Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mass Celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart
at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne,
on Sunday, 11th September, 2005, at 11.00am

Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Jesus challenges us to let our hold on others be consumed in the fire of love.

Readiness to forgive, continuously following his Commandment, ‘love one another, as I have loved you’.

In this spirit, let us call to mind our sins, that our lives may be made new.

We are one with couples renewing marriage vows and their families today, for whom we offer this Mass with warm congratulations and best wishes.

Homily

“The Lord is kind and merciful; slow to anger and rich in compassion.” ( Psalm 102, Verse 8)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the presence of so many married couples and families it is most important today that we thank God for the gift of marriage.

It is in the context of our own married love and family that above all we know the forgiveness of God. Again and again in Scripture we learn how God loved us first and called us to love one another as the reflection of his undying love.

The same Jesus who loved and reciprocated the love of his Father poured out the Holy Spirit into our hearts as our constant guide. Those of you who are called to marriage are given on the altar of that Sacrament, as Jesus given at the Last Supper and on the Cross and in his risen life commanded us to do what he did in memory of him - the means by which he would be present among us and would sustain us with his love.

Married life in your community is the mutual giving and receiving on the part of a man and woman, always to be ‘for’ each other, or as Jesus was, to be ‘given’ for each other. Because we lay down our own individual life and take up a deeper and wider life, and if it is God’s will, that life is blessed and expanded in the birth and provision of education for children, who are truly the fruit of their parents’ love.

At the beginning of today’s Gospel, Peter asks, “Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As long as seven times?” ( Matthew 18:21 ) Jesus’ emphasis on limitless forgiveness in answer to Peter’s question, shows that kind and merciful forgiveness originates with Jesus, has its flowering in married life and in the family. Indeed, Jesus does not put limits on his readiness to forgive and be merciful. Forgiveness and mercy exist because each of us knows in the depth of our heart that God forgave us first and we are imitating our God when we forgive others and working for the unity of our family.

Too often in modern times because people place more emphasis on their individual gifts and talents than on the importance of the family, the family is under challenge and onslaught today. Still worse, sometimes other associations of people are given the same prominence in a secular society as the true living of family. I am sure this is partly why Jesus raised marriage to the dignity of a Sacrament, which a man an woman confer on each other with the Church person being merely a witness. This full giving and acceptance of each other is so blessed by God that mercy and forgiveness must find their origin in what is said and done in the home. Saint John Chrysostum said to remember our sins makes the soul truly wise, gentle and compassionate, as the challenge given to each of us.

Today we thank God for the families of this community, who are a clear illustration of how we are all involved in the expansion of Christ’s love in the world, by the mutual given and received love we have for each other, which finds its sacramental form in marriage. We thank God for the people who have shown married life as the reflection of God’s love for us.

Dear friends, please turn your minds and hearts back over the years of your marriage. Repent of your sins and the hurts caused and open your hearts to the God of tenderness and compassion, who invites you this day to make a new commitment to being there for Christ and for each other and so witness to the Lord, who is kind and merciful, slow to anger and rich in compassion.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.