Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mass Celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart
at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne,
on Sunday, 10th July, 2005, at 11.00am

Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Truth and growth; God invites us today to live by the truth that he has revealed, to grow like the tiny mustard seed into the great tree of faith, hope and love.

Do we grasp without delay God’s Word as we listen? Are we possessed by it, follow it joyfully and share it with others?

These might be our thoughts as we call to mind our sins.

Homily

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As a small boy I remember an event which I saw repeated in many other children; placing a seed in some earth in a jar, keeping it warm, watering it and nourishing it and seeing a stem, branches and a plant flowering.

At some schools the children are invited to take their seed and bring it back after a week. Some forgot it. Others had neglected moisture or sunlight and the growth was withered and stunted. Others are proud to show off a tall and healthy shoot.

In his visit to Bari on Sunday 29 th May, Pope Benedict took the theme, “We cannot live without Sunday”. It is the nourishment of God’s Word, the strength of the Eucharist, which gives us life, and, like a much loved teacher, the Church provides both the seed and the faith and hope to enable it to grow and transform our lives.

The question we need to ask today is whether the seed of God’s Word is transforming us. Jesus did so by telling stories. Today’s Gospel about the sowing of the seed was one of his most effective. We remember too the lost coin, the lost sheep, the widow without food; all which illustrate God’s providence and the importance of growth – to listen, to understand because our eyes and ears are on the Lord.

Like the young people in the parable, the warmth of love, the light of faith, the search for truth must go on and must grow. Listening to Jesus means understanding that the seed of God’s Word is not just to be left here in church, but to be carried into every aspect of our life; to the good soil of our heart and mind and ultimately into our will. If the word we hear today does not grow in us and travel with us out of the church into the rest of the week, it cannot accomplish the purpose that God intended.

In 2001 David Power, the scripture scholar, said, “To hear and to heed the Word of God requires an openness of mind and heart that is willing to set aside the illusion that the sense and impact of a bible text are fixed for all time. It is to accept that a text has life. It journeys across time within communities that read it, hear it and converse about it.”

It is within the social situation of Melbourne in 2005 that God’s Word - planted in a Jewish context, travelling through a Greco-Roman one, has come to Australia, this land of many cultures. We need to choose whether the echo of God’s Word will ring out truly and clearly or whether it will be silenced and distorted.

If we have listened to God in truth, if we have followed confidently, then it will go forward. We might ask ourselves to what extent do the people near us see in our obvious faith in God, our readiness to stop and reflect, our generosity and hope that we bring to others, that God’s Word is always challenging us.

Jesus used the analogy of a knife, which cuts between the bone and the marrow, something that is sharp, challenging and yet brings health because it is beautiful. This is God’s Word.

Let us pray for each other, that we will grow because we have heard the Word, we will listen to Jesus speaking in his stories and we will carry these stories into the experience and faith and life of the Melbourne of our time. That is the challenge, which God gives us in his Word, as we come to profess our faith and celebrate the Eucharist on this Sunday.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.