There is a fifteenth century manuscript called: The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry. The Duke was the man who commissioned this piece of art. The manuscript is a book with various prayers aimed at sanctifying different hours of the day and the night. Why is it called The Very Rich Hours? It is because most of the 206 leaves of the parchment are stunning miniatures. However they are not only stunning, they are also powerful in the messages they convey.
This Sunday I would like to talk about the miniature presenting the Crucifixion of Jesus. It is the scene we are all familiar with. However the manuscript The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry, which contains many images in vivid colours, shows the Crucifixion as if through a dark veil. Thus it refers to the Biblical account of the darkness which covered the earth when Jesus was dying of the cross. I also believe that it is a way to express a sense of loneliness and abandonment which were not only Jesus’s experience when he said in his native Aramaic language: ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachtani?’ Which means ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ This sense of darkness is our experience too. Think about the people who were betrayed by those whom they loved and trusted. Isn’t it darkness? Think about the people facing life threatening illnesses. Isn’t it darkness?
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! In our Second Reading we also heard a testimony of St. Paul about darkness. The Apostle Paul wrote this Letter, which was his last letter, just before his martyrdom in Rome. Listen to a couple of sentences from today’s reading: ‘The first time I had to present my defence, there was not a single witness to support me. Every one of them deserted me.’ This Letter which we have been reading in our churches last few Sundays is like Paul’s last testament. However it is not a litany of complaints or resentments. On the contrary Paul bears witness to what he already written in the Letter to the Galatians: ‘I have been crucified with Christ, and I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me.’ Having Christ living in us is not only about the power to perform miracles etc. It is about the power to relive in our own body Jesus’ way of the Cross, his Crucifixion so that the glory of the Resurrection can be ours too.
This faith St Paul expressed from the misery of his imprisonment: ‘The Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that the whole message might be proclaimed for all the pagans to hear, and so I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.’
There was not prison release for Paul on the horizon so what kind of rescue the Apostle wrote about? It was the rescue of a lamb, which was sent to the wolves or lions, and despite ill-treatment the lamb remained a lamb. It didn’t become a wolf or a lion. Thinking about all the persecution he received from his enemies and the abandonment he experienced from his companions St Paul revealed that all those misfortunes didn’t change him for worse. What he wrote to the Galatians sometime earlier was still valid:  ‘The life I now live in this body I live in faith: faith in the Son of God who loved me and who sacrificed himself for my sake.’ That’s why from the midst of the darkness of his personal situation St Paul wrote to Timothy: ‘I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept faith; all there is to come now is the crown of righteousness reserved for me, and not only to me but to all those who have longed for Jesus’ Appearing.’
The parchment with the scene of the Crucifixion from the manuscript The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry shows darkness but the darkness covers the earth only. Above that earthly situation the author presented God the Father and a glimpse of heaven in the most vivid colours. In fact that colourful reality of heaven appears like a sunrise.
My Dear fellow sunrise awaiters. If you find yourself in a situation of darkness I announce to you the News of Great Joy: the Glory of God is already appearing for you. The New Day is coming. If your senses tell you something different cling to your faith to sense the New Day of our life with God.
‘To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.’

​            A hopeless situation from as social point of view was presented in the Gospel, a widow who kept going to a judge asking for his intervention. As a widow she didn’t have a husband who would take her side. If she had to go to a judge she didn’t have a son who would protect her either. What a hopeless situation. However she didn’t give up. Even after so many rejections she kept coming to the unjust judge. Was she optimistic? Did she have a positive attitude? It is hard to be optimistic and positive in a situation like hers, isn’t it?
            Let us turn to our First Reading from the Book of Exodus, the second Book of the Holy Bible. The image of Moses holding a staff in his outstretched arms is often recalled as an image of prayer. Indeed it is a beautiful image. It is even more beautiful if we put it in the context of the events which preceded it.
The passage which the Sacred Liturgy gives us this Sunday brings us to the happenings which followed the Exodus from Egypt. When the Israelites camped at the beaches of the Red Sea they realised that they were pursued by the Pharaoh army. They cried and blamed Moses for exposing them to such a danger. What happened next? At God’s commandment Moses raised his staff and parted the waters of the Sea. When they were saved from Egyptians they began crying and blaming Moses for exposing them to starvation in the desert. What happened next? There was manna and quails. When they were saved from starvation they began crying and blaming Moses for exposing them to dehydration in the desert. What happened next? At God’s commandment Moses raised his staff over a rock and after hitting it with the staff he brought out water. So many disappointments Moses went through dealing with his people who didn’t embrace his faith in God.
As we listen to that passage from the Exodus we can imagine what was going on in Moses’s head. Looking at his stubborn and faithless compatriots, while holding his staff in his tired arms, he could so easily give up. It was a hopeless situation. These people were not advancing in faith. Why did he keep stretching his staff over the people engaged in a battle? Was he optimistic? Did he have a positive attitude? It is hard to be optimistic and positive in a situation like his, isn’t it?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! From outside the both situations presented to us this Sunday appear hopeless. However the perseverance of Moses and the widow reveal a divine gift which was determining their actions. That divine gift is called hope.
A descendent of the people on whom Moses didn’t give up, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, put it this way: ‘Optimism is the belief that the world is changing for better; hope is belief that together, we can make the world better. Optimism is a passive virtue, hope is an active one. It takes no courage to be an optimist, but it does need courage to hope.’ Drawing from today’s readings we can say how true these words are. Both Moses and the widow were active in the hoping. Both Moses and the widow had courage despite having gone through many disappointments.
            Let me highlight the big word: together in what the Rabbi Jonathan said. This big word takes us to God. It is God’s involvement in the history of the world and in our own personal history that we dare to say: ‘hope is belief that together, we can make the world better.’ God and we makes together. Rabbi Jonathan drew his belief about hope from the saving events treasured in the Old Testament. For us Christians it is Jesus Christ from whom we draw our belief about hope.
            In one of our Eucharistic prayers we speak to God the Father in this way: ‘Fulfilling your will and gaining for you a holy people, Jesus stretched out his hands as he endured his Passion so as to break the bonds of death and manifest the Resurrection.’ The Crucified Messiah and our hope belong together. Those outstretched arms of Jesus Christ raise up our hope.
            I would like to finish with another insight of Rabbi Jonathan which for us, the followers of Jesus Christ becomes truly powerful: ‘There are no logical grounds for hope. There are no logical grounds that tomorrow will be better than today. But God doesn’t give up, and for that reason, neither do we.’
Look, my Dear fellow hopers, at Jesus on the cross. He is the new Moses through whom God assures us that he is with us. Thus ‘The lord be with you,’ becomes a powerful message we can take home. In the Lord Jesus we believe. In the Lord Jesus we hope. That’s why there are no hopeless situations for us who believe in Jesus, but there are situations which become an opportunity for us to manifest our hope for living and believing.

            A month ago we heard at Mass the parable of the father and his two sons, which is often called the parable of the prodigal son. I’ve always wondered why the younger son who left home has been called prodigal. Is it because we are so fixated on finances that the younger son’s wasteful actions get our attention? What about the father from the parable? Don’t you think that he is prodigal? He gave a portion of his property to the boy who obviously didn’t deserve it. The boy was selfish and unappreciative. Still his father gave him the inheritance. Even when the boy lost everything, upon his return his father kept on giving. What a prodigal attitude. However, deep down, we hope and pray that this is the attitude of our heavenly Father, don’t we? We hope and pray that our Heavenly Father will always be prodigal; that he will keep on giving us is love which takes the form of forgiveness.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The parable which we heard a few weeks ago we can meditate again through the lenses of the Gospel for today. Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God lived what he knew of his Heavenly Father. If his Father is prodigal in loving Jesus is prodigal in loving too.
Ten lepers approached him shouting: ‘Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.” That’s what Jesus did. He didn’t calculate the rate of return for his act of mercy but prodigally he took pity on them all. He cleansed them all. He got poor return, only 10%. However it is not about a good return it is about investment. Without God’s investment there would be no return. The first Pope, St Peter wrote once: ‘The Lord is being patient with you all, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to change his ways.’ This is the prodigal attitude of our Heavenly Father which is called the Gospel, the Good News.
            The Gospel for this Sunday is truly Good News as it shows us the work of God in a human being. The 10% who returned to Jesus, that one man, ‘thanked Jesus.’ Simple words in English but when St Luke wrote it he used the word eucharist. The man who returned to Jesus became the Eucharist as his new life was defined by thankfulness. He was ready to tell everybody what Jesus did for him. He became a missionary. He was not spreading some propaganda but he was evangelising.
            Can you remember what the ten lepers were doing when they came to Jesus? ‘They called to Jesus.’ When we need something we are professional at making our voice heard. Now, look at what the one leper is doing when he finds himself cleansed. ‘He turned back praising God at the top of his voice.’ What a missionary! The new life he received from Jesus became a means of reaching out to others. He didn’t do any course to preach but by believing in Jesus and being ready to witness to that faith he was ready to be commissioned. Our Blessed Lord said to him: ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.’ Powerful words, which can be our commission too.
Jesus Christ, who is the Prodigal Son from today’s Gospel, didn’t stop on giving. The journey on which we find him this Sunday was to take him to Jerusalem where he was to give himself, to the last drop of his precious blood, for our salvation. He gave himself for us and for our salvation. Like Father like Son. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
My dear fellow Christians. You are at the Eucharist now. Become the Eucharist. Thank him for having saved you by his Cross and Resurrection. Praise him at the top of your voice. Make your thankfulness for God’s salvation heard. When you are asked about your faith remember that it is your opportunity not just to explain your faith but to praise the Lord before the people. You will be a missionary then, so ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.

          Last Thursday, on the memorial of St Francis of Assisi, we glorified God for the life and mission of the Saint who chose Jesus over the wealth of his family. The saint who has inspired our Pope Francis had an encounter with Jesus Christ which not only changed his life but also has impacted generations of Christians. One day Francis went to a falling apart church near Assisi. There he prayed in front of a crucifix. As he was looking at the crucified Lord he heard a voice coming from the crucifix: 'Francis, go and repair my house which, as you see, is falling into ruin.' First Francis thought that Jesus wanted him to fix the walls of the collapsing church. He started working on the building. However in the midst of that manual work he was enlightened by the Spirit of the Risen Jesus that the mission he was entrusted with was to be directed to renewing the whole Catholic Church.
            The Lord Jesus called Francis to rebuild the Church when Francis was nobody in his society. He had already given up the prestige and wealth of his family. He didn’t have resources even to fix the little church he found damaged. How could he embark on renewing the whole Catholic Church?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers!
            St Francis didn’t have any resources indeed; however he had faith of which the Lord Jesus spoke in the Gospel.
            Firstly it was faith of an apostle, someone who has been sent by Jesus on a mission. St Luke in the Good News for this Sunday tells us that the request for an increase of faith came from the Apostles, the ones who are sent. They are not only disciples, they are not only followers of Jesus, they are now given a mission, they are to participate in the mission of the Son of God. However the more they witness Jesus the more they find themselves lacking many things to be part of Jesus’ mission. In the midst of that they discover that what is needed for mission is faith.
            Secondly it is faith which makes apostles resemble Jesus. Apostles are the people who after doing everything don’t except anything for what they have done. Instead they say: ‘We are merely servants: we have done no more than our duty.’ To our modern understanding of justice and fairness it sounds unjust and unfair. That’s why we, who are called to be apostles in this place and at this time, need to make our own the prayer of the first Apostles of Jesus Christ: ‘Lord, increase our faith’ because it is easier to uproot a mulberry tree with its big root system and plant it in the sea then to move us out of our obsession with gratification for what we do. We need to ask Jesus Christ: ‘Lord, increase our faith’ so that what Jesus said at the Last Supper can be our way of living our Christian faith: ‘I didn’t come to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.’
            My Dear fellow apostles! The Bishop of Rome, the successor of St Peter the Apostle, has invited us to live this month of October 2019 as an extraordinary missionary month. It is a prophetic call for all of us to rediscover our call to be missionaries here and now, to rediscover that the Lord Jesus sends us to carry out his mission in our own time and in our own place. It can overwhelm us. We may feel inadequate. Let us then call upon the Lord: ‘Increase our faith’ so that we may accept as our own Jesus’ way of living and doing mission: ‘I didn’t come to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.’
            St Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

​            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.’

​            In recent decades we have observed a great progress of technology. There is a reason to celebrate it. However there is also a dark side of that progress. While we have been benefiting from many things some unwanted situations have developed like nomophobia. It is the name for having a fear of not being with your phone. Some psychologists have begun classifying it as an addiction.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! St Paul reminded the Christians in Galatia, and us as well that: ‘you were called to liberty.’ Some of us may think of that statue in New York. It is interesting that Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designing the statue used the ancient Roman goddess of freedom – Libertas to express the concept of freedom which could appeal to the modern people. The statue’s full name is Liberty Enlightening the World.
            For us Christians however the crucifix is the statue of liberty.
            Firstly the crucifix evokes real events. It is true that it was a brutal execution however there is more to it. In the Gospel of John we hear Jesus speaking of it: ‘No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord.’ The crucifix is therefore a piece of human and divine history. It preserves the memory of the Son of God who in his freedom offered his life for our salvation. It wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t bad luck. It wasn’t fate. It was a free act of love.
            Secondly the crucifix proclaims to us that: ‘When Christ freed us, he meant us to remain free.’ I mentioned at the beginning of this homily nomophobia as a new addiction. There are many other names for addiction but they all come to one – sin. Jesus said: ‘Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.’ St Paul while elaborating on it wrote: ‘You are slaves of the one you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness.’
Our Blessed Mother declared herself a slave of the Lord. What came out of that was her joyous and life-giving freedom because God doesn’t want to have addicts. God wants to have worshipers who can worship him ‘in spirit and truth’ as free people. God desires our love and only free people can love.
St Paul in the First Letter to the Corinthians wrote: ‘I have the right to do anything’ you say – but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’ – but I will not be mastered by anything.
I don’t know if St Paul had some psychological training but he was an astute observer of the world and a reflective follower of Christ. If I start saying that I have right to do anything rather soon I will find myself in a situation that I have to do many things which means that I am losing my freedom. Freedom as offered by Jesus is the ability to choose good and to reject evil.
            Let me finish with some words of St John Paul II: ‘True freedom is not advanced in the permissive society, which confuses freedom with license to do anything whatever and which in the name of freedom proclaims a kind of general amorality. It is a caricature of freedom to claim that people are free to organize their lives with no reference to moral values, and to say that society does not have to ensure the protection and advancement of ethical values. Such an attitude is destructive of freedom and peace.’
            Let us look at the crucifix in our church, at this statue of liberty enlightening the world with the divine light which shone so powerfully on Good Friday that the Sun lost its brightness. At the foot of this ours statue of liberty let us beg the true Liberator of the humankind, Jesus Christ, to set us free, to send his Spirit to our hearts so that enlightened by his holy Word and sustained by his holy Body and Blood we may keep our freedom to choose good and reject evil.

​There was an oratory performance during which a man mesmerized the audience with his poem recitation skills. He was called back to the stage a number of times to recite another poem. One of the requests came from an elderly priest who asked the performer to deliver the Psalm 23 which starts with the line: ‘the Lord is my Shepherd there is nothing I shall want.’ When the man on the stage finished the audience again was fascinated. Then he asked the priest to recite the Psalm 23 too. When the priest finished there was silence in the theater. Finally the acclaimed performer said: ‘Did you notice the difference? I know the words of the Psalm. The priest knows the Shepherd.’
            Dear Sisters and Brothers! 29th of June is dedicated to some two men who also knew the Shepherd: St Peter and St Paul.
            The Gospel of Matthew takes us to that charming place called Caesarea Philippi. However the reason is not the beauty of the place but the confession which was made there by Peter: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ The confession revealed not only who Jesus was but it also indicated that Peter’s life was to be orientated around the Lord Jesus. The confession didn’t turn Peter into some super saint. The man who was known previously as Simon was given a new name – Peter. However the new Peter still carried the strengths and weaknesses of the former Simon. What had changed was his life orientation. He viewed his strengths in light of Jesus’ humility and he viewed his weaknesses in light of Jesus’ mercy.
We know that the very next verses of the Gospel show Peter brought humble after his attempt to dictate Jesus what to do. Peter didn’t get offended. He didn’t left Jesus. He knew the Shepherd he was following. The Shepherd wanted the Divine life for Peter. Some time later Peter fell even worse. He denied Jesus three times. However at his lowest Peter discovered how true the words of his fellow Apostle Paul were: ‘Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.’
            Both of them, Peter and Paul, found the beauty and power of the parable of the lost sheep. At some stage they were the lost sheep, but they were not an abandoned sheep. The Lord came after them. Paul wrote about that to his collaborator Timothy: ‘The Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that through me the whole message might be proclaimed for all the pagans to hear.’
            Both Saint Apostles whom we venerate today didn’t have a crystal clear CV but their stained CV became the stage from which they were able to proclaim the great things the Lord did for them. Thus from their stained personal history they were able to say: ‘To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.’