Annual Mass for the Catholic Theological College

Mass Celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart
on Thursday, 9th June, 2005, at 3.30pm

Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

"We are learners together in the school of Christ": this was a favourite phrase of Saint Augustine. It is true of Christians always and everywhere, but we can feel it especially keenly as we gather here once again for this annual Mass of Saints Peter and Paul at Catholic Theological College.

On my own behalf and on behalf of my brother bishops, I welcome you most warmly this evening.

Those of you who are faculty and students of Catholic Theological College will feel yourselves to be quite directly in "the school of Christ", opening your minds through your learning and teaching to the great tradition of theological reflection of the Christian Church. You remind the rest of us, too, that our learning is never done: we are all in one school, and Christ is our Teacher.

Let us open our hearts to him, to his wisdom and his forgiveness.

Homily

My dear brothers and sisters,

I want to begin by welcoming you all once again. The other bishops and I are delighted to have this opportunity to be with you, because you are among our most important collaborators in the evangelising mission of the Church.

As you know, Vatican II stressed the importance of the bishop's role as chief Teacher in his diocese. Bishops must announce the Gospel to all. We must, of course, be faithful to the teaching we have all received from the apostles and we are called to proclaim it in ways adapted to the realities of our own time and place, as the apostles did in their time.

We are challenged to enter into a conversation with the society in which we live: to be clear in what we say, and yet to speak with a humility and gentleness, which lead to trust and friendship. We are called to take account of the joys and struggles which make up so much of daily life for the people of God: family, children, work, leisure, technological change, poverty and wealth, war and peace, the demands of justice, the right of every person to live with dignity and freedom in an increasingly internationalised world. ( cf. Christus Dominus, 11-13 )

It is a tall order! We could not do it without the active collaboration of people such as you. Whether you are teacher or student, layperson or seminarian, young or old, your work of theological study and reflection is a crucial part of the evangelising mission of the Church in our world.

The mission in which we are all called to engage is an "apostolic" one. What does that mean? Saint Mark tells us that when Jesus called the first apostles it was "to be with him and to be sent to preach and to cast out demons". ( Mk 3.14 ) "To be with him": that is what must come first for all of us.

It is clear from the lives of Saints Peter and Paul that it was what came first for them. Peter, of course, spent three years of his life with Jesus; Paul encountered him as the Risen One. Peter denied the Lord three times; Paul began as a persecutor of Christians. Peter's faith, as we heard in the Gospel tonight, leads Jesus to call him the rock on which the Church will be built; Paul knew, as he says to Timothy, that the Lord stood by him and gave him power.

Teaching and studying theology draws us into the apostolic experience of weakness and of strength. It begins with God addressing us, for we are called and chosen; it continues in spite of our weaknesses and inabilities; it is constantly gift and grace.

In the Introduction to Christianity, which he wrote in 1968, Pope Benedict XVI put it this way: the "intelligence of faith" is "the trustful placing of myself on a ground that bears me up". What is more, he says, faith discovers that this ground that bears me up is a person: "Christian faith lives on the discovery that not only is there such a thing as objective meaning, but this meaning knows me and loves me". Faith expresses the all-embracing self-surrender of Peter at Caesarea Philippi and says, I believe in You -- "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God".

The kind of theology, which we need to be done in the Church today must be grounded in the faith "which comes to us from the Apostles", but also in this apostolic experience of Jesus, which is our experience too. Theology in the world of today must be rigorous and profound and creative. It must engage with our society clearly but humbly, as Vatican II said, in a conversation, which connects with the deepest questions and aspirations of the human spirit. But it can only do this if it is "apostolic faith": one in which preaching and teaching are grounded in the experience of "being with him".

It is indeed a tall order, yet we undertake the task joyfully and confidently, because we have the best of teachers. As Saint Augustine said, in the school of Christ we are all learners. Let us rejoice in the company of such a teacher, and pray that as our faith seeks understanding, our study will draw us to wisdom, and that we will know the Lord stands by us as we proclaim him to our world.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.