St John the Baptist Church, Bonnyrigg Heights, 14 June 2026
“When Jesus saw the crowds, He felt sorry for them, because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Mt 9:36-10:8) The Greek verb that St Matthew uses in our Gospel today is a little stronger than “felt sorry for”. Ẻσπλαγχνίσθη (esplanknisthē) is a more visceral word, meaning heart-rending or stomach-churning: seeing the weary, directionless crowd, Jesus’ compassion is physical as much as emotional.
It’s not the only time. The Gospels often describe Jesus as moved to the core: when He cleanses a leper, gives sight to the blind, restores a dead son to a widow and sees a hungry multitude.[1] Jesus has com-passion: He suffers with us, entering into our struggles, making them His own. He feels deeply, weeping and sighing as we do.[2]
Pope Leo XIV declared this a special Jubilee Year of St Francis, as it marks the 800th anniversary of the death and transitus of that favourite saint on 3 October 1226. Before coming to us, our new Franciscan community made a pilgrimage to Assisi to pray at the founder’s tomb. And they brought back the graces of that saint and that holy place for the people of Bonnyrigg. The Holy Father has granted a Plenary Indulgence this year, not just to those who make a pilgrimage to Assisi but to any who visit a church in the care of the Franciscans—which, from today, includes this one! Conditions apply, as they say: confession, communion, prayers for the pope and interior detachment from sin. But there can be rewards in having prayerful and pastorally energetic friars as your pastors!
Why I mention St Francis is that he demonstrated Christ-like empathy ‘in buckets’.[3] He so identified with the suffering Christ that he wept and sighed before the crucifix until it spoke to him and Christ later shared the stigmata of His passion with him. He so identified with suffering humanity—the poor, lepers, captives—that he gave everything for their sake, even his clothes; creating a new fraternity that he admonished “not to quarrel or argue or judge… but to be meek, peaceable, modest, gentle, humble, and courteous to all.”[4] He even identified with non-human creation, so that the birds came to hear him preach; and he called all creatures his brothers and sisters.[5]
So, were Jesus and Francis ‘softies’? In some ways, yes. Jesus describes Himself as “gentle and humble of heart”, teaches us to forgive endlessly, takes the nobodies’ perspective. For Him love is the greatest commandment, and He loves everyone as a shepherd who gently leads and would die rather than lose one of His own.[6] Yet the same Jesus could be tough. He endured long fasts, journeys, and ultimately tortures. He fought demons, error and sickness. He inveighed against hypocrites and over-turned moneychangers’ tables. As the authorities discovered, He was no push-over, not such a softie after all…
So, too, St Francis. Sure, he’d had a comfortable childhood and youth with his rich family and friends. After his conversion, we picture him dancing barefoot in the hills, accompanied by bunnies and butterflies. He was passionate and poetic, with a great capacity for friendship and fraternity. But he also practised extreme asceticism: fasts, discomforts, freezing water, thorns. He prayed with a skull more often than a butterfly. He lived poor and dressed poor, when he dressed at all. He undertook dangerous missions and was firm in his resolve. He was robust!
So how are we to think of Jesus and Francis? Well, as the Gospels make clear, Jesus was truly man, with all the emotions and limitations of a man (except sin), but truly God, with all the impassability and power of God. In Him the God who dwells at an infinite distance draws very close; the God who is pure spirit takes flesh; the God who lives in eternal bliss suffers. He is God with guts, literally with a human heart and stomach, such as we celebrated last Friday on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. Jesus is the compassion of God made visible, like a loving Father whose heart turns within Him when He sees a returning prodigal from afar and runs to meet him (Lk 15:11-32).
Of course, talking of God’s compassion is risky business. We have trouble reconciling justice and mercy. It’s very convenient just to think of God as a therapeutic nice guy, who forgives all our foibles and makes no demands.[7] Or, if we are suffering, to think of Him as miserable too. But, in the end, we don’t just want our Good Samaritan patting us on the head or feeling sorry for us: we need His help! Whether it’s sin or sickness, loss or confusion, despair or death itself, we need a Saviour—a gutsy God, not just sympathetic but strong also.
As your parish patron St John the Baptist illustrates, as St Francis too, and as I trust his sons will demonstrate, discipleship requires both compassion and passion, fellow-feeling and action. The aimless crowd needs empathy but also help, companionship but also leadership. So, Jesus says, pray the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to His harvest. And, in answer to our prayers, here come six of them!
Fr Sharah and community inherit a parish that describes itself as “a welcoming, supportive community of believers inspired by the life of Jesus [and] called to make Christ present in our parish, local community and world.” It is a big parish with over 15,000 parishioners and many ministries, ranging from liturgical, faith development, and community building, to administration, communications and outreach. You boast 2,250 children in the Catholic primary and secondary schools, big numbers of CCD catechists teaching 1,150 children in the state schools, a highly developed sacramental programme, RCIA, prayer groups, the JB Men’s Group, Jordan Youth Group, St Vincent de Paul conference, outreach to the elderly and vulnerable, a veritable army of volunteers. For a still-youngish parish, this is truly impressive!
But if there are many causes to celebrate, there is no cause for complacency. This is one of the most Catholic areas of Sydney, with nearly two in five people identifying as Catholic, double the national average. Yet the Sunday Mass count is still at best 1 in 10 (1,400) of those local faithful. While we delight in them, we grieve the absence of the other 9, and we care also for those yet to identify with Christ and His Church. We must ask ourselves, again and again, how we can best reach out to the unconverted and the diverted, and make this the sort of place they will want to be on Sunday. I pray that your new Franciscan community will be part of the answer. If they can get the other 9 out of 10 to Mass, we’ll be needing a basilica here the size of the one in Assisi and they’ll be just the guys to do it!
Fathers Chris, Ruben and Ben will now be responsible on my behalf for the worship, evangelisation and service of this parish. They bring a special Franciscan charism to you in this jubilee year of grace and beyond. In their priestly service, they must sanctify you by prayer and sacrament. In their shepherding, they must lead and serve as Christ did. In their prophetic ministry, they must proclaim the Gospel and Church teaching in season and out. But they cannot do this by themselves. Priests and people can achieve far more together than any one of us could do alone.
To strengthen them for this task, we now have the formal Rites of Installation of a Parish Priest. They are a reminder to us all, not just of his mission but of ours, the mission of the whole Church. I ask you to pray to the Lord of the harvest that these friars may be faithful and fruitful labourers in His vineyard of Bonnyrigg, and to keep supporting them, as they pray for and serve you.
[1] Matthew 20:34 (the two blind men); Luke 7:13 (the widow of Nain); Matthew 15:32, with Mark 8:2 (the hungry crowd); Mark 1:41 (the cleansing of the leper).
[2] Mk 7:34; 8:12; Lk 19:41; Jn 11:33,35; Heb 5:7-9.
[3] See Bill Cook, ‘Francis of Assisi: our master teacher in the virtue of empathy,’ Franciscan Tradition 24 February 2026; Daniel DeForest London, ‘The empathy of St Francis,’ https://deforest.london/2015/10/05/the-empathy-of-st-francis/.
[4] Steve McMichael, ‘St Francis’ encounters with mercy and compassion,’ https://www.franciscansusa.org/st-francis-encounters-with-mercy-and-compassion/
[5] Jack Wintz, ‘St Francis and the birds,’ St Anthony Messenger October 2020.
[6] Mt 5:7,11,39; 6:12; 11:29; 18:21-22; 22:36-40; 25:37-40; Lk 6:22,27-28,35-36; 23:34; Jn 6:37-39; 10:11-18,27-30; 11:32-26; 13:1,34-35; 15:12-13; 17:11-19.
[7] See Christian Smith, Sould Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (OUP, 2005).
INTRODUCTION TO MASS OF THE 11TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A +
INSTALLATION OF FR CHRISTOPHER SHARAH FSF AS PARISH PRIEST OF BONNYRIGG-EDENSOR PARK
St John the Baptist Church, Bonnyrigg Heights, 14 June 2026
Welcome, dear friends, to St John the Baptist Church, Bonnyrigg Heights, for this morning’s Mass for the Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, at which it is my joy to install Fr Christopher Sharah FSF, as Parish Priest of Bonnyrigg-Edensor Park. He will be assisted by Frs Ruben Martello FSF and Benedict Mackenzie FSF, and by the brothers in formation Anthony Maroun FSF, Nicholas Chehade FSF and Leo Lermond FSF. All are Friars of St Francis, a community devoted to prayer, fellowship and service of the poor, and we welcome them to our archdiocese. Given that Western Sydney is the fastest growing part of the Church in Australia, this is a natural place to plant this new community, so that the evangelisation, worship and pastoral care of the people of Bonnyrigg and beyond might be better served and secured into the future.
I acknowledge with gratitude Fr Dominic Dinh, who has served this community faithfully and lovingly as your Parish Priest over the past eight years, conscious of the many fruits he cultivated throughout his ministry. Some of those ripen today as 32 young people make their First Holy Communion, receiving for the first time the Lord Jesus Himself in the Blessed Eucharist. I welcome the family and friends of our first communicants, here to witness Jesus entering their lives in a new way as He shares His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity with them.
Concelebrating with me, along with your new parish clergy, are Fr Danai Penollar and Fr John Paul Escarlan.
To all of you here on this joyful occasion, a very warm welcome to you all!
