Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne: Archbishop: Homilies: Mass for the Malaylee Catholic Community

Address given by Archbishop Denis Hart
at Yarra Theological Union, Box Hill,
on Sunday, 20th October, 2002, at 4.00pm

My dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am very delighted to be with Father John Aravankara and with each of you at this celebration of Mass in the Syro-Malabar Rite.

For me, it is a significant first experience as I pay special tribute to your presence in the Archdiocese of Melbourne.

Because there is no Bishop of your Rite in Australia, I am very delighted that you are under the care of myself as the local Archbishop. It is therefore a special moment of unity with Pope John Paul and with me as local Bishop, when we express our common love of Jesus Christ as we celebrate the liturgy in your very ancient Rite.

As a small boy in 1949 I remember that Archbishop Mar Ivanios was a distinguished visitor for the celebrations of the centenary of the Archdiocese of Melbourne. The link between the Syro-Malabar Rite and Melbourne is therefore very longstanding. To each and every one of you who have made your home here I would extend my loyalty and my pastoral care, as every Sunday I celebrate Mass for the people of the Archdiocese. Our unity is a unity in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, founded upon Christ and in union with Pope John Paul II.

The Holy Father has written to us and is encouraging you in the new country in which you are to live the faith more intensely and to exercise the responsibility which belongs to each and every one of the faithful. In his letter at the beginning of the New Millennium, the Holy Father reflected upon the great events of the Jubilee and underlined for all of us the programme for the New Millennium.
Here in the Archdiocese of Melbourne we have taken the Holy Father’s Letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte, as a programme for two years, which began on 24th May this year and will continue until Pentecost of 2004.

The programme known as Contemplate – Launch Out! has a monthly theme selected from the Pope’s Letter, so that we will reflect upon the Church’s programme for our time, which will be really effective, not only in renewing us, but in enabling us to fulfil the consequences of what we are called to be. Briefly, the whole thrust of the Letter is to start afresh from Christ by coming to know him and to grow in holiness, to strengthen that union by prayer so that then we will be truly equipped to launch out into the deep.

Indeed, I want each of our communities in the Archdiocese to follow month by month the themes of the Letter. In this way we will be well prepared by unity with Christ and prayer to undertake the consequences of who we are as Catholics by having a missionary example and outreach to other people. The Pope stresses that in starting afresh from Christ he reassures us that he is with us and we too can ask the same question put to Peter in Jerusalem, ‘What must we do?’ (Acts 2:37) This is the time that our normal pastoral activity has to be undertaken with new seriousness. The Pope even says, ‘We shan’t be saved by a formula or a programme, but by a person.’

So I do challenge you to reflect among yourselves: Who is Jesus Christ to you? How are you being faithful to Christ in prayer? How is your witness to Christ showing in your place of living and work. That, I submit, is what we must do as we are challenged by the reassurance of Jesus, ‘I am with you’. Let us not be afraid that what Jesus gives is always adequate to the task and we need to stress the importance of attention and devotion at Mass, of regular prayer in the home and of unashamed living as Catholics in an often hostile and challenging society as the New Millennium unfolds.

Your devotion to the Syro-Malabar Rite is a particular expression of the love and activity of God in your hearts. I urge you to use your beautiful Rite to the full, to understand it and make it always specially prayerful and to be faithful and generous in responding to the invitation which God gives you.

Thank you for your wonderful welcome to be with you at Box Hill. May the Lord, the giver of all good gifts, be with you and sustain you always.