Archbishop Timothy Costelloe emphasised the words of St John Paul II at this year’s Palm Sunday Mass, inviting the congregation to remember the words “our witness (to Christ) would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated his face.”
Speaking Sunday 2 April at St Mary’s Cathedral, Archbishop Costelloe said the then-Holy Father wasn’t saying say that our witness will be incomplete, or less than perfect, or a bit unsatisfactory, if we have not first contemplated the face of Christ – but that it will be hopelessly inadequate.
“This takes us to the very heart of our faith,” Archbishop Costelloe said.
“We Catholics believe, that is, we know with the certainty of our faith, that in Jesus we have so much more than a really good man who lived a wonderful life and left us a remarkable legacy and a powerful teaching,” he said.
Archbishop Costelloe, wearing the red chasible and stole, was joined for the Mass by Auxiliary Bishop Don Sproxton, Vicar General the Very Rev Fr Peter Whitely, Cathedral Assistant Priests, Fr Richard Rutkauskas and Fr Kenneth Acosta as MC with Deacon Paul Russell assisting.
Commencing the celebration outside with the proclamation of the first part of the Gospel, Archbishop Costelloe blessed the congregation with the palm before processing inside together with more than 800 people.
Continuing his homily, the Archbishop said that Christ is God with a human face.
“And because of that, and because he has risen from the dead, he is not just a great man from the past. He is a living presence today filling our lives with his love. As we contemplate his face, as we gaze on him in the gospels, we are seeing into the very heart and mind of God himself.
