Mass at Corpus Christi College, Carlton

Mass Celebrated By Archbishop Denis Hart
at Corpus Christi College, Carlton,
on Tuesday, 24th August, 2004, at 7.30am

Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today we celebrate the feast of the apostle, Bartholomew, born at Cana, brought by Philip to Jesus, and who taught the Gospel after the Ascension in India, where he was martyred.

Let us ask that we will learn from his zeal to be true apostles of Jesus Christ in prayer, holiness and example.

Homily

My Brothers in Jesus Christ,

Today we return to the foundation of our faith in celebrating the feast of Saint Bartholomew because the apostles are the witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself. With the help of the Spirit dwelling in her, the Church keeps and hands on the teaching she has heard from the apostles and she continues to be taught, sanctified and guided by the apostles until Christ’s return, through their successors in pastoral office, the college of bishops, assisted by priests, in union with the successor of Peter, the Supreme Pastor.

Bartholomew’s mission to India and to Armenia is a reminder to us that in formation for priesthood we are at the service of the Gospel. The regularity of our studies and other duties, the nourishment of prayer and reflection, the stimulus of brotherly contact with each other, are all so that we too will be, in the way the Church chooses, witnesses to the Gospel and to the resurrection of Christ. This brings a great responsibility for our prayer and moral formation, for our studies and human formation, so that we will be the best instruments we are able to be.

Cardinal Newman in his sermon on Saint Bartholomew urges us to be faithful to the duties of our state. He even says:

“To rise up and go through the same duties and then to rest again day after day; to pass week after week beginning with God’s service on Sunday, and then to our worldly tasks: so to continue til year follows year is apt to seem unprofitable to us when we dwell upon the thought of it. When a man begins to feel he has a soul and work to do and reward to be gained, then he is naturally tempted to be anxious and he says, ‘what must I do to please God?’”

And yet we see in Saint Bartholomew and the other apostles that, in Newman’s words:

“We need not give up the usual manner of our life in order to serve God. That the most humble and quietest work helps our character to mature even as an apostle. Bartholomew read the Scriptures and prayed to God; and thus was trained at length to give up his life for Christ when he demanded it.” (J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons 2-27)

Newman even picks up what is in today’s Gospel, ‘Behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile’ and the recognition that Jesus had seen Bartholomew even before Philip brought Bartholomew to him.

Your life and mine is in God’s hands and is for God’s purpose. We have the opportunity to use it well, to integrate prayer, study, pastoral work, recreation and human formation, so that we can offer ourselves to Christ as Philip brought Bartholomew.

The grateful living of everyday in the best way possible is our response, as it was Bartholomew’s.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.