Our People

Homily to the World Youth Day Delegates

Conference of the Pontifical Council for the Laity
Istituto Madonna del Carmine, Sassone, Rome

By Most Rev. Anthony Fisher OP
Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney
8/4/2006

In the 1950s, after the communist take-over of China, there was a little girl called Mei. Mei was three years old, dark-eyed with black hair. Her mother was put in prison for refusing to surrender her Christian faith and so Mei had to go too. The Christian prisoners were closely guarded, but the guards let Mei run about freely, she was so small. So when consecrated hosts were smuggled into the camp hidden inside loaves of bread and other items, it was Mei who would take them, at great risk to her life – at risk of martyrdom – to those in solitary confinement. She would go to visit them with the Blessed Sacrament concealed in her tiny closed hand, her fist in turn hidden demurely in her sleeves.

Later Mei and her mother were released and returned to their village. Though she was under the normal age Mei was so manifestly driven by the Holy Spirit that the priest decided to confirm her and give her First Communion. Soon after that all foreign priests were expelled from China. And as they said their goodbyes, Mei and her mother to the priest, Mei consoled him: “Don’t worry about me: I’ve been confirmed: I’ve got the Holy Spirit!”

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses.” (Acts 1:8) This is the theme Pope Benedict has chosen for us for World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney Australia. The words are the last recorded words of Our Lord before his ascension into heaven. In a sense, then, they are his last will and testament. They tell us exactly what he wanted from us and for us.

The words come from the time of the birth of the Church. After Jesus said these things and ascended to the Father the early Church in the form of Our Lady and the Apostles and a few other disciples waited in prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The theme for WYD08 draws our minds back, then, to the days when the Church was still very young. The days when bishops like St John were only teenagers! In recalling the Church at her most youthful, Pope Benedict is inviting us to return to our youthful origins and experience renewal through the World Youth Day to come.

Australia, of course, is a young nation. Younger indeed than any other nation that has ever hosted a World Youth Day. So is the Church in Australia. Of course that is not the whole story. There were indigenous peoples in the Australian continent for many thousands of years before the European explorers found it. They lived in a very ancient land. And high in the sky, already preaching to those Aborigines as they awaited the arrival of those first settlers, was the Southern Cross. It is the closest constellation of stars to our planet earth but one only seen by those who live in or visit the Southern Hemisphere. As Pope John Paul said, Australia was like a giant natural cathedral, with the cross raised high, awaiting the arrival of the first Christians.

When at last they came those first explorers called it the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. So our theme is especially apposite for the first World Youth Day in Oceania. To the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit Christ says today: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

What is this power Christ promises us? When we hear that word we might think of energy, electricity, creativity, manpower, godpower, grace. But there might also be some negative connotations. Power corrupts. Power controls. Power manipulates, exploits, tyrannizes. Instead of bringing life and energy, it can snuff them out. In the struggle for power over our own lives, over resources, over others, people can do violence, engage in terrorism, take drugs, even harm themselves; they will lie and cheat. They will do like Caiaphas does in today’s Gospel reading: deciding to kill an innocent man to sure up his position (Jn 11:45-56). That is not Christ’s kind of power. Caiaphas unwittingly got it right. Christ would rather die than harm us. Christ would rather die that lose even one of us. Christ willingly dies that we might have life, life to the full, eternal life.

So the power Christ offers us does not come through violence or lies but as pure gift from God. We call that grace and that grace-bringer the Holy Spirit. He is the fire in the heart of God. He is a power which never enslaves, never damages, never lies. He brings freedom, healing, insight. For that Spirit to come upon you with power is to be filled with wisdom and understanding, with right judgment and courage, with knowledge and reverence, with wonder and awe.

All for what? Jesus says: You will receive power from the Holy Spirit to be my witnesses. Not just for the heck of it. Not just because he wants to leave us something like an old jacket in his last will and testament. No, Jesus wants witnesses. People who will testify. Who will speak up. Of course there are plenty of witnesses around today, plenty of words and images. They stand for all sorts of things. For what, for whom, does Jesus want us inspired to stand up? For him. You will be my witnesses.

The trial of Jesus Christ before the Sanhedrin begins today in our Gospel passage. He is not even present for his arraignment. Already the Chief Judge has decided the verdict: this man must die for the sake of the people. In the week ahead, we will be witnesses at the trial. In tomorrow’s Passion Gospel we will have to take our part. We will join his executioners or the bloody-thirsty mob or the hangers-on or the runners-away or the betrayers. Or we will join the few true witnesses who stay close. The word in our text for witnesses is martyrion. Witness is from the same word as martyr. You will be my martyrs, Jesus says. You will give testimony to me whatever it costs, even unto death. Just as I have done for you! That takes courage. That takes real power. Holy Spirit power.

The trial of Jesus Christ continues in our day, in every age. The Sanhedrin is still sitting. We are called as witnesses. We are called to give testimony. What will we say? What do we say with our every word and deed, every day of our lives?

And where is it that we are called to give this testimony? You will be my witnesses, Jesus says, to the ends of the earth, to everyone, everywhere, wherever you are, wherever they are, in every nook and cranny of every human heart. But especially at the very ends of the earth. Going from Milan to Cologne or from Los Angeles to Toronto is great, especially if it is for something as life-changing as World Youth Day. It is going to give witness. But it is not really going to the end of the earth. For most of you to go to the end of the earth to give witness would require that you came to Australia! To Sydney! There you will be answering Our Lord’s call geographically and psychologically. It requires courage and determination, like all true witness. It might seem far and dangerous, like going to Jerusalem or Compostella or Cologne must have seemed to our forefathers. In fact it only takes a day. And the kangaroos do not bite!

But Christ is calling you forth from today, to come to an unfamiliar land, as far away as you can go. To come to the ends of the earth and bring with you the youth of your land. To give witness. To receive the Holy Spirit in the Great South Land of the Holy Spirit. And to be united. Hear again the words of the Prophet Ezekiel in our First Reading: “Thus says the Lord your God: I will gather you from among all the nations and bring you together… under one shepherd… in one sanctuary… You shall be my people and I shall be your God.”

We thank God for the gift of the previous World Youth Days. Especially this weekend we thank God for the gift of Cologne 2005. And the future, Archbishop Rylko said to us yesterday, the future has a name. Its name is Sydney. We thank God for that too. But we in Sydney cannot do it alone. We need God’s power. So we need your prayers that Sydney 2008 may be a New Pentecost where the young people of the world, gathered from every nation, speaking every tongue, will sing together the praises of our God. We need your efforts to raise in the hearts of your young people a desire to be courageous for Christ, to take on a big thing, something as big as taking the Gospel to the end of the earth. We need your best efforts to dissolve any misconceptions and communicate the good news about the future. We need your spirited witness to draws hundreds of thousands to Sydney. Come Holy Spirit! Come Holy Spirit! Come Holy Spirit! Come Youth of the World!