Archbishop of Sydney

Sixth Sunday of Easter

St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; 1 Pet 3:15-18, Jn 14:15-21

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
27/4/2008

Many years ago I remember talking as a teenager with the mother of a school friend as she explained that it would be easier if we were not Catholics and were like the other people in the street. We were all Church goers and believers – and happily so – but we felt we carried a heavier load than others.

More recently a contemporary of mine, who therefore (like me) grew up in a Catholic way of life which has almost vanished, spoke of the burden of duty and possibly guilt which we bore as young people and imagined that others escaped.

Today the language and the excuses used by those who give up their faith are different. Incidentally none of the people mentioned in my two incidents lost their faith or stopped worshipping regularly, but today in Australia up to a quarter or a third of young adults born into Catholic families cease to practise or believe, either permanently or temporarily. Usually marriage and then the responsibility for bringing up their children provoke a rethink and a renewal of faith and sometimes practice.

Sometimes today young adults claim that they cannot see the necessity of worshipping regularly, while still claiming to be religious. With others the weakening of faith is more radical and sometimes even faith in God is lost. Sometimes, perhaps more frequently, these excuses do not go to the heart of the matter, because even today it is easier for someone to claim that he does not practise the faith because he cannot see the point of the exercise, rather than honestly admit that he finds the Church’s teaching on sexuality, marriage and family too constricting, old fashioned and too puritanical.

Sometimes they make a further mistake and imagine that because they choose not to observe the Church’s teaching on sexuality, they must therefore stop worshipping to maintain their integrity and avoid being a hypocrite. Obviously if they are unrepentant they should not receive Holy Communion, but sinners need to worship regularly and pray, even more than those in the state of grace. In the past when individual confession was practised more frequently, people could confess, talk about their dilemmas and problems and try again. And in those days they might have understood better the difference between being weak and sinful (and admitting it) and being hypocritical i.e. being a sinner and claiming to be a pious Joe. Followers of Christ do not have to be perfect as we try to follow the example of our master, Jesus Christ.

These thoughts about the burdens of being a Catholic were prompted by today’s gospel from St. John about love and truth and the commandments. These three realities are linked essentially in a triangle. If we want to love God and love others in practice rather than in theory we follow the commandments. And if we have discovered the secrets of life, the truths that order the universe and count in God’s eyes, then love will be at the centre of our lives.

Let me come at it from the other side, by examining the other side of the coin. My claim is that the wages of sin are real, indeed they can be everlasting and the price of deliberate unbelief is crippling, sometimes destructive.

The wages of sin are easily listed by running through the alternatives to the Ten Commandments; ingratitude and hostility to parents, murder and killing, adultery and infidelity in marriage, stealing, lies and a disordered life of mind and heart which leads to obsessions, addictions, a destructive self absorption.

If God does not exist, we are orphans not children, without the possibility of godly forgiveness, in a universe bounded by the limits of this life where there is so much injustice. In other words without the hope of eternal life, where the scales of justice do balance.

When the Spirit of truth mentioned in the gospel today is with us, we realise that the commandments are not obstacles in a maze, only there to mislead and frustrate us, but channels for love and hope, protectors of human rights and protections which deter us from hurting ourselves and fostering discontent and unhappiness in our hearts.

It was these realities Pope Benedict was speaking about to the young people (I think it was in Cologne) when he said that in following Christ we are losing nothing and stand to gain everything.

I am not suggesting that following Christ is cost free. Nothing good in life comes without some price. The pagan saying “no pain, no gain” contains much truth. Following Christ is a long term investment and it takes time and effort to curb our selfishness, to see the needs of others clearly and develop the strength to do the right thing consistently.

Especially when we are young we can mistake the wood for the trees, imagine that the hard decision will only become harder, and fail to realise the suffering caused by those with confused ideas of right and wrong and the yearning and absence of meaning that can accompany atheism or agnosticism.

Jesus’ burden is light and leads to consolation and reward. Satan’s alternatives can glitter and fascinate, but lead to destruction and despair.

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