​            Cardinal Francis George OMI, who was Archbishop of Chicago in US, at a function organised to acknowledge the benefactors supporting various works the diocese said: ‘The poor need you to get out of their poverty. You need the poor to stay out of hell.’
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! What a spot on commentary on today’s Gospel. The Gospel passage which is not limited to the audience made of millionaires. It is the Word of God for all of us. We may not have resources to eradicate social injustices in our countries but we do have a new heart and a new spirit in us to see misery of others in our communities and to reach out to them.
Prophet Ezekiel passed on this message from God: ‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you: I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.’ As Christians we treasure this message which is fulfilled in the awesome moment of our Baptism, sustained and nurtured in our active participating in the Holy Eucharist and through the Sacrament of Confirmation driving us out of our complacency so that we may live out Jesus’ words: ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did to me.’ Jesus also went on to say: ‘Whatever you neglected to do to one of the least of theses brothers and sisters of mine, you neglected to do it to me.’
            The rich man from today’s parable was not condemned for some atrocious crimes he did. He condemned himself to hell by turning his wealth into his god. This worship of wealth and prosperity isolated him from others. St Luke wrote that the parties of the rich man were dazzling to the extent that they blinded him to see anything around him. The rich man from today’s Gospel condemned himself to hell by neglecting to do good.
            My Dear fellow believers! I grew up in a country where a socialist movement was promising to eradicate situations like the one Jesus spoke of in the Gospel. However it was a way to gain political power over the country in the name of implementing social changes. Ultimately it wasn’t about the poor and the disadvantage but about having control over the nation.
            Last year Pope Francis canonised Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, who was shot dead in 1980 when he celebrated Mass. Guiding his local Church in difficult times, when the Church faced various difficulties, he made this observation: ‘Not any and every priest has been persecuted, not any and every institution has been attacked. That part of the Church has been attacked and persecuted that put itself on the side of the people and went to the people’s defence. Here again we find the same key to understanding the persecution of the Church: the poor.’
            Before his blood was mingled with the blood of Christ on the altar after he was shot Bishop Oscar Roero immersed himself in the life and misery of the poor. He went out to find the poor. In his last homily, just minutes before he was martyred he preached: ‘Those who surrender to the service of the poor through love of Christ will live like grain of wheat that dies. The harvest comes because of the grain that dies.’ He died literally because he refused to turn a blind eye to the misery of the poor. For most of us it means dying to our comfort, self-justification etc.
            Dear fellow Christians! On Tuesday we begin the month of October. Our Holy Father Pope Francis has announced that October 2019 will be Extraordinary Missionary Month in the Catholic Church. I invite you to visit http://www.october2019.va/en.html to cultivate in you a missionary heart and spirit. However this missionary month is not about some religious propaganda. It is rather about the movement which the rich man from today’s Gospel failed to make: to reach out to those in need. It is not only about the poor who my come to us. It is about the poor whom our Catholic heart inspires us to look for. Saint Oscar Romero once said: ‘The most profound social revolution is the serious, interior reform of a Christian.’ If the poor find in us the care, compassion and tenderness of Jesus Christ we are truly missionaries of the Risen Lord.

​            In 92 AD Clement was elected the new bishop of Rome. He was the third successor of St Peter who baptised him. Clement was Pope for seven years. Guiding the Church during the time of persecutions he was aware of the immense suffering of Christians. The three previous bishops of Rome were martyred and so were many Christians. The State was making Christians’ life miserable. The uncertainty marked every day of followers of Christ. They lived under constant pressure of being targeted by the rulers of the Empire. Hatred and evil they encountered on regular basis.
Not the best time to be a Christian some might say. However what is the best time to be a Christian? Well, the best time to be a Christian is the time God has given us. Pope Clement believed so. He couldn’t change his times. He couldn’t swap them for better ones. What he was able to do was to accept the grace of Christ Jesus to be a sign of contradiction. Living in the midst of wolves he didn’t become a wolf. The hatred, injustice and suffering didn’t make him resentful and revengeful. The evil which came to him, stop at him. He was the border the evil couldn’t cross.
            We still have a prayer he composed for the State which was persecuting the Church:
To those who rule and lead us on the earth
you, sovereign Master, have given their authority and kingship
that seeing the glory and honour you have provided for them,
we should be subject to their rule, not resisting your will.
Grant them, Lord, the health, peace, concord and stability
to use aright the sovereignty you have bestowed on them.
For you, King of heaven, Lord of the ages, you it is
that give to mortal men glory, honour and power over what is on the earth.
Lord, make their counsels conform to what is good and pleasing to you,
that using with reverence, peacefully, gently, the power you have given them,
that they may find favour with you.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! This prayer is a powerful application of the words of St Paul from the Letter to Timothy which we heard in our Second Reading: ‘My advice is that, first of all, there should be prayers offered especially for kings and others in authority, so that we may be able to live religious and reverent lives in peace and quiet.’ St Paul wrote these words when Christians were already persecuted. The people of the Empire like wolves were tormenting them. It wasn’t easy for Christians to practise the message of Christ: ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ Their enemies and persecutors had faces of those in civil authority. That’s why St Paul told the young bishop Timothy to encourage the people in his Church of Ephesus to pray for civil authorities so that Ephesians could live religious and reverent lives in peace and quiet. Religious and reverent life is the life of the lamb that in the midst of ferocious wolves doesn’t become a wolf.
St Paul, St Timothy and St Clement knew that the evil experienced can turn people into evildoers. What they practiced and encouraged other to practice was to be the border which evil couldn’t cross. They faced evil but they didn’t pass it on.
St Clement after seven years of guiding the Church of Rome was first exiled from the city where he was bishop and later thrown into the sea with an anchor tied to his neck. He died but the evil he experienced stop at him. He did not pass it on.
Our times don’t see such cruel persecution like those seen by St Peter, St Paul, St Timothy, St Clement and the Christians of that period. Today the State and various activists don’t care whether we believe in God or not. Still our Christian understanding of who a human person is, the value of life from the conception to natural death, the nature of marriage are not widely accepted. Christians are ridiculed or shut down for their beliefs about those human matters. That’s why we still need to treasure the prayer of the fourth Pope, St Clement. We need to pray to remain the disciples of Christ who don’t use evil to fight evil.

​            The teaching of Jesus from the Gospel we have just heard is familiar to us, isn’t it? The parable of the father and his two sons speaks volumes to us. The forgiving father, who becomes prodigal in his merciful love, we treasure as an image of our Heavenly Father. It gives us hope that even if we mess up our lives as badly as the younger son did we can still hope for forgiveness and love. This Sunday I want to us to return to the Gospel and to focus on the elder son instead. Usually we don’t give him much attention. Even Rembrandt in his famous painting of the today’s Gospel hid the elder son in the shadow. We too choose to focus on the father and the younger son. I wander why. Is it because we want to be the receiver, someone who receives God’s mercy, love and blessing?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! At the beginning of the Gospel we find out that the father divided his property between his two sons. He did this at the request of the younger boy who took what he received and left. He chose an easy life. Why? Because his older brother was left on his own with the responsibility to taking care of the father. The inheritance the elder brother got wasn’t entirely at his disposal. He had to keep a portion of that to look after his aging father. The younger man had everything for himself. It is important to keep this in mind before we take sides. When the young boy returned home after wasting all the money where did all the things his father gave him upon his return come from? They came from what belonged to the elder son. That’s why in spite of loving this parable I find it difficult to apply to my life.
            This is a parable not only about receiving but predominantly about giving away what I am entitled to. As Christians we can’t be a younger son or daughter all the time. We need to grow up and embrace the role, or better to say the ministry, of an elder daughter or son. It is the role, the ministry, of the person who is prepared to let God show his mercy, his love and blessing using the resources which belong to me. It’s not an easy call, is it?
However as Christians we have Jesus Christ, our elder brother, who is more than a model for us to follow. Jesus Christ speaks to us the words of eternal life which reach the depth of our soul not just our brain. Jesus Christ gives us his Body and Blood which build in us a spiritual man or woman, someone who resembles Jesus Christ when it comes to giving ourselves away, especially to those who have used us, abused our trust or taken advantage of our good heart.
            Our Heavenly Father, of whom the father from the parable is a symbol, is the one who deserves the nickname prodigal as ‘He causes his sun to rise on bad men as well as good, and his rain to fall on honest and dishonest men alike.’ Jesus Christ who told the parable deserves to have a nickname prodigal too as imitating his Heavenly Father he stretched out his arm on the cross to embrace the good people and the bad people. The elder brother from today’s parable struggled to be prodigal. We know from our own experience that it is not easy to be prodigal like our Heavenly Father is prodigal. However when we choose to believe Jesus that it is worthwhile to be the person who is prepared to let God show his mercy, his love and blessing using the resources which belong to us there will be a younger brother or sister of ours receiving God’s mercy and beginning growing up to become an elder brother or sister for someone else.
            Today the Lord Jesus speaks about God giving through us. Whom among the people you know do you recognize as recipient? What is it that God wants to give to other out of your own richness? Do you desire to have a nickname prodigal?

​            The words of Jesus’ from today’s Gospel sound harsh, don’t they? ‘If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes his own life too, he cannot be my disciple?’
            Does Jesus encourage us all to develop some hatred towards our closest relations like we can sometimes see when members of one family are fighting over the inheritance from their deceased father or mother?  They don’t need to be encouraged to hate each other. It is more obvious then the sun in the sky. Not an easy topic to reflect on, isn’t it? Maybe we should focus on something more pleasing? No. I believe that we do need to grapple with it, but to do it well let us pray first: ‘Lord Jesus, give us your Holy Spirit, who could lead us to the wisdom indicated in our First Reading today.’ Let us listen to some sentences from that reading again: ‘What man can know the intentions of God? Who can divine the will of the Lord?’ Valid questions, aren’t they? The answer comes from the end of the reading: ‘As for your intentions, who could have learnt it, had you not granted Wisdom and sent your holy spirit from above? Thus have the paths of those on earth been straightened and people been taught what pleases you, and saved, by Wisdom.’
            I would like to recall two people, two saints, whose lives filled with wisdom from above, can help us to accept the words of our Lord Jesus Christ from today’s Gospel as the message much needed in our own time and in our own Australian society.
            The first person I want to talk about is Sir Thomas More as he was known in his own time, one of the most successful politicians of the sixteenth century England and a devoted husband and father. As for us Catholics he is a saint: Saint Thomas More. When King Henry VIII decided to separated England from the Catholic Church Sir Thomas More opposed it. He was put in prison and eventually executed. We still have his letters to his family written from his prison cell in the Tower of London. He suffered enormously at the thought that his wife was to be a widow and children orphans. He could go back home if he abandoned his Catholic Faith. Although distressed at the approaching separation from his wife and children he chose Jesus. He knew that it was his faith in Jesus Christ that made him love his family so much. It was Jesus who made him who he was, his faith was his identity.
            The Second person I would like to mention was a Jewish woman Edith Stain,a brilliant German scholar and philosopher of the beginning of the twentieth Century. She was the first woman at the University of Gottingen in Germany to get a doctorate. As an adult she discovered Jesus Christ and converted to the Catholic Faith. After a few years she joined a Carmelite convent in Cologne. Her Jewish mother whom she loved dearly didn’t want to have anything to do with her after that decision. As an enclosed nun Edith Stein, who took name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was given permission to write a letter to her mother every week. That’s what she did. For number of years there was a weekly letter posted from the convent to her mother. Never came a reply. Edith suffered a lot. But she knew that her faith in Jesus Christ made her love her mother so much. It was Jesus Christ who made her who she was, her faith was her identity.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! At the moment we face a big debate on religious freedom here in Australia. There are big discussions at the high level of our society. However I believe that we need to play our part too. When we talk to our friends, colleagues, relatives let us explain that our faith is not our hobby. Our faith in Jesus Christ has made us into who we are. Our faith is our identity. St Thomas More once said: ‘I am a citizen of London.’ He was proud to be one. However his citizenship was built on his faith and commitment to Jesus Christ, like his love for his family was built on Jesus.
            As Catholics in Australia we want others to see where we come from in regards to our love for this beautiful country and its people. It comes from our faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. He takes the first place in our life. Because of that we want to continue to be of service to our fellow Australians as we have been for a long time already. We want to be citizens of Australia who give priority to Jesus Christ as he said in those challenging words about ‘hating.’