Archbishop's Homilies 2002

Address by Archbishop Denis Hart to the Guild of St Stephen

at Luther College
on Wednesday, 25th September, 2002, at 12.00pm

...

My dear friends,

It is a great joy to be with you today at your conference. I thank you, and I thank the Diocesan Director, Father Pritchard, for your kind invitation.

I am particularly pleased to offer Holy Mass for Vocations, surrounded by members of the Guild of Saint Stephen. The Church receives many priestly vocations from former altar servers. We pray today that many more will hear the call and come forward to join those who have already entered our seminaries and religious orders.

The Sacred Liturgy is something very close to my own heart. In liturgy we follow in the footsteps of Saint Stephen. Stephen, as I am sure you all know, was a deacon in the early Church and it is from the Greek word diakonia, meaning service, that we understand why we are all here today. Those who have the great privilege to take their places in the sanctuary offer a true service to Our Lord Jesus Christ. Together we serve the altar of God first and by serving his altar we serve his people.

This is a great privilege, a privilege I know you all cherish. Our servers are not just ‘on show’ before the congregation: they are ‘in service’ to the congregation, and to God.

In church our focus is of course on God and not on people, on the Blessed Sacrament and not on priests and servers. But people can be drawn to the Lord because of how those in the sanctuary behave. The dignity and high standards of our priests and servers show reverence for God and so can help give a lead to the congregation. This means that altar servers have a very responsible role and so should treat each other — and treat themselves — with great respect. Altar servers treat the sacred vessels with respect, so they should certainly treat themselves with respect!

Having proper respect for yourselves will mean thinking of what you are to do later in life. Many are called eventually to Christian marriage and to raising a family; others are called to priesthood or to religious orders. Like the disciples in today’s Gospel, those who are called receive a special commission from Jesus.

The disciples received Jesus’s authority to teach, to cure, and to spread the Gospel. When the time comes, we must all ask ourselves: what is God asking of me? What sort of service does he ask of me now that I am growing up?

So I ask you to join me today in praying that God will continue to call young men to serve the altars — not only as servers, but also as priests. Our priests do marvellous work. Sometimes they are persecuted. But then, like Paul and Silas in the first reading, they will pray, support each other, and perhaps even convert their persecutors by their witness.

The Guild of Saint Stephen offers great witness to the faith and I am deeply grateful for the service you provide. I pray for each one of you today — that you will discover your true vocation and that you will remain ever faithful to the service of the altar.

 

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.