HOMILY FOR MASS FOR CONSECRATED LIFE – St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney

HOMILY FOR MASS FOR CONSECRATED LIFE
St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney

Consider the names in the Roman Canon – a fraction of the saints only, but a kind of roll-call of stand-out figures in the early Church: apostles, popes, virgins, men and women saints, mostly martyrs, some gruesomely so. Many religious were subsequently named after them. ‘Sister Mary Chrysogonus’ was the sort of name we loved to give kindergarten teachers! I suspect that when they heard the names in the Roman canon read at Mass religious often thought of Sr. Cecilia or Br. Clement of their own congregation. Even more so, the children they taught were convinced that sister or brother was already celebrated in the Eucharistic Prayer! When I hear the roll-call I sometimes make these very associations myself: Blessed Mary calls to my mind Sr. Mary Carmel Fisher RSM, the matriarch of my family and my ‘Aunty Mary’; St. Paul evokes for me Sr Paul Michael RSJ, my first teacher, and my other primary school teachers such as Mercy sisters Eucharia and Paschal, and Patrician brother Columba. Ignatius in the canon might be of Antioch rather than Loyola, but he gets me thinking of Frs. Charles McDonald SJ, Tom O’Donovan SJ and other Jesuits who so influenced me as a young man. Other names evoke for me memories of Dominicans with whom I grew up in the Order.

Genealogy is popular today. There are lots of websites and search companies willing to help you; one searches not only the records but your DNA for you. People draw up family trees, join historical societies, organize big family reunions. Europeans look for the blood of aristocrats or great historic figures flowing in their veins, whereas Aussies hope to find a convict or bushranger in the family line! This interest is no less pronounced in religious circles. The New Testament offers not just one but two family trees for Jesus up to his birth and the Roman Canon is the family tree after his birth. And religious-sponsored schools have images of their congregational founder and favourites everywhere!

But why are genealogies so popular? Why do we Christians think them important enough to recite at Mass? Or to name our children after? (I, for one, much prefer them to names like r2d2, Oprah or Wonderwoman at Confirmation.) The reason for recalling and reusing the names of our ancestors – spiritual or not – is that they remind us of where we come from and we see in them something worth keeping alive, something worthy of imitation. Our history didn’t finish with them, but lives on in us and will be handed on in turn to future generations, hopefully enriched with our names…

Of course, remembering where we came from presents a big challenge in terms of what we have to live up to; the amnesia of our age can be convenient. The genealogies and hagiographies recall some of the stars but they in turn highlight the many faithful of every generation up to ours who call us to more and better. It is fitting, then, that I should sometimes think of the religious who’ve influenced me, because in remembering my spiritual genealogy I recall my own obligation to that genealogy.

Consecrated life is a particular recognition of that obligation. It’s a decision to live lives characterised by the joy that comes from an ever-evolving relationship with the Lord Jesus, which propels us forward with a restless love, sharing that joy with those who most need it, the suffering and marginalised of our world. Though they have no biological descendants, religious offer all Christians a genealogy onto which they can be grafted, a family to which they can belong, whatever blood runs in their veins and however their children, if any, turn out. For theirs is a spiritual family tree stretching back through generations of faithful ones to their founder and from her or him to the Founder, Jesus Christ, and before him to the patriarchs and matriarchs, prophets and prophetesses of old and new united in Christ.

In an era of high ideals for human liberty and low expectations of human responsibility, of high hopes for human intimacy and low esteem for human sexuality, of huge possibilities for human progress through wealth creation and sharing, and equally shocking examples of human selfishness and waste, I am convinced we need the witness of that religious genealogy more than ever. But our confidence and self-esteem as religious has taken a battering lately. Religious, priests and bishops have been very much in the gun and the final report of the Royal Commission later this month will be another kick in the guts. The shameful crimes of some priests and religious have damaged people’s trust in us all; the terrible response of some leaders, compromised the credibility of all. Inaccurate, unjust, even malicious as some of the commentary is, we know we’ve brought much of this on ourselves as a Church. There’s been corporate failure here, as well as individual, and a Church that talks ‘genealogy’, ‘family’ and ‘communion’ knows full well how each is implicated in the successes and failures of all, and all of each.

What do we do? We hang our heads in shame before God and the world. We repent and do penance. We seek forgiveness from the victims, and justice and healing for them. We seek to make sure this never happens again. But as external voices whisper in our ears and internal clouds gather round our hearts, we must never give up on religious life! For to do that would be to say the tree onto which we were grafted by baptism and profession was a rotten one. It would be to repudiate all the consecrated leaves that went before us, and their many fruits. It would amount to repudiating our present brothers and sisters in our own institute, in the other institutes represented here, in the Church and society we still serve. And it would say to the buds on the tree, the future vocations to our own institute or some other, and to those awaiting their fruit: ‘closed for business’.

Rather than give up on consecrated life, we return again and again to our genealogy, to be reinspired the stories of our foremothers and fathers, to be reconnected to the well of their fruitfulness which was Christ’s love, and to hear again who it is that we are called to be. Every time we hear the Roman canon we hear a challenge to be the Blessed Virgin and the apostles, the popes, martyrs, men and women saints added to the endless genealogy of Christ. You, the consecrated men and women of Sydney, are my great helpers in writing the genealogy of this Archdiocese, through your endless sacrifice of prayer, in your equally faithful witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in your outreach to the poor and ignorant, sick and marginalised. I hope and pray your contribution to that roll-call will inspire many new religious for the future. From the bottom of my heart I thank you for your fidelity. God bless you always!

INTRODUCTION TO MASS FOR CONSECRATED LIFE
St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney

Welcome dear fellow religious as we offer Mass in thanksgiving for the past and continuing service of consecrated men and women, and pray for their continuing fruitfulness and for new vocations.

I acknowledge the presence of Sr Maria Casey RSJ, who for xxx years served us all as the Vicar for Religious, representing the Archbishop to the religious and vice versa, liaising with religious leaders, assisting new and declining orders, keeping a census of us, promoting consecrated life in various ways, and of course organising this annual Mass and lunch.On behlf of you all, and especially of the previous and present archbishops I thank her most sincerely. We also welcome Sr Elizabeth Delaney SGS to that role. RSVPs close on Monday, Leaders of Congregations and Religious Orders, leaders and representatives of Archdiocesan agencies, parishioners and friends from the Archdiocese of Sydney and beyond!

Thank you for all the congregational charisms and personal gifts you bring to the Archdiocese of Sydney. You are causes of Advent hope for our city and land.