What would you do if you heard fire alarm going off right now? You would leave, wouldn’t you? A few days ago at a college there was a musical gala. When the MC went up to welcome people, just as she was about to say the first words, fire alarm went off. Do you know what the whole audience did next? Nothing, they kept sitting. It took some time and some extra explanation to get them evacuate. Why did they not leave in the first place? Because they thought it was part of the show. They did not ‘read’ the normal message conveyed by the alarm but they made their own interpretation of what was happening. Thank God there was just a minor issue. But what would happen if it were something major?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! St Paul in our Second Reading taken from the Letter to the Romans wrote: The life and death of each of us has its influence on others. What kind of influence it will be comes from our accepting in faith and trust what St Paul wrote next: If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord, so that alive or dead we belong to the Lord. As we gather this Sunday, we can remember the words of St Peter, the Apostle: Do not behave in the way that you liked to before you learnt the truth. St Peter when he wrote those words had in his memory, and in his heart, the three years he walked with Jesus and other Apostles across the Holy Land. Today’s Gospel recalls a day from that three-year-long walk. However the walk wasn’t about physical fitness. It was about their growth in trust and faith in Jesus.
            It was about trust. Peter is an example of someone who is not afraid of confronting his own thinking, his own life experience, with Jesus. Peter must have had situations when people wronged him. However he also had heard Jesus’ call to forgive, as we did last Sunday. So today we see St Peter coming and, rather generously, offering to forgive seven times. Lots of people would struggle to apply that to their life. Sometimes to forgive once seems to be like deserving a Noble Prize. So how did Jesus react to that generous offer of Peter? Did he award the first Pope with seven Noble Prizes? Jesus said: You must forgive seventy-seven times.
            Here Peter had to place his faith in Jesus. The word he receive was challenging but it was also life giving. First to the people who would benefit from limitless forgiveness St Peter would offer. What a great impact on others, isn’t it. Secondly to Peter himself as he was living his life for the Lord Jesus not for himself, as he was allowing the Spirit of God to shape him according to the Good News proclaimed by Jesus Christ.
            My Dear Fellow believers! The Scripture readings for this Sunday are about forgiveness but they are also about the Word of God which influences us who place our trust and faith in Jesus. The Scripture readings for this Sunday confront us, and our own way of listening and interpreting of the Bible with the truth of God. For example we may listen to the Word of God like the people at the music gala to the fire alarm and thought that the alarm didn’t apply to them. That it was irrelevant.
We may also try to water down the Scriptures by adding contemporary trends, politics, philosophies, ideologies, lack of faith, irreligiously etc. to the purity of the Word of God. It is like pouring a few liters of water to a glass of wine. After that exercise what is left in the glass, is it still wine? Is it still the Word of God which is life giving, hope giving, love giving or is it the product of our own doubt, conformity, the easy way, self-absorbedness, individualism etc. which is death giving, despair giving, hate giving?
The Peter of our time, Pope Francis, like all Pope we might have known so far, is an attentive listener to the Word of God. Every day between 5 and 7am he meditates on the Word of God, he allows the Word of God to influence him. Last week when he was in Colombia he was approached by a woman whose husband poured acid on her face. After many surgeries she decided to have euthanasia as he believed that her psychological suffering was unbearable. She went up to the Pope and asked him to bless her for her final journey. The Pope answered: ‘You will not do that. You are beautiful and courageous.’ It was a brief moment but it changed her. She doesn’t want to have euthanasia. Her life was influenced by the Pope who first was influenced by the Word of God.

Do you know who a guardian angel is? It is a person who is with you 24/7, isn’t it? However before you start imagining someone in shining garments with wings growing from their back, let me talk about a Catholic community of Cenacolo. The community was founded by Mother Elvira Petrozzi , an Italian nun in 1983. Mother Elvira discovered a call to help drug addicts. However she didn’t employ medical personnel, psychologists, psychiatrists or councillors. She didn’t invent a new method of treatment either. Instead she turned to the Gospel. Cenacolo means Cenacle, the Upper Room. After prayer and reflection she started a community which was to reflect what we have been given in the Gospel, particular captured in the Last Super. Mother Elvira describes it as a ‘school of life,’ focusing on work, prayer and interpersonal sharing. Over 34 years of their existence 80% of the women and men living in Cenacolo communities have won their battle with their addiction. I presume that the reason our government organizations are not applying the method of Cenacolo is that the communities founded by Mother Elvira have a strong Catholic identity.
            Let’s go back to our question regarding a guardian angel. In Cenacolo it is a recovering addict, who has been already for some moths in the community. He may still have his own demons to deal with but he is given a new comer. Over a number of weeks he will be like a shadow to the newbie. He will be like Prophet Ezekiel who was appointed by God ‘as sentry to the House of Israel.’ He will not leave the newcomer even for a second, day and night, week after week. I guess some could raise an objection that it is the invasion of privacy. However those who have recovered from their addiction say that without the guardian angel it is impossible to survive those first weeks when every cell in the body screams for drugs, alcohol, etc. The guardian angel is like that person from today’s Gospel who never gives up, unless the person she or he is accompanying walks away from the community.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! I am telling you the story of Cenacolo so that you could grow in your appreciation of belonging to the Church community which was a model for Mother Elvira. If it can help people in such drastic circumstances it can also help us in our own parish communities. I don’t mean that we all need to have a parishioner following us 24/7 but that we should rediscover the essence of living our faith as a community. The guardian angel from Cenacolo is someone who on behalf of the community loves the fellow Christian in a very concrete and practical way. The guardian angel knows that he has got the support, understanding and love of the community. He is not on his own when he faces the roller-coaster with dramatic mood swings. Jesus said: ‘Where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.’ However those two or three need to come together because they care for someone. Jesus hasn’t promised to be among those who gather together just to enjoy some cozy but selfish time.
From what I have told you so far about Cenacolo you shouldn’t be surprised that the people there practice seriously what Jesus explained in the Gospel for this Sunday: ‘If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone.’ It means: Put your whole love into winning back your brother or sister who strays. However if your love is not enough double it by asking someone else to go with you for the second time. If it still doesn’t work bring the whole love the community, your Church, has got into your interaction with your brother of sister, because sometimes you may not have enough love to be challenging or consistent.
However the first test whether you have love to correct someone is when you yourself are open to be corrected. If it is not, you better go and have a cup of coffee and examine your attitude, then go to Jesus and ask him for openness to receive a correction from your fellow Christians.

            At the beginning of Lent we listen to the Gospel about the three temptations Jesus faced in the desert. After the third temptation Jesus said: ‘Be off, Satan!’ In the Gospel for this Sunday we hear the words which evoke that desert moment: ‘Get behind me, Satan.’ These words were thrown at the man who, according to what happened a few moments earlier, as we could hear it last Sunday, was described the rock on which Jesus was to build his Church. ‘And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it.’ In split seconds Peter - the rock became Peter - an obstacle. In split seconds we too from disciples can become enemies of the Lord.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers!
What triggered such a drastic reaction in Christ? Peter was pulling Jesus away from the cross. Peter had an idea of Jesus doing great things without the cross being involved. Jesus however opposed the vision which didn’t include the cross. Christ didn’t seek suffering. Christ didn’t seek an excruciating death. Christ however did seek to ‘offer his body as a holy sacrifice.’ It was to be a life giving sacrifice as we continue to celebrate it in our communities.
The situation in the Gospel shows Peter, who had just professed his faith in ‘the Son of the living God,’ falling into a subtle temptation of imagining the world without the cross. It is not a vanished temptation; it is still present in our midst. Recently I was reading an article about Iceland, the first nation Down-syndrome free. Do you think that they have discovered a groundbreaking treatment to eradicate the syndrome? Not at all. The solution they have found is sinister: the prenatal testing and abortion. Iceland became Down-syndrome free because all babies with Down-syndrome are being murdered. Denmark is going to ‘achieve’ that in 10 year, while Europe and America are not far from such an ‘achievement.’ Apparently it is going to make the world better and more beautiful. I doubt it because we are losing something precious the Down-syndrome people give us. Listen to these statistics:
99% people with Down syndrome are happy with their lives.
97% people with Down syndrome like who they are
96% people with Down syndrome like how they look.
How many of our schools and institutions can enjoy that?
St Paul in the Letter to the Romans wrote: ‘Do not model yourself in the behaviour of the world around you, but let your behaviour change, modelled by your new mind.’ The world without the cross is a sinister temptation. That’s why as Christians, following the example of Jesus, whom we preach as the crucified Lord, we have been always at the frontline of health and social care alleviating suffering in its various form. At the outbreak of A.I.D.S catholic religious were with patients when others were scared of contagiousness. However we also recognize that there is mystery surrounding human suffering when we are called to be with the person knowing that there is no cure or solution.
Henri Nouwen, a great writer and theologian but also a humble and faith-filled priest saw his mother dying not in the calm of peace but in the grip of struggle, even terror. He voiced than what was in his heart: ‘Why were we witnessing such pain and agony of a woman whose life had been one of goodness, tenderness and love?’ These are legitimate questions but without faith there is no answer. Nouwen contemplating the suffering of his mum started reflecting if his mother’s struggle did not reveal the truth of God’s love. Who was more loving than Jesus? Who suffered more than Jesus? Jesus’ life did not end in a tranquil death. He suffered an agony and his agony still echoes down through the centuries in those who suffer. ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.’
However it will happen only when Christ goes first and we follow. That’s why Jesus said to Peter: ‘Get behind me.’ Because when we push Jesus off the frontline and place ourselves there expecting him to follow us and to accept our vision for the world without the cross, we in fact create a sinister world. The world where killing babies is called an abortion; and murdering the vulnerable is called euthanasia.
My Dear Fellow believers! In this world where our voice as people of faith is played down we need again to stand behind Jesus and then we will have a beautiful view of the world and of our fellow human beings. Then we can offer to our world our contemplation of heaven in those who are united with heaven in their suffering.

            Have you heard of the Twelve Steps? That’s the program constructed by Bill Wilson in 1935 and originally offered to Anonymous Alcoholics. Bill Wilson, who for years tried to stop drinking, eventually turned to God crying: ‘I will do anything! Anything at all! If there be a God, let Him show Himself.’ Then something happened to him. He never drank after that. His doctor who supported him over those years of his battle said: ‘Something has happened to you that I don’t understand. But you had better hang on to it.’ However Bill Wilson did more. He started praying, reading the Bible and reflecting on it. Out of that came what is known today as Twelve Steps, an invention which deserves to be on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Twelve Steps begins with admitting one’s powerless like the woman from today’s Gospel did. She came out shouting her helplessness like Bill Wilson did. ‘Take pity on me.  – She was pleading – My daughter is tormented by a devil.’ In her story we discover that like Bill Wilson she was ready to do anything. In fact she swallowed her pride. The sense of failure which she lived with for many years was the environment for her realism but also for her faith in ‘a Power greater then ourselves’ as the Twelve Steps define it.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! After admitting one’s powerlessness and then one’s belief in a Power greater than oneself the person doing the Twelve Steps is encouraged to make a decision to turn his or her will and life to the care of God as she or he understood him. Some people claim that they are recovering from their addiction without any reference to God. My response to such comments is: ‘Good for you. I am happy that you beat you addiction. However do not call it Twelve Steps. What you are doing is your own steps. They may work but I cannot guarantee that. On the contrary I can guarantee that the original Twelve Steps born from Bill Wilson’s struggles with his life, his reflection on the Scriptures and his commitment to God, do work.
            Bill Wilson encouraged addicts to turn to God as they understood him. He didn’t lead people to some fairy stories or imaginary gods but he pointed to God whom we adore in Jesus Christ. Knowing from his experience that often people had a poor image of God, the image which was limited and fragmented, but it was all they had, he said to them: Hang on to that. Even if your faith is childish and superficial that’s all you’ve got. Hang on to that.
Because faith isn’t about imagining a god to make people feel better. Faith is not about having an imaginary friend, like some children sometimes do. Faith is about turning with our physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological, social insufficiency and fragility to God who can embrace us the way Jesus embraced that woman from today’s Gospel. She turned to Jesus and it was her victory. St Matthew tells us that she was addressing Christ as: ‘Son of David and Lord.’ She saw in Jesus not a visiting doctor but God. Her faith wasn’t perfect at that stage but she turned to God for real because God to whom she turned to was real. The outcome of that interaction was not only the miracle of healing granted to her daughter but it was also the great faith, as Jesus described it. She returned to her home not only to see a healthy daughter but to be a healthy and faith-filled mother to that daughter.
            My Dear fellow believers. These are not simply inspiring stories. They show us how much the Blessed Lord can accomplish in those who turn to him. When we turn to him and give our life to him we have a relationship with God. Then we have the life which can be compared to the Gospel from last Sunday. The man of little faith, Simon Peter, was sinking. What happened to him next? He cried out: ‘Lord! Save me’ and Jesus was holding his hand. We may have little faith but because our Lord is real he will save us like the Lord has saved millions of people doing the Twelve Steps.

            Years ago when I began working as a teacher I discovered that shouting over a noisy class wasn’t a solution. It worked better to keep my voice down.
            The first reading is full of big noises: the noise of “the mighty wind, so strong that it tore the mountains and shattered the rocks” or the noise of “the earthquake,” or the noise of “the fire.” There was also a big noise in the heart and mind of the prophet Elijah. The prophet, like all prophets did, was carrying within himself the situation of his own people.
At that time those who were leading people astray dominated in the society. Their voices were so strong that even the earlier miracle Elijah performed, when he brought fire from heaven to prove his genuineness, didn’t work. It didn’t convince them.
Elijah was like a teacher who lost his plot in the midst of a noisy class. I am not sure what was louder in the scene we had in the first reading, whether the forces of nature around Elijah or the voices within him, still echoing what was happening in the society drifting away from their relationship with God. In the midst of those interior and exterior big noises God kept his voice down, “there came the sound of a gentle breeze.”
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Though separated by some millennia we can empathize with Elijah. We are also surrounded by some big noises of theories, ideologies, etc. which can make us think that someone operates a very powerful surround sound system in this world stopping the voice of God to be heard. We may think that we cannot escape this noise which seems to fill up our heart, mind and soul.
My Dear Fellow believers! Do not feel sorry for yourself for having to live in such an environment. Do not think that our era is worse than the previous ones; instead turn to the Lord Jesus. The Gospel tells us of the Lord coming to his disciples in the midst of big noises too. The heavy sea combined with the disciples’ fear is a situation where it was hard to hear anything. Into such situation Jesus walked.
The men in the boat had just seen the feeding of thousands by Christ but in the midst of the frightening storm when they saw Christ approaching their boat they got frightened even more. In their religious tradition only God could walk on the water as it was written in the Book of Job: “He and no other stretched out the skies, and trampled the Sea’s tall waves.” However they didn’t expect God to come to them and that’s why they jumped into a conclusion that it was a ghost.
It is a part of life and faith journey which all of us go through. We get immersed in the waves of philosophies which poison our relationship with the Lord like pagan beliefs in ghosts poisoned the disciples’ relationship with Christ. Challenged by frightening circumstances they surfaced their hidden beliefs which were like that weed Jesus spoke of in one of his parables. That night on the lake the weed of believing in ghosts appeared plainly. They knew that as descendants of Abraham, patriarchs and prophets they weren’t to hold to such beliefs. On the stormy lake they realised that it took root in them. However Jesus didn’t give them a lecture to reprimand them for such a distortion. Instead he proved to be Emmanuel – God-with-us. He was with his disciples there. In the midst of those interior and exterior deafening noises Jesus was speaking to the men calmly like a teacher who doesn’t need to shout over a noisy class in order to be in control.
We also find ourselves overcome by the volume of the noise of theories and ideologies contradicting the Word of God. But as it happened before when God came to Elijah amidst of political, social, religious and naturals storms and when Jesus walked on the raging water to reach his disciples Jesus comes to us in this twenty first century too. He, our Emmanuel – our God-with-us, brings his divine wish to strengthen our faltering faith, our weakening relationship with him. The storms around us don’t need to drop. The storm on the lake didn’t drop during the conversation Jesus had with his Apostles either, it dropped at the end of the conversation. We, because of the grace of our Lord, can be attentive and responsive to his gentle voice in the midst of big noises surrounding us.

            Imagine if Jesus was transfigured above Jerusalem Temple instead of being crucified at Golgotha. It was estimated that around three million people were in the Holy City during that time. Our Blessed Lord couldn’t have a better opportunity to promote his Good News, when so many Jews and pagans were crowded in Jerusalem. If those three million people had seen what Peter, James and John saw on the mountain of Transfiguration the word would spread like fire to the four corners of the world. Why did Jesus choose only three simple men to witness his glory while his humiliation happened in the plain view of millions?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! God chose to accomplish our salvation not outside us but from within us. A couple of centuries prior to Jesus prophet Daniel wrote: ‘I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man.’ The prophet was given a vision of the coming salvation which was originated in heaven. No human being can save himself or herself. Salvation is the work of God. Today’s Gospel, reminiscing the Divinity of Christ, is irrevocably connected to the events of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. Those three Most Sacred Days were the culmination of what Daniel saw in his vison: ‘coming … one like a son of man.’ That’s why Jesus not only chose the obscurity of the mountain for his Transfiguration but he also ‘warned the disciples to tell no one what they had seen until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.’ It was crucial as the transfiguration on its own could have made people think that he was only looking like a human being while his crucifixion left no doubt about how real his human condition was. Salvation is not some medicine applied by God wearing protective gloves not to get contaminated by our sinfulness. On the contrary Jesus Christ stepped into the most dehumanising situation so that the healing, the salvation of our humanity could be brought about from within.
Jesus consistently introduced himself as ‘Son of Man,’ which to our ears today sounds like a title of God, doesn’t it? However to his listeners the expression meant simply a human being. It is a very profound mystery for our contemplation that Jesus insisted so strongly on presenting himself as a true man. Why? So that we could believe that salvation is an act of loving mercy rather than an impersonal treatment of God distanced from us. If the title ‘Son of Man’ has got such a divine implication, as we hear it today, it is because Our Blessed Lord, in whom we place our trust, took upon himself our human nature to transfigure it from within to such an extent that it was radiating with glory proper to God. Jesus didn’t need to strip himself off human physique to reveal his divinity. His divinity shone from his humanity as Peter, James and John were blessed to witness on the mountain of Transfiguration. Jesus’ divinity shone even more profusely when he was on the cross. They stripped him off his clothes there but then every nerve and muscle, every cell of his suffering body was screaming not only out of excruciating pain but also out of loving mercy. The glory of the Son of Man nailed to the wood of the cross was not causing blindness but it was accomplishing the salvation we needed so much. That’s why, some years later St Paul wrote in the Letter to the Romans: ‘Be transformed by the renewing of the mind.’ St Paul very carefully used the same word which was used in the Gospel to describe the event we celebrate this Sunday but his time in relation to Christians. St Paul wasn’t an idealist he was a realist. He was aware of the sins among Christians but he was also aware that human nature is not an obstacle to be shining with God’s glory. St Paul drew this belief from his contemplation on the glory of Jesus revealed in the most prosaic human situations and finally in Jesus’ death and Resurrection.
            For two millennia Christian people have been recalling various events of Jesus’ mission in the midst of humanity in order to renew the human mind. This renewal comes from within, from memories of Jesus’ events and the work of the Holy Spirit present always in those who remember Jesus. As we lovingly and gratefully remember Jesus’ Transfiguration today, the Spirit, who as the cloud wrapped the summit of the mountain, works profoundly in our souls and in the midst of this community. Can you see the glory of God shining from this community and from each person here present? I can because I believe Jesus.

            In recent weeks some politicians have revived the discussion about Australia becoming a republic. In recent weeks, as we can hear in the Gospel passages, our Blessed Lord has revived the message about the kingdom of heaven. The difference is that Jesus announces the reality which is already established in this world regardless of political, social or cultural environments. The Lord said: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a filed.” The filed is the world we live in even if the world with its political, social or cultural structures looks as dirty as the dirt under our feat. However that image doesn’t exhaust the whole mystery of the kingdom of heaven. That’s why the treasure hidden in the field Jesus presents with the dynamism of “a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field.” If we go to the chapter 3 of St Matthew’s Gospel we discover that the first words of John the Baptist were: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In the following chapter we find the first words of Jesus marking the beginning of his public ministry: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.” Exactly the same words because the kingdom of heaven is connected to Jesus Christ. St John the Baptist didn’t explain ideas or rules regarding the kingdom of heaven but he pointed to Jesus. Jesus is the realisation, inauguration and growth of the kingdom of heaven.
            Let’s return to “the mustard seed which a man sowed in his field.” It is a powerful image of God the Father sowing his Eternal Word, his only Begotten Son, existing from eternity in the happiness of the Blessed Trinity, in the field of this world, in the field of the humanity. Jesus didn’t come as an alien but being fully divine he grew fully human from the day of the Annunciation. By his human growth Jesus was like a mustard tree which grows from a small seed not in isolation from the dirt but in inseparable connection to it.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! When we reflect on how life is connected to the dirt which is full of dead animals and plants we are drawn to contemplate a deeper mystery of the Divinity of the Son of God connected now to his humanity. However this message doesn’t exhaust the full mystery of the kingdom of heaven either. Last Sunday we heard from our Lord another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.” From that day of the Annunciation when the Divine Son began growing fully human he began leavening the human world. The human world was giving him humanity, which contains death; he was giving the human world the eternal life contained in his divinity. In terms of statistics it wasn’t spectacular but it was profound. It wasn’t conquering territories the way early kingdoms and states do but it was winning hearts. We can see it in Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zachary. We can see it in John the Baptist. In Jesus they found the treasure and pearl worth selling everything else to get it.
            I don’t know whether we will die in the Republic of Australia or in the Monarchy. However I do appreciate Jesus’ message about the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom which draws its vitality from him “who grew up in front of us like a sapling, like a root in arid ground. A thing despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Ours were the sufferings he bore, ours sorrows he carried.” That’s why the kingdom of heaven continually grows in our midst because it is not defined by boundaries separating one country from another but it is defined by unity of ”people from every nation, race, tribe and language” who have found in Jesus Christ their treasure and precious pearl worth selling everything they have. It is a kingdom where the first law is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.” That’s the best law ever introduced on this planet as it leads to the change of heart. We believe that because “God loved us first.”

            The Book of Wisdom we listened to at the beginning of the Liturgy of the Word is considered to be the newest piece of the Old Testament. It was written in Greek which led the Jews to reject it. Being written in the city of Alexandria in Egypt didn’t help it either. The Jews couldn’t imagine God revealing divine mysteries outside the Holy Land and in the language which wasn’t the language of Israel. However the Church has discerned that the Book belongs to the Scriptures.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The Book of Wisdom was written down among the Jews who lived away from their homeland. They found themselves in the environment which was not only different to Judea and Galilee but was also challenging their beliefs. The Greek culture was known for its philosophical development but also for the religious concepts varying from the Jewish monotheism and the sense of being chosen by God. On daily basis those Jewish migrants were bombarded by arguments that a god is a tyrant who needs to be appeased by offerings or that a god doesn’t care about what happens on the earth. In such a challenging environment the Book of Wisdom was conceived. We could say that God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sent his Holy Spirit to the community of his sons and daughters living abroad so that they could be enlightened in their specific circumstance to be the yeast to leaven the society. The origins of the Book of Wisdom correspond with the parables we heard in the Gospel.
            Unfortunately the Book of Wisdom is not a favourite piece of the Scriptures for Christians to read. Probably because it doesn’t have some lovely stories which could capture our imagination. However I would like to invite you to read and meditate it. In the twenty first century we should rediscover this Book as a gift of our first sisters and brothers in Christian faith who welcomed it as inspired by the Holy Spirit and as such passed on to the next generation.
            Our society poses different challenges as it isn’t as religious as was the Greek society in Alexandria. However our society, which is so obsessed with secularity, is also in need of encountering the living God as much as was the society of Alexandria. In our secular environment we are called to treasure that “the Spirit comes to help us in our weaknesses” so that we could be a courageous community which is able to see the “kingdom of heaven” growing “like a mustard seed,” to see the signs of “the kingdom of heaven” “leavening” the society like “the yeast.” We are called to be the community which doesn’t get discouraged by the scandal of sin evident in individuals, in our faith communities and in the society but glorifies God who “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” The Scriptures call Jesus Christ the Rising Sun. The prophets also promised him as rain: “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may spring up and let it cause the righteousness to sprout up also.” Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life, lives in our midst. He lives in our Church so that our Church could be an icon of God and a taste of the kingdom of heaven.
            My Dear Fellow Christians! Alexandria was judged by the Jews as unworthy of being the place where God’s voice could resound. Don’t apply that misjudgement to the place where you find yourselves living. God comes to those who are in need of his grace, peace and love. I have no doubts that this place of ours qualifies for that.

            A hundred years ago in Fatima, Portugal, the Blessed Virgin appeared to the three children. The last apparition which happened on October 13, 1917 is known for the miracle of the Sun, when the star began to spin and appeared to run toward the earth. However I would like to draw your attention to a detail which is usually overlooked. At the end of the October apparition Mary was seen by Lucia as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Later Lucia testified that Mary “wore the Holy Scapular in her right hand.”
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! You have gathered in this church of yours, which is also a shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as today we celebrate her feast. Every time you come here you see the image of Mary who holds the Infant Jesus and the Holy Scapular. In the Gospel passage we heard of Jesus stretching his arm too. He pointed to his disciples. Then he said: “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” These words of the Saviour recapture that profound moment in Nazareth when Mary declared in the presence of the Archangel Gabriel: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
We call her the Mother of God because she gave birth to the Son of the Almighty. That’s how the people in the Gospel today introduced her. However her Divine Son revealed her motherhood on a deeper level. That’s the level of humanity where one searches for the will of God in order to be committed to it. That day in Nazareth Mary prophetically verbalised and immediately put into practise what her Son later revealed to his disciples: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.”
            That deeper level of Mary’s motherhood made her also an example of a Christian, a disciple of Jesus, a follower of Jesus. Discerning the will of God in a particular situation requires some growing familiarity with God’s word and with God’s presence. St Luke in his Gospel described it by saying that “Mary treasured all these words in her heart.” However the way she treasured God’s word was transformative. St Luke wrote: “She pondered them in her heart.” We may think that pondering is like reflecting on something in a quiet room. Let me give you a situation from Mary’s life where we can see her pondering in the Biblical way.
It was when she witnessed Jesus on the cross. There she was exposed to a grave injustice, to such a dehumanizing hatred. Some people imagine her in despair there. But the Apostle John wrote that the Mother of Jesus “was standing there.” She didn’t faint out of desolation. She was pondering what she was witnessing. She was imitating her Son who was absorbing the evil which was directed on him. Like her Son Jesus Christ she was absorbing evil. However filled with the Holy Spirit she was not transmitting the evil on but she, who was full of grace, allowed it to be transformed within her. That’s the meaning of Biblical pondering. That’s also a call addressed to all of us who desire to be called Jesus’ sisters and brothers.
All of us on this planet are exposed to the consequences of original sin which has disfigured us as individuals and as a community. It has also disfigured the nature. As Christians we are not protected from the exposure to the consequences of original sin. We are exposed to them like all people but we are called to ponder them like Mary and with Mary. We are called to be stoppers of the evil we experience not transmitters of it.
            You may be familiar with the TV series called Revenge, a fictional story of a young woman who meticulously works on paying back for the injustice which was inflicted on her family by some people. She keeps the memory of the evil done to her folks alive in her heart and mind but it cannot be called pondering. She transmits the evil on to others. It is a fictional story but we can detect the pattern of transmitting experienced evil present in our life as well.
            Dear Sisters and Brothers of Jesus! Look on the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Make home for her Son Jesus Christ in your heart, mind and soul. Then believe that you are well equipped to ponder what happens to you. We need to be filled with the Word of God, we need to treasure it, otherwise the various forms of evil we are exposed to will eat us up from within or we will transmit it on.
            I also encourage you to accept the Holy Scapular and to wear it. It is not a talisman. It is a call and task to imitate Jesus Christ. If you commit yourself to this call and task, be assured that Mary will be support you in your pondering.

Some months ago I attended a conference for the Oblates working in various formation houses of our Congregation in the Asia-Oceania Region. After presenting the situation of Australia, with the growing population of people who don’t have any religion, an Oblate priest from Asia said: “I cannot imagine a person who doesn’t believe in a god. It is impossible. In my country – he added – Christians are a small minority but everyone believes in a god or gods.”
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! A few weeks ago I was processing the figures from our 2016 national census. For the first time the biggest ‘religious’ group are the people with no religion, nearly 30%. In the last fifteen years that figure has doubled. What should a believer say to the census’ outcome? Let me recall a sentence from today’s Gospel: “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth.” These words our Blessed Lord proclaimed after he was rejected by his own compatriots. The statistics were not encouraging but Jesus was not analysing statistics but he was recognising the way his Father was working in those “ungrateful” societies of Capernaum and Bethsaida. Why did Christ bless his Father when most of the people pushed him away? “For hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revelling them to mere children.” Jesus saw in the small group of his followers the leaven, the nucleus, placed in the midst of Capernaum and Bethsaida. That leaven, that nucleus was constituted by the people to whom “he chose to reveal the Father” and who responded to his invitation: “shoulder my yoke.”
Later a great missionary, St Paul the Apostle, wrote to the Christians in Rome who had their own challenges as they strived to bear witness to the Death and Resurrection of Christ: “The Spirit of God has made his home in you.” Most of us participating in this Eucharist have been confirmed. We claim to have the Spirit. However the Spirit the Risen Lord gave to the Apostles on Pentecost and the Spirit he still enriches his Church with is not building a safe haven for us to protect us from the influence of the secular world. Rather as we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church “by the sacrament of Confirmation, the baptised are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed.”
My Dear Fellow believers! By the sacrament of Confirmation we are more perfectly bound to the Church. Can you hear here an echo of what Jesus said about a yoke? What is a yoke? It is a device for joining together a pair of animals so that they can pull a plough or a heavy load. Pay attention to the important detail: for joining together a pair of animals. A yoke is shared. Jesus already holds firmly his side of the yoke, like he did with his cross, and he turns his eyes to us to take hold of the other side. The other side of the yoke is for the Church. That yoke of proclaiming the Good News by word and deed has nothing to do with propaganda but it is all about continuing the mission of Christ, the mission of love which is not afraid of truth.
The followers of Christ in this Great Southland of the Holy Spirit are called these days to treasure what has been revealed to us by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. However treasuring has nothing to do with hiding under a table what we treasure. On the contrary it is all about exhibiting as a community of believers, not a bunch of individuals, but as a community shouldering the yoke Jesus first embraced in order to evangelise.
What I read from the 2016 census is a fresh call from Jesus Christ to rediscover and to reclaim our identity as an evangelising community. It is not about creating a ghetto or doing propaganda. It is about living in such a Christian way that those who meet us will meet the one we are called after: CHRIST.