Today we have interrupted our normal celebration of the Sundays in Ordinary Time to celebrate the Mass for the Feast of Mary MacKillop on this day of her canonisation. Later this evening at a Mass in Rome she will be named Australia’s first saint. It is worth taking some time to ponder what this means for us and for the Church in Australia. For the first time we now have someone who has walked our land, been in our schools, and cared for the poorest and the most needy; someone who has been publicly recognised by the whole church for her holiness of life. We can look to her as a model of Christian life, and an inspiration for our own efforts to live a life of holiness in fidelity to the Gospel of God.
Over the last few weeks we have been receiving a lot of information about Mary’s life. This is important, and it is important that we remember her life. Memory is a central aspect of the Christian life. This goes right back to the command of Jesus to “do this in memory of me”. Each Sunday we listen to the Scripture readings and celebrate the Eucharist remembering what Jesus has done for us and for the world. Christian memory is not simply recalling what he did. In our worship he is present so that we can participate in the very events that we remember, and share in their saving effects.
Mary MacKillop participated in these same events, not only in her celebration of the Liturgy, but also in her daily life. She embodied the Gospel of God. As we listened to today’s gospel surely we all saw the link with Mary’s life. More than anything else, it was a life that flourished by trusting God. I am quite sure that as she began her adventure of founding a new religious congregation she was not thinking about what it might grow into or what might unfold in her own life, but rather she was thinking of those children who could not afford to go to school and would now have the opportunity. She didn’t have a business plan that told everyone that her scheme would work. Rather she set out trusting in God, and relying on the good will of those who could afford to help her. There were times when she was rebuffed and rejected, when people despised her for what she was doing, but this did not stop her. She trusted in God, and had confidence in her own capacity to bring off what she had undertaken. This was a self-confidence that was born of faith in God.
We shouldn’t think, though, that this was just foolishness on her part. She wasn’t the sort of person who would put God to the test, by sitting back and saying that she would leave it all to God and not make an effort to see that her plan was realised. For her, trusting God didn’t release her from the responsibility of working hard to make things happen, and of continuing on with her project whenever there was a setback. She survived because she had determination, courage, practical common sense, and a profound trust in God.
Mary MacKillop was a young woman when she began her remarkable journey as the founder of the Sisters of St Joseph – she was in her 20s. It was a time in her life when she was open-eyed enough to recognise a pressing need in the community for the education of the poor. It was a time in her life where she was young and adventurous enough to be fired with the vision of the kingdom of God in the preaching of Jesus. What she dreamed of was a new way of living the gospel. It was a time in her life when she had the energy to make her dream a reality. We know that she never lost that vision, and that energy. It matured with her, and in a sense became even more real as she grew older. She had a spirituality that relied on the power of the cross as her source of inspiration. She trusted that the cross would always lead to the new life of Easter. In her old age she maintained a concern for the sisters that were now part of her dream, now organised in a more formal way in the Congregation of the Sister of St Joseph. The formal approval of the constitution would ensure that the dream she had as a young woman would survive well beyond her.
So today we remember her life. This is a profoundly Christian thing to do, particularly in the context of this liturgical act of worship. We remember how she participated in the mystery of Jesus and the great drama of salvation. But today we should also look to the future. The celebration of a saint is not simply about looking to the past. It would be good for us to consider how we are drawn into her life. Let me suggest a few things. The first is that we can note the importance of being open to discovering new ways of living the gospel in our own time. What characterises ordinary life in a society like ours, and what is the gospel message that can renew and refresh that life? What is the bold vision that connects the kingdom of God with life in 21st century Australia? Trusting faith will allow us to see that vision; it will give us the courage to put it into action. Most of us won’t be called to do this in as dramatic a fashion as Mary MacKillop. But all of us, if we embrace the courage she showed and the determination to bring the gospel alive, can live a life of holiness in the very fabric of our lives. May Mary MacKillop pray for us.
Fr. Gerard Kelly
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