Mass for the 50th Anniversary of St Leonard's, Glen Waverley

Celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart
at Saint Leonard’s Church, Glen Waverley,
on Saturday, 26th November, 2005, at 6.30pm

Introduction       

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am delighted to be with Father Brendan Dillon and with all of you as we thank God for fifty years of the life of Saint Leonard’s Parish.

Both Father Dillon and I can claim to have been parishioners as younger men up on the hill while studying for the priesthood.  The growth of your suburb, the constant service of its priests, the generosity of you people, is something, which we gather together in these fifty years.  We pray for loyal parishioners who have died, for those who have married and moved away, for those most in need of our prayers and for the generous, faith-filled people who are here today.

At the beginning of this new Church Year we pray, “To you, my God, I lift my soul.  I trust in you.  Never let me come to shame.  No one who waits for you is ever put to shame.”
Let us call to mind our sins.        

Homily

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

“Be on your guard!  Stay awake because you never know when the time will come.”  (Mark 13.33)

This Gospel is a true wake up call, a strong reminder of death, which does not say explicitly that death of course leads to eternal life.

For fifty years Saint Leonard’s Parish has been a place where the love of God has been visible and real in our midst.  Countless numbers of Communions and Confirmations, of the forgiveness of God in the Sacrament of Penance, couples who have been married, whether in the old church or in the new, young people who have come to the school, old people who have been visited in their homes, loyal parishioners who have led and contributed to parish activities, the great prayers and stayers of the past fifty years.

We thank God for all of them, as we remember them with love and devotion.  I am sure that many of you have stories of the way in which this parish has been a place of love, of compassion and forgiveness and of human goodness as you have journeyed together along your pilgrimage.

We join in wordless thanksgiving, alert to how much we have received and I do congratulate Father Dillon and all of you for the way in which you have been part of that very successful fifty years.

But the Gospel is a wake-up call.  It is a reminder that we are never only part of the past; we are part of the future, which is in our hands.  Coming to our God in prayer we reach out and we know that God is never static.  He goes on calling people to respond to him and he entrusts to us; men, women, children, young people, the future fifty years of Saint Leonard’s Parish.

The Alleluia tonight, “Lord, show us your mercy and love and grant us your salvation,” (Psalm 84.8) invites us to be a people of God, to demonstrate mercy and love and to know that we live in the hope of salvation and our vigilance and hope, our responding to the invitation in the Psalm, “Lord, make us turn to you.  Let us see your face and we shall be saved,” challenges us to ponder constantly the face and love of God and through that pondering to reach onward and outward into the lives of our families, our communities, our schools and beyond.

With Saint Paul, I add the words, “May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ send you grace and peace.  I never stop thanking God for all the graces you have received through Jesus Christ, because God by calling you has joined you to his Son, Jesus Christ, and God is faithful.” 

These words are my humble thanks for all that you are and do, for the obvious faith and goodness that I find here and for the gifts of love and service which we carry into the future.  Truly, I can say ‘they are in good hands’.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.