World Youth Day

Sydney, 18 July 2008

Today we celebrate a Mass for the Evangelisation of Peoples. We, as Christians, are called to be bearers of “Good News”, and therefore we are asked to renew and deepen our vocation to evangelisation, so that the spreading of this message may reach to the ends of the earth. We ask that through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we may be faithful followers of the Church’s missionary endeavour.

For our lack of trust, zeal and courage, we ask for mercy and pardon.

Lord, you have done wonders among all the peoples.
Lord, have mercy.

It was you who made the heavens.
Christ, have mercy.

You are great and worthy of praise.
Lord, have mercy.

Sermon

How is it that bad news seems to travel so fast? Tune into any of the 24 hour News programmes and it is very hard to get a laugh. You wouldn’t want to be too depressed to sit down and watch any of these stations. Bad things can happen in the remotest part of the world and within minutes, certainly hours, it is on the News wires being blasted into our homes and offices in the most graphic details.

Lots of good things happen in my daily life. During the course of an average day I experience so many causes of joy and signs of hope, but sadly, they will never reach CNN, Sky or the BBC. And I suspect that it is the same for each of you, unless you are especially pessimistic.

The same could be said of news that you don’t want too many people to know. There are many occasions when I have to share confidential information with people, information that is for their ears only and should not be shared with anyone else. More and more confidentiality seems to be a thing of the past. In my more cynical moments I have come to the conclusion that when I say this is confidential information some people think that means they can only share it with only one person at a time!

Go make disciples of all nations, baptise them, teach them – I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.

Jesus has just told us this in the Gospel reading and I would be very surprised that anyone one would deny that this is true. However, I wonder how many of us recognise that we are included in the message, not just a recipient of other’s ministry, but as witnesses and evangelisers ourselves? I have often found that when I stand up here preaching or teaching, trying to reach people’s hearts and minds, the perception is that I am talking to the person next to you or the person behind you, not you. In fact I have often tried a trick of shouting out and pointing my hand towards the audience or congregation and at the same time shouting out “Hey you!” It is amazing; nearly everyone turns round to look at the person I am addressing. It is never them!

The next time we hear this gospel passage our response should be expressed using St Paul’s words that we heard in the first reading:

I do not boast of preaching the gospel, since it is a duty which has been laid on me. My reward is to be able to offer the Good News free.

All of us who have been baptised and confirmed now have a specific task which the psalm described so well for us:

Tell among the nations his glory
And his wonders among all peoples

Our job is to tell the Lord’s glory to all the nations, to proclaim his wonders to all peoples. If we do not tell the good news then people are not going to hear about it; if we are not going to proclaim God’s wonderful love for us from the housetops, then how will they know? It is you – and don’t look behind you or to the side of you. Each and everyone of us has been commissioned by the laying on of hands and the gift of the Spirit and we have been sent in the name of the Church to share in Christ’s mission, to witness to his wonderful deeds and to be heralds of his good news. And again, because we are weak, sinful and at times ignorant, the whole Church continually prays:

Send workers to the harvest that the gospel may be preached, and your people, gathered together by the Word of Life, and strengthened by the power of the sacraments, may advance in the way of salvation and love.

There is the famous story of St Francis going out to preach with one of the young brothers and he said, ‘come on; we are going to the streets of the town and we are going to tell all the people about the call to holiness and poverty and the power of the Gospel.’ So off they went and they wandered through all the streets, down the hill and up again back to the Friary. The young brother was perplexed, he said, ‘I thought we were going to preach to all the people of the town in the streets?’ Francis said, ‘that is what we have just done.’ Then he added, ‘preach at all times, even if you have to use words!’ The very example of our lives should be sermon enough!

Our principle way of preaching and conveying the Gospel message is by living it out in our daily lives. The preface at today’s Mass will tell us in a few minutes that the Church was founded on the apostles as the sign of God’s infinite love and as a living gospel for all to hear. We have to become part of that sign of God’s infinite love and we also have to become living Gospel for all to hear. But not on our own or by our own power. Remember what was prayed for you and said over you at your confirmation:

Let us pray to our Father that he will pour out the Holy Spirit to strengthen his sons and daughters with his gifts and anoint them to be more like Christ.

All powerful Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by water and the Holy Spirit you freed your sons and daughters from sin and gave them new life. Send your Holy Spirit upon them to be their helper and guide. Give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgement and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence. Fill them with the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence.

So:

Go make disciples of all nations, baptise them, teach them – and remember Jesus’ words – I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.