Social Justice

Grounded in faith and reality

Tuesday 14 August 2012

By Denis Fitzgerald
Kairos Catholic Journal

ST Mary MacKillop died on 8 August 1909 at the age of 67, and on that date each year we now celebrate her feast day. Wednesday 8 August 2012 is the second time we have celebrated her feast day since Mary’s canonisation on 17 October 2010.

A feast day is an occasion when we are invited to remember, to celebrate, and to honour the saint in question. In doing this, we thank God for their lives, and we aspire to emulate their holiness. We can also seek their intercession.

We can do these things at any time. But a feast day reminds us to turn our attention to the particular saint. So, at this time of year, we are invited to again remember, celebrate and honour Mary MacKillop.

The life and work of St Mary MacKillop are relatively well-known to many Australians, as so much was said and written at the time of her canonisation.

At a conference in Melbourne last year to explore her influence on Catholic social services, Patrice Scales, now chair of Catholic Social Services Victoria, summed up by inviting all present to confidently “go forward and be troublesome like Mary, as there is much work to be done”. Patrice also emphasised that the virtues which sustained Mary included faith, hope and courage.

In looking back on the conference, Professor John Warhurst recently reflected: “Mary’s life and work resonates with contemporary issues: how to serve, how to build partnerships with others, how to advocate for justice and the poor in the public square and how to speak to all Australians confident in our Catholic mission.”

He quoted Cardinal George Pell, in his homily at St Mary’s canonisation: Mary’s example and teachings
—about forgiveness, about resisting hardness of heart, and about working to overcome evil, refusing to be disheartened or defeated by it—speak to women and men well beyond our shores and in all ages.

Josephite sister Katrina Brill, a keynote speaker at the conference, had earlier written in a similar vein: Because she is so Australian and was at one with the poor and the needy, Mary is a good model today for all who strive to give everyone a ‘fair go’. She embodies all that is good and caring in the Australian psyche. She was not afraid to step out to do what was needed even when it was against the prevailing conventions in the Church and society.

Mary’s life was grounded in an engagement with reality—Mary spoke about ‘listening with the heart’—and, as Jenny Glare, manager of Heritage and Information Services at MacKillop Family Services, showed in her workshop at the conference, this also meant facing up to the unintended consequences of well-intentioned actions.

There are many other lessons, and Warhurst has distilled the following: Mary’s life and example show us that advocacy for justice, representation of the poor and hard work on their behalf are integral to doing justice.

Her life makes clear that faith, and therefore spiritual formation, is at the heart of service and doing justice.

Mary showed the way in cooperating with other people and organisations to work for the common good.

Mary MacKillop was thus a modern saint for all, but her heritage is called on in a particular way at MacKillop Family Services and other works that carry her name.

Paul Linossier, a former leader of MacKillop Family Services, reminded us that within our organisations and our society we needed to nurture those who embodied the mission and the charism, without whom the mission would fade.

The celebration of Mary’s feast day helps to make such nurturing part of the pattern of the year, and enables more and more to be led into the ranks of those who embody the mission. It reminds us that our own spiritual formation and the deepening of our faith commitment are intimately linked to our work of service and doing justice.

So, as we celebrate the Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop in 2012, we can build on all that we have learnt about her in recent years. We can do this as we thank God for her life, and as we seek her intercession on our behalf to enable us to emulate her recognisably Australian holiness: grounded in faith and in reality, and devoted to service to others and to work for justice.

Papers from the 2011 conference are available at www.css.org.au/marymackillop

Denis Fitzgerald is Executive Director, Catholic Social Services Victoria.