Mass of Chrism - St Joseph's Cathedral - 13 April 2011 - Bishop Heenan's Homily |
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Tonight we are very aware that our beautiful Cathedral is being restored and renewed and I am sure you are accepting of any inconvenience, in view of the dream we have before us. Very carefully, every aspect of this magnificent edifice is being considered and where necessary, restored to make it worthy of the God to whom it is dedicated. I too would like to welcome all who are our visitors, all of you who have travelled long distances and very specially, our young people who are so much a part of tonight. It is not only our Cathedral which is being restored, tonight it is each and every one of us, as we recommit ourselves to the dignity which has been given to us through our Baptism, to be sons and daughters of God. We priests have been privileged to spend these last few days together in renewing our understanding of our priestly call and linking it once again to the great Easter mystery. The very same call of Baptism has been given to everyone here tonight to our Religious, and to the laity. In each other’s company, having been included in the Order of Baptism, we commit ourselves to the life and ministry which is ours at this time. In the most real way, the Spirit of the Lord has been given to us, as we heard in our first reading – a Spirit which sends us to bring good news to the poor, to console broken hearts, to free those enslaved by rejection or imprisoned by disadvantage, to show the way, to those lost in the darkness of sorrow and pain. This was the direction Jesus took upon himself when He came to Nazareth and took up the same prophecy of Isaiah and applied it to himself. He was, and is for us the bearer of Good News, God’s redeeming love for us, and Jesus to be our way, our truth and our life. Each year we try to understand and embrace the wonderful truth, that God, in Jesus, has granted us unconditional forgiveness, shame and fear can be laid aside and enjoy the reality, that we are personally loved by our God. So tonight, as we are conscious of our Cathedral being renewed, so are we renewing our lives - making a commitment to Jesus again, aware of our struggles and our weakness, yet believing that we can do all things in Jesus who strengthens us. It is in reaching out to others that we can forget ourselves, lay aside our fears and let God’s will unfold around us. On this occasion, I would like to draw our focus towards the renewal and care of God’s other gift, besides the gift our ourselves, namely the gift of nature or the environment in which we are immersed. For we cannot separate the life which we enjoy from the life that surrounds us and therefore, I am asking that, as we renew our commitment to the Lord and his service, so we renew our commitment to God’s many gifts around us. We are blessed in our Diocese to have a Commission for Justice and Sustainability, a group of dedicated parishioners, who keep us informed about issues of justice and ways we can preserve the gift of our environment. We are all called to sustain what we have been given and to hand it on to the future generations. Sustainability has been defined as ‘enough for everyone, forever’ Pope John Paul II, in his time, spoke very frequently about our call to be grateful for all of God’s gifts, not just our lives, or even God’s grace and love poured out on us, but the wonderful world around us. May I share with you, some of his thoughts: (from World Day of Peace Message – “Peace with God the Creator, Peace with all of Creation”) All men and women without any particular religious conviction, but with an acute sense of their responsibilities for the common good, recognize their obligation to contribute to the restoration of a healthy environment. Among many references he said: I should like to address directly my brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church, in order to remind them of their serious obligation to care for all of creation. The commitment of believers to a healthy environment for everyone stems directly from their belief in God the Creator, from their recognition of the effects of original and personal sin, and from the certainty of having been redeemed by Christ. Respect for life and for the dignity of the human person extends also to the rest of creation, which is called to join man in praising God (cf. Ps 148:96). In 1979, I proclaimed Saint Francis of Assisi as the heavenly Patron of those who promote ecology (cf. Apostolic Letter Inter Sanctos: AAS 71 [1979], 1509f.). He offers Christians an example of genuine and deep respect for the integrity of creation. As a friend of the poor who was loved by God's creatures, Saint Francis invited all of creation - animals, plants, natural forces, even Brother Sun and Sister Moon - to give honour and praise to the Lord. The poor man of Assisi gives us striking witness that when we are at peace with God we are better able to devote ourselves to building up that peace with all creation which is inseparable from peace among all peoples. Likewise, our present Holy Father, Benedict XVI has written extensively for an age which has become very aware of environmental protection, climate change and our influence over what happens in the world around us, May I share some of his thoughts: (from World Day of Peace Message 2010 “If you want to cultivate Peace, protect Creation") “In my Encyclical Caritas in Veritate – Love and Truth, I noted that integral human development is closely linked to the obligations which flow from man’s relationship with the natural environment. The environment must be seen as God’s gift to all people, and the use we make of it entails a shared responsibility for all humanity, especially the poor and future generations. Contemplating the beauty of creation inspires us to recognize the love of the Creator, that Love which “moves the sun and the other stars”. “Hence I readily encourage efforts to promote a greater sense of ecological responsibility which, as I indicated in my Encyclical Caritas in Veritate, would safeguard an authentic “human ecology” and thus forcefully reaffirm the inviolability of human life at every stage and in every condition, the dignity of the person and the unique mission of the family, where one is trained in love of neighbour and respect for nature”. “There is a need to safeguard the human patrimony of society. This patrimony of values originates in and is part of the natural moral law, which is the foundation of respect for the human person and creation.” I invite you to pray together later in our celebration, a special prayer composed for tonight. The prayer is printed on the back of our Mass Booklet, and there will be copies to be shared with you and with all in our Diocese to draw us closer to the God who sustains our life and asks us to sustain the many gifts He has bestowed upon us. So, let us begin with the blessing of the Holy Oils which so help us to live out the our Baptismal calling the Oil of Baptism, the Oil of Chrism, and the Oil of the Sick. Oil is a beautiful sign of God’s healing and supporting touch in our lives. Then we will renew our commitment to our chosen calling, our priests, our religious and our laity. All of this is happening as we draw closer to Easter when Jesus’ death and resurrection is celebrated. We must allow ourselves to be drawn into these realities for we rightly say the Jesus died and rose for us. That means that we are forgiven, that he has taken away our guilt, that we can let go of the fear, that tends to dominate our life. God so loved us that He gave us His only Son. It surely means that because of the Easter events, God loves us even more now and increasingly as the years go by. We are God’s sons and daughters and like any parent, God is for us, on our side and wants us to believe in our own goodness and be free of fear. + Brian Heenan 13 April 2011
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