Third Wednesday of Easter (Year A)
Spiritan Congregation

Homily

Most Rev Timothy Costelloe SDB
Archbishop of Perth

Wednesday 22 April, 2026
St John's Pro-Cathedral, Perth

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But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.

These words from today’s Gospel are an invitation for all of us to reflect on the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives as individuals and as communities. While this is true for all Christians it is perhaps particularly true for you who bear the name Spiritans. The Church is greatly enriched by the variety of religious congregations and religious orders which, in their own unique way, bear witness to the unfathomable richness of the mystery of Christ. Whenever I find myself in the midst of a group of religious to celebrate the Eucharist with them I always find myself inviting them, as I want to invite you today, to reflect on what special gift of grace, what special insight into the great mystery of Christ, you are invited to manifest to each other and to all those with whom and for whom you live and work. Nearly always at least part of the answer is in the beginnings and early history of the Congregation which in your case reaches back to the early years of the eighteenth century in France: care for the poor and marginalised, support for priestly vocations, the spreading of the Gospel wherever the opportunity arises, all undertaken with a strong sense of the overshadowing presence of the Spirit of God. 

As someone looking in from outside, my sense is that you are a community of men who are called by your vocation to be Pentecost people, men on fire with the apostolic zeal which so energised the life and preaching of the infant Church. 

In my case, as a Salesian of Don Bosco, it is in Don Bosco‘s choice of Saint Francis de Sales as our inspiration that Salesians discover the special gift of grace that we are called to keep alive and vibrant for the sake of all God’s people. Don Bosco was drawn to what he called the zeal and the gentle loving kindness of Saint Francis de Sales, and the way in which this gave expression to that quality of meekness and humility of heart that characterised all Jesus’ dealings with people. Don Bosco wanted the members of his Congregation to bear witness in their lives together and in their ministry to the young to this humble, simple and gentle gospel style.

It is not for me as a Salesian to tell you what it is that lies at the heart of the dream, the vision, of the two men who, in an unusual twist of ecclesial history, stand at the origins of your Congregation. I would, however, want to encourage you to continue to delve deeply into the story, the inspiration and the spirituality of your founders as you seek to understand more deeply how all of that is to be translated into your lives together today and into the mission and ministry you fulfil in the Church and in our wider society.

Both your life lived together and the variety of ministries which you undertake are equally gifts of the Spirit to the Church. As Pope Saint Paul VI reminded us on Evangelii nuntiandi:

People today listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if they do listen to teachers, it is because they are first witnesses.

While this is true of every Christian it is in a particularly significant way true of all those whom we might describe, in a positive rather than negative way, as professional Christians. Surely we, who profess the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, might think of ourselves as numbered among the professional, or perhaps better, the professed, Christians. I am a little biased, of course, but I think that the Salesian Constitutions capture something of this when they say that 

In a world tempted by atheism and the idolatry of pleasure, possessions and power, our way of life bears witness ……. that God exists, that His love can fill a life completely, and that the need to love, the urge to possess and the freedom to control one’s whole existence, find their fullest meaning in Christ the Saviour.

The key to understanding this lies in the fact that this passage speaks globally of the way of life of a religious family and not simply of their apostolic mission. 

Many of the religious families which sprang up in the Church in the last few centuries, like yours, are unequivocally active. We do not enclose ourselves in monasteries or commit ourselves to long hours of communal prayer. We are people on a mission, convinced that God has called us and is sending us to bring the Good News to the poor wherever they may be. We do not generally wait for people to come to us: we go out to them. We are active, apostolic religious ready to go wherever we are needed. And yes, we go as teachers, but our teaching must form part of a larger reality, the reality of our witnessing. It is not only in what we say but also and much more importantly in the quality of the relationships we foster, and the practical witness to the dignity of every human person which we give, which need to be at the heart of our apostolic mission. This is why our life together as religious, however that is organised practically, is so important. If the Church, according to the Second Vatican Council, is called to be a sacrament of communion with God and of unity among all people, then the Congregation of the Holy Spirit is also called to be a sacrament of communion with God and a unity among the members of your congregation. 

When we are open to the animating power of the Holy Spirit, as you as Spiritans are certainly called to be, then we will find at the heart of our lives that constant call to remember all that Jesus has said and done. The Holy Spirit, if we open our lives to Him, will teach us everything and remind us of all that Jesus has said, and continues to say, to us. When we are faithful to the word of Jesus, we become much more than teachers: we become witnesses. This is the vocation we all share. It is the vocation which you are called to live out according to the spirit and charism of your congregation.