Fifteenth Sunday Ordinary Time (Year B)
Marian Movement for Priests

Homily

Most Rev Timothy Costelloe SDB
Archbishop of Perth

Sunday 14 July 2024
Holy Spirit Church, City Beach Parish

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In this morning’s second reading from the letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians we find expressed in very beautiful and soaring language a truth which is at the very heart of our Christian faith: that in Christ, the Word of God given to us as a precious gift by the Father, God has blessed us, and indeed continues to bless us, with all the spiritual blessings of heaven. The blessings of life, of love, of joy, of peace, of hope, of pardon - all of these, and so much more - are gifts which God continues to give us, continues to hold out to us and will never withhold from us because, as Saint Paul tells us this morning, even before the world was made God knew us, God had chosen us, and God is calling us to be holy, to be spotless, to live through love in His presence. What this means, Saint Paul tells us, is that we are God’s adopted sons and daughters, whose lives are meant to be a hymn of praise to the glory of God’s grace through which we are set free to be the people God has created us to be.

This is the richness, this is the beauty, this is the wonder of the gift of faith which God has given us, not because we have done anything to deserve it but simply because, in the great mystery of His divine plan, it is we whom God has chosen to be, together, as faithful members of his holy Church, the signs and bearers of his love for all people. The gift of faith which we have received and for which, hopefully, we are deeply grateful, is a gift which becomes a task, a mission. If it is true, as the Scriptures assure us, that God wishes for all people to be saved, then it becomes clear that the mission of the Church - our mission as members of the Church, the living Body of Christ - is to do all that we can, in the concrete reality of our own lives, to be living and effective signs, to be living “sacraments” we might even say, of the ongoing presence of Christ in the world as the teacher, as the healer, as the reconciler, as, in the words of Pope Francis, the “face of the Father’s mercy”.

All of this is summed up by Saint Paul when he reminds us that, in Christ, we have been claimed as God’s own, chosen from the beginning, to be the people - not just individuals but the people who together, united in faith and action, would put their hopes in Christ.

This is what it is to be given the great gift, the great privilege, and the great mission, of being part of the Lord’s Church. And it is within this great mystery of the Lord’s Church, and of our belonging to it through God’s gracious gift, that we can understand the importance of Mary who, at the foot of the cross, was given to the whole Church to be our mother. We all know that in the present divided state of Christianity, one of the essential elements of Christian faith which we in the Catholic tradition have preserved in a particularly powerful way is the importance of Mary at the heart of the Church. We are not alone in this, of course. The Eastern Orthodox Churches also maintain a deep appreciation of the role of the mother of Christ, as do many parts of the Anglican communion. There is also a growing realisation of Mary’s role in many of the Christian traditions which stem from the Reformation. For us as Catholics, what is particularly characteristic of our tradition is the understanding, which was reinforced so strongly in the Second Vatican Council, that Mary can best be understood as the Mother of the Church. And this, of course, is because, in God’s providence, Mary has been chosen to be the mother of Christ - and the Church is the Body of Christ. Because through our baptism we are united intimately with Christ, He shares all He has and is with us. United so closely to Him, we are drawn into the profound love of Mary for her son. And so, her deepest desire for us is that we should live to the full our communion with Him.

God chose us, God chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless and to live through love in His presence. It is because we are in Christ that we are called to live this way. it is because we are in Christ that we are loved by Mary with the same love with which she loves her Son. It is because we are in Christ that Mary says to us, as she said to the stewards at the wedding feast in Cana, “Do whatever He tells you”. This is precisely what Mary says to each one of those called to the ordained ministry as deacons, priests or bishops. It is precisely what Mary says to each one of us who has been given the gift of baptism. It is precisely what Mary says to each one of us as members of God’s one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church: be holy and spotless, live through love in God’s presence, praise the glory of His grace, put your hope in Christ, make God’s glory praised.

Mary, Mother of the Church and Help of Christians, pray for us.