Archbishop of Sydney

Pentecost Sunday

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
30 May 2004

Today is Pentecost Sunday, a strange title to the feast day when we remember the coming of the Holy Spirit.  “Pentecost” refers to the fact that it is about 50 days since Easter, the feast of Jesus’ resurrection.  It is a good day for confirmation.

The one true God is neither male nor female, not material.  God is spiritual.  I often quote the talk-back announcer who asked me whether this was my view, something I made up, or the teaching of the Church!

God’s Son became a man, the Word took on a human nature, suffered and died for us, but the Trinitarian God we worship is Spirit, Father and the Holy Spirit have no human nature and did not live on earth as humans.

God is beyond our understanding, a Mystery of Supreme Love and Intelligence.  St. Patrick explained the Trinity to the Irish by using the shamrock with 3 leaves, Father, Son and Spirit, but which remains one shamrock.

As a human Jesus could not be everywhere, but before he left us after his resurrection he promised to send the Spirit of Truth, the Advocate to be with us.

We celebrate the coming of the Spirit today and the Spirit remains wherever there is love and faith, and the Spirit comes into our hearts especially through all the sacraments, including baptism and confirmation.

This year my Pentecost message is entitled “Is Faith without Works dead?”, because faith should change the way we live.  It is not like a five dollar note which we slip into our pocket; an action we can easily forget.

Faith and good works should go together.  Some opt for one or the other.

Some of the young people who gathered before Easter to help me prepare this pastoral letter argued that good works alone are sufficient for life in this world and the next. But others suggested that works done without faith in Jesus are meaningless. Good might still be done, but what will help us know that doing good is what we should prefer? How do we know that goodness will endure? This is where faith comes in.

Christians are people of faith, and people of service. Why are these two aspects of our life connected? St James tells us that “just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead” (Js 2:26). We know that faith should bear fruit in good works.

Are we people of faith? Does our faith produce good works?

Jesus told his disciples that he came “to bring good news to the poor” (Lk 4:18). What is the good news that Christians bring to the poor today? Let me give one example. Welfare workers estimate that 107,000 people are homeless in Australia, and that 90 per cent of them have suffered some sort of trauma. In Sydney alone, 500 people sleep out each night. The St Vincent de Paul Society’s night patrol helps 150 of these people per night, 44,000 a year.  In fact there are about 800 overnight beds for “dossers” around the Cathedral.  About 400 of these are provided by the Catholic Church.  Part of bringing Jesus’ good news to them is giving them food and a blanket. But it is not just the food and blanket that are the good news.

Jesus came for all of us, but especially for people on the margins.  Out of love Christ laid down his life for us, and Christians are called to imitate this. This means we use our lives to help others, and especially those who are unwanted (cf. 1 Jn 3:16-17).  Like Jesus, we have to give the homeless food and shelter, but we also have to heal their hearts. This can only be done through love, which means through relationships. The poor are not just people we “do good” to: they must also become our friends.

This is the good news Jesus brings: God loves us, unconditionally and forever. But God has no hands but ours. It may not sound like much when compared to the prizes and the glamour that the world offers to the lucky few. But for those who have nothing, kindness is everything. To love and be loved is the source of life itself, the reason to hope and the reason to continue living. This reminds us that it is not just those who are materially poor that we have to serve, but also those who are spiritually poor. Some of these are not short of money or resources. They are not starving or homeless. But they can be without love, without faith, oppressed by a sense that they are not wanted. Loneliness is one form of poverty that is growing rapidly, outpacing material poverty. “Who needs me?” “Who cares if I live or die?”

Too often these questions go unanswered.  We must always be ready to give friendship and a helping hand.

Christians believe in love. Those who believe in God’s love must love others (cf. 1 Jn 4:7-21). This is our faith, a faith which makes everyone who has it wealthy—full of abundance, full of life. Money cannot give us this sort of abundance. Possessions cannot return our love.

Faith does not mean having all the answers, so that we can solve everyone’s problems once and for all. This is the mentality of a “do-gooder”, not of someone who wants to serve others. The good works of people of faith are based on the recognition that we can never do it alone. We need God’s help, and we need the help of others just as they need our help. Today others are in need and we help them. Tomorrow things may change, and it will be our turn to accept help. This is part of the cost of discipleship too: learning that if we want to make a difference we have to learn humility—and gratitude.

Service requires work and effort. It also requires prayer. Often people say they are too busy to be doing what they should be doing. Too busy to pray, too busy to exercise, too busy to spend time with other people, too busy to talk. If this is the case, we are too busy for relationships—which means we are really too busy to live.

Relationships start at home. Our first neighbours are our parents, sisters and brothers. The seeds of Catholic faith are planted in our families, to flower into service and great deeds for others. We start in our families, in our parishes and schools and with our friends. But Christians end up going much wider than this. Charity begins at home but should not remain there. Faith is a verb. It means love through action. Prayer is critical—for getting us started, keeping us moving, showing us the way and giving us strength and courage. But it is important too to make a start. Like a bicycle, we fall over if we are not moving. We need God to help us so that we can help others.

Faith and works are a gracious circle—the opposite of a vicious circle. They come together not as a coincidence, but as providence. A living faith is not about looking after number 1, or an attitude of “I’m OK, you’re OK”. It is about someone to follow, the need for meaning, a God to worship. It touches on self-esteem, believing in oneself, and loving oneself, but if it stops there it dies. Dying to self disperses the darkness—not just for ourselves, but for others. Even shining one little light into the great darkness does help. There are many ways of doing this, even in hard times for faith like our own, but we need to begin.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.