Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne: Archbishop: Homilies: Mass of Reception of Archbishop Denis James Hart

Mass of Reception of Archbishop Denis James Hart as Eighth Archbishop of Melbourne

Celebrated at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne,
on Wednesday, 1st August, 2001.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We have just heard Mary, the little one, praise God for the wonders he has worked for her. Since the time Mary first sang these words, the Church has added its own voice to hers. We praise God for the power of his arm to do justice for the little ones and rejoice in his promise to fill the hungry with good things. With Mary this assembly of the faithful gives thanks for the love of God which is ‘from age to age for those who fear him’.

It is especially in the Sacred Liturgy, the worship of the one eternal God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that the Church continues to sing the canticle of perfect praise. This Cathedral Church has been both the setting for the Liturgy and the spiritual home for the people of Melbourne for more than one hundred years.

It was built by a congregation, small in number and resources, but rich in faith. It is a poem in stone which reminds this city of the eternal glory of the kingdom which will never pass away. It is symbolic of the faith which has been handed down to us by the constant teaching and living of the message of Jesus Christ.

This Cathedral holds a special place in my affections, as the place where I served the Archbishops and faithful of Melbourne for nearly thirty years and as the place where I was ordained priest in 1967 and bishop in 1997. I know this city well, having lived in no other, and I commit myself this evening to serve you faithfully as shepherd, teacher and priest in constant faith, confident hope and selfless love.

Today I, as the eighth Archbishop of Melbourne, begin to build on the solid foundations laid by my seven predecessors. I wish to pay tribute to my two immediate predecessors, Archbishop Frank Little and Archbishop George Pell who accompanied me to the cathedra of Melbourne.

We, the priests and people of the Archdiocese, will always be indebted to them for their service and leadership.

The Archdiocese of Melbourne is honoured this evening by the presence of so many of my brother Bishops, especially Cardinal Clancy and Archbishop Frank Carroll, President of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, together with Monsignor Francisco Padilla, representing the Apostolic Nuncio in Australia. We are also honoured by the presence of leaders of other Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities. I rejoice in being accompanied by priests, seminarians, religious women and men, and the lay faithful of this great Archdiocese. In a special way I acknowledge the members of the Hart family, led by my own loved parents, Kevin and Nance. Tonight they have made history. This is the first time that both parents of the Archbishop of Melbourne have been present in person at the Mass of Reception.

I recognize with deep gratitude the presence of the Victorian Governor, John Landy and Mrs. Landy, Minister Joe Hockey, representing the Prime Minister, Senator Kim Carr, representing the Leader of the Federal Opposition, Mr. Don Nardella, representing the Premier, Dr. Denis Napthine, Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Peter Ryan, National Party Leader, Ministers of Parliament, Chief Justice Phillips and Justice Hedigan, Consular, Civic and Community representatives.

In the Gospel, Mary prophesied that God will feed the hungry with good things. Our need for bread that will last is as great today as it has ever been. Many commentators have observed that there is a profound hunger for the things of the spirit to fill the void left by the empty promises of materialism with its endless variety of options and subjectivism with its refusal to acknowledge deep and lasting human values.

The experimental ethics of the seventies and eighties have given birth to tragic despair and profound loneliness for many people who lived on the fringe of the postmodern era of the nineties. Increasingly, secular society is impelled to move towards what Pope John Paul II calls ‘a culture of death’ where life is being valued only as useful when it is productive. In his letter ‘Evangelium Vitae’: The Gospel of Life, which he addressed not only to the Catholic Church, but to every person of good will, he spoke of the high stakes involved. He describes the dark shadows cast over today’s society by threats to life. These attacks, both more serious and more numerous than in the past, entail ‘a war of the powerful against the weak in a conspiracy against life’ (#12).

In the face of this, the Christian proclamation is that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God conquered death forever, and has brought us into his new and everlasting life. It is Christ alone who can fully satisfy the longings of the human heart. Christ is our only WAY, TRUTH and LIFE.

The Apostle Paul recognized this when, reflecting on his own weakness, he turned to his Lord and ours: Who will rescue me? Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ! (Romans 7:24) This is not a message we can keep to ourselves; such truly "good news" is given to us that we can give it to all our brothers and sisters.

It is a spirit of thanksgiving which is the keynote of this evening’s Eucharist. With Mary and all the saints we praise God for the marvels he has worked in us. God’s wisdom gives us an answer to the challenges of human hunger and pain. Pope John Paul II has described the beginning of the third Christian millennium as a time to ‘contemplate the face of Christ’ (John Paul II: Tertio Millennio Ineunte 15). As once the Apostles heard Christ calling them to ‘put out into the deep’ (John Paul II: Tertio Millennio Ineunte 1) so the Lord is still calling us to pioneer new ways of answering humanity’s need for food that will last.

My motto, ‘Constant in Faith’ is for me both a prayer and a pledge to serve the Church and the wider community as a teacher and defender of the constant faith of the Church. We are redeemed by Jesus Christ, the Son of the Eternal God and we are called to live in love and fidelity as God’s people.

We, as members of the Church are charged with a sacred responsibility to the TRUTH, to CHRIST, to his body, the CHURCH and to SOCIETY.

It is TRUTH, which enlightens our intelligence and shapes our freedom (John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, 1). Revelation teaches us that the power to decide what is good and what is evil does not belong to us, but to God. (Veritatis Splendor, 35) The Church has always taught that there is a deposit of revealed faith and that we all answer to that objective truth for our actions. Our human gifts need to be directed by our intellectual capacity to reflect and come to knowledge, which will direct our action. The ongoing project of religious education texts produced for every school in our Archdiocese will help to give succeeding generations a thorough knowledge of the faith and to be captured by its inspiration for good deeds.

We proclaim Jesus CHRIST as our personal Saviour and Redeemer. It is this fact, which makes the difference and carries with it the challenge to respond to the Lord. As St. Irenaeus put it:

"Because God was beyond the reach of the human mind, incomprehensible and invisible, he has made himself visible and knowable, so that those who see and accept him may possess life." (Contra Haereses Bk. 4 Ch. 20,5)

This evening I wear for the second time the Pallium around my shoulders. The first was on the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, when I and thirty-five newly appointed metropolitan Archbishops from every continent stood in the pouring rain in St. Peter’s Square. As the last to be appointed, it was my privilege to lead the new Archbishops in the promise of faithfulness to the Holy Father and his successors in the CHURCH, which was founded by our Lord Jesus Christ. We resolved to strengthen and defend the faith of our people, the faith which is founded on the Rock of Peter and Paul’s faith; that faith which led both of them to witness to Christ by the shedding of their blood. At that moment, the words of John Henry Newman echoed in my heart:

And I hold in veneration for the love of him alone, Holy Church as his creation and her teachings as his own.

This Pallium is a sign of the integrity of the Church in Melbourne with the See of Peter. It is a symbol of my unity with the Vicar of Christ as an Archbishop of the Catholic Church. At the same time it is a sign of my oneness with the priests and people of this particular Church of Melbourne. Indeed, I firmly believe that both the mission and the way forward for our Archdiocese is to live joyfully and unashamedly in that unity.

Melbourne has been remarkably enriched by the holiness and energy of our priests and their closeness to our people. An Archbishop can only be encouraged and sustained by the indispensable leadership and service given by the ordained priests in our parishes. As teachers, ministers of Word and Sacrament, and as shepherds, they lead our people along the Lord’s path of conversion. In this task a renewed and frequent use of individual reconciliation remains an important challenge. I appreciate highly the quality and generosity of our seminarians who are on the journey to priesthood. I pledge myself and invite you to pray and work that other young men may respond to Christ’s call and follow them. Then those who hunger for God will be filled with good things as Jesus promised. (Luke 1:53)

From my earliest years I have been inspired by dedicated religious men and women. They have given their lives to help me and so many others to discover the living Christ. I pray for the religious orders and for the new movements in the Church who, fired by a great love for God and for the Church, unstintingly give themselves for others, without counting the cost.

In so many parishes I have visited since becoming a bishop, I have found pastoral associates and lay parishioners filled with love for God’s kingdom and for people, carrying forward the Church’s mission. Here, too, the irreplaceable charism of women is deeply appreciated.

One of the greatest challenges facing us at present is to provide greater support for families at both parish and diocesan level. This is essential for the future of Church and community. It is to this purpose that the tenth campus of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family has been opened in Melbourne. I recognize the tremendous enrichment, which lay people provide and I thank them for their generous service in the multi-ethnic communities of this vast Archdiocese.

However, the mission of the Church first and foremost is to help us all grow in holiness: to teach what Christ taught, to worship in the way he has given us and to gather and guide people in these complex times. In all this we must never lose sight of him, our Saviour and Redeemer. Indeed, we are called to "show the world the reason for the hope that is in us" (I Peter 3:15) Now is the time to teach with resolution and clarity, and to build up faith under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The Catholic Church, however, is not concerned only with her internal life and mission – Jesus called us to be all things to all people that we might save some. (I Cor 9:22) Salvation is our goal for all.

Because of what we have received from the Lord Jesus we have a responsibility to SOCIETY – both publicly as a Church and as individuals in our workplaces and local communities. We offer a gift of service to all people. We respect the Aboriginal people, the original guardians of this land. We acknowledge and foster the contributions of the many ethnic communities which are a blessing for this city. Most especially we guard and promote the rights of families, which nurture our children. I pay tribute to the compassion shown by the 80 Catholic service organizations in Victoria where more than 3,000 employees and 10,000 volunteers give of themselves to reveal the compassionate face of Christ.

Our hospitals and homes for the elderly bring the compassion of Christ to those who suffer, without exception. I acknowledge the generous service of the hundreds of administrators, teachers and staff of our 331 schools who each day educate and guide more than 136,000 children entrusted to their care.

This is the treasure of the Church: we recognize the dignity of each person as a child of God and we are willing to be as Christ is in every Eucharist: GIVEN for others. To all who come we offer bread that will last; food that will satisfy all hunger.

As I take up my responsibilities as the Eighth Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, I renew my dedication to serve the people of Melbourne and beyond. I thank God for you and I pray that he will enrich your lives with his fullest blessings.

I invite you to go forward with me in constant faith, confident hope and genuine charity, so that we might become transparent witnesses of our God who are not afraid to face the challenges of our time.

With love I invoke the prayers of Mary, Help of Christians and Mother of the Church, whose faith gave this world its Saviour. I also humbly ask your prayers for me that I may be a gentle but ardent servant of the Gospel. With me I ask you to thank God for the great things he does for all of us, in the words of this prayer of St. Francis of Assisi: