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Youth Mass at St Mary's Cathedral& Mass for the Campion Winter School at St Joseph's College By + George Pell However, today such a claim would be completely wrong, because we have three beautiful readings, each capable of inspiring a competent sermon. I would like to begin with the second reading, which is from Paul writing to the Colossians, writing about Christ Jesus, the image of the unseen God and the first born of creation. Recently I was talking with a few bishops about Church life in Australia and the theological scene in particular, and we agreed that one central point, one pivotal point - a foundational point for Christian life and discussion - is our verdict on who Christ is. Today as in Our Lord's time, enormous consequences follow from the answer that we give to Christ's question," who do people say that I am?" You see if Christ is only another wonderful man, then his teachings are limited by his education and understanding and by the limitations of his culture. And his life and his sufferings are simply another good example of virtue and heroism. However, if Jesus is divine as well as human, if he has brought us the Maker's instructions because he is the Maker's Son, then he has a unique authority not shared by any human. And I at least wouldn't be prepared to claim that I could improve on his teachings even those ones that are hard and difficult to follow or understand. Also as the Son of God, his living and especially his suffering and death have special meaning. The idea of a God suffering: if we just step outside the Christian framework for a minute, we can understand how devastatingly new and different this was to people before Christ. If the Son of God suffered then it's possible of course that he was achieving something infinitely beyond just giving us a good example. Paul too was concerned with all these issues about who Christ is. For Jesus' contemporaries he was all too human. He was poor, he was uneducated; during his life he was often attacked verbally and ultimately was attacked physically. And another little question for them was how he ranked in comparison with all the angels; what Paul in today's reading called the "thrones and dominations, the sovereignties and powers". This might be less of a concern for us, but Paul responded that all created things including the angels were created through Christ. So Paul was vigorously defending the divinity of Jesus the Son of Mary. This Jesus the Son of Mary existed before all creation, Paul tells us, He holds creation together, He is the head of the Church. Through His Resurrection He is the first born of the Dead and through His death on the Cross he not only gave us an example of courage of grace under pressure, he reconciled all Creation to God and brought about peace and right order. We say that Christ redeemed us. Christ couldn't have redeemed us if he was only human. We have many young people here today, and I'd like to repeat three points which some of you might have heard me say before. I often explain that all Christians and especially young Christians and Catholics who want to consolidate their faith need to do three things and one of those is to pray regularly outside Sunday Mass. And I suggest that this small passage, the second reading tonight, is a beautiful passage for meditation. Just sitting, having a look at it, reading, thinking about it, praying about it, pondering over it and praying about its claims. A second necessity for all of us especially young Catholics is that we have at least some friends who share our views and whom we see regularly. Most of us - especially when we're younger, and I suppose almost as much when we're older – are unable to stand alone forever. And the third necessity which I want to touch on briefly, and which I mentioned in the introduction, the examination of conscience, is that we need to be doing something, not talking. I'm not criticizing anybody here tonight because you're all at Mass and that certainly is doing something and doing something important. But you might be a little like me and intend to do this and to do that; but also like to talk and like to theorise and sometimes do not get around to doing what we should, perhaps as often and as quickly as should. And so this is one of the points I believe that our Lord was making when he told the parable of the Good Samaritan to the lawyer. Now we're told that the lawyer set out to disconcert Jesus. To stir him up. I'm tempted to be wicked and say that the lawyer was probably a graduate of Sydney University Law School, well aware of his intelligence and his superior education. Interrogating this religious teacher from the bush, who had no particular educational attainment and might not have been able to write, although we know that Our Lord could read. Its an interesting question for another time about why Our Lord left us no writings and what consequences follow from this. Probably the lawyer wanted to put Our Lord in his place or as we say he wanted to knock him down a peg or two. Being an intelligent Jew, Our Lord himself replied with a question, "what does the Lord tell you to do?" "Love God, love one another!" the lawyer answered and he answered well, but that provoked him into asking a further question, "Who is my neighbour?" And that's sometimes a bad mistake for a lawyer. It was one question too many. And then we had this marvellous story of the Good Samaritan. Even the question was something of a trap for Jesus, because there were limits on the type of person you were obliged to respect and care for according to Jewish law. Some categories of persons had to be excluded; I think there were certain types of heretics whom you were urged to push into a ditch and then jump on. And the Samaritans in many ways were beyond to pale, too. A person who was sick and who accepted help from a Samaritan could be sent into exile. The Samaritans were also Jewish. They were monotheists, worshippers of the one true God. They accepted most of the Old Testament writings, but they didn't worship at the temple in Jerusalem, and they fought in the past against the Jews and with the Jews' enemies. So there was a long-standing bitterness between the Samaritans and the Jews, that particular type of bitterness which sometimes wells up amongst family members. In this provocative example of the stranger, the outsider, and despised outsider at that, the Samaritan who helped, Jesus was laying the foundations for the Christian teaching of universal love. However, the point I wish to underline today for present purposes as I mentioned is Our Lord's final words to the lawyer. He said, "Go and do likewise". Our Lord was saying that good living is not just a matter for endless discussion - much less for point scoring in debate. Good living means that we regularly try to practice what we preach. "Go and do likewise just as the Good Samaritan did". A little while ago a good friend of mine from interstate who is thinking about becoming a priest said to me, that his situation was very complicated. And I said to him, "No, no" I said " in fact that's not true" I said, "Your situation is quite simple. The fact is though that the choices that lie before you are hard, difficult choices". I think many things in life are a little like losing weight; something I've tried to do at some stages and more or less successfully. The solution to losing weight is very, very simple. You eat less and you exercise more. The problem is not finding out what you should do; the problem is that doing it is difficult. At least for some of us it's difficult to do so regularly. I suspect that a deal of Christian living is like that. So let us be inspired by Jesus' teaching, let us be inspired by the parable of the Good Samaritan, let us go and do the same ourselves. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen |
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