Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mass Celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart
at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne,
on Sunday, 9th October, 2005, at 11.00am

Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today the Church challenges us as to whether we are Christian in name or are truly converted. The Gospel reminds us that the following of Christ is demanding and challenges us to use of ourselves and our resources to serve our brothers and sisters. Living in God’s presence challenges us to see him in the face of those with whom we live and work.

We are happy to be united with the Chief of the Australian Lieutenancy, John Ralph, and members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, as we celebrate their Annual Mass and have the welcome of new knights and dames into the Order.

The Order’s love of Christ and the holy places, and the practical charity, which it shows is an example for us of the Gospel, which is so powerful today.

In a spirit of readiness to do what we can to promote God’s kingdom, let us call to mind our sins.

Homily

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

A few years ago an Anglican Minister, editor of a publication, threw caution to the winds and printed Vachel Lindsay’s poem, “General William Booth Enters Heaven”. As you would know William Booth died in 1912 having founded the Salvation Army in 1865. He sought out the lowest of the low to rescue those who had been abandoned by politicians, physicians, preachers and charity workers, and to make of them an army of servants of the Lord.

Lindsay’s poem is described, as the British Weekly once pointed out, “A lurid and sensational description of the tumultuous welcome which Booth received from criminals, fornicators, drunkards and prostitutes, who had been served and saved through the efforts of Booth’s Army.” This as you can imagine created a frightful row and the perplexed clergyman was nearly thrown out as editor. However, “one of these days,” quipped the British Weekly, “they will get the surprise of their lives”.

Dear brothers and sisters, today’s Gospel with the invitation to the wedding feast has a twofold power in our lives. It challenges us to be alert to the abundant goodness of God. “May the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, enlighten the eyes of our heart that we might see how great is the hope to which we are called.”

Some were invited to the wedding, some responded, others did not, and when those who were in the highways and byways, bad and good alike, responded to the call, some of the righteous were highly critical.

The openness that you and I need to have to the abundant goodness of God, the readiness to serve him and see him in others, and not to discriminate in categories, is an important challenge for us.

Today, we are united with members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, which has origins in the care of the holy places, the reign of the Emperor Constantine, and certainly from 1099 when the crusaders entered Jerusalem. Care for the holy places and philanthropic activity are of the essence of the Order, which was restored by Pius IX on 23 rd July 1847.

Knights and dames have been part of the Order and the aims of the Order are constant:

1. The practice of Christian life in filial love towards the Papacy and the Church.
2. The conservation and propagation of the faith in the Holy Land.
3. The protection and upholding in the holy places of the sacred rites of the Catholic Church.

The example of the Order today challenges us regarding the nature and extent of our dedication to the Gospel. We are challenged to marvel at the wonder of God’s goodness, but then through our own gift of time, material resources, compassion and understanding, to be instruments of his care for others. This is the nub of what we are invited to do. We are called and challenged that God’s love will be the foundation of our lives and that that love will express itself day by day in our eagerness to do good for others.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.