Installation of Fr Paul Smithers, St. Joseph’s, Rosebery

HOMILY FOR MASS OF 15TH SUNDARY ORDINARY TIME B +
INSTALLATION FR PAUL SMITHERS AS PARISH PRIEST
St. Joseph’s, Rosebery, 15 July 2018

Where do hymns come from? Well, the ancient Egyptians, Jews, Hindus and Greeks all had their religious songs. Christians were from the start great ones for singing, whether in private devotions or corporate worship (e.g. Mt 26:30; Mk 14:26; Acts 16:25; 1Cor 14:26; Eph 5:19; Col 3:16; Jam 5:13). Early hymns are recorded in the Scriptures, such as the Benedictus, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis in Luke’s Gospel and several in the epistles of St Paul (Lk 1:46-55, 68-79; 2:29-32; 1Cor 13:1-13; Eph 1:3-14; Phil 2:6-11; Col 1:12-20; cf. Lk 2:14; Rev 5:8-10; 14:1-5). Today’s Second Reading is one of these. St Paul sings to the Ephesians a hymn of praise to God the Father and to Christ, in a celebration of the history of salvation, ‘the mystery of God’s purpose’.

So we get the refrain: ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing!’ Then we sing the verses. The first verse is about God’s plan from all eternity: to make us His adopted children, holy and spotless, living lovingly in His presence, constantly singing His praises not just in hymnody but by our lives.

But do we? Well, sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. God is love and creates out of love, that that which He creates might be united to Him and His creation. During our installation ceremony today we will visit the font where that journey to God begins for each of us… Yet so often in this world our experience is of disunity, disharmony, disintegration: within people, between people, between humanity and God. Call it selfishness, brokenness, or original sin, but we all know the reality of it in our own lives. Look at the shenanigans on all sides of national and international politics at the moment. Or the bankers. Or the institutions that were supposed to care for children including the churches. Or the story this week of a Sydney father shooting his 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter…

Which brings us to Verse 2 of the Ephesians Hymn. How are we to be restored or reinstated to that idyll for which God intended us? ‘He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved [his Son] redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace… [and] wisdom and insight, according to the mystery of his will’. So mad is God with love for us that even when we wandered far from Him He gave His all, His very Son, to win us back. So our ceremony today will point us to the places of the Church’s absolving and anointing, for we know the need for healing both physical and spiritual. And healing there can be: if most of the news each day is news of disharmony and disintegration, there is Good News also. Think of this week’s story of the rescue in Thailand: the relief all felt no matter how far away and the joy that the world could work together for such rescue. And for Christians, the story of twelve saved through the waters at the cost of one diver’s life inevitably sounds echoes of Easter…

But where will it all end, this endless see-sawing between giving and taking, using and abusing, forgiving and restoring? Verse 3 of our canticle celebrates that when things have run their course, the whole universe will finally be united under Christ. Our ceremony today also takes us to the site of our burial at the hands of the Church. If we are made from love and for love, ultimately love will prevail and we will be restored to friendship with ourselves, each other and God; for it was for this that we were baptized, made children of God.

But what to do in the meantime? Verse 4 of the Ephesians Hymn carols our daily Christian life: we live, it says, as God’s chosen people, hearing ‘the message of truth and the good news of salvation’, the Gospel, and believing it, and being sealed in the sacraments with the Holy Spirit. And so in our rite we will accompany Fr Paul to the lectern where he will proclaim that good news of salvation, and to the altar where he will offer us with God’s Son to the Father, and where man and wife will offer themselves to each other.

There is so much packed into that beautiful hymn! God’s creation, our falls from grace, God’s re-creation and our ultimate glory: all are ordinary life here in the Sydney South parishes of Roseberry, Waterloo and Redfern. Yours is a uniquely fast changing and growing part of our country. A whole extra city is being planted in Green Square-Zetland-Rosebery-Waterloo-Redfern, a whole new cohort with their particular gifts, and in need of outreach, formation, community and sanctification. It will take all your spiritual resources and human creativity to meet the newcomers with open hearts and arms, while continuing to care for those already among us. Much is asked of Fr Paul with Fr Gerard – and of all of you, who are not just their parishioners but their collaborators in ministry.

Fr Paul inherits three communities with diverse histories but a common passion for those very things sung in our hymn today. We think of the liturgical ministries, educational and catechetical works, outreach to First Australians, to children, to youth, to the sick and to the poor, prayer and meditation groups, Bible study and more. The diversity of the three originating communities means each brings gifts to the others to share.

But if there are many causes for celebration, there is no cause for complacency. Only about 1 in 10 Catholics in this region attends Mass regularly. We thank God you do; we recognize this is a better strike rate than in many places; but we ache for the thousands who are missing. And what will become of the thousands soon to be make their home in the high rises being built or planned? New models and styles of ministry will be necessary, if driven by the same passion for the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and his spiritual blessings to all his children.

In the face of rapid change we naturally feel anxious. I am here today to tell you that you should not. When Christ instructed his companions in our Gospel passage (Mk 6:7-13) to let go of the familiar and comfortable and embrace the adventure of the Gospel, they had no idea where it might take them. And so we hear they reached out to unfamiliar people, unfamiliar territory, an unfamiliar future. They were not welcomed everywhere. Yet as we’ll see next week, they returned exhausted but exultant, having found their true identity in and through the experience of mission. So the coming together of these three parishes is an opportunity to strengthen and grow the Catholic community of this region, and make it a multi-generational, multi-cultural community, welcoming to all. In Evangelii gaudium [28] Pope Francis said that:

The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community… If it proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be ‘the Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters’… a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink… a centre of constant missionary outreach.

It is my hope that the coming together of these three parishes and re-imagining of the mission will bear great fruits, including new adventures in Catholic worship and prayer, evangelization and formation, in early childhood, primary and secondary school education, in outreach to the First Australians, in health, aged care and social welfare, in youth ministry and more. I have great confidence in the abilities and generosity of the people of these three historic parishes to help lead us forward in this new reality and to be a pilot for similar adventures in other parts of Sydney in the years ahead.

With Fr Gerard’s help, Fr Paul will now be responsible on my behalf for the worship, evangelisation and service in this parish. In his priestly service, he must sanctify you by prayer and sacrament. In his shepherding, he must lead and serve as Christ did. In his prophetic ministry, he must proclaim the Gospel and Church teaching in season and out. But he cannot do this all by himself. Together, priests and people achieve far more than any one of us could do alone. To strengthen Fr Paul for his new task, we now have the formal Rites of Installation of a Parish Priest. They are a useful reminder to us all, not just of his mission but of yours as brothers and sisters of the Lord. I ask you, of your mercy, to keep supporting Fr Paul, as he prays for and serves you. ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing!’

INTRODUCTION TO MASS FOR 15TH SUNDARY ORDINARY TIME B +
INSTALLATION FR PAUL SMITHERS AS PARISH PRIEST
St. Joseph’s Church, Rosebery, 15 July 2018

Welcome to this morning’s Mass, when I will formally install Fr Paul Smithers as Parish Priest of the parishes of St Joseph’s Rosebery, Our Lady of Mt Carmel Waterloo and St Vincent’s now sharing a common pastoral team as the Parishes of City South.

I acknowledge Kelly Bouris, Principal of OLMC Waterloo. I also welcome members of Fr Paul’s family: his father David, brothers Robert and Luke; sisters Louise and Sarah; and their families; as well as aunty Mary, cousin Rita, and all other relatives and friends. Above all, I welcome his new families, the parishioners of the City South region. In witnessing the Rites of Installation of a Parish Priest we all have a chance to reflect on the stages of our faith journey and the place of Christ and His Church in these. So as we begin this Mass, giving thanks for our Catholic faith and Church, let us repent of our sins…