Mass at Justin Villa, Balwyn

Celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart
at Justin Villa, Balwyn,
on Friday, 9th December, 2005, at 11.00am

Introduction

My dear Brothers in the Priesthood,

In this season of Advent the Lord invites us to go and meet him with our hearts and our lives. 

Some of our brethren who have lived here have now passed to their eternal reward and we remember them especially.

I join you in thanking God for your own gift of priesthood, exercised with such faithfulness and generosity, as I ask you to pray with me on this day, the eighth anniversary of my ordination as a bishop.

Let us ask the Lord for his pardon and strength.

Homily

My dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Psalm of today’s Mass gives the classic contrast between good and evil, God and the devil.  Isaiah invites us that alertness to God will bring happiness, joy and fruitfulness.  As priests, our ministering of Sacraments, our teaching, and our goodness has given us many spiritual children and by our interaction with them has helped us to grow in the spiritual life. 

These days of Advent remind us that our following the Lord in contemplation, waiting for him to come first of all in our hearts and in our lives is an ever hope-giving and developing challenge.  “Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.”  This is a reminder that if, in God is our joy, then we have nothing to fear.  Indeed, going up to meet the Lord, we will find his peace.

For each of us every day is an invitation on the part of God and his word is rich enough to sustain our times of weeping or dancing.  Yet, there is a contradiction in human nature.  We treat John the Baptist as one possessed because he is an aesthetic and we reject Jesus as a glutton because he meets with publicans and sinners. 
We describe one bishop or priest as a Communist because he is united with the poor in their misery and another as a mystic and a dreamer because he draws our attention to the primacy of prayer.  Rather than our preconceived ideas, we should rely on Jesus, the one who is coming.

Humbly this Advent we allow our God to guide us.  If we give to God, then we will experience the adventure of living and beyond all comfortable security the challenge and the wind of God who is coming.

Yes, Lord you are the one who is to come.
We have looked for you in places where you were not
And we wanted other signs.
But now we believe it is your Word
That draws us along, disturbs us,
And calls us to share in the adventure that will only cease at the end of time.
May the Lord who is coming to us fill us with his hope.
Come, Lord, do not delay, release the bonds of your people.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.