Riverview College 130th Anniversary Mass
St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Deut 30:11-14; 1 Cor 10:31, 10:1; Lk 24:28-35
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
1 Aug 2010
It is a good thing for all of us that you have come to St. Mary's, your Cathedral, the mother Church of all Australia to celebrate your 130th Anniversary and to thank God for what you have received and for the tradition to which you belong.
On such gatherings I often invite the young people, especially those on their first visit, to look around the Cathedral, one of the most beautiful buildings in Sydney, a proud statement of faith, making explicit the loyalty of our predecessors, their commitment to the Catholic tradition, Christian faith, hope and love.
Started in 1866 after the first Cathedral was burned down in 1865, this building was only opened for the first time in 1884. The southern half of the nave was completed in 1928.
Recently we added the new altar, consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI at World Youth Day 2008 and more recently the new statues of the risen Christ and Mary Magdalene. They constitute a triptych, focus attention on the altar and catch the moment of dawning faith, when Mary Magdalene realized she was not talking to the gardener, but to her friend Jesus who had risen, against all expectations, from the dead.
That moment of faith is important for us today when an increasing minority claim they cannot believe. Some are genuine, some are lazy, some will not concede the existence of a God who will judge them in the end, nor of a God who gave us through his Son a clear moral code to be followed. As sons of St. Ignatius you are called to be men of faith.
You have many reasons to be grateful; first of all because of your humanity; men and women are the crown of creation, made in God's image, destined for eternal life of one sort or another.
We should not give any space at all, even in one corner of our subconscious, to the idea that we are merely the smartest of the animals, without a higher purpose and thereby able to write our own rules.
Most, perhaps all of you are Australians, just as most or all of you are Catholic Christians. These are blessings, enormous advantages; not burdens, not embarrassments. And finally you have every reason to thank God that you are being educated in the Jesuit tradition. I spent nearly eight years in institutions run by the Jesuits, so I understand something of what you are being offered.
While the Benedictine tradition is 1,000 years older and even the Dominican and Franciscan traditions are 300 years older, you could probably argue that the Jesuit intellectual tradition has made a more important contribution.
One of the peculiarities of Christian teaching is that those who receive more are expected to contribute more. We do not want or expect that you will leave school and adopt the lowest religious and moral standards of those around you. You are called to a leadership of service, of faith and of morals.
If any of you graduate and are only interested in boozing, banking and bonking, then you have missed the boat. You are called to a radical conversion.
The Jesuit tradition is not just interested in prompting you to ask a series of questions, the big questions about life's purposes (although this is a necessary starting point). You are not just being called to competence, conscience and compassion, because these qualities are found also at Sydney Grammar, Sydney High and even at a good Buddhist school.
You are being called to embrace a set of answers, and given the reasons for these choices. You are being called to make the Catholic way of life your own; you are being instructed in the answers Jesus, the Son of God, left for us nearly 2,000 years ago. It is no coincidence that your priests and your tradition are called "Jesuit".
The founder Ignatius of Loyola was born in Spain in the 1490s in the minor nobility. He is one of the Church's greatest saints. He became a professional soldier, because the local regions in those days often fought one another the way we now have interstate football matches. He was wounded in a skirmish at Pamplona - a site I have visited - a sad and bad event which produced remarkable fruits.
We are all created for happiness and we search for happiness as instinctively as plants, bushes or trees grow towards the light. During his convalescence, Ignatius was bored and unable to find his usual escapist literature about knights and bravery. He was reduced to reading the only book available on Christ and the saints.
As is well known, he eventually realised that while he enjoyed reading about these worldly adventures, he later felt empty and dissatisfied; on the other hand, while the religious stories might have had less movement and excitement, and certainly less violence, he regularly felt more serene, more purposeful afterwards.
This basic insight, which he later developed into his rules for the discernment of spirits, works for us too.
Some examples come to mind very easily. A hangover is unpleasant; or so they tell me. Marijuana is a long-term depressant and we all know that the aftermaths of some trips on harder drugs are horrific. But the examples continue in the more conventional patterns of life too.
Ignatius has codified for us some of the basic rules of life, for people who follow the one true God and Christ his Son. We all have to choose one way or the other; for the God of Love or the abyss; for truth or lies; for forgiveness or hate. As a soldier Ignatius wrote powerfully of the Two Standards.
Jesus Christ is our commander in chief, based at Jerusalem, surrounded by his followers on the great plain, of attractive and delightful appearance.
Lucifer, the father of lies, is based in Babylon, the traditional symbol of evil and destruction, a horrible and terrible sight on a throne of smoking flame. These are dramatic, apocalyptic images to help us to choose the correct side. As our first reading reminds us most of our lives are much more mundane. The two great commandments to love God and love one another are not in a distant heaven, not too hard, not beyond the sea, but in our hearts and minds and mouths; placed there by our parents, teachers and elders.
The Jesuit tradition is God-centred. We are called to do everything for the glory of God, for the greater glory of God in the ways which Christ explained to us.
Ignatius told us that love is found in deeds more than in words. Certainly this must mean service of the battlers and the poor, but it also must include service of those close to us in our family and friends; and it must include the explicit service of God, through regular prayer and worship.
A Jesuit friend explained to me, that this centring on God inverts the order of a prayer often attributed to St. Ignatius. In this version he says we should work as though everything depends on God and pray as though everything depends on ourselves.
The daily Examen calls us to recognise the presence and activity of God in our daily lives, to become more and more aware of how God is at work among us and our friends.
We are told the pure in heart will see God and regular acts of kindness and service help us to attain and retain faith. It was only after the disciples on the way to Emmaus offered Jesus hospitality that they recognised who he was. Mary Magdalene recognised the risen Christ after she had come to visit him in the tomb.
I thank God for the presence of the Jesuits in the Archdiocese of Sydney and for the mighty contribution which Riverview College continues to make. I pray that your tradition will always remain one of lively Catholic faith and regular service. I acknowledge the contribution of priests and teachers and ask God to continue to bless you, so that you produce fruit in abundance.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
