St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 8 August 2028
In the Hebrew of the Old Testament the way to say very was simply to repeat the word. So, the greatest song is “the Song of Songs”, complete futility is “vanity of vanities” and the most sacred place is “the Holy of Holies”.[1] יוֹם Yom is day and יוֹם יוֹם yom yom every day; שָׁנָה shanah is year and so שָׁנָה שָׁנָה shanah shanah is each year; אִישׁ ‘ish is man and אִישׁ אִישׁ ‘ish ‘ish is each and every man.[2] In the New Testament Jesus does His share of such stammering for emphasis, with lots of Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν “Amen, amen, I say to you,” as well as “Martha, Martha,” “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” “Saul, Saul,” and “My God, my God.”[3] You get the drift…
קָדוֹשׁ Qadhosh, the word for holy, appears in various forms more than 800 times in the Old Testament. Before there was a temple, a priesthood or a chosen people, God declared the seventh day ‘holy’ (Gen 2:3; Lev chs 19 & 20). When He appeared to Moses in the burning bush, He told him to remove his sandals, “for you are standing on holy ground” (Ex 3:5). Returning to Mount Sinai, God later tells him Israel shall be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:6; cf. 1Pet 2:9).
From there, the idea of holiness was extended to almost everything connected with God’s service: the Sabbath and festivals, the temple and furnishings, the sacrifices and things used in the cult, the priests and their vestments. It was also applied to “the Holy Land”.[4] In their heavenly visions, Isaiah and John hear the seraphim stutter before the throne: “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts” (Isa 6:3; Rev 4:8) which we join in the Sanctus at Mass. This inspired the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty, written by the Anglican divine Reginald Heber, whose territory as Bishop of Calcutta in 1823 included India, Ceylon, Southern Africa and all Australia![5]
But what does it mean for something or someone to be holy, let alone very holy, super holy? At root, qadhosh means set apart: marked off from common use and claimed for God. The Sabbath is to be unlike other days, the Sanctuary a space like no other, Israel a chosen people. All these belong to God. But God Himself is super holy, holy-holy-holy, so set apart He lives in a different dimension to us, so to speak.
Yet that very detached God says, “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev 19:2).[6] He calls us to be like Him. To think as He thinks, desire what He desires. To be patient, forgiving, compassionate, perfect like Him.[7] It seems a tall order: even if we are made and remade as images of God, we are not gods but creatures, wounded by sin and frail in our humanity.[8] Can the likes of us really be holy? The saints answer: by God’s grace we can and today we celebrate an Aussie one.
On the West side of our cathedral is Louis Lauman’s statue of St Mary MacKillop with two children. The little boy has a writing slate that passers-by think is an iPad. Mary is commonly remembered for what she built: schools, orphanages, refuges, a big order of nuns. But behind all that organisation was a very straightforward commitment: to live out the Gospel and never to see a need without doing something Gospelish about it.
As a child, Mary knew what it was to have an empty cupboard, and that never troubled her afterwards: she simply trusted in God. Institutions were built and opened before there was money to pay for them. Sisters were sent to towns that could not promise to feed them. God would provide. In our Gospel today (Mt 6:25-34), as so often,[9] Jesus sounds like Bobby McFerrin singing ¯¯Don’t Worry, Be Happy¯¯.[10] He tells the guys to stop being anxious. “Look at the birds of the air: they don’t sow or reap or gather into barns. The heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more to Him than them? So set your heart first on His kingdom, and everything else will be yours!”
MacKillop took Christ’s words seriously enough to keep riding out into the bush, starting and supporting things, sending sisters forth, and leaving the rest to God. That was the secret to her sanctity and a reminder to us all: that holiness can be cultivated in the most ordinary circumstances.
For, not content with simply commanding holiness, God also supplies us with the wherewithal: His grace, His Church, His word, His sacraments.[11] That these gifts might be communicated to us and be active in our lives, He calls men forth from God’s holy people and consecrates them for this holy-making task. Having been made “living instruments of Christ the Eternal Priest”,[12] they must lead others to holiness.
The call to holiness goes out to the whole world, and today it addresses men from three continents, one from Poland, one from Vietnam, and one a Hills-billy of Sydney, all called to cross the world to serve us as priests.
Łukasz served at the altar as a boy and took himself to church after school. At university he fell in love with philosophy and with the Truth it serves; and the desire for priesthood grew quietly in him. Out of the blue a lecturer who had once served in Sydney asked him if he’d thought of serving somewhere like Sydney that really needed priests. What seemed at first a crazy idea grew into a curiosity through months of prayer, and then into a holy adventure. Two years later he crossed the world from Europe to Australia to join us.
Stephen’s journey took him in the opposite direction, from Sydney to Rome, Chicago, Kolkata and Rome again. His primary school teacher, Epeli Qimaqima was now a priest and the vocations director, and Stephen shared with him his overwhelming desire “to heal, encourage, sanctify, console, teach and free people.” Seminaries in Sydney and Rome tested that resolve, as did the grief of losing his beloved brother and other challenges. Now he will bring Christ’s direction to other people’s complex journeys and Christ’s healing to other people’s griefs.
Peter Tran talks about his “Tran-formation” via university in Saigon, a discernment group, and a calling born in the confessional. After beginning formation in Vietnam, he had the courage to pursue that calling in Sydney. Like his name-saint, he had to face his doubts and fears, learn to trust in God and be fiercely loyal to Christ. Now he will mediate that transformative love to others as Christ’s priest.
My sons, brothers, and soon fathers: in a few moments you will lie prostate before the altar as we chant our prayers for you in company with the saints, including Mary MacKillop. Like each of you, her life was a journey demanding courage, generosity, holiness. To that end, we will lay hands and pray for your sanctification, anoint you with holy oil and dress you in holy vestments. You are about to be set apart in the oldest sense of that word: taken out from among ordinary men, claimed by God and for His people.
From this day forward you will administer Holy Baptism to the new-born and Holy Requiem to the newly-dead. In between you will proclaim the Holy Scriptures to them and preach the Holy Faith. You will absolve in Holy Penance, unite in Holy Matrimony, anoint in Holy Unction. And you will lend your voice and hands to Christ as He makes bread and wine into the holiest thing in all creation, Himself, so you might minister Him to the faithful as Holy Communion.
In our epistle (Col 3:12-17) St Paul has some fashion advice for you as you engage in those new priestly tasks. Clothe yourself, he says, in the alb of compassion, kindness and humility, in the cincture of gentleness and patience, and in the stole of forbearance, forgiveness and peace. Over all this, wear the chasuble of charity, making of your life a sacrament of holy thanksgiving. Be holy because God is holy. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. If each of you makes of your life a hymn of praise and thanksgiving, then together yours will be the seraphic hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy.
Word after Holy Communion
I echo Father Howard’s words of thanks to all those who contributed to the vocational journeys of our three newest priests: their families, friends and fellow parishioners, their teachers, formators and inspirers. And to all those who contributed to our very beautiful and inspiring ceremony today. We commend our three new priests to the protection of Our Lady Help of Christians in whose cathedral they have been ordained to holiness, and to St Mary of the Cross MacKillop whose feast-day will be forever their anniversary day.
Today also happens to fall within National Vocations Awareness Week. The week coincides with the feasts of that great friar St Dominic, that great diocesan priest St Jean Vianney, and that great nun Mary MacKillop. During his recent apostolic journey to Spain, Pope Leo XIV spoke of young people’s search for meaning, belonging, self-giving, a search he said only ends well in discovering their true calling. “Life reaches its fullness only in being given away.” In company with our three newest priests, I call today on all young men and women to consider whether God is calling you to be a priest or religious. And I call on all Sydney to pray for many more vocations like these three, Holy, holy and holy!
[1] “The Song of Songs”: Songs 1:1. “Vanity of vanities”: Eccl 1:2; 12:8. “The Holy of Holies”: Ex 26:33-34; Lev 16:2,29-34; Heb 9:3.
[2] Gen 39:10; Dt 14:22; Lev 20:19.
[3] “Amen, amen”: Jn 1:51; 3:3,5,11; 5:19,24,25; 6:26,32,47,53; 8:34,51,58; 10:1,7; 12:24; 13:16,20,21,38; 14:12; 16:7,20,23; 21:18. “My God, my God”: Mk 15:34; Mt 27:46. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem”: Mt 23:37; Lk 13:34. “Lord, Lord”: Lk 6:46. “Martha, Martha”: Lk 10:41. “Crucify him, crucify him”: Lk 23:21; Jn 19:6. “Away with him, away with him”: Jn 19:15. “What I have written, I have written”: Jn 19:22. “Saul, Saul”: Acts 9:4; 22:7.
[4] The ‘holy’ Sabbath and festivals, temple and furnishings, sacrifices and cult, priests and vestments: Lev chs 1-16; Num chs 4, 28-29 etc. The Holy Land and its people: Lev chs 17-26. God as ‘the Holy One of Israel’: Lev 19:2; 1Sam 2:2; Isa 1:4.
[5] Michael Laird, ‘Heber, Reginald (1783-1826),’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP, 2004).
[6] Lev 21:8; Ex 19:6; Dt 16:20; Isa 5:16; Mt 5:48; 1Pet 1:13-16.
[7] Love as God loves: Mt 5:43; Jn 13:34; 15:12; 1Thess 3:11-12; 1Cor ch 13; Phil 1:9; Eph 3:17-19; 5:1-2; 1Jn 4:7-8. Think as God thinks: Rom 12:2; 1Cor 2:16; Phil 2:5; Col 3:10. Desire what God desires: Rom 12:3; 2Cor 5:17; Gal 2:20; Eph 4:24; Phil 2:5-6. Forgive as God forgives: Mt 6:12-15; 18:21-22; Mk 11:25; Eph 4:32; Col 3:13. Be patient as God is patient: Rom 5:3-4; Gal 5:22-23; Eph 5:1. Be compassionate as God is compassionate: Ps 103:13; Lk 15:11-32; Rom 12:15; 2Cor 1:2-4; Eph 4:32; Col 3:12-13; 1Jn 3:17. Be perfect like God: Mt 5:48; 2Cor 3:18; Phil 3:12.
[8] Made (and remade) in the image of God: Gen 1:26-27; 5:1; 9:6; Acts 17:28-29; Rom 8:29; 1Cor 15:49; 2Cor 3:18; Eph 4:24; Col 3:10; Jas 3:9. All are sinners: Rom 3:23; Heb 5:2; Jas 3:2; 1Jn 1:7-8 etc.
[9] Jesus repeated these words to ‘Be not afraid’ many times: Mt 14:27; 17:7; 28:5,10; Mk 6:50; Lk 5:10; 12:7,32; 19:11-27; Jn 6:20; 14:27; cf. Jn 12:15; 15:11; 16:24.
[10] Bobby McFerrin, Don’t Worry, Be Happy (1988).
[11] Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (1964), 11, 40.
[12] Vatican Council II, Presbyterorum Ordinis: Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests (1965), 12.
Introduction to the Mass of Ordination to the Priesthood of Rev. Lukasz Golab, Rev. Peter Van Khuong Tran and Rev. Stephen Howard and Solemnity of St Mary of The Cross
,St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 8 August 2028
Welcome to St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney for the priestly ordination of deacons Łukasz Golab, Peter Tran and Stephen Howard. We celebrate this joyous occasion on the Solemnity of Australia’s first saint, Mary of the Cross MacKillop.
I salute Bishops Richard Umbers, Tony Percy, and Terry Brady; Vicar General Fr Sam Lynch; Director of Vocations Fr Daniele Russo; Vicars for Clergy Frs Daniel McCaughan and Epeli Qimaqima; along with other vicars and deans. From the Seminary of the Good Shepherd, I acknowledge the Rector, Fr Michael de Stoop, with the new Vice Rector Fr Greg Bellamy and other formation staff. From the Redemptoris Mater Seminary, Rector Fr Eric Skruzny and his staff. And from the Catholic Institute of Sydney, Professor Hayden Ramsay and staff.
I also recognise priests of Sydney and beyond, who rejoice to welcome these new brothers into their ranks, including Fathers Lukasz, Leszek and Michal, who’ve come from Warsaw Poland to be with us today. And I particularly acknowledge our beloved seminarians, who today see the light at the end of their own formation tunnels.
A warm welcome to the families and friends of our ordinands, who’ve been instrumental in nurturing their faith and vocations. From the Golab family I greet Lukasz’s parents Dorota and Wlodek, and his sister Ania, who have travelled from Poland to be with us. Jesteście tu bardzo mile widziani, droga rodzino.
From the Howard clan, I acknowledge Stephen’s parents Anthony and Sally; siblings Peter, Natalie and Matthew, together with wife Georgie; nephews August and Magnus, niece Florence, and aunts Maryann, Kathleen and Trudie.
We greet Peter’s extended family from afar, as they were denied visas to come today. We trust that they can see things from where they are. Nguyện xin Chúa ban phước cho gia đình thân yêu trong ngày vô cùng quan trọng này. To our three ordinands especially, to those from the parishes in which they have served, and to everyone present here today or watching via livestream, a very warm welcome to you all!
