HOMILY FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC YOUTH FESTIVAL CLOSING MASS – 2nd Sunday Advent Year B, The Domain, Sydney
HOMILY FOR THE AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC YOUTH FESTIVAL CLOSING MASS
2nd Sunday Advent Year B, The Domain, Sydney
Episode 8 is coming. When I was your age, in my last year of school, “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”, the first Star Wars film was released. Forty years later the series is still being made, has been seen by a large part of humanity, and has so far yielded a cool $7.6 billion at the box office. It’s influenced our popular lexicon with phrases like ‘evil empire’, ‘I am your father’ and ‘The force be with you’ – to which Catholics instinctively respond ‘And with your spirit’. I’ve even had someone named R2D2 present for Confirmation! Though some put ‘Jedi’ as their religion on the census, the series is rather confused about spiritual things… Still, the struggle between light and darkness, the process by which some are corrupted and others become champions, and questions like what’s worth living and dying for, where does true wisdom lie, and redemption, and joy – these things tug at the soul and draw us in.1
The creator of the saga, George Lucas, says he’s particularly interested in what makes some people compassionate and other people selfish.2 Why does any of us choose ‘the dark side’ of selfishness and humiliation or the enlightened path of altruism and dignity, whether in particular deeds or our whole life? Are people of integrity and virtue doomed to be losers in this universe? Or is there cause for A New Hope, as the first movie was called? Are there new champions, as the latest one promises? For one thing is clear: we still look for heroes.
Enter a real-life hero, though as strange as any Star Wars character. Nickname’s JB, as in JB HiFi. He’s a bit of a wild one, frequents far-out places, eats paleo, locusts and wild honey. He wears camel skins, so smells like a camel. And eyes ablaze he calls all to repent and believe, for someone’s coming so cool you’d blush to unlace his runners. Altogether, JB’s not the kind of guy your parents would want you to bring home from the ACYF as your new boyfriend or new best mate! Yet here he is tonight, from the very first words of the very first Gospel ever written, telling “The beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ”. (Mk 1:1-8) Forget the myths and sci-fi, John the Baptist says, something really new and really good is coming. Roll out the carpet, make a straight path through your soul. Gather the whole people to witness it, here in the Sydney Domain, tonight.
JB’s a bit of a weird dude, but he’s a useful alarm-clock. Wake up, he rings. Wash up, repent and believe, for Jesus is coming. Those on the dark side with Herod and Darth Vader may choose the Bad News of humiliation and selfishness; but those with Jesus love the light and always choose the Good News of reverence and compassion. So pick your sides.
John picked his, stood up for marriage against Herod, and lost. Lost his head… Professing your ideals can be difficult in any age. It’s certainly not easy today. For all the good things Australia has going for it, our national politics is a shambles; our culture messed up about life and love, justice and mercy; and no-one could be proud of our record with the First Australians, with asylum seekers, or with modern forms of slavery. The state of Victoria has just legalised euthanasia of very sick people – the first state-sanctioned killing there since capital punishment was abolished in 1975 – and the pressure will be on all over the country. Then there’s the failures of institutions highlighted by the Royal Commission. The Church may have responded much better over the last twenty years, but the fact is that terrible harm was done to young people, and this has damaged our credibility and people’s trust. Things are sliding in our culture and going forward Christians may not be as influential or even welcome as they used to be. Christians won’t be carried by the culture anymore, they’ll have to decide for themselves. If ever we needed new John the Baptists to call people to repent and believe, to offer some really Good News amidst all the bad, and to point people to Christ, it’s right now. Never in history have you been more necessary, my young friends. Never have young people had more opportunities to be heroes.
But am I asking too much, in asking ordinary young people to be spiritual heroes? Or even extraordinary young people, like yourselves? Well, these days past we’ve met some great young people from our history, such as Mary, the woman who said YES to God with her whole heart, her whole life. There were many challenges for her, and not just at the beginning. Accompanying Christ to the cross tore at her immaculate heart. Seeing her Boy dying broke that immaculate heart. But being held by Him after the Resurrection must have been the greatest joy a human heart, even an immaculate one, could contain. Indeed, she couldn’t contain it. The next time we see her in the New Testament she’s praying in the cenacle for the Church as her new children awaited being overshadowed by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as she had been at the Annunciation. The new horizons that had been opened up to her, the joy she had encountered in the Risen Lord, had to be shared, from generation to generation. Shared with your generation. And by your generation!
“In a dark place, we find ourselves, [but] a little more knowledge lights our way,” Yoda said to his young friend Obi-Wan Kenobi, and so I say to you. Don’t listen to the voices of meaninglessness and despair, the fears within that hold you back, the challenges without that intimidate you. Don’t swallow the line that millennials are all self-obsessed and idle. Be proud to be millennials because that means you are children from the cusp of the third millennium of grace, and may yet usher in a new era of ideals, virtue and hope. And know that the Church is here for you, as I hope our festival has demonstrated. But more importantly, Christ is here for you, as many of you have experienced during these days, and He is greater than any challenge in your life. Say yes to Him, as Mary did; point always to Him, like JB did; and you will have all the identity, mission and support you need!
As our festival winds to its close, we recognise that this is not the end. To quote British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, following the defeat of Rommel at El Alamein, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”3 These three days have opened our eyes and minds and hearts to new horizons. We’ve encountered the deep joy found in Jesus Christ. And we’ve begun to discern how we can best share that joy with others. But just as the battle between the light and the dark, between dignity and humiliation, between compassion and selfishness, goes on in the universe, so it does in our own hearts. At the end of this beginning, resolve to build on what you’ve experienced. You’ve grown in confidence that you are not alone, that thousands like you share your faith and doubts, your fears and dreams, and that your faith is reasonable, and beautiful, and life-giving. Now resolve to study it more deeply, to pray it more fervently, to transmit it to others more excitedly, and to live it faithfully.
“Go up a high mountain, joyful messenger to Zion. Shout with a loud voice, joyful messenger to Jerusalem,” the Prophet says tonight. “Shout without fear, and say to the towns of Judah: See, here is your God, He is coming with power!” (Isa 40:1-11) Be the Mazzas and JB’s for our time. To join them is to make history with the Lord of History. It is to make a difference. It is to be a spiritual hero, a saint. Can you do that? Will you do that? By God’s grace, I am confident you will!