Archbishop of Sydney

Pentecost Sunday

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
15 May 2005

The response to the psalm which we sang today is “Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the fact of the earth.”  It is a clear reminder to us on this feast of Pentecost, the feast of God among us, the Holy Spirit, that following Christ should make a difference to our lives and therefore to the society in which we live.  If there seems to be no difference, if the lives of Christians are completely indistinguishable from the lives of surrounding non-believers, then there is something basically wrong.

 Over the years I have sometimes mentioned Evelyn Waugh, a marvellous English writer from the last century and a convert to Catholicism.  He was received into the Church by Father Martin D’Arcy, then a well-known Jesuit at Oxford.  Unfortunately Waugh was sometimes, perhaps even often, cruel and cranky.  Someone asked him how he could be a Catholic and behave so badly.  He replied by asking the speaker to imagine how much worse he would have been if not a Catholic.  It is not a bad reply, but he obviously needed considerably more repair work; repentance, forgiveness, the slow development of good habits.

 We all know how the original event of Pentecost transformed the apostles from a group that was afraid of the Jewish authorities as they hid away in the cenacle into a group of brave and enthusiastic preachers, public witnesses to Christ’s death, resurrection and teaching.  God is still at work among us.

 We are reminded that the Spirit works in many different ways and, please God, one of those small ways is my Pentecost message every year on some different topic in Christian life.  As this is the Year of the Eucharist, my subject is the Eucharist itself.

 Naturally the Holy Spirit uses the Catholic community as the main focus of his grace or energy, and within the Church the seven sacraments and especially the Eucharist are the principal sources of this spiritual energy.

 The Eucharist is the heart of our faith.  It is an act of worship, of prayer to the one true God through Jesus Christ, His Son.  It is a memorial to the death and resurrection of Jesus, a sacrament of love, a sign of world-wide unity, a bond of charity, and an anticipation of eternal life.
 Outsiders, those without Christian faith, can admire this ancient ritual, but only those who believe can understand fully and be said to participate.  We will always be disappointed if we think of the Mass as a concert or performance, where we regularly need a fresh angle or a new act.  The Mass draws its strength from tradition, repetition and familiarity.

 Today it can be difficult, especially for young people, busy with study, sport, work, family and friends, to believe in the reality of an unseen God worthy of our worship; or even to believe that love is of first importance, that it will prevail over evil and suffering.  These pressures can distort our understanding of the Eucharist and our willingness to give it proper time.

 With the help of the Holy Spirit we need to work consistently over the years to deepen our understanding and love of what is happening in the Mass.

In the Eucharist we also rejoice in the availability of God’s forgiveness, because we commemorate the liberation achieved by Christ’s suffering and death on the cross.  Eucharist means to give thanks, especially for this.

 We know the Son of God became man so endorsing the physical world God created.  Material creation is not second rate and certainly not sinful.  Matter is good and important.  So we can understand why God’s Spirit in the sacraments always requires material creation.

 Therefore it comes as no surprise that in all the sacraments Christ and the Church have decreed that symbols should be used.  Water and oil are used at baptism and confirmation, while bread and wine are used at Mass and turned into the Body and Blood of Christ.

 There is another deeper level to this symbolism when we eat the bread and drink the wine which the priest has consecrated to become the Body and Blood of Christ.

 We receive Jesus into our hearts at Communion spiritually and into our bodies actually as we consume the host.  So women of faith have explained that after communion they feel like a princess, like Our Lady herself at the Annunciation when Jesus was conceived and present in her body.

 A Mass is only a “good Mass” when it is prayerful.  I began by emphasising that following Christ should make a difference to us and our world.

 There is always tension between good and evil and sometimes there is open and even terrible conflict.  We have only to look at the world around us, at the terrorism, the wars, the activities of drug rings, the waves of pornography.

 The Eucharist in particular should give us the strength and energy to take God’s love into the world.  But for this to be effective every lover must be a fighter.

 We cannot follow Christ without a struggle, without fighting and battling to control and purify our selfish instincts.

 We are called to fight and battle against evil in its many forms.  We know that evil will triumph if enough people do nothing.

 Good parents will battle to protect their children.  People will even give their lives for great causes, to defend their country.

 I don’t think a Christian can say “I’m a lover, not a fighter”.  The Eucharist gives us energy for this essential struggle.  It is no coincidence that Catholic people pray the Mass at important times; for marriages, deaths, at times of tragedy and times of challenge.  There were many people at Mass after September 11 and the Bali bombing.

 A final word about one aspect of our Christian duties.  Attendance at Mass is not an optional extra for Catholics but part of the obligations we assume by being followers of Christ.

 If the Power of the universe is made available to us through the sacraments, and especially the Mass, we have to realise that going to Mass is not like visiting a distribution point for tea and biscuits.

 Participation requires a level of faith and understanding, a serious effort to repent of our sins so that we are in a worthy state, able to participate truly and honestly, rather than making a show.  Those in serious unrepented sin should not go to receive communion, although all are welcome in Church to pray.

 I ask the Catholics of Sydney to continue to pray for their priests and to pray for more seminarians and priests.  The Eucharist is the heart of our faith and for the Eucharist to be celebrated we need more priests and people.

 Let us remember this in the Year of the Eucharist and on this feast of Pentecost when we celebrate the presence of God among us.

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