Annual Archdiocesan Agencies and Organisations Mass 
Feast of St Ignatius of Loyola

Homily

Most Rev Timothy Costelloe SDB
Archbishop of Perth

Wednesday 31 July 2024
St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth
 

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Today we gather here in the Cathedral for our annual Mass for all those who share in the life and ministry of the Church here in our Archdiocese through their involvement, your involvement, in one of our many outreach and faith-formation agencies.

We do so as an expression of gratitude to all of you who have responded generously to a call you have identified in your own hearts. It is a call to make service of others, in the name of Christ, not just a part of your private lives, but very much a public and professional commitment to helping the Lord to fulfil His promise that wherever two or more people gather in his name, he would be there with them. Through your lives of generous and faithful service, you bring the presence of Christ into places which often reach far beyond the visible boundaries of the Church.

As Christians we know, of course, that the gratitude we owe to each other is ultimately a true and faithful expression of the gratitude we owe to God. In this regard, I am reminded of a prayer which we use during the ordination of deacons, priests and bishops: May God who has begun the good work in you bring it to fulfilment. It is God who calls us into life; it is God who calls people into His Church; it is God who plants in our hearts a desire to serve others; it is God who has led you, perhaps in unexpected ways, to a work of service within the Catholic community. And so this morning, in thanking all of you, I am thanking God for the gift which you are to the work of the Catholic Church here in our Archdiocese, and for the gift which you are to the many people whose lives you enrich.

Yesterday I visited some young people in one of our parishes who are soon to be confirmed. One of the things we talked about was the tradition which we follow here in Perth of asking candidates for Confirmation to choose a patron saint whose name they will take on. One of the young people told me that she had taken the name Cecilia. I asked her why, expecting her to tell me that Saint Cecilia was the patron saint of musicians and singers and that she chose Saint Cecilia because she also loved music. Instead, this young girl told me that it was because her parents were particularly fond of a song by Simon & Garfunkel called Cecilia. This led me to say to the young people that there could be all kinds of reasons why they may have chosen their particular patron saint: perhaps it was a tradition in the family, or it was the name of a close relative, or the name of their sporting hero. But in the end, I suggested to them, perhaps it was God at work, in these very ordinary and down-to-earth ways, leading each young person to a saint whose life had something important that God wanted them to take notice of.

I suspect this is true for all of us in the decisions we make from time to time. There may have been all kinds of reasons why each of you made the decision to apply for a position in one of our agencies. Some of those reasons may have been explicitly faith-based, others may have been more to do with a desire to be involved in some kind of social-outreach activity, others again may simply have been because you were looking for a new position, you became aware of this particular job opportunity, and it just seemed to be the best option available at the time.

But if we believe in God and believe that God cares about the world which He has created, and which He sustains, and which He loves, then we will understand instinctively that God can and does work in all kinds of ways, often perhaps hidden from us, to achieve His purposes. Each one of us here in the Cathedral this morning is here because God has brought us here.

This invites us to ask ourselves why. What is God wanting to do through us? Who is God wanting to reach through us? Who and what is God calling each of us to become?

These are the fundamental questions of our faith. They are challenging and perhaps even unsettling questions because they invite us to ask ourselves about the foundations upon which we are building our lives. Our two readings this morning, from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and from the gospel of Matthew, both point us in this direction. Paul had no hesitation in saying quite simply to the members of that early Christian community that everything they did, even down to what they ate and drank, should be done for the glory of God. Behind this, of course, is Paul’s absolute conviction that to be a Christian is to have the awareness of God at the centre of everything - every detail, every activity - of daily life. There was no sense in Paul that religion was something to be confined to one hour of one day of each week, or that religion was only concerned with what went on inside the church building. Rather religion, and certainly the Christian religion, is about making sure that we never do anything offensive to anybody; that we try to be helpful to everyone at all times; that we make decisions based on what is best for others, rather than simply what is best for us.

The parable which Jesus tells in this morning’s gospel about the kingdom of heaven also makes the point that religion is not, or at least should not be, something peripheral to our lives. Once we understand what being a part of God’s kingdom really means, Jesus seems to be saying, nothing will be too much of an effort as we seek to become and remain part of that kingdom. 

Paul sums it all up by saying to the people in Corinth, “Take me for your model as I take Christ”.

In the end, our Christian faith is all about taking Christ as the model for our lives.  This is the fulfilment to which the prayer I spoke about earlier refers. By calling each of us to be a part of the life and mission of the Archdiocese of Perth, God has begun a good work in us: that work will come to its fulfilment when we can say to each other, and to those whom we serve, not just or even primarily in words but much more in deeds, “Take me for your model as I take Christ.” This is the best gift we can offer each other, and it is the best gift we can offer all those with whom and for whom we work. So, may God who has begun this good work in us bring it to fulfilment.