Sydney, 16 July 2008

Today we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The Scriptures speak of the beauty of Carmel. It was here that the prophet Elijah defended the faith of God’s people. Mary for us reflects both the beauty of a creature of God adorned with the gifts of the Spirit and one whose faith brought her through anguish and pain to the joy of resurrection.
In the Gospel at Mass today we hear how the apostles had spent much time in the company of Jesus. They had heard him teach and preach. Yet, despite this they still thought according to their own categories and saw everything through the prism of their own prejudice – Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel? Despite the teaching and personal attention, something was still missing to allow the apostles to open their hearts and minds, to understand and integrate all that Jesus had said.
Many of us can empathise with the apostles because we find ourselves in the same position – unable to rise above our prejudices and plagued with ignorance and fear.
We turn to the Lord for mercy, pardon, strength
Lord Jesus, you are mighty God and prince of peace.
Lord, have mercy.
You are Son of God and son of Mary.
Christ have mercy
You are Word made flesh and splendour of the Father.
Lord, have mercy.

Sermon

I don’t know if you are like me, but when I am away from home, things of home become more important, customs, local and national characteristics, language, of course, and most of all food. Things that we eat at home which might not be available elsewhere, even though we may not really like them very much or we may not have eaten them for ages, suddenly when they are not available because we are away from home they become important. I seek out people from the same part of the world as I come from, we talk in a way that we would never talk at home, we are almost related just because we come from the same country or area.
Being related to people, being able to connect is so important for us. We need to belong. It is part of being human. This has always been the case – family, clan, tribe, nationality, race are all important to us. Blood ties cannot be underestimated – blood is thicker than water, we say. But Jesus tells us that this order has disappeared. What is more important than blood and biological ties are the Word and the Spirit.

Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you – My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.

The brothers and sisters of Jesus are no longer defined by flesh and blood, by biological descendancy; what matters now is their attentiveness to and living out the Word of God. This is what makes us family, this is what makes us children, this is what now makes us belong. We sang about this in the psalm at our Mass today:

But of Zion it must be said:
“They all were born here.”
The most High confirms this;
the Lord notes this in the register of peoples:
“This one was born right here.”
So all sing in their festive dance:
“Within you is my true home.”

And in all this we have a supreme model and icon, Mary, the true mother of Jesus. Yes, she is truly the Mother of God; the Son of God was conceived in her womb by the power of the Spirit and became incarnate. But she is our mother and model in that she lived her life so attentive to God’s Word, so open and sensitive to the Word of God, that she became pregnant with the Word and brought the Word forth into the World. By the power of the same Holy Spirit, and after the example of Mary, we too are called to be so attentive to the Word, so open and sensitive to the Word that we too might become filled with the Word, pregnant with the Word and bring forth that same Word through our lives into the world.
As we are beginning to learn we are called to be witnesses, we are called to be missionaries, evangelisers, disseminators of the Word. But we cannot do this on our own.
We are only too aware of our own weaknesses and shortcomings. The idea that we might be called to share in the mission of Jesus, to participate in the work of the apostles, that we are entering into true discipleship, is rather overwhelming for most of us. We are so unprepared, we are ignorant, we are sinners. How can we do this?

When the apostles entered the city they went to the Upper Room where they were staying. All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

And then what? Well we know the answer to that from the scriptures and from what we prayed in our opening prayer this morning:

Lord our God,
as the blessed Virgin was at prayer with the apostles
you poured out on her in abundance
the gifts of the Holy Spirit:
grant through her intercession
that we too, being filled with the same Spirit,
may persevere with one mind in prayer
and bring to the world around us
the good news of salvation.

…being filled with the same Spirit, may persevere with one mind in prayer – Well, through our baptism and Confirmation we know we have been given the gift of the one Spirit, now we need to persevere with one mind in prayer. If we are to spread the Word, we first of all need to be filled with the Word, we need to wait on the Word, meditate on the Word. We can only do this by spending time with the Word, Jesus the Son of God in prayer.
While we are here in Sydney at WYD, take advantage of everything that is on offer, but take special advantage of being able to pray together. Share the Word; break the Word of God together as often as you can. Be filled with the Word. Follow closely the example of Mary and obey the voice of the Spirit seeking to praise God’s glory in all things. Then under the protection of the Virgin Mary may you work for the unity and peace of all those for whom the Son offered himself.