Mission & Identity Networking Mass

Homily

By the Most Rev Don Sproxton
Auxiliary Bishop of Perth

St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth
Wednesday 12 September, 2018

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When you have busy days like I have had today, you really need to have a space in your life where you can regain your calmness and sense of peace which come from Jesus Christ.

We've come a long way as Catholic agencies, which is very important for us to remember as we celebrate this Mass. We realize that we are all parts of the Body of Christ, and together we contribute in building up the local church.

Because Christ is the source and the centre of everything that we do and all that we have, we need to remember that relationship each of us has with Christ personally, and that we, in Him, build relationships with one another. This is the great vision of the Second Vatican Council, in helping us to understand that we are the Body of Christ, journeying together.

The different skills, attributes and talents that each of us have, while working together, build up the Body of Christ. This is something St Paul said many times, encouraging the early Church to recognise that with Christ they would be effective in the mission that had been given to them. The mission, largely, was to encourage one another, and build each other up as we reach out to the others in the world.

Dr Terry Wilson and the others in the office have really worked hard to help us understand that we are in this sense a very corporate group - we are not meant to be doing the work we are charged to do in isolation to one another.

Those who are involved in the strategic planning of the Archdiocese have been working towards building up networks so that we recognise all the work that our brothers and sisters do in all of the agencies. As well, we are called to recognise and understand each other’s gifts, and find ways to work together so that we can be more and more effective for the life of the entire Archdiocese.

The Archbishop’s mission and ministry are assisted by the work we do – in the liturgy, health care, social services – and all the different agencies that you represent this evening. See yourselves as being the hands and feet of the Archbishop. You work in his name, and you work in places he cannot be physically, or where he cannot provide the skills and talents that you have to contribute.

Again, going back to the Second Vatican Council: a vision was presented to us by the Holy Spirit through the meeting of the Council Fathers in the early 1960s'. The Church will be effective when everyone recognises their special gifts and talents. By working together for the good of all we are able to give to the wider community, and show what the Christian Church's ministry is all about.

So we celebrate the call we have received to be the extension of the ministry of the Bishop, in all the places our agencies are able to reach.

You are Christ’s body working in our generation; it is through our bodies, our gifts, our efforts, our energies, our love for the Church that we become Christ for those who we meet through our ministries.

St Teresa of Avila wrote,

"Christ has no body now but yours.

No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which He looks compassion on this world.

Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good.

Yours are the hands through which He blesses all the world.

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are His body.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours." 

I pray that this can be a guiding principle for everything that we do.