On Friday night I visited a rather unique group of parents and children at Sacred Heart Parish, Booval Brisbane. Some of the parents decided this year to gather some children from Sacred Heart Primary School, including their own, to experience a night of fun and faith at the school. Starting at 6.30pm the program is a mixture of laid-back but serious religious discussion, followed by games, then cakes and cordial, all of it over by 8.00pm. As Archbishop I was invited to attend to let the young ones see a real, live Archbishop. I was asked to bring my crozier, zucchetto, and mitre and the twenty or so young ones present were encouraged to ask questions. In turn I questioned them and was amazed by their grasp of the gospel, particularly their understanding of the Kingdom of God. They realised that God lives in them, and God works through them in acts of love, care, concern, forgiveness, kindness all of which they realized promotes the Kingdom preached by Christ. The Kingdom lies at the very heart of Christ’s message and the apostles and ourselves are challenged to see it. If we can only get that one thing right then everything else should fall into place. The presence of the Kingdom means that God’s victory over sin and death has been won but also that God’s power for good has been unleashed on the world and is available if only we will ask. We rarely avail ourselves of it and yet when we do, remarkable things can happen. Sadly most of us believe, as people generally believe, that we have to do everything ourselves, and yet that is just not right. Look at the littleness the smallness of the ordinary gospel images and see what they achieve, not by human power but God’s power. Look at the apparent failure of Calvary, look at the simplicity of the coming of God – a baby in a manger, look at those chosen to promote it – the very ordinary twelve, look at the start of the Kingdom – a young Jewish girl saying “yes”, look at the persecution of the Church. In all this nothing would have happened without the power of God. Nothing will happen even now unless we ask God to bless all our small efforts. Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple said a hundred years ago “When I pray coincidences happen”, when “I stop praying the coincidences stop”. Check it out in your own life and see how amazed you will be by the influence of God in every little detail of life. The overarching theme of the power of God is indicated in today’s scripture. In both instances from the Old Testament and the New, the power of God is revealed not in enormously powerful people, talented, rich people, but in two women who as widows were poor materially but immensely rich in their love of God and their willingness to think of others. God uses their goodness for the sake of the Kingdom just as God used his son Jesus Christ and his death on Calvary for the salvation of the world. We need to be able to see in everything the power of God.
Today we gather precisely to do that, to think back to the establishment of this parish fifty years ago in the person of Fr Graham and his little band of religious and parishioners and to realise that it was only in and through the power of God working in priests, religious and people of that era that the parish became the significant presence in the Archdiocese that it is today. Nevertheless once again it was not brute power that brought it to this state but rather the generosity and goodness of a multitude of people down through the years who because of their generosity and self sacrifice through the power of God made the parish the power for good that it is today. We sincerely thank all of them alive or dead and ask God to bless and reward them for what they have done – priests, religious, lay people, all people of faith who trusted in God and were rewarded. The faithful in every parish will continue to be what Christ referred to as “leaven, light, salt,” as parishes continue their small but important presence in the midst of the world. Appropriately this parish is named “Infant Saviour” and if we can keep that image of the Kingdom before us, power in weakness, we will never lose sight of the importance of the power of God and never be tempted to rely on ourselves alone as we move into the future.
Today I congratulate Fr Molony, his assistant priests, the religious, the pastoral workers, and the lay people of this parish for what has been achieved as they look forward with faith and confidence to what still needs to be achieved in the future, in and through the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
May God bless you all.
Most Rev John Bathersby DD
Archbisop of Brisbane
Mos
