“This is the key to unlocking the mystery of Christian discipleship: to love as Jesus loved.”
Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB spoke those words at St Mary’s Cathedral on Sunday 25 October 2026, celebrating the 9.30am Mass as he marked 40 years of priesthood.
His homily for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time brought together Christ’s invitation to find rest in him and the commandment to love God and neighbour.
“What Jesus invites us to see is that it is love of God and of each other which is the way to unburden ourselves from the heavy load of selfishness and the isolation and loneliness it brings with it,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
Archbishop Costelloe was ordained by Melbourne Archbishop Sir Frank Little on 25 October 1986, following his final profession as a Salesian of Don Bosco the previous year.
Archbishop Costelloe began his homily with Jesus’ invitation in Saint Matthew’s Gospel to those carrying heavy burdens.
He spoke of the challenges people face in their personal, family and community lives, their sometimes weak and wavering faith, and their tendency to forget God.
Their presence at Mass, he said, was itself a sign of their desire to remain faithful to God.
“Jesus seeks to be a bringer of peace, of rest and of renewal to us,” he said.
Archbishop Costelloe explained how Jesus answered the religious leaders who asked him to identify the greatest commandment in the law of Moses.
“Love of God comes before all else for it is really the only adequate response to the one without whom we, and the beautiful world in which we live, would not exist,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
He acknowledged that the struggles and worries of daily life could overwhelm people and lead them to forget God. The Lord, he said, had not forgotten them, even when they had walked away from him.
He told the congregation that returning to the Lord and sharing their burdens with him would deepen their understanding of his love.
“As our love for God grows and deepens so too will our desire to love those whom God loves, and to love them in the way that God loves them, also grow and deepen.”
He recalled Jesus’ command to love one another as he had loved them.
Archbishop Costelloe’s own ministry has included teaching, parish life and the formation of young Salesians.
He joined the Salesians in 1977, interrupting his teacher training in Melbourne, and made his first profession on 31 January 1978.
After ordination, he spent three years as Religious Education Coordinator at Salesian College, Chadstone, before completing a Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome in 1991.
His appointment here in Perth came 30 years ago, in 1996, when he became parish priest of St Joachim’s, Victoria Park, and lectured in theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia in Fremantle.
He became an Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne in 2007, receiving his episcopal ordination on 15 June, before returning to Perth five years later.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Archbishop of Perth on 20 February 2012. He took up his ministry as Perth’s sixth Archbishop at his installation on 21 March that year.
In Sunday’s homily, Archbishop Costelloe directed the congregation to the Gospels and the way Jesus loved, turning attention towards other people and their needs.
He spoke of becoming an instrument in God’s hands to bring fulfilment and joy to others, and closed with a prayer that their presence would reflect the Lord’s love.
“Through the grace of the Lord, and our openness to that grace, may we become a gift to others, enriching their lives by our presence, because our presence reflects to them the love the Lord has for them.”
