Mass at Saint Monica’s College, Epping

Mass Celebrated By Archbishop Denis Hart
at Saint Monica’s College, Epping,
on Friday, 27th August, 2004, At 10.00am

Introduction

My dear young Friends,

Today I am delighted to be with you, as in the whole Church we celebrate the feast of Saint Monica, mother of Saint Augustine, an exemplary leader in prayer and one who worked to her utmost to use and recognise her gifts and to show, by her being a mother, her witness to Jesus Christ.

Each of us is called not merely to be stamped with the faith in baptism, but to do something with it and to show Jesus Christ as our Way, our Truth and our Life.

As we call to mind our sins, let us ask the Lord that he will give us strength and light.

Homily

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Jesus has a very special relationship that he seeks to establish with us, his followers. When Saint Thomas doubted him with Jesus’ own words, ‘Do you know the way to where I am going?’ he refuted Thomas’ doubt by saying, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.’

This is the challenge which we all accept through our baptism and which our patron saint, Saint Monica, chose to use as she lived in Jesus Christ.

She was born in North Africa in 332, was married to a pagan, who she converted to the Christian faith by gentleness and kindness, and she was buried in Italy. She was the mother of Saint Augustine and it was her example and her constant prayer that converted Augustine from being a young ne’er do well, who tried out just about every form of vice and evil, and brought him back to realise who he was and made him live for Jesus Christ to be the great apostle of Africa.

Because of his faith and because of Monica’s remarkable life, Saint Augustine said, “We did not think it right to mark my mother’s death with weeping and moaning because she had not died in misery. We were certain because of her holy life and because our faith was real that she was called to be with God.” Because of that holiness of life Saint Augustine wrote that he did not have a sense of grief because his mother had achieved her destiny. He was sorrowful, yet there was such a perfect correspondence between Monica and Jesus Christ, that he was able to see her death in faith.

I was lucky enough to have a mother who believed in me, who was a teacher and could encourage, sometimes challenge, but always provide hope and vision. I was privileged to be a close member of my parish, to see the example of priests and the faith of my parents.

Although we were not rich my father gave me opportunities to travel on school camps and excursions. When I went to the seminary I met a wide variety of people and I was ordained a priest expecting to spend two or three years in a number of parishes and then to be a parish priest myself.

An important gift for you and for me is to value the particular life and opportunities that we are given. As a younger priest I had to do a lot of hospital chaplaincy and repetitive administrative work. I had to work with people who had suffered in our Marriage Tribunal. Gradually I came to realise that there is a great virtue in the acceptance of whatever situation in which we find ourselves and bringing our gifts and talents to bear in that situation.

A couple of Mondays ago the great Olympic runner, Herb Elliott, spoke to the priests. He reminded us that life does not give to any one of us any special privileges. We have to accept it as it is. If we are to be a successful athlete, a successful student or successful in developing any of the gifts which we have, then we must persevere and must remember that most human beings perform well if they train hard to operate under pressure and challenge.

Saint Monica’s prayers were fervent and constant because of her vision that Saint Augustine, her son, could be a man of God. It was her holiness, vision, persistence and example, which led her along the way.

I am grateful for those who have come along my path; my parents, the brothers and priests who taught me, the archbishops and leaders who gave me opportunities and the people whom I have been privileged to serve. They have all provided an opportunity to me for discovery of my talent and for using it.

Monica’s story was truly the lived life of an exemplary Christian mother, who gave leadership and prayer. Each one of us has one life to live, an opportunity that no one else can give us and it is in the living of that life and the following of that opportunity that we can be secure and fulfilled. But Jesus calls to us as he called to Monica, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

To know Jesus, to be guided by his truth about right and wrong, and faith and love, and the discipline and perseverance that these need, will truly mean that we will find Jesus as our way, truth and life and we will make the contribution that each of us and no one else can give to the life of the world.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.