Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mass Celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart
at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne,
on Sunday, 14th November, 2004, at 11.00am

Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today the Church invites us to focus on the Lord’s coming in glory, described as the Day of the Lord. It is towards this that the use of our talents, described in the First Reading and the Gospel, is directed so that each of us is able to enrich the world in which we live.

Today we are also united with Brother Vincent Brooks, the Superior General, and the priests, brothers and friends of the Confraternity of Christ the Priest, which was founded fifty years ago at Ayr in Queensland and has been here in Melbourne since 1969.

We join them in thanking God for his blessings, as we seek to recognise what God gives in the present and future, calling to mind our sins, that we may grow in faith.

Homily

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The passage of our human life is marked by many days, most of them ordinary. Many of us will remember our birthday or significant other days – anniversaries in our life, days of passage and sadness, first days for Eucharist, Reconciliation, Confirmation, Holy Days at Easter, days of momentous events.

Today, my dear friends, we are one with the Confraternity of Christ the Priest in thanking God for the fifty years of their existence.

The priests and brothers were founded in Ayr, North Queensland, by Father John Whiting for an intensive, stimulating parish apostolate to encourage the people of the parishes in which they served to live the Christian life as fully as possible.

In Ayr, Scoresby, Warrenheip, Wagga Wagga and Thurgoona, the work has continued, with a centre now in West Wagga. For the Congregation this is a Lord’s Day of thanksgiving, of humble trust in God’s providence and in commitment to the work of salvation of souls. The Readings today challenge us to recognise our gifts and in what we do to work industriously for others, to fear the Lord and walk in his ways, to see everything that we have as God’s own gift.

The end of fifty years is a small time in the life of the Church, but it does remind us that as we look back in memory we must always go forward in hope and resolute determination to be watchful and ready because we do not know when Christ, the Son of Man, comes to call us to our destiny. We must remember that showing the reason for the hope that is in us and the belief in what God has called people to be was part of the priestly vision of Jesus, our Saviour. “Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you. May they be made completely one.” ( John 17.1 )

The members of the Confraternity have lived for that unity and truth and are priests and brothers of Christ the Priest who offers himself to save us and leads us to wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Christians look at life with hope that means that God is in charge, providence rules the universe, the world has been redeemed and that no matter how we mismanage things through good or evil intentions we cannot finally destroy the goodness of life. It is in this spirit that we praise God, the giver of all good gifts, the destiny towards which we come, as we thank him for the Confraternity, for his presence and activity in our lives and for the light of faith which will never desert us.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.