Living with Integrity

At the ordination of a deacon, the newly-ordained deacon comes before the bishop who presents him the Book of the Gospels and tells him: "Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you now are.  Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach." It is very clear and very precise, and by extension not restricted to priests or deacons, but a call to all the baptised. The order is important as well. We must believe first, then we can teach by our lives, and finally witness by putting into practice what is taught.

In effect, it is a call to lead a life of integrity, so that what we hold in our hearts is lived in our lives. Surely that is the aim of us all as we strive to lead a Christian life. In our Gospel we are presented with the two sons who acted to a challenge in different ways. The first son, for whatever reason, rebelled against the authority of his father, which was a huge issue in that society. We can only assume that he was being honest with himself, and then was given the grace of reflection, a result of which he followed the direction of his father. His integrity remained intact.

The second son just said yes, he would follow his father’s direction, and for whatever reason he did otherwise. Maybe he just wanted to keep his father happy by saying yes, or maybe he really intended to go, or there are a host of other possibilities. What is clear is that he said one thing and did another. We must assume that there was some intention of following the direction of his father, but did not follow through.  Each day we are given opportunities to choose, to remain faithful, to reflect on our decisions and amend them if it is needed. The admonition of the bishop to the newly ordained deacon can form a pattern for all of our lives. It is not something that we do once, but an action that is revisited in our daily lives, part of the ongoing process of conversion.

Many years ago I prepared a couple for the baptism of their child. As we were going through the Apostles Creed, the father stopped me and asked me to omit a line. He did not believe that one, he said, so he wanted me to leave it out. I explained that it was not a supermarket, and that I had to ask it, as this is our faith. He told me he would not assent to that at the baptism. The day of the baptism came and asked, with some trepidation, for the beliefs of the parents.  The father answered positively and the baptism proceeded. Later he told me that my challenge had made him really think, and that he had come around to an understanding of the creed. What shone through to me was his the integrity of his approach, not just keeping me, his wife and extended family happy, but truly confronting the issues of faith in his life.  He emerged, like the first son, with a stronger faith.

Today is Social Justice Sunday. Each year the Bishops of Australia put in front of us an issue of our society for our reflection and action. This year they have asked us to reflect on the situation of prisoners in the jails of our country. The challenge for our society is to discover a suitable and dignified method of rehabilitation that respects the rights of each of us in society to a safe social situation.  It asks us for our attitudes to those in prison. There are alternatives to incarceration, and the statistics do not show the success of locking up large numbers of people for minor crimes. This is an opportunity for many of us to form an informed opinion on a major issue for our society.

Reflection which leads to action means that we are able to live by the will of our God. In doing so we will lead a life of integrity.

Homily, Social Justice Sunday, 26th Sunday in Ordinary time Year A, 24th September 2011

Strength in the Storm

A few weeks ago I stood in the middle of a violent storm at an airfield in Madrid with two million others, one of them being the Holy Father. It was wild, but in the midst of the wildness of the weather there was a calmness among the people. Pope Benedict stood there, not leaving (even though he was advised to do so) like a rock, the rock of Peter. Afterwards, the press reported that the normal crowd reaction in such cases is mass panic. When you have panic in a crowd of two million, there are inevitably deaths. There was no panic, so injury, no death, because there was something else there with us at Cuarto Vientos. That same spirit is with us tonight. 

The calmness we were able to hold in the storm taught us a lesson. Pope Benedict told us before he left: “Your strength is greater than the storm. With the rain the Lord has sent us many blessings. In this you are an example. As happened tonight, you can always with Christ endure the trials of life. Do not forget this.” We had done the impossible,and emerged soaked and happy! We learned the lesson.

Peter had to learn the lesson as well. He was being very generous, going beyond the confines of the Mosaic Law in offering to forgive his brother seven times. In reality he did not have to forgive him even once. This was big. However, Jesus blows him out of the water and demands that he do the impossible. What Jesus suggests is madness, but Jesus does it with a straight face….  he is serious. Of course it is madness, and of course it is impossible, but with the Holy Spirit it is possible… forgiveness is possible, reconciliation is 

possible.

Today is the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York. My first memory of this tragedy is the horror of the planes flying into the towers, The second memory is the immediate outrage called  for righteous revenge in the style of the Mosaic Law, ‘an eye for an eye’. I am not so sure that Jesus would have been in the grandstand cheering for retribution. In fact I am sure he would not have been. Justice is to be sought and strived for in our lives, and the key plank to that effort is forgiveness. Benedict told us a few weeks ago: Dear young people do not be satisfied with anything less than truth and love. Do not be content with anything less than Christ.

This cannot be done without the active participation of the Holy Spirit, and it cannot be done by ourselves.  Without the Spirit it is simply impossible and without purpose.  Without each other, without the community of faith it is both humanly and divinely impossible. The Holy Father said during his homily at the Closing Mass: We can’t follow Jesus on our own. Anyone who would be temopted to do so would risk never encountering Jesus, or following a counterfeit Jesus. This of course means, he concluded Having faith means drawing support from the faith of your brothers and sisters.

Forgiveness and reconciliation without the Holy Spirit and each other is impossible. With each other, and strong in the Spirit, we can achieve heights of which others can only dream! That is the message of Christ, that is the message of the Holy Father, that is the message of two million young people in Madrid, and that is the message that our world needs to hear.

Homily 11th  September 2011, 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time. St Vincent Pallotti, Kununurra.

Not Your Usual Sunday Mass

Two weeks ago I concelebrated Sunday Mass with the Holy Father, eight hundred bishops and eight thousand priests. It was not your usual Sunday Mass.  That Mass was at the culmination of the pilgrimage of millions of people, invited to Madrid by Pope Benedict. The reason for the pilgrimage is stated by St Paul as we heard today in the letter to the Romans: “love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour.” This is where World Youth Day starts.  I would like to ask Soleil White to come up and give us her reflections on where this leads.

The experience that most touch me on the pilgrimage was doing the Stations of the Cross in Fatima. While walking the Stations of the Cross we stopped at the Fourth Station (Peter’s Denial), as we walked away a cool breeze swarmed by and I felt at peace and that God was really with me. At that point in my life I really came to believing that God was always with me and that he brought me on this journey to find my faith. Later on that evening I explained my experience to Sabrina from the NATSICC group. She placed her arm around me and gave me a smile and said it was okay to openly believe in God and that we were all there to celebrate our faith with young people from all over the world – Soleil White

It was with experiences such as this that we came to the vigil with the Holy Father at Cuatro Vientos, when the storm hit, everyone shared umbrellas, coats and groundsheets. We tried to stay dry but just got soaked right through. The WYD cross fell over in a gust and hit a bishop, and the Holy Father remained in his chair, ignoring advice for him to move to shelter, in front of us like Peter the Rock. The whole event resulted in bringing the crowd closer together in true solidarity around our Pope. And, in addition, the rain settled the dust and cooled things down, and after the storm had passed, the wind dried the soaked us so that it made for a bearable night. Before he left, the Holy Father, who also got soaked, said:

Dear Young Friends, We have lived together an adventure. Strengthened by your faith in Christ, you have resisted the rain. Before leaving I wish you all good night. Have a good rest. I thank you for the sacrifice that you are making and I have no doubt that you will offer it generously to the Lord. We shall see one another tomorrow, God willing, in the celebration of the Eucharist. I am expecting all of you. I thank you for the fine example that you have given. As happened tonight, you can always, with Christ, endure the trials of life. Do not forget this. I thank you all.

The WYD program was intended to remind us that we are not accidents on this earth, but willed out of the love of God and destined to help each other reach the dizzy heights God has made possible for each one of us. On Sunday morning the Holy Father continued:

Yes, dear friends, God loves us. This is the great truth of our life; it is what makes everything else meaningful. We are not the product of blind chance or absurdity; instead our life originates as part of a loving plan of God. …If you abide in the love of Christ, rooted in the faith, you will encounter, even amid setbacks and suffering, the source of true happiness and joy. Faith does not run counter to your highest ideals; on the contrary, it elevates and perfects those ideals. Dear young people, do not be satisfied with anything less than Truth and Love, do not be content with anything less than Christ.

So WYD was a chance to encourage, strengthen and challenge one another. In many ways our Sunday Mass here in Broome is the same. Here we come to put aside the cares of this world and remember that there is something bigger than us of which we are a part. At the time of WYD, Vargas Llosa, a famous Spanish writer and agnostic, wrote that World Youth Day was: a gigantic festival and there are two possible readings of this event: one which sees World Youth Day as more a superficial than a religious festival, and the other which interprets it as proof that the Church of Christ maintains its strength and vitality. I was there both for the event and the testimonies of young people who participated.  I know that there was nothing superficial about WYD, jusdt as there is nothgin superficial about our presence here today.

Pope Benedict always reminds his listeners that his role is to present eternal truths in a way that encourages us think and then act in a positive way. St John Chrysostom provides a perfect conclusion to our reflection on WYD and today’s liturgy, and the necessary action that will result from it:  

             

You will be doing everything for the glory of God if, when you leave this place, you make yourselves responsible for saving a brother or sister, not just by accusing and rebuking him or her, but also by advising and encouraging, and by pointing out the harm done by worldly amusements, and the profit and help that come from our instruction.

In other words, “Whoever tries to save those that are negligent, and to snatch them from the jaws of the devil, is imitating Christ as far as a human being can.” What other work could equal this? Of all good deeds this is the greatest; of all virtue this is the summit.

That is what PopeBenedict aimed for in Madrid. That gift of God, given through the Holy Father and two million young people, is offered to this parish and every Parish in the world today.  May we accept this extraordinary gift of the Holy Spirit.

Homily, OLQP Broome 4th September 2011, 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A