By Matthew Lau
Saint Brigid’s Church in Midland celebrated half a century of encountering God with a landmark Mass and multicultural reception last Sunday.
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB was the main celebrant of the morning Mass on 10 November, joined by current Midland Parish Priest Father Benny Calanza and former Parish Priest Fr Marcellinus Meilak OFM.
Archbishop Costelloe began his homily by acknowledging parish anniversaries as “the feast of a very special building with a very special purpose”.
“[It is] therefore the feast of all those people who in the past and still today come to this special building for one purpose only: to encounter God,” he said.
“We have not only this church building, but the Church, the living Body of Christ, the ongoing instrument of Christ’s saving presence among us.
“This living Church, this sacrament of Christ’s presence, is built not of bricks and mortar but of people and you, the community which gathers together here in this church to encounter God, you are this sacrament of Christ among his people for each other and for the wider community of your family, your friends, your colleagues, and indeed of all you meet.”
The parish community, he added, is called by God to be “living temples of God’s grace”.
“Just as the people of the Old Testament came into the presence of the living God when they entered the Temple in Jerusalem, so the Lord is calling you to live in such a way that when people encounter you, as individuals and as the Catholic community here in this part of Perth, they are, consciously or otherwise, encountering Jesus whose disciples you are.
“This is what it means to be a temple, a place, where God’s Spirit dwells. It is to live the grace of integrity, faithfully and constantly,” Archbishop Costelloe continued.
This, he said, is both the challenge and the joy of being a disciple of Jesus.
“It is a joy because it is the pathway to a happy and fulfilled life. It is a challenge because we are all fragile, prone to selfishness and sin, and constantly in danger of not living with the integrity that our faith asks of us.
“He comes to us, he lives within us and, little by little, if we let him, he transforms us from within so that we can begin to see with his eyes, and hear with his ears and love with his heart. This is how we become temples of God’s grace, this is how we can continue to live our faith with integrity, this is how we can become the community of disciples that the Lord is calling us to be,” Archbishop Costelloe concluded.
A variety of entertainment was provided during multinational luncheon festivities after the 10 November Mass at Saint Brigid’s Primary School.
Midland Parish Priest Fr Benny Calanza told The eRecord of his delight with the large turnout for the parish’s jollities that he said exceeded expectations.
“We celebrated the multicultural day because there is no parish fiesta to celebrate the multiculturalism in the parish,” Fr Calanza stated.
“There were many different cultures there – about six or seven bigger groups and a few smaller groups.”