Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe has last week joined with Perth Archdiocesan agency and organisation staff in praising God for sending so many good people, with such large hearts, to work across the Archdiocese.
Speaking Wednesday 19 July at St Mary’s Cathedral, in the presence of some 150 staff from agencies, parishes and organisations alike, Archbishop Costelloe spoke about Jesus as the model for all Christian leadership and service.
Archbishop Costelloe was joined for the Mass by con-celebrants Auxiliary Bishop Don Sproxton, Vicar General, the Very Rev Fr Peter Whitely VG, Episcopal Vicar for Clergy, the Very Rev Fr Minh Thuy Nguyen, Episcopal Vicar for Education and Faith Formation, the Very Rev Fr Vincent Glynn and assisted by Catholic Education Director of Religious Education, Deacon Mark Powell.
Also joining in the celebration was Cathedral Dean, Rev Dr Sean Fernandez, Co-ordinator, Parish Renewal, Fr Nino Vinciguerra, Tribunal Director, Fr Greg Carroll and South Perth Parish Priest Fr Brian O’Loughlin.
Referring to Jesus as the one who so often turns everything upside down, Archbishop Costelloe said that one of the best and most accurate visual presentations of Christian leadership and authority is found in the image of Jesus on his hands and knees, performing the humble and even demeaning task of washing the feet of his disciples.
“…a perfect example of the way in which Jesus challenges our normal ways of thinking,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
Speaking about the Gospel reading of (the day) Matthew 11, verse 25 to 27, Archbishop Costelloe continued by saying that it is important for us to understand that there is nothing sentimental about what Jesus is saying.
“In this context, we might understand Jesus’ reference to the learned and the clever as a reference to those who through their hardness of heart and their sense of their own importance, are in fact, blind to the reality of God present and active in the world, and in the lives of those God loves, which is to say, everybody,” he said.
Archbishop Costelloe continued by saying that hardness of heart, intransigence and obstinacy, judgmentalism, an exaggerated sense of self-importance and entitlement, are the things which Jesus has been calling out in the various encounters he has with people leading up to this gospel passage.
“And they are, of course, the very opposite of the simplicity and largeness of heart to which Jesus invites his disciples.
“They are also the very things which compromise, and even have the potential to destroy, the mission of the Church, including the mission of our Catholic agencies here in the Archdiocese of Perth,” he said.
Archbishop Costelloe concluded his homily by saying that at the same time we are also hearing an invitation from the Lord to continue to reflect on what it means to be a disciple of the one who got down on his hands and knees, to wash the feet of his disciples.
“And who will say in the passage, which immediately follows today’s Gospel, “learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,’” he said.
