary, who rise above the madding crowd and they are just as relevant today as they were two thousand years ago.

God has promised never to abandon his people. Mary believed that promise and was able to recognise God’s messenger in the Angel Gabriel. This enabled her to reach out to Elizabeth and in turn be affirmed in her faith. Joseph was likewise guided by God. He accepted Mary his young and pregnant fiancée, knowing the public ridicule and disapproval it would precipitate. Our two main players bucked the cynicism of the day because they believed that God was active in the world.

At Christmas we are given the chance to affirm our faith, a faith that if lived to the full is not socially acceptable to many in our world who prefer the soft and secular option.

Elizabeth may you say of us the same that you said of Mary: Blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.

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[i] http://news.peacefmonline.com/religion/201212/151192.php