Archbishop Hart
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Homilies Archbishop's Homilies 2008 Second Catechesis for World Youth Day
| Second Catechesis for World Youth Day |
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ADDRESS GIVEN BY ARCHBISHOP DENIS HART AT THE SECOND CATECHESIS FOR WORLD YOUTH DAY ON THURSDAY, 17TH JULY 2008 AT 9.30 A.M., AT SYDNEY CONVENTION & EXHIBITION CENTRE, DARLING HARBOUR. “The Holy Spirit, Soul of the Church” “For in one Spirit, we were all baptised into one body; and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Cor 12:13) My dear young friends, Let us stop and think for a moment, how many friends do you have? How would you categorise them? Some would be very close with very deep sharing, with whom we spend a lot of time. Others would be people with the same ideals. Others too might share a common recreation, in sport or artistic pursuits, or in activities that we undertake; they can be part of our life, but they are not our whole life. Knowing that Jesus is our God we are seeking to love him. The love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, the breath of life, the giver of God’s grace to us, we want to talk about who are our real friends. When Jesus came down on earth he was born with Mary his Mother, Joseph his foster father, who was a carpenter, in a stable in surroundings of poverty. Although he lived on earth for thirty-three years as God and man, he had twelve close followers, another seventy-two disciples and crowds of people who followed him because they hung on every word. Still we could say that when Jesus as God fulfilled his mission to live and die for us, rise again and return to his Father, all of this was part of God’s programme by which he would show his love for each of us. But we would have to admit that he only knew a relatively small number of people in a remote province of the then powerful Roman Empire. It was after he returned to the Father when the Holy Spirit came that a radical transformation took place. Peter, John and the other apostles who had been gathered with Mary in the upper room praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit, yet afraid of the Jews and what they would do to them, suddenly became transformed. They received the Spirit on their heads in the form of tongues of fire. Pope Benedict wrote in his Message for the World Youth Day: “On the evening of the day of resurrection Jesus appeared to his disciples, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘receive the Holy Spirit’”. (John 20:22) With even greater power the Holy Spirit came on the apostles on the day of Pentecost. We read in the Acts of the Apostles: “and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues as a fire appeared among them and a tongue rested on each of them.” (Acts 2:2-3) The Holy Spirit renewed the apostles from within, filling them with a power that would give them courage to go out and boldly proclaim that Christ has died and is risen, from their earlier hiding in fear they began to speak openly with self-confidence.” Notice the transformation. Frightened fishermen became courageous heralds of the Gospel. Peter and John baptised six thousand people in one day. This went on and on and on. Even though their enemies could not understand. Because of their lack of education they were not prominent, they could show such courage and endure difficulties, suffering and persecution with joy. Nothing could stop them. To those who tried to silence them, they replied, “we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard”. (Acts 4:20) So the Church, enlivened and enriched by the Spirit, goes out to proclaim Jesus. Ordinary people doing extraordinary work. We are members of that Church, the Body of Christ; a living organism, given life and enriched by the many gifts of the Holy Spirit. You know in Confirmation you received the gifts; wisdom, understanding, right judgement, knowledge, courage, reverence, wonder and awe. Among believers in love with Jesus, young people like you have responded to the invitation which God gives to you and me today. We can see peace, joy, happiness, kindness, gentleness and self-control. Jesus returned to the Father after his mission as God, yet human like us, to show us the way and inviting us, “love one another as I have loved you”. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the Son, to do in a far more wonderful way what he had done, showing us God’s call and his nearness to our lives. Immediately after Pentecost there was a great burst of life and faith coming from the apostles, destined to all people of all times and bringing them to holiness. Jesus loves each of us as if we are the only person in the world. He personally invites us to be touched by love as we are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Confirmation and given a oneness with our sisters and brothers in the Church. We are members of a great family called to a new way of life, which is authentic and lasting. The Second Vatican Council (in the document on The Church) said: “Christ lifted up from the earth had drawn all men to himself. Rising from the dead he sent his life-giving spirit upon his disciples and through them set up his Body, which is the Church, as the universal sacrament of salvation. Sitting at the right hand of the Father, Jesus is continually active in the world in order to lead people to the Church and through it join them more closely to himself and by nourishing them with his own body and blood, making them sharers of his glorious life. The promised and hoped for restoration has already begun in Christ. It is carried forward in the sending of the Holy Spirit and through him continues in the Church in which through our faith we learn the meaning of our earthly life while we bring to term with hope of future good the task allotted to us in the world by the Father and so work out our salvation.” (Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium, 48) So in the Church we are brothers and sisters. The Pope, the successor of Saint Peter, the bishops, the successors of the apostles, priests, their co-workers, and consecrated people and faithful are members of a great family, all in love with Jesus Christ, responding to the invitation he has given and pressing onward to renew the world. The Church to which all are called in Christ Jesus, which is the means of holiness will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven. So we are people on a journey. The Church is the means Jesus gave to bring people to God and unite them in his life. The Church is essential for salvation, essential for authentic following of Jesus Christ. We know this because Jesus said: “Whoever hears you, hears me.” Or at the end of Saint Matthew’s Gospel: “Go and teach all people my Gospel, teach them to believe all these things that I have told you and I will be with you all days even to the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:19) Or again: “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:18-20) Jesus’ words to Peter and to the apostles make God’s plan quite clear. The way in which we journey to God is following closely the life and teaching of the Church. Jesus chose this way and has given his own authority and support to the Church. As we prepare to meet our Holy Father we know our true home, the Church that Jesus gave us, united in faith and love despite our imperfections. In the Church salvation is to be found. Here alone is found the unity of the Spirit. Because Confirmation makes Baptismal grace perfect, it is the moment when we become adult members of the Church, God lives within us and this treasure brings forth fruits of holiness. The Pope reminds us to see where the Church fits in. From the upper room comes the Christian community, which Jesus established at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We are of one heart and one soul with Jesus and with his visible representative. Tertullian even noted the early Christians being converted: “See how they love one another.” The Holy Spirit is the gift of God coming through the Church and is the supreme testimony of his love for us. We say ‘yes’ to life that God wills for each of his creatures. This ‘yes’ finds its fullness in Jesus of Nazareth and in his victory over evil. The Spirit is good news to the poor, release for captives, sight for the blind, given on the day of Pentecost. It became the task of the Church, her primary mission. We are the fruits of this mission through the working of the Holy Spirit. The Father’s love acts through the Church in Jesus to save the world. A unity in the Body of Christ, the Church, comes because through the Spirit we love and follow Jesus. We need to think how we can do this. Part 2 For our life the Spirit gives a strong invitation. The Spirit is the strange personal presence of the living God himself; leading, guiding, warning, rebuking, grieving over our failings and celebrating our small steps towards true inheritance. (Bishop Tom Wright, The Holy Spirit in the Church, 29th April 2005) Today we are being invited to fall in love with Jesus and follow him and to live under the Spirit. This would always include a consideration of what Jesus wants us to do with our life. Cardinal Newman reminded us that God has created us to do him some special service. We are fortunate to know that God loves us as if we are the only person in the world. For that reason, as we come to know Jesus and find in him a strength for life and for whatever may be our call, it is important that we develop a regular life of prayer. Sunday Mass is our important public involvement with God. Each day we should open our hearts to God in prayer. He invites us to give of our love and our talents in building this world of love when he says, “love one another as I have loved you”. Jesus is a great teacher and leader. He used his power and care as God to draw people to follow him. He invites each one of us here. Then he instituted the Eucharist, the permanent reminder of his presence and went on to die but to rise again to show that God’s presence is active. It is important for each of us to consider whether God is inviting us to some particular work for him. It may be priesthood for the young men. It may be consecrated life for young men and women. It may be holy married life, devoted to God, devoted to family, devoted to children. It may be to single life and the use of one’s talents, whether in teaching or research. Whatever it may be God is inviting us to think seriously about his plan for us. Only in saying ‘yes’ to his plan will we find true and lasting happiness. Sometimes people comment that there are not as many consecrated people and priests in the world as there were forty years ago. Remember that God never ceases to give his invitation. He is looking for generous hearts, in love with Jesus Christ, filled with hope and ready to go on the journey that the Lord will plan. My own experience of forty-one years of priesthood, eleven years as a bishop, and eight years before that as a seminarian, is that I have had a breadth of experience, many challenges and a great happiness which has come and made all the greater because I know I have been doing those things which were God’s plan for me, never expected. I have never had an angel come from heaven and tap me on the shoulder. I have had good people who have reassured me of my abilities, others who have presented challenges and invitations from Jesus and I have had wonderful parents and a family that supported my desire to try and serve God and people in a special way. God has a special plan for each of you. Gerard Manly Hopkins, the Jesuit, said: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. Heaven and earth are already full of God’s glory. While the world has been darkened, for the morning to break again upon it the Holy Spirit must brood over the world. The Spirit given afresh on the day of Pentecost comes to invite you to share in making creation new, being guided by the Spirit and achieving great possibilities for love and for service.” Confirmation gives us special strength to witness to God and glorify him with our whole lives. By allowing us to be guided by the Spirit, each baptised person can bring our own contribution to the building up of the Church because of the gifts given by the Spirit for the common good. When the Spirit acts he brings his gifts for the soul, namely, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”. (Galatians 5:22) We are invited to proclaim the beauty and joy of the Gospel to our very secular societies. When Jesus invites us he invites us to love. When Jesus calls us he gives us the gifts of the Holy Spirit, he assures us of the power that we can achieve what he wants. My recommendation is, entrust yourself to Jesus. Do not be afraid of what he might ask. Trust him. He will supply the necessary help. Mary was with the apostles praying in the upper room, waiting for Pentecost. Their fear was replaced by joy when the Holy Spirit came. My dear friends, remember the Church has confidence in you. We pray that you may love and lead others to love Jesus more and more and that you may follow him faithfully. Do not be afraid of giving your life to him through priesthood and consecrated life. Whatever your chosen vocation may be, make God part of the decision, go forward trustfully and with hope, knowing that Jesus will send you the Holy Spirit, the greatest friend of all, who will never desert you, who will walk with you forever. May God bless you and give you peace and enable you to know how important are your gifts for God, for the Church, and for the world. + Denis J. Hart, Archbishop of Melbourne. |
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At every Mass we pray: ‘Protect us from all anxiety, as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ.’ In these tough times I want young people to see there is a purpose to life. The bad times do pass away. There is hope.
Jesus is the giver of hope. The Church says: ‘Look to Jesus. He has not abandoned us. He offers us a future.’
