Mass for Sacred Heart Mission

Celebrated By Archbishop Denis Hart
on Friday, 23rd June, 2006, at 6.30pm

Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today we celebrate the love of Jesus Christ for the human race poured out on the cross, demonstrated in a total giving of self and life.

The Sacred Heart Mission has a proud record over so many years of people giving the necessities of life and service, support, compassion and engagement with their needs.

As we thank God for these achievements and re-commit ourselves to the challenges presented and remember those with whom we work as the image of Christ suffering, let us call to mind our sins that we may be witnesses to the power of suffering and resurrection in our lives.

Homily

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today’s Gospel is a story of total and complete giving. Jesus had given himself on the Jewish Preparation Day. Our God who embraced our human nature completely went to the cross and died. The feast of the Sacred Heart is one of total self-giving and yet of the water of joy and peace which can be taken from Christ’s compassion for us.

Pope Benedict has reminded us that ‘we have come to believe and we know that God has loved us first’. And Jesus himself says, “Love one another as I have loved you”, as an invitation to have the same mind and compassion as Jesus Christ and to see his face suffering in the lives of those whom we seek to serve. Not in any inappropriate way, because we are all sinners, but in a real effort to be Christ’s instruments, frail and broken though we too may be.

May I also thank Father Terry Kean, Judge Michael McInerney, and the Board members, Michael Perusco, the Chief Executive, and all those staff and volunteers who come motivated by compassion and service to give their contribution to the remarkable initiative of Christian compassion which is Sacred Heart Mission.

There is indeed a clear link between Jesus’ suffering on the cross, by which he entered fully into human suffering, and our sharing in the suffering of others. In the prayer we ask that our hearts will be open to share the life of Jesus and this means recognising who we are, sharing his compassion and ability to walk with others and then through suffering and self-giving to rise to a new vision of life.

Sacred Heart Mission provides the hope of a better life, spiritually and materially, an engagement of Christ-like followers with those with whom we work and an ability to remember the fundamental fact that we are not merely the dispensers of good works, rather we are enriched ourselves by our contact with those who suffer, often hugely, regularly courageously, and show us a new way of life.

May this place be a place of courage and wonder, of hope and light, in the darkness of our modern cities, as we bring our prayers confidently to the God of all mercy, who embraced the fullness of our humanity and suffering to lead us to eternal life.

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.