Homilies

I don’t often quote the German philosopher, Frederick Nietzsche, as he was no friend of religion. He thought that all believers and especially Christians were weaklings for prizing mercy towards the poor, sick and ignorant, for talking of forgiving enemies, turning the other cheek, and so on, and for masking the nausea and disgust he believed we should feel about life.

Susan (not her real name), a young African woman in her early 30s, enjoyed her life as a housekeeper to an Australian family living in East Africa.

If the cinemas are an accurate cultural barometer, our age is crying out for heroes, indeed for superheroes. In the short time since I became Archbishop of Sydney there have been two X-Men movies, two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, two Captain America movies, and annual Star Wars films.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary – a feast and devotion for which we have the Dominicans to thank above all.

Life can be hard. There’s stress at work or school, finances to balance, relationships to manage. It can sometimes seem like no matter where you turn, there’s some obstacle to overcome.

The 2009 film, The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw as Leigh-Anne and Sean Tuohy and Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher tells the true story of a black boy who has had a traumatic childhood and is now suffering from homelessness and learning difficulties.

On this day, 25 years ago, I was ordained to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ. It was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the readings were full of foreboding about the Son of Man being lifted up on the Cross, like the serpent lifted up by Moses on a stick, that we might have life (Num 21:4-9; Phil 2:6-11; Jn 32:13-7).

My thanks to His Grace the Archbishop of Honiara, Most Rev. Chris Cardone OP, for the honour of preaching at this Mass of Thanksgiving. I have known Archbishop Chris since the 1980s when I was a student in the Dominican Order and he was a newly-minted priest.

Mother Teresa visited Australia repeatedly and left her in footprint on this land through the 14 Mission Houses of her sisters here, including their Pacific mother-house in Surry Hills.

He was destined to be a brilliant chemist and in 2006 to discover the elusive process for clean coal technology: electricity with no carbon emissions into the atmosphere.