St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 16 August 2026
A few nights ago, the nation was glued to devices or papers as we all filled out the Census forms. In the ancient world a census required people to go hither and thither to register, like Joseph and Mary at the first Christmas, and it usually resulted in young men being conscripted into armies, officials having more control, and everyone paying higher taxes.[1] So ancient Israel usually resisted the census.
Australians are more compliant. One of the questions asked last Tuesday was about our ancestry. We were told to nominate up to four ethnic contributions. For some of us that was too few. My own background is a case in point… My late mother was born and grew up in Shanghai China, my mother’s mother was born and grew up in Alexandria Egypt, and my mother’s mother’s mother was from Bucharest Romania. They all arrived in Sydney in the 1950s, after years in China and the Philippines, along with my maternal grandfather, who was a Spanish Basque. My father would be of more pedestrian British-Irish stock, already several generations in Australia. Mum had the important task of civilising him—or at least cosmopolitanising him—including teaching him there was more to food than burnt steak and Vegemite toast. So, my family tree has people from Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia and probably causes the ABS computer to blow a gasket. But as I see before me in this cathedral people of “every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (cf. Rev 5:9; 7:9; 14:6), I’m probably at least distantly related to most of you!
In receiving people from everywhere, Australia has generally been a model of hospitality and harmony. The Catholic Church has played an important role in this. Yet for some time now, anxiety has been expressed around questions of our Indigenous, British and other migrant inheritances, mono- or multi-culturalism, and national identity; whether to think of ourselves as a Commonwealth, Asian or Pacific country, or all three; how many newcomers our economy, ecology and community can reasonably sustain; what it means for university enrolments, housing prices and shared values; and how to ensure people are welcomed and integrated into our common life. These are important questions, worthy of serious self-examination and debate. But they also have potential for inflaming anxieties and dividing neighbours. Which is why the Australian Catholic Bishops’ released a social justice statement this week on Living the Gospel in Times of Social Division.[2]
Today’s Gospel confronts the tensions occasioned by the intersection of peoples (Mt 15:21-28; cf. Mk 7:24-30). Though most of His ministry was in Jewish territory, we see Jesus cross the 50 km or so from the West side of the Sea of Gailee to the region of Tyre and Sidon, major port-cities in what is Lebanon today. There He encounters a rather pushy Canaanite or Syrophoenician woman. Matthew says she jumped out in front of Jesus, ranting and raving about demons in her daughter. Her desperation was understandable, her manners excusable. But Canaanites and Israelites had been enemies since the time of Noah.[3] They did not seek or expect help from each other.
To begin with, Jesus just ignores her. He’s single-mindedly focussed on seeking out the Jews in this diaspora. But this pagan mother won’t take No for an answer. The disciples, who usually push such people away,[4] beg Jesus to give her what she wants to shut her up. She then wraps herself around His feet so He can’t escape. Forced to engage with her, Jesus patiently explains, “My mission is to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” “I don’t care about that,” she responds, “just give me what I need.” Christ’s riposte seems rather sharp: if I’ve been sent to help the children of Israel, it would be wrong for me to give the children’s food to others—let alone to those we Jews regard as house-dogs.
What are we to make of this? Was Jesus a mono-culturalist, hostile to other races and religions? Well, that doesn’t fit with His touring through various pagan lands, as He does today; or with His offering a Samaritan woman the key to eternal life and praising a Samaritan man in His great parable; or with His granting miracles to Gadarene demoniacs, a Samaritan leper and a Roman centurion; or with Him sending His disciples “to all the nations.” To discredit Him, Jesus’ opponents called Him unkosher, a sympathiser with outsiders, even ‘a Samaritan’.[5]
So, what’s going on here? Jesus, with His uncanny ability to read souls and His flair for the dramatic, is actually setting things up—so He can grant a miracle and praise the very one He seems to be rebuffing. The parallels are clear with the Good Samaritan, the Roman centurion and the grateful leper; in each case Jesus declares He has found more faith or charity in this foreigner than amongst many of His own people. So, too, today Jesus arranges things so His apparent rebuke can turn to praise: “Woman you have great faith” (Mt 15:28)—faith He has in fact drawn out of her, like once He did with a Samaritan woman at a well (Jn ch. 4). And here, as elsewhere, He is at least implicitly chiding His own people for demonstrating so little faith by comparison.[6]
All this reminds us that, though God chose a particular people to bear His law and prophecies and Son, the graces were intended for all the nations. When He made His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He said “by you all families of the earth shall be blessed.”[7] The Prophets foretold and the Psalmist sang of a time when all the nations would stream together to the mountain of the Lord and worship Him.[8]
In our first reading, Isaiah spotlights Gentiles who attach themselves to God, love His name, and serve in that Temple Jesus would call “a house of prayer for all the nations,” the Church (Isa 56:1,6-7; Mk 11:17). So, too Paul, “apostle to the gentiles”, insists in our epistle today that God has never revoked His choice of Israel, but rather extended its saving grace to all nations in Christ (Rom 11:13-15,29-32). So, Christ was hailed as the promised Son of Abraham and David for the consolation and glory for Israel. But His coming is also celebrated as the dawn of peace for all people of good will, not just the Jews; light for the gentiles, grace for all who need it.[9]
In a few moments, I will confirm seventeen young people with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Each of you brings to this moment the things that make you who you are: your family, ancestry, school, friends, temperaments, interests and talents. Many countries are represented in your family trees and we delight in the heritage that is yours. But even more important is your common identity in Christ. Through Baptism you were joined to Him and His Body the Church. Through Holy Communion you join the communion of saints at His table. Now, through Confirmation, the Holy Spirit will unite you to 1.4 billion other Catholics presently around the world, 600,000 in the Archdiocese of Sydney alone, in a Church that extends beyond races, borders, cultures and generations.
The Holy Spirit’s gifts of wisdom, understanding and counsel, of fortitude and knowledge, of piety and godly fear (Isa 11:2-3) make it possible for diverse people to be united as one body in Christ,[10] without being homogenised. May that Holy Spirit keep us all faithful to Christ and to one another, so our Church may be truly a house of prayer for all the nations!
[1] Ex 30:12-14; 38:26; 2Sam 24:1; 1Chr 21:1; 2Chr 2:17; Lk 2:1-5; Acts 5:37.
[2] Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Living the Gospel in Times of Social Division (7 August 2026).
[3] Gen 9:22-27; cf. Ex 15:15; Dt 7:1-6; 12:2-7; Judg 2:11-13 etc.
[4] e.g. Mt 19:13; Lk 9:12; Jn 4:27.
[5] Jesus touring through various pagan lands: Mt 15;21; Mk 7:31; 12:15-21; Lk 9:52. Jesus offering a Samaritan woman the key to eternal life: Jn ch. 4. Jesus praising a Samaritan man: Lk 10:25-37. Jesus granting miracles to Gadarene demoniacs, a Samaritan leper and a Roman centurion: Mt 8:5-13,28-34; Mk 5:1-20; Lk 7:1-10; 8:26-39; 17:11-19. Jesus sending His disciples “to all the nations”: Mt 28:19; cf. Mk 5:20. Jesus called “a light to the gentiles”: Lk 2:32. Jesus called unkosher: Mt 12:10; Lk 13:14; 14:1; Jn 5:10,16. Jesus called a sympathiser with outsiders: e.g. Mt 9:10-13; Lk 7:34. Jesus called ‘a Samaritan’: Jn 8:48.
[6] Mt 6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8; 17:17-20 etc.
[7] Gen 12:2-3; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14.
[8] Ps 67:1-2; 72:17; 86:9; Isa 2:2; 19:25; 56:6-7; 61:11; 66:20; cf. Mt 25:32.
[9] The coming of Christ as the coming of the promised Son of Abraham and David and the consolation and glory of Israel: Mt 1:1,20; 2:6; Lk 1:32-33,54-55,68-75; 2:11,25,32,38. The coming of Christ as peace for all of good will, light for the gentiles, grace for all who need it: Mt 2:1,11; Lk 2:14,31-32; Jn 1:4-5,9,12,16-17.
[10] Rom 12:4-5; 1Cor 10:17; 12:12-13,20; 13:13; Eph 4:4.
Introduction to Mass for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 16 August 2026
Welcome to St Mary’s Cathedral Sydney for the Solemn Mass for the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time. During this morning’s Mass it will be my great joy to confirm 17 of our young people, most of them members of our choir or students of St Mary’s Cathedral College. I welcome their pastors, Dean Don Richardson, Fathers Roberto and Ben chaplains at Cathedral College, and Fr Lewi Barakat from St Patrick’s Church Hill. I salute all those who have assisted them so far on their journey of faith: their families, friends, teachers and pastors who are with us today. And, of course, to our candidates who today complete their initiation into God’s family, the Church, a very warm welcome.
For the rest of us, visitors and regulars, witnessing this sacrament, it is an opportunity to reflect upon our own journey of faith and our need for the spiritual gifts if we are to be the Church our world so sorely needs.
