HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION, MASS OF THANKSKGIVING FOR THE CENTENARY OF THE DIOCESE OF WILCANNIA-FORBES – Sacred Heart Cathedral, Broken Hill

HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
Sacred Heart Cathedral, Broken Hill, 6 August 2017

Jesus’ life was often hard and He mostly eschewed the limelight, preferring to preach and heal through small gestures that encouraged and persuaded rather than big ones that wowed and overwhelmed. Yet this morning He “lets rip” as it were. He goes up a mountain like Moses did, indicating that He is the new Moses; but whereas the first Moses covered his eyes rather than look directly upon the face of God, Jesus today uncovers His glory so as to invite us to look upon the face of God! In His Transfiguration _{(Mt 17:1-9)} Jesus lets us glimpse, for a few moments, His glorious divinity and His graced humanity shining out brilliantly; His place in salvation history as the culmination of the Law and the Prophets (represented by Moses and Elijah); and His person as the beloved of the Father, indeed the very Son of God, and no less so for being also the beloved of Mary, indeed the very Son of Man. It is, you might say, Jesus’ true hour of glory, the highpoint of His public ministry.

The Church’s life, too, is also often hard and modest, and we prefer to teach, sanctify and serve through small gestures rather than triumphal display. Yet today the nascent Church of Peter, James and John, and all of us hearing the Word of God, witness this epiphany of Christ in Glory, hear the Father’s profession of love for Him, and make our own profession of faith by offering to erect a tabernacle in His honour. Peter is, on our behalf, on something of a spiritual high, overjoyed at what he sees and wishing it might last forever.

And yet, as we know from our own experience, no spiritual or emotional life is unadulterated highs: it is surely good to celebrate our diocesan centenary for a day, a weekend, a whole year, but eventually we must “come down to earth” where things might not all be quite so glorious; if there are lows even for the Son of God, then no-one is immune. Even amidst the glory of the Transfiguration there are hints of this: Moses and Elijah stand either side of Jesus, like the two thieves at the Crucifixion; the disciples, at first saying it’s wonderful, are soon falling on their faces out of fear. And as they leave the scene Jesus speaks ominously of the death that must come even for Him before the glory of the Resurrection.

Just as there are lows even here for Jesus, so there will be for the Church. We think of our shame and humiliation through the child sexual abuse crisis and the scrutiny of the Royal Commission; or of the challenges of secularisation and of transmitting the faith to the next generation; or of the griefs and anxieties of those ordinary and extraordinary people who make up the Wilcannia-Forbes Diocese. Peter, James and John on behalf of the Church have a premonition today of that next time Jesus will ask them to come aside to pray with Him: the night of His Last Supper, His Agony in Garden, His arrest and torment, and the apostles’ fright, and flight, and betrayal.

So much of life is like that: feasting and fasting, highs and lows, moments of glimpsing glory and others of near despair. The good times are ephemeral: Peter desperately wants to draw out the experience, build some monument to keep it alive, but moments of graced joy are so often fleeting. Jesus gives His beloved people good times, to be sure, as the Father gave His Beloved Son; but the Transfiguration prepares Him and them for the Crucifixion, the light for the darkness, or at least for a more subdued light… So, we might reflect this morning on how we respond to the highs and lows of life, whether they come in succession or together, and which bring with them particular challenges.

When we are on a high, we should enjoy it while it lasts, at least if it’s a genuine cause for joy and not just the sort of illusory elation generated by drugs, technology, vice… It is important to enjoy authentic joys while they last, to savour them, give thanks for them, share them if we can. But, also, to remember that there those who are not so high, and to remember that we too may one day be low. When we are elated, there is a challenge to bear in mind those who are depressed, lonely, spiritually arid; those who cannot see the glory of God on the face of man; those who know no human ecstasy or divine intimacy. We are challenged, also, to remember that try as we may to draw them out, earthly joys cannot last forever. One day we will join Peter and the lads gibbering incoherently, struck dumb and fearful, coming back down to earth. In remembering these things, we are charged with reaching out to others who one way or another don’t have things so good. For those on a high the challenge is compassion.

The second (and I suspect for most of us even greater) challenge comes when we are low: to face up to those lows and respond appropriately, but also to remember that things will not always be so. Some are in a better space now, and we too will be one day. Rather than envying those better off than us, hating their contentment and wishing their downfall, we must learn to tolerate their elation and even share in it. At the same time, we remember that by God’s grace and our own cooperation things can be better for us, too; if only we will listen to Jesus, as the Father calls us to do this morning, we will one day join Pete and his mates delighting in the God revealed in Jesus Christ. If the challenge for those on a high is to have compassion for those who are not, the challenge to those down low is the challenge to hope for better.

The Transfiguration is a premonition of the Risen Lord, no longer limited by time and space, no longer subject to need or injury or pain, but totally fulfilled, the face of joy. But He reveals this not just to show off or to torment us with “ner-ner-ner, you’ll never have it so good”, but rather as a prophecy of what we will be. His history is our trajectory. His promise is our glorification, that one day we may delight in our own bodies, hearts, whole natures, being transfigured in the Resurrection. Jesus foreshadows that day of our hopes and dreams, every human person, everyone who has suffered, everyone we have loved and lost, every atom of creation however used or abused, every beautiful newborn body or decaying centennial one… all will be revealed to be suffused with the light and energy of God’s presence!

INTRODUCTION FOR MASS OF THANKSKGIVING FOR
THE CENTENARY OF THE DIOCESE OF WILCANNIA-FORBES
Sacred Heart Cathedral, Broken Hill, 5 August 2017

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, It is my great privilege as Archbishop of the Sydney and thus Metropolitan of this Province of the Church to join you tonight in this Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. I was lucky enough to be here as a young bishop for your previous big commemoration. for the centenary of the Cathedral itself in 2005; in 1905, when it was built, it was the cathedral of the Diocese of Wilcannia. But with the aggregation of the Forbes end of the Bathurst Diocese to Wilcannia you became Wilcannia-Forbes one century ago, and that gives us another excuse to party! This change also meant the territory of your diocese was enlarged to include more than half of the state of New South Wales, 414,398 km2 to be precise, which makes you bigger than the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Belgium and Holland combined! These days the Diocese boasts 20 parishes with 32,000 faithful, 19 schools with nearly 3,000 students, and many other services and ministries.

So it’s great to be back with you for tonight’s centennial celebration in which we give thanks to God for the pioneers of the Wilcannia-Forbes diocese, those bishops, clergy, religious and lay faithful who contributed to the building up of this community and who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith; as well as those of the present day who continue to sustain it.

I acknowledge the Bishop of Wilcannia-Forbes, my good friend Most Rev. Columba Macbeth-Green OSPPE who has promised me he has left his bagpipes in Forbes; the Vicar-General Fr Paul Clark; the Episcopal Vicar for Education Fr Donald Gunn; the Dean of the Cathedral and Parochial Vicar, my Dominican brother Fr Nick Falzun OP; the parish priest of Bourke, Fr Magnus Kobbi Drikota; Sisters of Mercy Sr Anne Mitchell RSM, Sr Maureen Heally RSM and Sr Margaret Hart RSM; Alex Abbey representing the Marist Brothers; representatives of the Chancery Office, the Catholic Education Office, Centacare, the parishes, schools and other ministries; and other clergy, religious and lay faithful of the Diocese of Wilcannia-Forbes. I must say that I think you are all looking pretty good for centenarians!

On behalf of our centenarians, I welcome Most Rev. Richard Umbers, Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney; the Mayor of Broken Hill, Councillor Dariea Turley; members of the Ministers Fraternal; and any other distinguished guests and visitors.