ACU Graduation Mass
St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Acts 5:27-32, 40-41; Apoc 5:11-14; Jn 21:1-19
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
18 Apr 2010
As the 2010 Sydney graduands of Australia Catholic University you are especially welcome here in your Cathedral for this Graduation Mass. I am delighted the custom has been revived of such a Mass being offered for those who wish to attend before their graduation ceremony.
On similar occasions and especially for those who might be in the Cathedral for the first time, I always invite the congregation to look closely at the beauty and grandeur of the Cathedral.
The first building was much smaller and burned down in 1865. They had to start again and the first opening was in 1882, while the southern half was only completed in 1928. In those days, without a Catholic Development Fund to provide a loan, they only built when they had the money.
No government money went into the construction of this Church, until the special grant of $5,000,000 for the new spires in the year 2000. It was a magnificent effort, when the Catholic community was much smaller and poorer, and this edifice is a symbol of their Christian faith and Catholic pride.
It is therefore appropriate for you to come here for Mass as you thank God for what you have achieved, as you pray in thanks for all those who have helped you, especially your family, and as you pray God will be with you in your career as you work to keep Australia good and make it better.
The readings today provide suitable food for meditation on this occasion.
A couple of them talk about that remarkable time after Jesus' resurrection, while the strange passage from the Apocalypse shows the heavenly rejoicing at what Jesus accomplished through his death and resurrection; the saints celebrating the victory of the Lamb of God.
In the first reading, the Jewish authorities are confronted by the early spread of Christianity, despite the hostile pressures, driven by the fearless preaching of the apostles. Pentecost had transformed them from being timid and in hiding to witnesses who would not be silenced by jail or by beatings.
They were compelled to speak because they were witnesses to God's mighty deeds and the Holy Spirit was urging them to teach publicly. They were proud of having the honour of suffering humiliation for Christ's name.
I am not certain how many Christians exist today - certainly more than 1.5 billion persons. Reminded of such an immense number, we easily forget how small the number of Christian believers was at the beginning. The numbers increased because faith and goodness are contagious, because every generation is searching for what is good and true, and answer to genuine witness and service. This is certainly true now.
All Christians today are surrounded by some hostile pressures, although these are nothing like the violent hostility recounted in the reading or the recurrent persecutions for nearly three hundred years in the pagan Roman Empire.
Neither am I talking about the current campaign against the Holy Father. This is misdirected, because he has been wise and persistent in combating sexual abuse.
I am talking about the steady media and political pressure against the Christian foundations of our Western way of life, about the attempts to turn a religiously neutral public life into an aggressively secular and anti-religious public space, where religious arguments on important public issues are deemed irrelevant. Some would even like to ban their expression as somehow contrary to human rights.
Our response as Christians must be to keep talking, to keep making our case publicly through the media, the new means of communications, as well as through our sermons and in our schools.
We too must be obedient to God and take courage from the Spirit.
We should not exaggerate our difficulties, because those opposed to us are minority voices and the press often welcomes our interventions, especially if they are likely to provoke controversy.
But we need to be just, accurate and reasonable; to argue our cases point by point, as everyone wants more than an appeal to traditional loyalties. Loyal Christians want their questions answered as does the interested, fair minded middle ground.
The Gospel reading reminds us that one essential ingredient in any successful struggle is perseverance, especially through those times when results are poor or non-existent. We can all be tempted to think we might do better if we did the wrong thing.
Peter and his fishermen friends had fished all night and caught nothing. In the uncertain dawn light someone on the shore urged them to throw in their nets again. I suspect they were inclined to tell the stranger to run away, as they were professionals, they knew their job and were in no mood to waste more time.
For whatever reasons, perhaps because they did not wish to upset the stranger, they did as asked and they caught so many fish they could not haul in their nets. At that moment of unexpected plenty, Peter recognised that the stranger was Jesus.
Doing our duty not only strengthens our moral convictions, but opens us up to truth and strengthens our faith or our search for faith. This incident with Peter is an encouraging reminder of this.
The second reading from the Book of Revelations clearly indicates that our faith is not rooted in the mysterious, imprisoned and undemanding forces of nature, but in the one true God; that transcendent Mystery of personal Love, who calls us to follow him, even when this requires personal sacrifice. The Christian God and his only Son do not come cost-free and we can only follow imperfectly at cut-price rates.
In this mystical vision from the Apocalypse, we learn of ten thousand times ten thousand angels and souls proclaiming that power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and blessing are to be given to the sacrificial Lamb, who saved us, Jesus Christ. We are called to worship God as well as to lead decent lives. After death we too are called to congregate at the Throne of the Lamb.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
