Mass and Investiture of General Peter Cosgrove as Chancellor of Australian Catholic University
St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Is 2:1-5; Rom 13:11-14; Mt 24:37-44
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
28 Nov 2010
The great pagan religions of Hinduism and Buddhism think of history as a cycle of everlasting returns; as circular not linear or progressive. And they have a good deal of evidence to support such a view as night follows day and as the four seasons come around every year, even in these times of climate change.
The Church's liturgical seasons also come in turn each year, as we find ourselves once again at the beginning of Advent in preparation for the beautiful feast of Christmas.
But the Jews and then the Christians rejected this view of history as a cycle of return by believing that God created the world, then established a covenant or pact with a particular people the Jews, who were to expect a Saviour or Messiah. Jesus was this Messiah, the anointed one i.e. the Christ, who changed history through his redemptive activity and will come again at the end of time to instigate a new heaven and a new earth, drawing on, in some mysterious way, all the good things that have been done in human history.
It is these Christian understandings that history is going forward to the last times which provide the backdrop for the contemporary secular mythology of inevitable progress, that life will keep getting better and better. For some centuries there have been enormous advances in science and technology, but the twentieth century was also the most brutal in history with two World Wars and many dictatorships, such as the criminal rule of the Nazis and Communists and the atomic bomb. We have no certainty that the next generations will be better people, or happier or suffer less. We hope they will be more prosperous, but even this is not certain.
We also should note the striking fact that a minority of people, usually people without religion, are frightened by the future. It is almost as though they need something to fear to distract them from the fact that without God the universe has no intrinsic purpose or meaning, nothing beyond the constructs they confect to cover the abyss.
God makes all the difference and the arrival of God's Son is a double blessing. This is what we begin to celebrate at Advent. Imagine what life would be like without God; a life without purpose, without restraints, with no incentives except the will to power.
For a host of these reasons the beginning of Advent is a good time for Christians to celebrate the inauguration of a new chancellor at a university such as Australian Catholic University.
Like the seasons, like archbishops, students, vice-chancellors, chancellors also come and go. A new beginning is a time of hope and of rededication to the goals of the University and we pray for every blessing and much wisdom for the new chancellor, General Peter Cosgrove.
All the Christian certainties which we celebrate at Advent constitute the bedrock of Australian Catholic University. Human life has a meaning and purpose; truth is open to enquiry and can accurately describe reality; we are part of nature and must take responsibility for and be stewards of creation; personal fulfilment is best found through the service of others.
It is better to know than not to know, to respect tradition, be admiring of excellence, better to be open in hope to the future. As Christian believers in a Catholic institution we follow Psalm 119 in viewing God's word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, so that the search for truth and the cultivation of professional expertise should go hand in hand with the pursuit of virtue.
Knowledge and power, when they are not shaped by the two primary commandments of love of God and love of our neighbour are usually corrupting, often destructive. Germany was the most educated society in the world when Hitler became leader and through scientific advances we have, for good or ill, much greater power available to us today than Hitler or Stalin ever had. No significant anti-democratic forces are at work among us and we have no sign of the rampant inflation which unhinged Germany. We thank God for this.
But Australian society will become increasingly coarse and uncaring, indeed cruel on occasion, if Christian principles are excluded from public discussion. The secularists pursuing this aim will not be successful, but such an outcome will require regular struggle from religious activists, who understand that education devoid of moral considerations and with God excluded cannot guarantee even an increase in civility, much less a better, more just and compassionate society.
Australian Catholic University offers a wide range of academic religious options for study and we hope that many or most of the students will freely come to recognise their truth. In fact we also hope that many will become active citizens, who are religiously bilingual. By that I mean that they should know the language of the Church and love her traditions and customs as well as knowing the language of the secular world, so that they can dialogue with and debate those who do not share Christian beliefs or presuppositions or actively oppose them.
We do not support ideological apartheid, the separation of knowledge and belief, of faith and reason.
The ancient Jewish psalmist spoke of God as our rock and our fortress. This remains as true today in the twenty-first century as it was in the time of King David, whether we live in the country or the suburbs, whether we are students or teachers, homemakers or workers. This is the first part of what we celebrate during each Advent season as we thank God that we know the basic truths of His story.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
