Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mass Celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart
at St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne,
on Sunday, 28th September, 2003 at 11.00am

Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today’s Mass challenges us in living the Christian life and warns us that our attitudes and actions have their effect on others.

When we pray, “Help us to hurry towards the eternal life you promise”, we realise that it is following the precepts of the Lord that gives joy to our heart. It is important that we recognise that we are people on a journey, enriched by the gifts and deeds of others.

As we call to mind our sins, let us ask that ours may be a sincere example of following the Lord and walking in his light.

Homily

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We are challenged today to see where true riches are found; not in material possessions, but in the gifts which God gives to a great diversity of peoples. We have to remember that God is not the possession only of the few, but that he is wonderful and dispenses his gifts right across the spectrum of humanity.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote of the Spirit of God. “When you are in the presence of the Spirit it is like sitting in front of a fire that does not burn you, but suffuses you with its qualities, its warmth, glow and colour. And as you are there in the presence of the Spirit you also become suffused with the Spirit’s attributes of compassion, gentleness and love. You are loved. You are held in that love.” (From an African Prayer Book, Doubleday NY, 1995)

The jealousy of the apostles when they saw someone else performing a miracle had led them to the narrow judgement that because they were closely associated with Christ, God would only work through them. Yet Jesus is quick to say that Christ works through simple acts of service; a cup of water, a recognition of a person, a word, a gesture.

Jesus then uses drastic language to describe the way in which our acts can influence others and goes even so far to say that scandal is so much to be avoided, that we as followers of Christ in accordance with our knowledge of him have a greater responsibility to show him to others. Indeed, our young children in schools are very fashionably wearing a little brown band on their wrists with the initials ‘WWJD’ – ‘What would Jesus do?’ Jesus saying it is better to be without a hand, a foot, an eye, than to give scandal does show us and challenge us today to consider our responsibility.

Scandal is an attitude or a behaviour which leads another to do evil. The reason for this is that the person who gives scandal becomes a tempter. He damages their virtue, he may even draw his brother or sister into spiritual death. And scandal is a grave offence if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offence. Saint Matthew, Saint Mark and Saint Luke stressed that.

Scandal can be provoked by laws or institutions, by fashion or opinion. Those who establish laws or social structures, leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to social conditions that intentionally or not make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible, are guilty of scandal. It is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger, or manipulators of public opinion who turn it away from moral values.

The challenge for us today is to remember that anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that it leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and, here is the point, responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. “Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!” (Luke 17.1)

Our example has to be one of following the truth. In the words of today’s Mass, “Your word O Lord is truth: Make us holy in the truth.” (John 17.17) Or “The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.” (Psalm 18:9) Just as true Christian witness does not presume to itself all truth and all goodness, so our example has to be one of a true follower of Christ, open to the many ways in which he works, nourished and sustained by our sincere and ongoing efforts, despite frailty, to live his Commandments.

William Barclay in his writing on this passage said, “If there is anything in our lives which is coming between us and a perfect obedience to the Will of God, it must be rooted out. The rooting out may be as painful as a surgical operation, it may seem like cutting out part of our own body, but if we are to know real life, real happiness and real peace it must go. This may sound bleak and stern, but in reality it is only a facing of the facts of life.” (W. Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, page 240)

Indeed, it is in following the Lord alone that we will find life and in the details of each of our lives; family, school, study, work, it is the leadership of Jesus Christ, which alone will lead to lasting happiness because it concentrates on the truth, it leads us to go beyond ourselves and it means our living is authentic, conformed to the way in which we are made, with the values and priorities which will bring us true happiness and eternal life.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.