4TH SUNDAY ADVENT (B) 18 December 2011

We have now arrived at the fourth Sunday of Advent and are getting closer to the celebration of Christmas.  For the first time in Advent we meet Mary in the readings.  The angel visits her and announces that she is to be the mother of Jesus.  Advent is a time of preparation and hope.  Today the focus shifts more squarely to the birth of Jesus at Christmas.  But we should not forget the bigger picture that we have been seeing over the last three weeks.  Mary is also part of that picture.  She is one of the People of God who lived their lives in expectation that God would visit them and change their lives and their world.  As our eyes are drawn to the birth of Jesus we too must allow him to shine a light on the bigger picture of what God is doing in our world.  Mary will help us do this.

The gospel reading we heard suggests that Mary was troubled by the angel’s visit.  Let’s notice why Mary might have been troubled – and I think she was troubled by several things.  We all quickly recognise that the first thing to trouble her was the news that she was to be the mother of Jesus.  She is astonished at the angle’s greeting because she is a virgin and not yet married.  It doesn’t take much thinking to realise why she would have been troubled.  It wasn’t just because there were so many things unexplained; perhaps more troubling was the prospect of where this would leave her in her family and community.  She was about to find herself in an embarrassing situation, and could well end up being shunned and excluded from the family.  In those days this was a terrible thing to happen to a young woman, because it meant she no longer had any place to live or any means of support.  In her case it may have been even worse, because Joseph might have decided to divorce her.  So, we can understand why she was troubled.

But the angel says something else that troubles her.  He tells her that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of God will overshadow her.  Perhaps we don’t give enough attention to how troubling this news must have been.  We have probably never much thought about what this means.  I’m sure that Mary was a young woman who had grown up in the faith of her people, that she would have followed all the usual religious practices and worshipped God in the same way as everyone else.  She probably had a sense of the dignity of every human being, remembering the words of the Book of Genesis that we are made in the image and likeness of God.  But she had probably never considered that the power of God would come to her in any unique or particular way.  So she had to think about herself and what God was doing in her life.  It wasn’t just that she would be a mother, but that God was calling her to something special.  Not just that – God was giving her all that she would need to live out the plan he had.  She now had to decide to cooperate with God.

There was one other thing in the angel’s greeting that would have troubled her.  And this was about the child, who was to be called the Son of the Most High.  Even she would have recognised that this meant that the child would have a unique relationship with God.  She wouldn’t have fully understood what this was about, but the angel made it clear that the child was going to have an impact far greater than just the local family or village.  Jesus would eventually bring about God’s reign and would be more powerful than any of the kings of the earth.  So, Mary was being drawn into something that was changing the world.  We could say that she received earth-shattering news.

We can understand now why Mary was troubled.  It wasn’t just that Jesus was going to be born.  It probably had more to do with his identity as the Son of God.  It probably also had to do with the dawning realisation that her son was going to change the world.  Mary would have understood all this as bringing to fulfilment what she had heard from the prophets as they were read in the synagogue.  God’s plan was unfolding in her life and in the world.  But God also gives her the freedom to respond to the invitation.  As we know, Mary’s response has become famous: “Let what you have said, be done to me”.

What are we to make of all this?  I think that this scene with Mary invites us to ponder what happened.  But in remembering what happened back then we should also consider what God is still doing in the world.  During Advent we have been hearing about and pondering the promise God made about the future.  Advent invites us to have hope, and to allow the present to be shaped by our hope about the future.  In this way we are a lot like Mary: we are being called to become part of God’s plan as it unfolds in our world.  Like Mary, we may find this troubling.  Maybe it is what is unknown that troubles us; maybe it is the seeming enormity of being involved in God’s plan for the world; or maybe we don’t think of ourselves as so close to God that God would use us to bring about a new world.  But if we think about it, Mary was asked to have a baby.  She could manage that.  The Holy Spirit worked through her to bring about God’s will.  I think we are asked today, as Christmas approaches, to prepare a dwelling place for God in our hearts, and to allow them to be so transformed that we live out of the love that God has poured into our hearts.

Rev Dr Gerard Kelly

CHRIST THE KING (A) 20 November 2011

Each year we celebrate the feast of Christ the King as the last Sunday in the Church’s liturgical year.  The gospel we listen to on this feast rotates on a three yearly cycle.  Last year we heard St Luke’s gospel account of Jesus on the cross, with one of the thieves crucified beside him asking Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom.  Here was Jesus the King and the cross was his throne.  Next year we will hear from St John’s gospel and see Jesus before Pilate.  Pilate asks him if he is a king, and Jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world.  Once again, we see the kingship of Jesus associated with his passion and death.  The gospel this year from St Matthew is a different scene.  We have the judgement scene where the sheep and the goats are separated.  This gospel presents Christ the king as a judge, sitting in judgement.  In separating the sheep from the goats he is welcoming people into his kingdom.

The striking thing about this gospel account is what it tells us about what we need to do to find a place in the kingdom of God.  In some ways it is very easy: you need to give food to the hungry; give the thirsty something to drink; welcome the stranger; clothe the naked; care for the sick; and visit the prisoners.  But as we listened to the gospel you probably noticed that none of the people being judged had much sense of what they were doing.  Both those on the right and those on the left, say to the Son of Man, “When did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or naked, sick or in prison?”  The response is simple: when you reached out to one of the least of these people you reached out to me.  This is the great insight of today’s gospel passage; this is the thing we are meant to learn.  We encounter Jesus in others.  This is the key to understanding his kingdom and appreciating what it means to celebrate Christ as king.

My guess is that if you sit people around in discussion groups and ask them what do you have to do to inherit the kingdom of God they would come up with a different answer to what we heard in this gospel.  They might say “keep the commandments”, or “say your prayers”, or “live a moral life”, or “keep your heart pure”.  Yes, these are all important things.  But they’re not mentioned in today’s gospel.  I wonder why.

I think the answer is that when we speak about each of these things we can easily be focused on ourselves; we can be tempted to become a little self-righteous.  The big difference between this attitude and actions Jesus is looking for is that all the things mentioned in the gospel today draw our attention away from ourselves and on to others.  These activities have traditionally been referred to as the works of mercy.  As we see them described in the gospel there is a close link between mercy and charity.  Both mercy and charity are selfless acts.  They give without counting the cost; they give without seeking any reward.

Throughout Christian history the church has been noted for its works of mercy.  The church was concerned for the education and welfare of poor children.  The church provided hospitals for the sick.  Think of the word “hospital” in English: it is linked to hospitality.  The church provided shelters and refuges for the homeless and the needy, for the stateless and refugees.  Of course, in the last hundred years or so governments have become involved in these works of mercy, and effectively taken control of them.  It goes by the name of welfare.  No one speaks today of these activities as works of mercy.  Perhaps this is because governments need to set criteria for assistance, which means that not everyone is assisted.  Even the word charity has changed its meaning so that it is seen as something cold, uncaring and anonymous.

In modern times the church often struggles to work out how it will contribute to this aspect of the social fabric of our national life.  Churches have had to decide whether they will administer government assistance to the needy on the terms set by the government.  This is a difficult decision for the churches because their motives are very different from the motives of a government that is by definition secular.  The motive of the church for all that it does is the kingdom of God.  There can be no categorising of people into the deserving and the undeserving poor.  The question of Christ the King rings out loudly: When I was ... did you..?  But I think the response of the sheep and the goats also pricks our conscience: Lord, when did we see you...?  And he replies: When you did this to one of the least of my children...

Today’s feast celebrates the kingdom of God – a kingdom that has dawned in the world and is already visible in Jesus.  We are invited into it, so that we might become like him.  But what has already been realised in Jesus is still coming to be in us.  It is not easy to live this gospel; it is not easy to make the choices that it demands.  It takes a life-time to arrive at that point; it takes until the judgement.  But we make progress little-by-little, step-by-step.  Let’s get to know Christ the king, and take those little steps into the kingdom.

 Fr. Gerard Kelly

29th SUNDAY (A) 16 October 2011

I suspect that through the centuries there has been more anxiety over the events in today’s gospel than over many aspects of Jesus’ teaching.  The point was a matter of great dispute at the time, and it has continued to be so.  We need to remember the original context: the chief priests and the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus, by setting up a problem where whichever answer he gave he would give offense to some people.  If he said it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar he would upset many of his own people who believed that the Roman authorities were illegal occupiers of the land.  If he said that taxes should not be paid he would find himself in conflict with the Roman authorities, and so open to charges of sedition.  As always, Jesus’ response is masterful.  He doesn’t answer the question directly, but asks the religious leaders to show him a coin.  It would seem that he didn’t have one of these coins on him – perhaps he didn’t carry them.  But the religious leaders were able to produce one!  Why were they carrying the coins that they so much despised?  Jesus has caught them out in their scheme to trap him.

But he goes on to give an answer when he sees the coin.  Whose head is on it?  Ceasar’s.  Then give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.  This is the statement that has rung down through Christian history as a way of working out the relationship between faith and civics.  This saying distinguishes Christianity from some other religions who believe that there should be no difference between the law of God and law of the state.  This is not the understanding of Christianity.  One of the very important consequences of the Christian understanding is that it promotes religious freedom.  I am sure that we are all aware that there are places in the world where people who do not belong to the state religion are denied the right to worship.  Sometimes they are denied the opportunity to work and they live in fear of persecution. 

However, we should not imagine that this has been an easy thing to work out in practice.  At times the church has struggled to get the balance right between church and state.  It is only in relatively recent times that we have appreciated the importance of religious freedom – not just the religious freedom we demand for Christians living in non-Christian countries, but also the religious freedom given to people of other religions in countries that have traditionally been majority Christian.

This is just one area where the practical consequences of Jesus’ saying are worked out.  Another area is how the church and individual believers engage with the state and their fellow citizens.  There was a long period of history where the church had sufficient power to allow it to rule the state by its influence.  In fact the bishop would crown the king.  But these days are long gone.  The modern state in countries like ours is thoroughly secular; this is the way we were set up from the beginning.  Our constitution, like that of say the United States, ensures both that people are free to worship God according to their own religious traditions, and that the state is free from religious interference.  This is the modern practical working out of Jesus’ saying in today’s gospel.

The challenge for each of us is to work out what Jesus’ saying means for us in our own situation.  How do we make it real in our lives?  How might it shape our imagination as to how we can live simultaneously as good believers and good members of our society?  Let me offer a few thoughts.  The first and most important is that precisely as believers we should be engaged in civic life.  Fidelity to the gospel is not a call to withdraw from the world.  In fact the opposite is the case.  However, fidelity to the gospel shapes the way we engage in civic life.  The command to render to God what belongs to God reminds us that God’s plan for humanity is primary.  This is what shapes our decisions, our actions, and our engagement with society.  In its broadest outlines it should also be what shapes society.  To use the language the church has developed to speak about this, we can say that this involves the search for justice and for the authentic and integral development of humanity.  This surely is the aim of any society.  Of course, within the society there will be different views as to what constitutes the good of humanity and how this can be achieved.

This leads me to another point.  Given the diversity within our society it is important that we foster genuine dialogue between people of differing views.  I believe that dialogue is presupposed in Jesus’ saying about rendering to God and to Caesar.  It will mean being ready to meet the other and to listen to them, as well as being ready to be witnesses to our own faith.

Like many sayings of Jesus, this one gives us guidance for life.  But it is up to each of us to translate this saying into concrete action in our own life and our own context.  But remember: God is with us to help us do this.

Fr. Gerard Kelly

25th SUNDAY(A) 18 September

On most occasions when people talk about the gospel we have heard today they say that they have difficulty with it. The images in the parable are things everyone easily identifies with: work, unemployment, wages, and the urgency to get a job finished on time. But it is what happens at the end, when the wages are being distributed, that upsets people. Their immediate reaction is that the situation is unjust. We shouldn’t underestimate just how uncomfortable the parable can make us.

The scene opens in the market square where the unemployed would gather each morning and hope that someone would come along and hire them for the day. If they were lucky, and the harvest was big, they might even get work for a few days or a few weeks. We can imagine that they would have gone to the vineyard happy and eager to work and earn their wage. Many of these people knew they were hardly likely to get the good jobs, so they were happy for whatever might come their way. As for the landowner, it seems that he had grapes that needed to be picked in a hurry; if they weren’t picked that day they would become too ripe to yield good quality fruit or wine. This is why he keeps returning to the market place to get more workers. Those hired late in the day were obviously the ones who were not at all keen on work, but just turned up later in the day on the off-chance that there may be some small jobs available for them.

The parable takes a twist when it comes to paying the workers. As I said, this is the part that upsets the listeners, and prompts us to ask if the landowner was being fair. He starts with the last arrivals, who have probably only worked for about an hour, and gives them what he had agreed to, namely a full day’s wage. The workers who started early in the morning grumble when they only receive the same wage – the wage, by the way, that they had agreed to. The reply of the landowner to their complaints makes the point of the parable very clear: “Are you envious because I am generous?”

Jesus is teaching those who listen to him about God. He wants to purify their image of God. The point he wants to make is that to welcome the God who comes is to open yourself for a big surprise. They are about to learn that the way they have thought about God is not necessarily the way God is. They had probably been only too aware of God’s justice, now they were about to learn of God’s mercy and generosity. The Prophet Isaiah, who we heard in the first reading, alerted us to the surprise that comes when God is encountered: “my thoughts are not your thoughts; my ways are not your ways”, he says. This is the shock that the parable delivered to those listening to Jesus, and that it still delivers to us. God is like the landowner who seeks out the poorest and the weakest and gives them an equal place in the kingdom. The parable is not about fairness; it is about mercy and generosity.

That is why there is a reminder here that people are drawn into the kingdom because of God’s graciousness. It is not just those whose lives appear to be untroubled or without failures who are drawn into the embrace of God. God is like the landowner who actually goes out to find those who no one else would welcome, and he offers them the opportunity to participate. This is important for the disciples of Jesus to hear – and he addresses the parable to them. Perhaps he wants to warn them not to become too arrogant about their position. They should remember that in the kingdom the first will be last and the last first. All disciples of Jesus need to be ready to welcome even the late-comer into the realm of God.

What does the parable say to the church today? It calls on us all to be witnesses to the mercy of God revealed in the parable. The biggest danger a society like ours faces is that it becomes complacent and thinks that all is well. We are a very prosperous people, with a high standard of living – and yes, all does seem to be well. One effect of this is that people end up putting all their energies into maintaining what they have – keeping it safe. Ultimately, this happens at the expense of other people. The result is a selfish society, where there is no room for the poor or those who are different. Often the poorest people are not even noticed or they are labelled in such a way that we become comfortable ignoring them. In today’s gospel, these are the people that God notices. So we, as the church, should remind society that the salvation of the human community is built on generosity – the generosity of God in the People of God.

In this way we give authentic witness to the Gospel Jesus inaugurated. Our God is the creator of the human community, and he sustains it through his mercy. To know God is to be in communion with God and with each other. The church thus gives witness to an image of God that is far bigger than what many in the society have of him. By our own life, perhaps more than by our words, we give witness to the generosity of God, and hence to what God has planned for the whole of humanity.

Fr. Gerard Kelly

21st SUNDAY (A) 21 August 2011

When I was a child I used often to hear stories about people who were asked to stand up for their faith in far off mission lands. These might be situations where the church and the faith were being persecuted, or where people had suffered some severe tragedy which made believing in God very difficult. The purpose of these stories, even though they were of far away situations, was to make us more confident in our own belief. We knew that we had it easy and that believing in God was a normal thing to do in the world I was growing up in. The idea of choosing to believe in God became more real for me when I got to know people who had made a conscious decision to be baptised and become part of the community of faith, a member of the church. These are people who really had to face up to the question that Jesus put to Peter in today’s gospel: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

I have also met people who were baptised at a young age, grew up in the faith and then had to face a crisis about what they believed. It is seen often, for example, in the lives of young people who in their teenage years move away from the church and often want to explore what it is that they believe. These people too are trying to answer the question that Jesus put to Peter. However, for them it is a deeply personal question: “Who do you say that Jesus is?” Often these people return to the church later on in their life with a renewed faith and a deeper conviction that this Jesus they believe in is truly one who has made a difference to the world and who offers them a way of life which will lead to happiness. They develop a deep conviction that God loves them and will be a “rock” of security for them in their lives.

This gospel incident has the power to encourage people when they feel they need to explore the question as to who Jesus is. In fact, I suspect that most of us at various times in our lives must ask ourselves the same question; or, perhaps more correctly, we must allow God to ask that question of us. It is important that we face up to it so that Jesus does not become an idol of our own making.

Peter answers Jesus by saying, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God”. In other words, Peter is saying that he now knows Jesus as the one who is God’s anointed, the one who does God’s will, and the one who shows the way to life in God. Peter is thus gradually coming to the conviction that Jesus is the one who is the saviour, that his message is so powerful that it can turn people’s lives around. Peter is also saying that he wants to remain as a true disciple of Jesus. It has taken Peter a long time to be able to say these things about Jesus. We know too that there will be other times when he will have to face up to the same question about Jesus. Even after the day he makes the profession of faith, when he seems so confident about Jesus, we know that just before the crucifixion he will deny that he even knew Jesus. Peter, like all of us, had to keep facing up to the question of who Jesus was and what difference that made to his life.

It is Jesus’ response to Peter’s words, however, which is most interesting. Peter is able to say what he has said because Jesus’ Father in heaven has revealed it to him. This is an important reminder to us that we can really only ever know about Jesus because of a revelation to us. In other words, to ask the question about who Jesus is is to find ourselves at an important moment where God will now reveal to us something more about Jesus and his significance in our lives. It is as though the way that God chooses to reveal himself to us is by our facing up to the questions, doubts and challenges that confront us at certain moments of our lives.

I suspect that Jesus knew that this process of coming to know him more clearly and more fully could be a painful process for many people. That is why he likened Peter to a rock which can give some sort of security in the midst of a lot of confusion. That is why he spoke of the church as a place where our faith could be nurtured, nourished, and encouraged. The role of Peter in the early church very quickly became one of strengthening others in their faith. I believe it is a role that belongs to every Christian community, especially when its members are facing up to Jesus’ question about who he is.

So perhaps there is a lot of encouragement that our community can take from today’s gospel. It is an important gospel especially for those of you who are the youth of the community. Don’t be afraid to face up to the question of who Jesus is and of what faith in him means to you. If you face up to it honestly God will reveal to you the truth about his Son and will help you to allow him to shape and guide your lives. God wants your faith to develop and mature in such a way that you become leaders not only in this community but also in the Australian society at large. It is through you that Jesus’ message of wholeness and holiness, of unity and reconciliation will be seen by our society. It is you who will help shape the future for us all. May your faith guide you in that task!

Fr. Gerard Kelly

16TH SUNDAY (A) 17 July 2011

We probably need to be first century farmers to properly understand what Jesus is saying in this parable of the wheat and the weeds or the wheat and the darnel. The image is of the farmer who comes out in the morning and sees the first shoots of the wheat that he has planted. They are tiny and very green. His enemy has come by night to sow darnel, a type of weed. The problem is that, like the wheat, when it first starts to shoot it is tiny and very green. How is the farmer going to distinguish one from the other? If he tries to weed out the darnel he will probably take a lot of the good wheat with it. Jesus uses this parable because he knows that every farmer would wait until harvest time to start weeding out the rubbish.

But Jesus is not really interested in giving a lesson in farming. So why does he tell the parable? I think there are several messages in it. One of the messages is really addressed to those who are disappointed because there doesn’t seem to be much sign of the coming of the kingdom. As they look around they still see both good and evil, people whose lives are obvious examples of love and selflessness, but also people who lie and cheat and exploit others. Jesus is addressing their disappointment that the kingdom that he has been preaching is not coming quickly enough. In our own day this can be seen in those who abandon the Christian life because they say that Christianity is making no difference in the world, or because they see in the church examples of ways of living that are the complete opposite of what Jesus has preached. The message of the parable is really one of hope. Jesus is calling on them to keep alive their hope in the truth of his message, and not to abandon it in despair. Hope can be nurtured if people understand the dynamics of the coming kingdom of God. Jesus’ message is that God has begun to reign and that his reign is gradually taking heart in the world. God isn’t acting like some magician who suddenly changes the way things are. Rather, God has sown a seed and it is growing steadily. Yes, it is growing in the midst of the bad seed, the weeds, but it is growing. God is waiting until the harvest is ripe before pulling out the weeds. Jesus is asking his followers to wait with God, to be patient, and to live in the hope that when the harvest is ready the kingdom will be clearly visible.

Another message of the parable is addressed to individuals and to their own experience of failure and disappointment. The more you listen to the gospel and seek to live it in your life the more you become aware of the movements in your own heart; you become more self-conscious. We have traditionally spoken of this as examining our conscience. The Christian life is an examined life. All of us probably realise that despite all our best intentions and best efforts we often find ourselves doing things we regret and that disappoint us. The question we face is how we should deal with this. Jesus’ message is that sometimes the good and the bad in us are closely linked. Parents know this instinctively. They often tolerate something unpleasant in their young child’s behaviour because they know that to try to stop it might crush the child’s spirit and the child might not flourish. Often it is a matter of being able to tame the wild parts of our life so that they can be used for good and so that our character grows. While parents seem to know this instinctively, as we grow up we can become quite intolerant of our weaknesses – we don’t know how to deal with them. Some people end up being very hard on themselves, so that while they might finally eliminate all that disappoints them from their life, they also crush the God-given spirit of freedom and thus they never fully live at their potential. Jesus is saying that God is patient with us – just as the farmer allows the wheat and the darnel to grow together – so we also should be patient with ourselves.

There is one other message in Jesus’ parable, and it is connected to the previous two; and it concerns how we think of God. We should make no mistake: Jesus is challenging the people about the way they think of God. At the time of Jesus there were various groups of religious zealots who were working hard to purify religion. They interpreted the law very strictly, and, as Jesus says, they laid heavy burdens of people’s shoulders. In some sense Jesus is condemning them and pointing out that their actions can lead to greater evil. In seeking to weed out all the darnel they are also killing the good wheat. God is not like this; God is not like a religious zealot. Religious zealotry is often a characteristic of difficult and troubled times; it is often a sign that people feel under threat. Jesus acknowledges this, but he calls for hope. In a time of threat the virtue of hope is needed more than ever.

There is something common is the three messages of the parable that I have mentioned. Whether it be the disillusionment with the slowness of the coming kingdom of God and the seeming absence of God, or disappointment with our own personal fidelity to the gospel, or the temptation to religious zealotry – the thing that is common is the temptation to want to leave God aside. In one extreme form of this we can give up on God and abandon the Christian life; in a different manifestation of it we can think that we’re able to make everything right. Jesus says that in each of these cases the thing that is really needed is hope in God. God is patient with the world, with us, with the church. The kingdom is coming, and it is coming slowly. We are invited to imitate the patience of God and to persevere.

Fr Gerard Kelly

Happy B'day Mrs Yau and Mrs Ho

Happy Birthday

4th SUNDAY EASTER (A)

FOURTH SUNDAY EASTER (A) 15 May 2011

In this time after Easter our liturgy encourages us to get on with living the baptismal life we either received at Easter or renewed at Easter. We are reminded that living the Christian life is like a long distance race: we need to move steadily on this journey. It is not as though we are somehow transported away from the daily grind of modern living or that we have received some sort of inoculation against doubt, distraction or even sometimes defeat. The Easter season is a time to grow in faith and in our commitment to the life of the baptised – but not by turning our back on the modern world. On the contrary, this life must be lived in the midst of the modern world with all of its complexity.

Let’s consider how the parable of the shepherd might help us. The first thing we notice in the parable is the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. The shepherd is not just doing a job by looking after the sheep; he is more like a father to them. He knows each one by name and can call out to them. The remarkable thing – at least to our mind – is that they follow him. They instinctively know his voice; they recognise it above all of the other voices that are trying to attract their attention. They instinctively know that if they follow him they will be safe.

Lurking in the background of the parable is a feeling that the world of the shepherd and the sheep was not an innocent world. In fact it was a complicated world and a competitive world where there was not a great sense of justice. There were people in this world who wanted to invade the sheepfold and steal the sheep. They wanted to lead them astray. They would try to lure the sheep by calling their name and hoping that they would feel secure enough to follow them. But their real intention was to harm the sheep and destroy them.

Why does Jesus tell this short parable? It is a parable that is as much about him as it was about the people who were listening to him. This was a time when there were lots of people out there trying to attract followers. It seemed that many of them thought that if they yelled out loud enough people would follow them. These people were seeking power more than anything else. Their idea was that if they became powerful enough they could shape the society in the way that suited them. At the time of Jesus there was a leadership vacuum in that society, and there were various groups and individuals struggling to get power. There was a large amount of dissatisfaction and confusion among ordinary people, so they were often willing to follow the person or group that cried out the loudest or made the most promises.

In this context Jesus presents himself as a true leader, as a good shepherd. In doing this he stands out from others who would be leaders. They fail because they are not like good shepherds who put the welfare of the sheep above everything else. Jesus, on the other hand, is like the shepherd in the parable. He knows his sheep – in fact he can call each one by name. They follow him, and he protects them. In a rich image in the parable he likens himself to the shepherd who lies down across the gateway of the sheepfold so that the robbers cannot get in. The point is obvious: he lays down his life so that others may have life.As we listen to this parable of the shepherd we should ponder how it can help us live the Christian life we received in baptism. The first thing it prompts us to do is to acknowledge and recognise that there are many voices in our world which are looking for our attention. Usually they are offering us happiness and contentment. Perhaps more than in previous generations, there is now no longer one predominant voice that speaks about the values we wish to live by. We are confronted with massive choice. This means that we need to continually ask ourselves where our true happiness lies. Does it lie in having more things? Does it lie in having power and authority? Does it lie in getting to the top of the ladder ahead of everyone else? In the midst of all the voices and choices in our world we need to be able to distinguish what will give us happiness for a short time from what will give us happiness that will stay with us throughout our life. We have to ask the question, what is going to fulfil my deepest desires and needs.

This is where listening to the voice of the shepherd is important. In our baptism we recognise that the life Jesus offers is truly the one that will touch us at the level of our deepest longings and desires. Through our baptism we were drawn into his life – his risen life. We were filled with the Holy Spirit who teaches us instinctively to recognise the voice of the Good Shepherd. During the season of Easter we have an opportunity to sharpen that instinct, so that we will hear more clearly his voice above the many others voices trying to attract our attention. Baptism does not mean that we run away from this world, but rather that we listen attentively to the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow his way with joy.

Fr. Gerard Kelly

Passion (Palm) Sunday (A) 2011

For five weeks we have been on a journey through Lent. This is a season that asks a number of things of us. In the first place, it asks that we make space to pause and look at our life. We have been doing this by listening to the readings week by week, and allowing them to help us focus on our belief in Jesus. While it has been important that we have found time to pause, Lent has also demanded of us that we be on the move and that we change. Often over these weeks you have probably heard reference to the Lenten journey. In a very obvious way it is a journey towards Easter and will conclude next week. But it is also a spiritual journey where we try to move from one point in our life to another. This is what we mean when we speak of conversion. During Lent the impetus for conversion comes from getting to know Jesus and the gospel he proclaimed. The more clearly we know him the more clearly we will see our own lives and know where we need reform.

We have probably also come to realise during Lent that change and conversion are not immediate. We don’t suddenly wake up one day being different people, even if we might wish it. That is why we also speak of conversion as a journey. It takes time; it takes patience; and it takes perseverance. For this reason, the journey of Lent can be likened to a pilgrimage. Pilgrims know where they are heading, and they know that they have to travel a certain distance each day. They also know that they need to pace themselves so that they are not so exhausted by one day’s journey that they are unable to continue the next day. Pilgrims look for support on their journey. That support may come from mediating on a scene from the life of Jesus, or from other pilgrims who give advice on how to make progress on the next stage of the pilgrimage, or from the places they pass through each day.

On our Lenten pilgrimage Palm Sunday is an important day. The scene of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem has something of a pilgrimage quality to it. Crowds join Jesus and want to make the journey with him. On this pilgrimage they will come to know who he is. All the imagery of the scene – the donkey, the cloaks on the back of the donkey, and the palms on the ground – gives the impression that this is a royal occasion. Here Jesus comes among them as the long-awaited Messiah. They shout Hosanna. They welcome him without hesitation. But even in the gesture of riding on the donkey he is giving one important clarification about his identity. He is not exactly the sort of Messiah that they were expecting. As the gospel tells us, he is humble and rides on a beast of burden. So at this important moment on this
pilgrimage their understanding of the Messiah is being purified. Their knowledge of Jesus as the Messiah will be challenged and purified in the following days.

The incredible thing about Palm Sunday is that the mood so quickly changes. The chants of “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessing on him who comes in the name of the Lord” will have changed within a few days to chants of “Crucify him!” The pilgrimage route has moved from the royal road paved with palm branches to the way of the cross, where he is mocked and scorned. Surely this will challenge his followers even more to purify their image of the Messiah.

This week we will journey with him on this pilgrimage. This will be a time to learn the meaning of the violence and insults that Jesus endured. It will be a time to recognise that in the end, violence was a complete failure. Yes, it will take the eyes of faith to recognise this, and to see in the face of Jesus the gaze of divine love. During this week, and especially next weekend, let’s walk with him and allow ourselves to be loved by him. This means taking a risk, because in being confronted by his love we will begin to see more clearly our own need of conversion. Then we will know that our pilgrimage has borne fruit.

Fr. Gerard Kelly

Cantonese translation of homily

Homily translation by Mr. Louis Kong

Homily 6th SUNDAY (A) 2011-02-13



Homily 7th SUNDAY (A) 2011-02-20




Lent

Homily First Sunday of Lent (A) 2011-03-13



Homily Second Sunday of Lent (A) 2011-03-20

2nd SUNDAY OF LENT (A) 20 March 2011

Cantonese translation of the homily

Of all the seasons in the Church’s year Lent is probably the one that we engage in most energetically. Perhaps it is because there are often very concrete things to do in Lent. Most of us, I suppose, have already decided on what our Lenten penance will be this year. Traditionally, people gave up something that they enjoyed eating. During the week I met someone and offered him a cup of coffee, but he told me that he had given up coffee for Lent. The week before I was having a meal with a group of people and a couple of them didn’t drink any wine. They had obviously given it up for Lent. I know other people who decide that during Lent they will spend additional time in prayer. Maybe it might be going to the church for a devotion like the Stations of the Cross, maybe it is reading a passage from one of the gospels each day. There are also many people who use Project Compassion as the main way they undertake their Lenten penance. This can combine the three traditional forms of penance: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The money that they would have spent on themselves they put into Project Compassion, where it will be distributed to the poor and needy. They also remember these poor and needy people in their prayers during Lent.

Despite the fact that Lenten observance goes back to the earliest days of the church, it can be easy to forget why we practise some form of penance during Lent. In some way or other it has to connect us with the purpose of Lent. I think the best way to think of Lent is to see it as a journey that is leading us to the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus at Easter. So Lent is a time to keep our gaze fixed on Jesus and to learn what he is about. It is a time to deepen our commitment to being one of his disciples. This, of course, is the point of the other thing that happens for each of us at the end of Lent, namely that we renew our baptism – or some might be preparing for baptism.

In a very concrete and practical way Lent is about renewing our identity as followers of Jesus. There are so many ways we can express this, and each of them gives a certain perspective on Lent. We could say that Lent has to do with our identity as the children of God, or as people made in the image of God. We could say that it has to do with our lives as the inheritors of God’s promise or as the people of God. However we describe it, it takes us right back to the fact that each one of us has recognised a call from God and a gift from God. Lent is an opportunity to open out ears to hear that call in a new and fresh way, and to see that gift a something that is still offered to us.

The story of Abraham in the first reading is relevant here and has something to teach us. I imagine that his experience of God calling him was both dramatic and frightening. It would have seemed impossible that he could become the father of a great nation. During his life there were times when it did seem impossible, and other times when he was tested. But he and his descendants regularly remembered that original call and were able to focus their lives so that they allowed God’s promise to unfold among them.

In a not unrelated way the three disciples who saw Jesus transfigured saw something that must have looked totally unreal. They saw Jesus in a new light and this had an impact on the way they saw their own lives. What they were seeing was a glimpse of the future – not just Jesus’ future, but also their own. God was revealing something to them, namely that Jesus is God’s son and that he is doing the Father’s will. They didn’t understand Jesus’ teaching that he had to suffer and die, but their experience that day was a guarantee that God’s promise would be fulfilled. The voice from the cloud tells them to listen to Jesus: he is the way to God’s future.

I’m sure I would be right in saying that none of us has an experience of God as intense as that of Abraham or of the three disciples on the mountain with Jesus. However, all of us have very real experiences of God. The problem can be that we sometimes don’t recognise them – we don’t see and we don’t hear. I think the point of our Lenten penance is that we do something that will help us to see and hear the revelation of God. Another way of putting this is to say that our Lenten penance should make space in our lives for God. Sometimes it is not until we get well into Lent that we realise how crowded our lives can become and how unresponsive we have become to what is happening around us. Peter, James and John had to go to a high mountain away from the normal daily activities before they were ready to see Jesus as they had never seen him before.

I came across an article in the newspaper last week about a Year 12 girl in a Sydney school who had decided to give up Facebook for Lent. Already she was noticing that she had more space in her life for a different type of engagement with her friends. I think she might have worked out the meaning of Lent. This is the task for each of us: to let Lent lead us once more into the promise of God and thus help us receive his gracious gifts.

Fr. Gerard Kelly