Archbishop of Sydney

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
Zech 9:9-10; Rom 8:9,11-13; Mt 11:25-30

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
3 July 2005

Once again today we have a couple of sayings from Our Lord grouped together by Matthew.  They provide plenty of food for thought although they are not the most favoured scripture texts for preachers.  They are harder to explain in an interesting way e.g. we have no interesting parable from which to start.

This passage follows the terrible condemnations of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum.  To this day these villages are basically uninhabited.  If the miracles that had been done in these three villages had been done in Tyre and Sidon, Jesus claimed they would have repented long ago and in fact Tyre and Sidon will do better on judgement day than these places.

These texts are not very nice.  Neither are they affirming in anyway at all.  They are judgemental; in fact brutal in their honesty and condemnation.  They would have gained no new friends for Our Lord in that region.

We could say today that Jesus’ language is politically incorrect; wildly at variance with the image that some would like to confect for Jesus, as kind, ineffectual and undemanding.  We should never forget that Jesus was executed for his teachings and behaviour just as certainly as he was loved and admired by the saints.

We Catholics are a minority in Australia and serious, regularly worshipping Christians are still a minority although nearly 70% of Australians define themselves as Christians.  Every minority is influenced by the surrounding majority, sometimes so radically that it is submerged and disappears.

Because of these majority pressures two concepts have gone underground in Australian Catholic life.  They have not disappeared completely, but they are submerged and these two concepts are duty and punishment.  We do not like being reminded that we have clear religious duties in both faith and morals, much less do we like being reminded that God might punish us for not doing our duty.  The previous section in chapter eleven is heavily into the call to duty and reminders on the reality of punishment.

These are the concepts which both Matthew and presumably Our Lord believed are hidden from the wise and the clever and revealed to the childlike; people of any age who remain open and honest.

In our meritocratic society, where education is so important, it can be a bit of a shock to those of us who are well educated and endowed with some level of intelligence to realise that in the religious area we are at a disadvantage.  Just as young children can learn a new language or computer skills more easily than those of us on the wrong side of middle age, so they are often better disposed to hear the Word of God.

Jesus’ teaching is not a philosophy, reserved only or even primarily for the educated and the clever.  Genuine Godly wisdom is not the same as either cunning or learning.  To know the good does not always mean that we do the good.  Perhaps Our Lord’s teaching here explains the ancient tag “corruptio optimi pessima”; when the best are corrupted you have the worst corruption, although it depends what you might mean by “best”.

One of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century Ludwig Wittgenstein acknowledged that more grass grows in the valleys of silliness than on the peaks of cleverness!  I think he was right.

A few final words on how following Christ will bring us rest and help, even as it imposes a burden.

The answer I believe lies in Our Lord’s teaching that if we set out to save our life as the first priority, we shall lose it.  In other words selfishness imprisons us, and openness and service bring us health and healing.  It is the spiritual, not the un-spiritual which brings life.

I regularly remind senior secondary and university students that any religion which is offered as cost-free is spurious; and cut-price religion does not work very efficiently either.

A clear conscience not only helps us sleep at night, but improves psychological well-being.  If we believe that God, can and does forgive our sins and the worst crimes, when we repent and ask for forgiveness this is a marvellous liberation and help to human flourishing.

Prayer too can bring peace and harmony to our soul.  Sometimes it can be dry and difficult, but this is not always true.  Often people will say after Mass “that was a lovely Mass”.

It is an enormous advantage to know that the one true God loves us, you and me.  God does not just like humanity; God loves each one of you and me with all our imperfections.  No truth is more comforting than this.

It can be and is a burden sometimes to do the right thing, but many of us who are older and have followed Christ for years know that even in this life, leaving to one side the prospect of heaven, God has given us a hundredfold; certainly much more than we deserve.  We have found rest for our souls.

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