Archbishop of Sydney

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
Mt 21:28-32; Ezek 18:25-28; Phil. 2:1-11

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
25/9/2005

Perhaps I should begin my few words this morning by welcoming a number of quite different groups to our Cathedral.  First of all we welcome the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, a medieval Order dating from the time of the Crusades which was revived by the Holy See in the nineteenth century.  A learned friend claimed that the Knights still had a right to ride their horses into Church, because this right had never been revoked, but I don’t anticipate this will happen and so far it hasn’t!

Medieval crusaders receive a bad press today and this is not entirely undeserved.  There are some infamous moments in their story, but recent events have put their efforts into a new context of Christian opposition to more than one thousand years of consistent Islamic attempts to expand their empires at our expense.  Happily today our Knights have no military ambitions and are devoted to charity work and especially to supporting the continuing Christian presence in the Holy Land, in the Middle East.

Also present for a two-day retreat are many of the 450 young people from the archdiocese who travelled to Cologne for the World Youth Day.  Now that they have come back to earth at home, they have gathered to reflect on their experience and to build realistically for the future.

I have spoken before of my awe and gratitude as I looked down on more than 1,000,000 young Catholics united in silent adoration and prayer at Cologne’s final Mass with Pope Benedict.  In previous ages people were unable to gather in such numbers and if they did, it was to go to war where most of them would be forced to kill and many would be killed.  We thank God for these legions of W.Y.D. young people, dedicated to spreading faith and goodness.

Also present are members of the national executive of the Australian Catholic Students Movement who are preparing for their annual conference of 2006.  You too, of course, are welcome, especially those who come from outside Sydney.  “Catholic” comes from the Greek word for universal and there is no doubt that at St. Mary’s, with our many international tourist visitors, we regularly have truly Catholic congregations.

In some way the readings follow on from last Sunday’s, because today we have Our Lord telling the chief priests and elders of the Jewish people that the prostitutes and tax collectors are making their way into the Kingdom of God before them.  Unpleasant news for the chief priests and reasons for us to ponder also.

Most people are not too keen on paying tax, but this is not Our Lord’s position.  The tax collectors then were social outcasts, because they collected tax for the foreign rulers especially Romans and the Herodians and because they were able to retain whatever they collected above their quotas.  They were widely regarded as unjust.

Once again the question arises.  Is God unjust?  Ezekiel in the first reading has the word of the Lord rejecting the notion that God is unjust.  God is good and just, while the sinner deserves to be punished and the good person rewarded.

Deeds not words are what Jesus wants in today’s Gospel exchange.  The man who talks before he puts his brain into gear, is impulsive and outspoken before he thinks better of it and does as asked is much ahead of the sweet talker, who promises the world and fails to deliver.  Some such people mean well at the time of their promises but don’t get around to doing the right thing, while others never had any intention of fulfilling their promises.

Undoubtedly the best result is to reply politely and do what we promised, but deeds rather than words are what is required.

If we are regularly selfish and judge everything in terms of our own convenience, then we shall be closed to the truth and find it difficult to honour God properly and respect the rights of others, when it is inconvenient for ourselves.

Paul writing to the Philippians says that Jesus gave us the proper example here.  Although Jesus’ state was and is divine, he emptied himself, lived as a servant, indeed as a slave for others and even suffered and died for us.

If we work regularly to consider others before we consider our own comfort and convenience, if we minimise competition and conceit, then we will be united together in faith and love, with a common purpose and common mind.

We shall be practising what we preach, we shall be doing our duty and meeting our responsibilities to one another.  Such unselfishness opens us to the call of God.  Because the Jewish opponents of Jesus were self-centred, they would not accept either John the Baptist or Jesus himself.

We should remember that the pure in heart see God and pray that we shall be numbered in that group.

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