Homily for 3^rd Sunday of Year 2008

Happy Australia Day! I celebrated at a street gathering Australia Day BBQ. It is always positive to see people getting together on such an occasion. Particularly as many do not even see or speak to each other for most of the year. Small barriers are broken down relationships established.

As I was eating by steak I couldn't help reflect on the ambiguity of the day. Here we were, all Anglo-Saxons, getting together. Others as we have heard were getting drunk and rioting in several places. Then there are the Aboriginals who do not see it as a day to celebrate, but one on which to mourn the loss of country. Then there are the recently arrived immigrants from many nations who know little of our past.

Let us pray that beyond all the hype that goes on revving us up to celebrate our nationhood we are able to acknowledge the whole truth of our founding as a convict settlement and subsequent history. I hope we don't fall into an historical amnesia so easily as we have in the past. A lucky country in-spite of the droughts and floods. We were founded and grew as a country in conflict not just with Ned Kelly but the indigenous population.

It is an old saying but incredibly true: You cannot criticize someone's behaviour when you have not walked in their shoes. It happens so often. We see some behaviour which at first sight is obviously wrong. We do not want it to appear that we approve so we condemn the person. It happens all the time, sometimes even without malice. In conversation we can let drop some comment about a person which seems innocuous enough but which can sow the seeds of victimisation.

St Paul is very aware of the differences and conflict in the churches for which he felt responsible, the ones he founded such as the Church of Corinth. Dealing with conflict took up much of his time and energy. We hear one such situation in his letter to the Christian church at Corinth in the second reading today. But Paul is far from just wanting people to be nice to one another. He is not just trying to smooth over the inevitable problems that arise in a community. He is not even just proposing a Christian morality. Rather, he is concerned with something which is at the heart of the Gospel and the nature of the Church.

For Paul, the best way to live the life of Christ was to be committed to the unity of the community. The foundation of this belief of Paul is described in the reading on the feast of his conversion which we celebrated last week. On the road to Damascus while persecuting Christians he encountered Christ in some mysterious way. Who are you Lord? he asked. A voice said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting" (Acts 9:5).

The Lord identifies himself with the Christian Church. This is the primary real presence of Christ for Paul. A presence of Christ in the world to preach the Good News of Christ crucified. This experience seems to be the basis of much of his theology especially of the Church as the Body of Christ. It is the Eucharist which brings us back again and again to this truth. The Eucharist does not pretend our differences are not there. They are. But the Eucharist tells us who we really are called to be. It tells us what all the nations really are called to be. All the sacraments are saying the same thing. Marriage particularly, as we Catholics understand it, proclaims in the ordinary everyday events of life the love and unity for which we all strive. But we know our shortcomings but we are not alone. Therefore, we need to approach our gathering aware of our need for reconciliation with each other. Like the Eucharist itself the unity of the Church is the work of the Holy Spirit.

At first sight Jesus seems to be an anticlimax to the great expectations about him expressed in the quote from Isaiah. "The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light!" (Matthew 4:16). Isaiah is writing at a time when that region of Galilee was surrounded by foreign people. They felt very vulnerable. Isaiah offers hope to them.

Jesus just appeared as a wandering preacher who lived a simple life in Galilee. He did not move on the world stage of power and prestige to further his mission. Instead he went from town to town preaching in one synagogue after another. And into the dark corners of people's lives and relationships, he shed the light of truth and healing. Jesus knew how difficult it is to find that in life and how costly it sometimes is.

Matthew's Gospel today (4:12-23) presents an idealised response from Peter and Andrew, James and John, who left everything, work and family and followed him immediately. Our own experience does not always live up to that ideal. We are seldom so single minded in our purpose. And the apostles in reality were far from being united in their ideas either as we learn later on. That is where Jesus started; with ordinary people with their struggles. The love, unity and peace we seek comes about through him. And he is to be found here amongst us.

The purpose of the Gospel, for which Jesus died, is to bring about that unity in him, that the reign of God may come.

Fr Graham