St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 9 August 2026
On the recent Feast of the Transfiguration, we recalled that day that Christ allowed His divine glory to radiate from his body (Lk 9:28-36). Shining beside Him were Moses and Elijah, who were discussing Jesus’ forthcoming Passover through death to resurrection glory.
Each had his own exotic ending. After leading Israel for forty years through many trials, Moses finally brought them home (Dt 34:1-6). From Mount Nebo he looked out over the Promised Land. But it was not for him: in this moment of triumph, he died. Astonishingly, no-one knows where this superhero was buried. That helped stop Israel turning him into a god.[1]
Elijah’s passing was even stranger. Rather than dying like the rest of us, he was assumed into heaven by a whirlwind in a chariot of fire (2Kgs 2:1-13). The prophets believed he would return some day (Mal 3:23), and many Jews still leave an empty chair for Elijah at the Passover table just in case. Some thought John the Baptist was Elijah returned.[2] Some thought it was Jesus Himself: for, like Elijah, He was an enemy of the false teachers; like Elijah, He multiplied food, walked on water and raised a widow’s son from the dead; and, like Elijah, He talked to God on a mountain and ultimately ascended to heaven.[3]
In today’s reading (1Kgs 19:9-13), the first Elijah is having a hard time of it. Only days before, he had triumphed over the Prophets of Baal (1Kgs 18:26-46). Like a crowd of losers at the World Cup, 450 of these guys shouted themselves hoarse from morning till noon, danced about and gashed themselves, all to no avail. Their god scored no goals, and Elijah demonstrated the superiority of team Israel’s God. But his success was short-lived: wicked Queen Jezebel swore to kill him and he “ran for his life.” Sheltering under a broom bush, he despaired. “I’ve had enough, Lord, take my life.” But then Angel.booking.com found him better food and accommodation in a cave on Mount Horeb (1Kgs 19:1-9). That’s when God finally consoles him…
Elijah is instructed to stand outside his hotel and wait for God (1Kgs 19:9-13). Wind, quake and fire come and go, but God is in none of them. Instead, God speaks in “the still quiet voice” of a gentle breeze…
The great Carmelite mystic, St John of the Cross, said that “Silence is God’s first language.” Long before God spoke words into ears, His inner life was the music and silence of the three Divine Persons that spoke of knowledge and love. I remember as a boy seeing my grandparents holding hands while watching the fire and not saying a word. Their communion was wordless, yet their communication was complete. Silence can speak louder than words.
Noise, on the other hand, can be the language of the Devil. In C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, the demon Toadpipe celebrates the fact that Hell is full of noise—“all that is exultant, ruthless and virile”—so nothing can be heard of the music and silence of Heaven. No silence, no music: even music as heavenly our St Mary’s Choir sings requires pauses between notes, sometimes long pregnant pauses, sometimes tiny ones to distinguish and contrast. It’s often in the silences that we meet God, communicating to us not like noisy macho demons, but with the whispers of a mother calming her child. Though we call Him ‘the Word’, Jesus entered our universe in the silence of a mother’s womb. He made His exit from this mortal life with a simple exhaling of breath. Then He went down into the silence of the tomb. We must learn the art of silence, of putting to rest our thoughts and deeds, or we may miss much of what He is still saying to us.
The Church is a school for quieting the soul and hearing the still small voice of God. Where the world distracts, the Church concentrates. Where the world booms, the Church makes for sacred silence. Even as we recite prayers and creeds, even as we sing psalms and hymns, we sit quiet between them, that our silent tears and hopes and prayers might be whispered and God’s answers heard in the soul. Some people think ‘active participation’ in the Liturgy means everyone doing something, at every moment of the Mass. Yet no Christian ever worshipped so well as that woman Mary who said ‘Yes’ and not much more, or that man Joseph beside her who said even less. By opening our ears to God in the Scriptures proclaimed and preached, in the tradition professed and lived, in the Sacraments celebrated and received, in our prayers and the silent spaces between, we participate most actively in that communication which God initiates between Himself and us.
Our Gospel (Mt 14:22-33) recognises how hard that can be amidst the storms we live with. Few of us are called to the cloister or to Elijah’s cave; most of us make out our salvation amidst the hurly-burly. And the noise doesn’t all come from outside. Commenting on today’s Gospel, St Augustine observed that “the private tempest of unruly desires” can be just as noisy and distracting as anything around us.[4] Between inner turmoil and external hullabaloo, spending quiet moments with Jesus is difficult, but all the more essential, especially for people as industrious as Peter the fisherman, people as busy as us.
A priest-bureaucrat once asked Teresa of Calcutta how to improve his spiritual life. She suggested he make a holy hour every day.[5] But, he explained, he was terribly busy with all sorts of important Church business. People depended on him getting it all done, and well, and on time. A daily hour of quiet would be impossible. To which she responded: she was sorry; she hadn’t understood how busy he was and how important his work; in that case he should pray not one but two holy hours a day!
As we look forward to the 54th International Eucharistic Congress in 2028, we hear echoing in our ears Mother Teresa’s lines: that “Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is the best time you will spend on earth!”; that “Only by Holy Hours of Adoration can we bring peace to earth.”; and that only in the stillness and intimacy of such prayer will our souls be prepared for heaven. This past week or so Catholic Schools NSW has found itself been embroiled in a tempest. Whatever the present storms of your life, my friends, we all need to get into the barque of Peter that is the Church, where Christ will calm our tempers and crises. There that we can listen to Him, not in cyclone, earthquake or bushfire, but in the gentle breeze that only a quietened soul can hear.
Word after Communion
It has been a joy to celebrate this Mass with you all today and in company of my brother Archbishop John Wilson. This coming week all the priests of Sydney will be gathering for some formation, prayer and company, and I ask you to keep us all in your prayers.
Tuesday night is census night and the religion question is already much contested. There has been a campaign to press anyone who doesn’t regularly attend church to tick “No religion”. That is plain deceptive. We know very well that many whose practice is irregular still believe in God, still pray sometimes, still turn to the Church in times of particular need, still rely on Catholic educational, health, aged care, welfare and pastoral services. But we can only provide that care if we can identify roughly where they are. I exhort you all, whether you are regulars or irregulars to write your religion truthfully in the census and encourage others to do so too.
[1] David Ben-Gad HaCohen, ‘The unknown yet known place of Moses’ burial,’ TheTorah.com https://www.thetorah.com/ article/the-unknown-yet-known-place-of-moses-burial
[2] Mt 11:14; 17:10-13; Mk 6:15; 9:11-13; Lk 1:17; 9:8; Jn 1:21,25.
[3] Some thought Jesus was Elijah returned: Mt 16:14; 27:47-49; Mk 8:28; 15:35; Lk 4:25-26; 9:19.Both were enemies of the false teachers: 1Kg 18:16-46; Mt ch 23 etc. Both performed miracles of multiplying food: 1Kg 17:12-16; Mk 6:30-44 etc. Both walked through the sea dry-shod: 2Kg 2:8; Mk 6:48-50. Both raised a widow’s son from the dead: 1Kg 17:17; Lk 7:11-17. Both talked to God on a mountain: 1Kgs ch 19; Mt 14:23; 17:1; 26:30; 28:16. Both ascended into heaven: 2Kg 2:11; Mk 16:19.
[4] Augustine, Sermon 75.5, in Sermons (51–94) on the New Testament, trans. Edmund Hill, ed. John E. Rotelle, The Works of Saint Augustine III/3 (Brooklyn, NY: New City Press, 1991).
[5] Philip Kosloski, ‘Why Mother Teresa insisted on a daily Eucharistic holy hour,’ Aleteia 29 August 2023; Mark Hamlet, ‘Prayer, Martha and Mary,’ fathermarkhamlet.com 18July 2010; ‘St Teresa of Calcutta, Advocate for Eucharistic adoration,’ https://perpetualeucharisticadoration.com/st-teresa-of-calcutta-advocate-for-eucharistic-adoration-sept-5/
Introduction to Mass for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 9 August 2026
Welcome to St Mary’s Cathedral Sydney for the Solemn Mass for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time. Today is of course St City-to-Surf Day and some of you will have run your own obstacle course just to get here: I applaud you for your perseverance!
I welcome concelebrating with me today Archbishop John Wilson of Southwark, England. He is a moral theologian and pastor, has been a leader in evangelisation and education in the English church, and just like here in Sydney is experiencing a new springtime in his diocese with many conversions and adult baptisms. His Grace joins us as the main contributor to our Archdiocesan clergy gathering this coming week.
Speaking of Archdiocesan clergy, we give thanks to Almighty God that only yesterday at this altar three new priests were ordained to serve among us, Fathers Łukasz Golab, Peter Tran and Stephen Howard. There will be two more later this year. Today concludes our National Vocations Awareness Week, which included the feasts of that great friar St Dominic, that great diocesan priest St Jean Vianney, and that great Aussie nun Mary MacKillop. I ask you to join me today in praying for our five new priests for 2026 and for many more vocations to the priesthood and religious life. To everyone here, regulars as well as visitors, a very warm welcome to you all.
