A couple of days after Br Sayyane’s diaconate we gathered again at Springvale North this time to pray for an Oblate who has completed his earthly ministry and was called by the Lord to the eternal life. Fr Michael Clarke OMI longed for that moment for a long time, not because he was tired of living but because he wanted to be with his Divine Master whom he always loved dearly. Those of us who knew Fr Michael still treasure the images of his continues prayer. What we were also aware of was that he was very generous and inclusive in his prayers. He didn’t pray for peace of mind etc. but he kept bringing into God’s presence many people he knew from his long ministry in Australia and those who kept requesting him for his prayers.

As Father Provincial remarked Fr Michael would be over the moon seeing that his death was an opportunity for people to come together to worship the Lord Jesus.  Even in his final years, when he was very frail, he didn’t excuse himself from joining a prayer group on regular basis. In his simple but powerful way he kept witnessing his commitment to the Lord. As some people who remembered him from various parishes mentioned he was known for his commitment to visit families. Very systematically and persistently he walked his way through streets to encounter people Catholics and non-Catholics and to remind them of Christ.

I believe that Fr Michael will be as busy in heaven interceding for us as he was during his time of an active ministry and prayerful retirement.

On Sunday, June 21, the Oblate church in Springvale North, Melbourne, became the stage of a great celebration of the ordination to the diaconate of Br Sayyane. Bp Mark Edwards OMI was the ordaining prelate and majority of the Oblates from Victoria joined the local congregation and visiting guests for the joyful event. Br Sayyane has had a blessing that the man who was his Pre-novice Master and later his seminary rector was ordaining him a deacon now. Bp Mark observed Br Sayyane’s growth in the Oblate vocation over a number of years so it must have been his joy to seal that vocation with the ancient apostolic gesture of lying hands, which has been always associated with the gift of the Holy Spirit being given to the candidate for the ordination.

In his homily the Bishop encouraged Br Sayyane to model his ministry on what Jesus wants of him and not relying on the opinions he may encounter in the future.

As this celebration was bringing to conclusion Br Sayyane’s training to the priesthood here in Australia he is preparing to return to his homeland in Laos, where hopefully soon, he will be ordained a priest. There is no doubt that there is a big demand on priests in the poor diocese where he will be working but the real demand is for holy priests. It is a providential moment for Br Sayyane as very soon a group of the Oblates who were martyred some time ago in his homeland is going to be beatified. They have left big shoes for him to fill but they will also intercede for him as he is about to undertake the ministry among the people they loved so much that they chose to die rather than abandon them.

            “How is it that you have no faith?” asks Jesus his disciples. Before we start thinking about those people in the boat on the Lake of Galilee in the middle of the storm, let me draw your attention to a detail that makes the event contemporary to us gathered in this church right now. What were the names of the disciples who were in the boat with Jesus? The Evangelist doesn’t tell us that. In this way each one of us can put himself or herself in the shoes of those people who were with Jesus that night. In this way Jesus question: “How is it that you have no faith?” applies to us too.

            My Dear Sisters and Brothers!

            Have you ever been in a situation when you felt so powerless that you turned to Jesus for help? It could be an illness, a relationship issue, a problem at work, losing sense of direction in life, confusion about the Church etc. How did you feel when it became quiet again? Did you hear Jesus asking you: “How is it that you have no faith?”? or maybe you were so busy to get back to your “normal” life that the quiet moment Jesus was giving you to hear him you filled with a cyclone of your plans for the future. This Sunday as we pause for a moment we do hear that question we overlooked after our own life storms: “How is it that you have no faith?” “Why should we have faith now?” we could ask or another question to ask Jesus today: “Where does faith come from?”

The answer to this question is twofold.

Firstly as we read in the Scriptures, in the Letter to the Romans: “Faith comes from hearing, and that means hearing the word of Christ.” The Gospel passage for this Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time concludes the fourth chapter of the Mark’s Gospel. Let’s find out what else we have in this fourth chapter. We can go an easy way and remember what we heard in the Gospel last Sunday. What was the Gospel about last week? We heard the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the seed growing by itself. If we keep exploring the chapter we also find that there are the parables of the measure, of the lamp and of the sower. We also find out that in the chapter four twice Jesus explained everything to his disciples when they were alone. Why did Jesus speak so much? Was he simply talkative? Let’s go back to what we read in the Letter to the Romans: “Faith comes from hearing, and that means hearing the word of Christ.” Jesus knew that those disciples, and us too, would never have faith if he didn’t give us his holy word to plant faith in our hearts and souls. However his word needs not only explanation but confrontation with reality as well. We need to experience the power and truth of his word, which becomes the foundation of our life, which grafts us into Jesus and develops the most intimate relation with the Lord – faith. Faith grows when we are confronted with difficulties when we are hopeless and helpless, when it comes to survival or perishing. Survival and eternal life comes from placing our full trust and confidence in our Blessed Lord who may seem to be sleeping to us but in fact he doesn’t let us out of his sight.

            That boat on the Lake of Galilee is Jesus’ promise that he will be in all our turmoils, always and everywhere.

This week Fr Michael was called by the Lord. More than seventy years ago he discerned that the Lord Jesus was calling him to be a missionary priest. That's why he joined the Oblates in Ireland and was ordained a priest in 1952. For 62 years he served the Lord Jesus here Down Under. What I will remember of Fr Michael was his commitment to prayer. I think we didn't give him a chance to have his retirement as we bombarded him with various intentions to be prayed for. Until the very end he was in the heart of our Province supporting those in various ministries by his prayers and sacrifices. I was blessed to visit him just a few hours before he passed from this world to Jesus whom he loved dearly. As I was praying the prayers for the dying I felt that he was walking me to the gates of heaven he was about to cross. Although I had to return to the world I took with me a glimpse of happiness from the man who was pining to be united with the Lord who called him to be an Oblate and who was the love of his life.

The following day I found in his room a reflection on eternal life. Every verse was telling of his longing for the moment of seeing the Lord face to face. I hope that Fr Michael doesn't stop praying for us to have a similar longing in our hearts. With such a longing life has got a different meaning.

            What does come to your mind when you hear this song: „From little things big things grow”?

How many of you thought about the ad telling you how to invest in your supper?

How many of you thought about Paul Kelly & The Messengers who recorded this piece as a protest song in 1991? The song which tells the uplifting story of the Gurindji people from the Northern Australia who struggled for equality and land rights.

How many of you thought about „the Kingdom of God which is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.”

            Why did we connect the song to the ad? Because we hear the ad so often. Why didn’t we connect the song to the Gospel? Maybe because we don’t expose ourselves to the Scriptures frequently enough.

            My Dear Sisters and Brothers!

            When Our Blessed Lord compared the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed he didn’t speak about some abstract idea. He was looking at the small band of his disciples, and in them he saw the Kingdom of God already growing. A dozen of insignificant people with no background that could impress the great of the Roman Empire, but their small community had someone who had generated the power, which originally created heaven and earth. The Lord Jesus was with them. Their faith and commitment to him made them not just observers and recorders of events but a transformed community of disciples. Their little community was thrown into the vast and challenging field of the ancient world like a mustard seed thrown into the soil. Have you ever thought why they didn’t diminish but grew into what now is recognised as Christians? As there is something in any seed that makes it sprout in the darkness of the soil as there is the Holy Spirit in the Church, the Spirit sent by the Risen Christ, to fill the Church with the divine grace to be the growing Kingdom of God.

            Can you remember the Gospel we had last Sunday on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ? It was about the Last Supper. How insignificant it looked from sociological point of view. But still it was a powerful moment in the history of this planet. God himself gave his Church his very self for perpetuity so that the growth of the Kingdom of God could continue until the day of the Lord.

            We know from our own Christian history, that from little things big things grow, but the reason for the growth is the Lord Jesus who gives his Holy Spirit to those who may be little or irrelevant according to the world standards but they listen to what the Lord and Master sees in them, like his Apostles listened to what he was telling them. That’s why the Apostles not only left us a few pages about Jesus’s life but they have given us the Church which grows as the Kingdom of God.

            I hope that the next time you hear on TV: „From little things big things grow” you will hear the gentle sound of the Church growing in the midst of our 21st Century word which is as challenging as the ancient world was challenging to the first Christians.