What Do We Expect?

In the last week the media has been full of talk about the resignation of the Holy Father and the choice of his successor.

In resigning Pope Benedict has given us all a shock, as Cardinal Cipriani of Lima frankly expressed:  this unexpected resignation has overwhelmed me interiorly, it is a sorrow -- frankly, because of the enormous affection we have for the Pope, the decision has astonished us and we accept it fully with much faith.  Our shock was because our expectation is that popes do not resign, they die in office. With a few notable exceptions, that is the way it has been for two thousand years.  Cardinal Cipriani reminds us, for one who must proclaim the truth, the Pope, it must be a road full of turbulence in which he has come to a conclusion after much consideration. He has come to the conclusion: I don't have the vigor to do it.[i] On Wednesday, Pope Benedict said that he had felt the prayers and affection of all the church since he announced his decision. If the news reports are accurate, he was quite emotional when he spoke, indicating that he was not sure how the Church, that is, all of us, would react to this news.  

Unplanned happenings such as the papal resignation can be used to focus our attention on our hopes and expectations. The apostles planned to walk up the mountain with Jesus to spend the night in prayer. What happened next was unplanned. The Transfiguration enabled them to see clearly the way ahead. The apostles saw that Jesus followed in the line of Moses and Elijah. The voice from the cloud reminded them that Jesus was the son of God.

This was all a great shock for Peter, James and John. They followed Jesus not knowing he was the son of God.  When they found out, they wanted to hold that moment of discovery, just like we want the exhilarating times of our lives never to end. Peter wanted to build the tents so that they could all stay with what they knew on the mountain top. However, we all know that we can’t live on the mountain top, we have to come down to earth. Back down in the valley the lives of the apostles were changed because they knew that Jesus was God, not just a good bloke.

Unplanned happenings are of all sorts, and our reaction to them can make a huge difference. Tonight we have among us some young people who have just begun to prepare for their First Reconciliation. Each one of you has felt that love of Jesus in your hearts and you know that you are a child of God. You also know that we sin, it is usually not planned, but we do it anyway.  Reconciliation is the way of coming close with God after sin. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation we are really honest with God about our sins, and God lifts us up and offers us forgiveness. After reconciliation we often feel like the apostles on the mountain. We come to God to ask forgiveness when something unexpected happens and we choose to do wrong. God’s response to us is always what we expect, he always offers us forgiveness, which we are asked to accept.

These young people will learn about Reconciliation from their textbooks, but they will learn far more from you and me about how to forgive, how to live, and how to encounter Jesus on the mountain and recognise him as God.

A closing thought:

As for the next Pope, the advice of the same Cardinal could extend to all of us: “I believe in the action of the Holy Spirit and hope that we cardinals will be able to be men who listen to God, otherwise, we are of no use at all."

Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent Year C, OLQP Broome 24th Feb 2013     

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[i] Juan Juis Cardinal Cipriani-Thorne, http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/cardinal-cipriani-i-hope-we-will-be-men-who-listen-to-god-or-we-are-of-no-use-at-all?utm_campaign=dailyhtml&utm_medium=email&utm_source=dispatch

Parish Bulletin 2nd Sunday of Lent

Parish Bulletin First Sunday of Lent

Stepping Out of the Air-Con

It has now been five months since the Cathedral was air-conditioned. Many of us are asking why we did not do it years ago, since we were the last major public building in Broome not to be air-conditioned, and I have to confess that I am becoming very comfortable with a cool cathedral. However, here is one significant side effect of the air-conditioning which we feel when we walk outside. The blast of hot humid air of the real world hits us, and immediately we start to become uncomfortable. Most of us live in the world of the air-con, we live in a controlled environment where we call the shots, set the parameters and step out on our own terms.

Jesus was in a similar environment that we might a politically correct or socially genteel, but he realised that it was unreal, it was not answering his calling, his vocation, so “Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit through the wilderness.”

Now the adventure begins. For Jesus it was in the desert, and for us Lent is our desert.

Deserts are place where we can confront ourselves. These seemingly wild places can be dangerous places where we have to confront our inner demons and fears. We rarely emerge from a desert experience the same person.  In the desert, unless our sight becomes clearer, focus is sharpened, and our spiritual angle is increased, we perish.

The forty days that Jesus spent in the desert was iconic, and recalled the forty years the Israelites spent in the desert. The scripture scholar Michael Fallon tells us: “”Forty” is symbolic of a generation, a lifetime. Jesus was tested, as we all are, right through to his death. He was never free of the struggle that is the lot of every human being”[i]

Lent is our desert time, our chance to walk out of the air-conditioning and confront our reality. The temptations themselves are iconic, and represent our constant struggle against all that would hold us back from being whole people.

Our temptations are like those of Jesus. In one sense know that God is with us, protecting and guiding us, but often we can’t see it, especially in the evils that we see around us, sometimes even within our families and church. The Israelites doubted whether God would sustain them in the Desert.[ii] The devil claimed the same to Jesus, who in the midst of his hunger and suffering, affirmed his trust that God would provide for all his needs by living ‘every word that comes from the mouth of God’. Our desert time can help us to see God’s grace working in and around us. Against the cult of self-sufficiency and the sin of pride, it can strengthen our trust.

Our society is ambivalent about greed. It is held to be OK as long as it does not get out of hand, yet greed is contagious and addictive. Jesus rejected it out of hand when he was taken to the parapet of the temple. The greed for power and goods is destructive and evil and is the cause of much of the suffering of our world today. The war against greed starts with me and you.

Finally, Jesus is tempted to call in the favour, to test God. We are often tested the same way, by questioning the existence or love of God because of things that occur to us and those we love. Albert Facey, author of ‘A Fortunate Life’, deduced that due to silence in the face of evil, God did not exist. He overlooked the strength that he had been able to develop in the face of huge challenges, strength that enabled him to call his life ‘fortunate’.  Jesus leads by placing all his trust in God. and not forcing God to conform to our demands.  Jesus calls us to live our lives faithfully and simply, without presumption.

We are called to choose life in all its fullness, to visit the desert, confront our temptations. Blessed John Paul encouraged us:  ”let us undertake the penitential Lenten journey with greater determination, to be ready to defeat the seductions of Satan and arrive at Easter in joy of spirit.” [iii] 
To do this we need to step out of the Air-con.

Homily, 16th February 2013, Vigil of the First Sunday of Lent Year C, OLQP

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[i] Michael Fallon, The Gospel according to St Luke, (Chevalier, Kensington) 1997, 81

[ii] Deuteronomy 8:3

[iii] Homily February 17, 2002

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.