Homily for Mass of the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) + Parish Visitation
Sacred Heart Parish, Cabramatta, and Vietnamese Chaplaincy, 28 July 2024
In 1955, Life magazine published an article on a new trend sweeping through households known as ‘throwaway living’.[1] There was an image of a family tossing household items like crockery and cutlery into the air, delighting in the freedom that was said to come from disposability. By getting rid of things after one use, rather than cleaning and reusing them, more time could be spent on other endeavours, and we could be proud of our affluence and progress. In the days before consciousness of waste and environmental damage, the magazine said disposable is best!
The temptation to get rid of what’s deemed no longer useful isn’t confined to material items alone. Sadly, human beings can be treated this way also. Tens of thousands of unborn babies are aborted each year in Australia. Modern ‘slaves’ are trafficked into this country and exploited. Other people are devalued for being disabled, migrants or Aboriginal. Some are used for emotional, recreational or financial purposes and then dropped. On this World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, we are appalled that since last November hundreds have died by euthanasia and assisted suicide in this state, and it may well become the routine way for the elderly to end their lives in future.
In his landmark encyclical, Laudato Si’, and many other places, Pope Francis describes all this as ‘the throwaway culture’.[2] Our consumer culture values people and things only for their useful-ness. It means: when I no longer need you, or feel you add value, I will discard you. The Holy Father has set himself against this mindset. But it can take root wherever people lose sight of the inherent dignity of every human being. Many today are confused about such matters: a pragmatic mindset rules the worlds of science and technology, finance and industry, lawmaking and policy, even relationships and recreation. Output, utility, what each can get out of the other, is all that matters.
Our Catholic faith should challenge such thinking. By drawing attention to higher things like God, the universe and the person, like dignity and purpose, calling and destiny, grace and nature, commandments and beatitudes. As the popes before him, Pope Francis highlights how forgetting God and devaluing people go hand in hand, leading to what St John Paul called “a veritable culture of death”.[3]
Our Gospel today (Jn 6:1-15) seems less concerned with the big questions about the meaning of life and more about filling our bellies. After all, eating needs no further explanation: without food we die. Yet as important as nutrition might be, there’s more to us than our bodily needs. The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes is recounted six times in the gospels. In each Jesus is concerned about a hungry crowd who’ve followed Him for His signs and teachings. He directs His men to provide for them. Impossible, they say, where could we get that much bread? There were no Vietnamese bakeries back then! Yet Jesus was about to provide an abundance greater than they could imagine. He would multiply their bread and foreshadow the even greater miracle of the Last Supper.[4] And the two occasions are linked: when Jesus “gave thanks” over the gifts in today’s Gospel, John’s word is εὐχαριστήσας, Jesus “eucharisted” the gifts. And in that very same chapter Jesus offered His extended catechesis on the Sacrament. “I am the bread of life… come down from heaven… This bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world… Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (Jn 6:25-59)
Which means human beings are so much more than consumers, stomachs just waiting to be filled; so much more than objects to be used and disposed of. They are images of God, restored to that image by Christ’s saving action, especially when receiving His very substance in the Eucharist. And we have our part to play in that redeeming action: like the boy in our Gospel today who offers bread and fish, like the apostles who get the people seated and composed, distribute the bread and collect up the scraps, determined to be no part of the throwaway culture themselves (Jn 6:9,13). Parishes like Sacred Heart Cabramatta, and chaplaincies like the Vietnamese one, are places for just that sort of thing: living communities of faith, hope and love, where each person is appreciated as a child of God, and each one fed the Bread of Life; places where (in Paul’s words this morning) we bear with each other charitably, and serve selflessly, gently and patiently, being bound together as one Body the Church by that one Body that is the Eucharist (Eph 4:1-6). No one is a throwaway person: each can give and receive, each is to be treated with infinite dignity, the Gospel is for everyone.
Cabramatta’s first Catholic church (1919) was an army hut within the territory of Liverpool parish: one of your centenarian parishioners told me she remembered it. After the second war the area grew so rapidly that a distinct parish of Cabramatta was created, as you recently celebrated, 75 years ago (1949). Land was purchased (1949), a presbytery built (1952), a convent (1950-63), a new brick school (1953) and a much larger church (1961). In 1974 Fr Pat McAuliffe was appointed parish priest. He had previously been the curate of my home parish of Lane Cove when I made my first Holy Communion and I regularly served his Masses as an altarboy. Here in Cabramatta, he was a truly good shepherd. He welcomed the waves of migrants, including the Vietnamese ‘boat people’. He worked with the community to address social problems. He faced every challenge with “not a worry in the world”.
During my visitation I’ve heard much about his legacy and that of your other pastors, sisters and people, in building a strong sacramental and devotional life here, an excellent school, and many parish ministries. Likewise, the Vietnamese chaplaincy boasts an extraordinary range of activities that also enrich this parish, such as the very large Legion of Mary, Divine Mercy, Dominican Laity and other groups, and the many choirs. Since Fr Mac’s time there have been various improvements to the fabric of the parish, including the recently renovated pews and the planned porte cochère. The parishioners are known for their faith and worship, their generosity even in the face of hardship, and their unity in diversity. Under Fr Remy’s leadership and with the help of Fr John, the sisters and so many lay leaders, this is one of Sydney’s most thriving parishes. There are nine Sunday Masses in three languages and all generations taking part. There’s Holy Hour and other devotions, liturgy teams, communion to the sick, catechesis in the state schools, outreach to the poor, and so many volunteers.
There is much to be proud of, but no cause to be smug. At more than 20%, this parish has a higher practising rate than most in Sydney, due in no small part to its ethnic communities. It has impressive numbers being baptised whether as babies or adults each year, and many receiving the other sacraments. Yet still four out of five local Catholics are not here on a Sunday and there are others who do not even know what they are missing. So, Christ charges you today, and with him your archbishop: “give them something to eat yourselves”—physical food and spiritual food. Keep working on being a vibrant, invitational, missionary community, reaching out to your neighbours to draw them to receive the Bread of Life. God bless Sacred Heart Parish! God bless the Vietnamese Chaplaincy! God bless our grandparents and elders! God bless you all!
[1] “Throwaway living: Disposable items cut down household chores,” Life Magazine 1 August 1955, 43-48; cf. Ben Cosgrove, “‘Throwaway living’: When tossing out everything was all the rage,” Time Magazine15 May 2014; Tabitha Whiting, “How we created a throwaway society and became ‘wasteful, debt-ridden, permanently discontent individuals’ in the process,” Medium 22 June 2019.
[2] Pope Francis, Laudato Si’: Encyclical on Care for our Common Home (2015), 16, 20-23, 43; Evangelii Gaudium: Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel Today (2013), 53; Address to the Pontifical Academy for Life, 27 September 2021; Address to Biomedical University Foundation, 18 October 2021; “Catechesis on Old Age,” General Audience 23 February 2022 and 1 June 2022; Adress to Italian Autism Foundation, 1 April 2022; Address to International Summit on Sport for All, 30 September 2022; Address to Participants in Study Day on Siblings with Disabilities, 18 February 2023; Angelus Address, 29 January 2023; Letter to Migrants in Lajas Blancas, Panama, 21 March 2024. Cf. Charles Clark and Helen Alford, “The throwaway culture in the economy of exclusion: Pope Francis and economists on waste,” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 29 September 2019; Lucia Silecchia, “Laudato Si’ and the tragedy of the ‘Throwaway culture’,” CUA Columbus School of Law Research Paper 2017-2 (2017) etc.
[3] Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 21,22.
[4] Mt 26:26; Mk 14:22; Lk 22:1; 1Cor 11:25; CCC 1324-1327
Introduction to Mass of the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) + Parish Visitation – Sacred Heart Parish, Cabramatta, and Vietnamese Chaplaincy, 28 July 2024
Welcome to this Mass for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time. This past week I’ve been conducting the canonical visitation of Sacred Heart Parish Cabramatta and the Vietnamese Chaplaincy to see how each is going. I’ve met with Fr Remy, Fr John and the clergy involved with the chaplaincy, the sisters, and the staff, pastoral council and finance committee of the parish. I’ve met the school leaders, teachers and students. I’ve met those engaged in liturgical, sacramental prep and catechetical ministries, and the Vietnamese community leaders. But above all I’m here to be with the ordinary parishioners and so it was a joy to have dinner and Q&A with many of you on Thursday night, to take the sacraments to two centenarians in their homes, and now to offer Mass for you and hopefully meet you at morning tea afterwards. I look forward to listening further to the joys, hopes and challenges of the parish and the chaplaincy, and in due course will send you a report with some feedback.
I’m grateful for your hospitality during my time here. I want especially to thank your Parish Priest, Rev. Fr Remy Bui, Assistant Priest Rev. Fr John Pham, the sisters, staff and entire parish team for their assistance throughout the visitation.
Today is the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, a celebration inaugurated by Pope Francis on the Sunday closest to the Feast of Jesus’ grandparents, Sts Joachim and Anna, which was on Friday last. It is a public celebration of the indispensable role of our elders in our families, Church and community. And so I offer a particularly warm welcome to the grandparents and older parishioners this morning! Thank you for your fidelity and for all that you do in the life of this parish and lives of your loved ones.