Homilies

Two hundred years ago Frs Philip Connolly and John Joseph Therry were appointed the first Catholic chaplains to the colony. They’d barely arrived when they started building the first chapel to Mary Help of Christians on this site and the first Catholic school in Parramatta.

Happy birthday! We gather today, as we would for any birthday party, so we can celebrate the Church’s birthday together. The Acts of the Apostles tell us that before Pentecost the disciples gathered in the upper room with Mary to pray for the wisdom to know what to do next (Acts 1:13-14).

It’s God’s big tick to Jesus. The resurrection and ascension vindicate His earthly life, confirm His divinity, and testify to the truth of His teaching.

They were practical men. The Apostle Peter, hero of our first reading (Acts 10:25-48), insisted he was “only a man”, a simple man, a fisherman (Mk 1:16); though Christ made him a fisher of men (Mk 1:17), he reverted to his old craft from time to time (Mt 17:27; Jn 21:3-19; cf. Mt 14:22-32).

You hear it everywhere. In Ancient Rome they said ‘Operibus credite, et non verbis’ (‘Trust in deeds, not in words’) – a slogan adorning Palermo cathedral to this day.

ANZACs. We probably think immediately of heroic young men rushing into battle, fighting for King and country, and dying beside their mates – all the while starring in the foundation myth of our nation.

Myth. We often use the term to mean some supposed ‘fact’ or version of events that is untrue but commonly believed. We might think of the ‘urban myths’ that using a mobile phone near a petrol pump risks blowing up the petrol station,[i] or using one on a plane will interfere with the navigation instruments.

Euthanasia is back on the agenda in New South Wales with the independents tightening the screws on the Premier to allow a Bill to be debated soon. We must be prepared.

Welcome to this Solemn Pontifical Funeral Mass for Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy, Companion of the Order of Australia, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, President Emeritus of the Commission of the Holy See for Religious Relations with the Jews

There’s an early Peanuts comic in which Charlie Brown’s self-appointed life-coach, Violet, tells Charlie in no uncertain terms that “Sooner or later, there’s one thing you’re going to have to learn: You reap what you sow! You get out of life exactly what you put into it! No more and no less!”