Holy Hour for Vocations

Homily preached by Archbishop Denis Hart
in St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne,
on Thursday, 16th October, 2003 at 6.30pm

Homily

My dear young Friends,

Tonight’s Holy Hour, which has been preceded by the procession and Rosary, is a very special event in which Mary, the Mother of God, the Protector of Pope John Paul II, leads us to meet with Jesus, our Lord and our Saviour.

In the presence of our God we ponder Mary’s own words uttered at Cana. “Do whatever he tells you.” And our special response is hers at the Annunciation. “I am the servant of the Lord. Let whatever he wills be done to me.”

In this Hour we seek to have a deep, living, personal encounter with Christ, who will speak to us in the depth of our heart. The same words that Jesus used to the young man, who asked, “Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” and to whom Jesus responded, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the Commandments”, reminding us that only God is good. And out of the contrast between God’s limitless goodness and our own fickleness and weakness to see a wonderful capacity for growth. Indeed, the Holy Father challenges us again and again to be focused on Jesus Christ because he is our Lord and Saviour and through the redemption on the Cross he saves us from our self.

Holiness is the searching for Christ and the goal of the ‘Hearts on Fire’ Vocations Congress. With Bishop Coleridge, Joanne Grainger and the Committee in these days we are focusing on the special invitation which the Holy Father has given to us to enrich the Church.

In this month’s section of his letter on the new millennium Pope John Paul II emphasises, “The unity of the Church is the reality of many members joined in a single body, the one Body of Christ. Therefore, the Church of the Third Millennium will need to encourage all the baptised and confirmed to be aware of their active responsibility in the Church’s life. Together with the ordained ministry, other ministries, whether formally instituted or simply recognised, can flourish for the good of the whole community, sustaining it in its many needs: from catechesis to liturgy, from education of the young to the widest array of charitable works.” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 46)

This very night we are doing what the Lord requests in insistent prayer to the Lord of the harvest for promotion of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. Then the Pope makes these telling words. “The life of God saving us in the Church reaches its fulfilment in the response which each person is invited to give to God’s call, particularly when the call implies a total giving of self and of one’s energies to the cause of the Kingdom.” (NMI 46)

Jesus present with us invites each of us to ponder how we can respond to that call. Priesthood and consecrated life are wonderful gifts. In the perspective of God’s call we see also other responses. The specific vocation of the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and guiding them according to God’s plan. Thirdly, to promote groups or associations that give new life to the Church because this is a springtime of the Spirit.

Pope John Paul II this day twenty-five years ago was elected to the See of Peter. We can picture him kissing the earth of almost every country in the world. He has been one of the greatest Popes in history and one of the greatest figures of the modern era. He has contributed to Church teaching more than perhaps any previous Pope and what he says to us is that he passionately believes that holiness can be found in every life. To encourage the faith of ordinary people he has canonised and beatified unprecedented numbers of saints, teaching that holiness is for everyone.

The great invitation given to us by the Lord tonight is to remember Pope John Paul’s words ringing through the last twenty-five years.

But they are not just empty words. They are the example of a man prepared by God’s providence, from his birth on 18th May, 1920, to his ordination on 1st November, 1946, to his choice as a Bishop in 1958, as an Archbishop in 1963 and as a Cardinal in 1967. At every step he has placed his tremendous abilities at the service of God’s people and he has been able to achieve so much because he has lived that God alone is good, that he – Pope John Paul – has a total commitment to the truth and that he wants, in the words of Saint John’s Gospel, Chapter 17, to make God’s people holy in truth. His unflinching devotion to this office, the crucifixion of his physical suffering in recent years, are motives for wonder and prayer.

Tonight as we pray for him and thank God for him and the life he has given to the Church, let us remember the profound lesson of his life; the power of faith, the power of the Cross in the midst of confusion and physical suffering and the power of truth and holiness to guide and nourish God’s people. Let us pray for our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. May the Lord preserve him and give him life and make him blessed upon the earth and deliver him not into the hands of his enemies.

As we continue our prayer, let us remember three special things, already mentioned.

1. “Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “If you wish to enter into life, keep the Commandments.”
2. How can I reach further fulfilment in the response to God’s call?
3. How can I live the legacy given by our saintly Pope; the Cross, truth, holiness, the will of God?

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.