Homily for 14th Sunday of the Year 2010

I was reading a recently published collection of Archbishop Francis Rush's homilies the other day ("Life To Me Is Christ, Selected Talks and Homilies of Archbishop Rush", St Pauls 2010). He was Archbishop of Brisbane from 1973 till 1991. He was a good preacher. He attended the Second Vatican Council. I was in the Seminary for part of that that time. Students would always look forward to Archbishop Rush coming to the Seminary after each session of that Council which ran from October 1962 till November 1965. He spoke with enthusiasm and deep knowledge of the Council. He gave the new and aspiring priests a vision of the Church that inspired us. It was as though the bishops of the world woke from a kind of amnesia. Most bishops going to Rome thought this Council would be routine. After all, the Pope had everything in hand. But now they realised that the Church did not need to behave defensively in the modern world as it had since the Reformation. It had a mission and everyone had a part to play not just the bishops and priests. Rather than being afraid of this new world, the Church had much to offer. It had a gospel to offer a world which had recently emerged from the Second World War and was dealing with a Cold War which included a very hot war in Vietnam (1955-1975). It was a rediscovery of the Church as outward looking. The very nature of the Church was to be a missionary Church. The Gospel needed to be preached in a new way.

Our faith is sometimes only seen as something that gives me comfort and a promise of a personal salvation in this world and the next. And our participation in the life of the Church is what makes this happen. Yet, if we hear the Gospel, our faith and the Church exist for the sake of the Kingdom of God! God has a mission and we are part of it. What we have been given is not for me. It is for the whole of creation.

I think of the millions who are born and die each year in poverty. Most never find the consolation of faith in God. Most never achieve what we might think of as a successful life. What does that say about the Church which might never touch them at all? Are they all lost? That is where we can get it all back the front. Mother Theresa I think it was, who said that "success" not a word in God's vocabulary. Life is not measured by how successful we are in anything least of all in ticking all the boxes in any religion. We heard from his letter to the Galatians today (6:14-18) that the only thing Paul would boast of is the cross of Christ, certainly not the law.

What we do as Christians is a result of our relationship with Jesus Christ. If we are with him we will live and do as he does. We will tick all the necessary boxes of community life. We too will come back rejoicing like the seventy-two disciples. He said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6). He personally is the Way, the Truth and the Life. It is not his preaching nor his actions that are the truth. It is he alone. Because he alone is the very truth of God. Only by being close to him will we know the way and have life. And the truth of God is love. God's love flows over creation. God's mission is the sending of that love to all. Immersed in that love we are on the same mission.

We worry, though, that we are not doing enough. But again it is God's mission, not ours. That is not to say we do nothing. The seventy-two represent the Church and it's mission to the nations. They were sent to prepare the way for Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. They met with both hospitality and opposition. They also met with great success. But that was not the important thing for Jesus. Their names are written in heaven.

We prepare the way for Christ in a myriad of ways. We participate in his mission of transforming creation, "an altogether new creation" (Galatians 6:15). What Jesus did has been described in this way: Jesus took in the hatred directed at him and gave back love; he took in bitterness and gave back graciousness; he took in curses and gave back blessings; he took in murder and gave back forgiveness. He did not give back in kind what he received but transformed it It did kill him in the end. It is not easy for us to do in the day to day interactions of our lives either. It is so easy to hit back at someone who hurts you.

To do that we need the support of each other. The Christian never goes it alone. The seventy-two went in pairs. We need to as well. Is there another spirituality of Christian marriage there? Two people embarking on a mission to their family and community as disciples of the Lord. And importantly we gather each week for the Eucharist. This is our important encounter with Jesus. This is our nourishment and strength to undertake the mission.

Last Tuesday, the 29th June, the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, I attended the Jubilee Mass for many priests celebrating their anniversary of ordination at the Cathedral; silver, gold diamond and platinum anniversaries. In that ageing group of men some may see only a declining Church. But the mission does not depend on us. It is God's mission. He will grant the success of that mission in a way that is seen in the transforming life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Or we could heed Isaiah's words to those who were returning from captivity in Babylon to Jerusalem their mother: "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her - that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast"(66:10). We return to the Eucharist each Sunday rejoicing like them and rejoicing like the seventy-two disciples at what the Lord has done through us.

Fr Graham