We are told in this evening’s gospel that as Jesus sat down after reading from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him. I think we can also  presume that the ears of everyone were open, eager to hear what He had to say.

As we gather tonight as the Holy People of God to celebrate and thank God for the sacramental life of the Church, through which Christ reaches into our lives with His transforming grace, we too are invited to fix our eyes on Christ, to open our ears and our hearts to His words, and to allow Him to become the guide for our daily lives.

To keep our eyes fixed on Christ: this was the invitation of Pope Saint John Paul II when, 25 years ago, he launched the Church into the third millennium. It was the hope I shared with you all when on the day in 2012 when I was installed as the Archbishop here in this Cathedral, I called on us all to return the Church here in our Archdiocese to Christ, and to return Christ to the heart of our Church, which is really, of course, not ours but His.  It was the invitation taken up by the whole Church in Australia in that same year when the bishops inaugurated a “Year of Grace”, with the contemplation of the face of Christ as its guiding principle. And it is now the call of Pope Francis who, in endorsing the work of the recent Synod on Synodality, has made his own these words of that Synod: the Church exists to bear witness in the world to the most decisive moment in history: the resurrection of Jesus. The living Christ is the source of true freedom, the foundation for a hope that does not disappoint, the revelation of the true face of God and of humanity’s ultimate destiny (14). These words of Pope Francis, which speak of witness, take us back to Pope John Paul II, who said 25 years ago, “Our witness to Christ will be hopelessly inadequate if we have not first contemplated his face”.

What do we see when, like the people in the synagogue, we fix our eyes on Jesus? Very often, we will see that He has His eyes fixed on us. This was certainly the experience of Saint Peter, as we heard in the reading of the passion story from St Luke’s Gospel on Palm Sunday. When Jesus was arrested, Peter followed at a distance to see what would happen. When some of the people recognised him as a follower of Jesus, Peter denied it three times, saying to anyone who would listen, “I do not know this man; I do not know what you are talking about”. At that very moment Jesus was being led away and the gospel tells us that He turned and looked straight at Peter. The gaze of Jesus pierced Peter’s heart. It forced him to face his cowardice and his betrayal. As Jesus was led to His death, Peter ran away and wept bitterly. But for Peter, this was the beginning of a journey of conversion, of repentance, of renewal. That journey would be complete when the risen Jesus, on the shore of the lake, gave Peter three opportunities to reverse his three betrayals. Do you love me? Do you love me more than these others do? Do you really love me?

Conversion. Renewal. A new beginning. This is always the promise we read in the eyes of Jesus as He gazes upon us and as we gaze upon Him. We see this in the beautiful but desperately sad story of the encounter between Jesus and a rich young man. The man asks Jesus what must be done if he is to have the fullness of life. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments and when the man says that he has done so from his earliest days, the gospel tells us that Jesus looked hard at him and loved him. And then came the invitation: if you really want to be perfect go and sell everything you own, give your money to the poor, and then come and follow me. This young man, we might say, was being offered the gift of a lifetime: to share the rest of his life with Jesus; to be part of this moment which would change history forever; to be numbered among those who would be witnesses to the Resurrection. But as Jesus gazed at this young man and loved him, the young man averted his gaze from Jesus and went away sad because he could not bring himself to walk away from his material possessions. We do not know what happened to this young man later; the gospel doesn’t tell us. Perhaps he did eventually find the courage to come back to the Lord. But certainly, there is no story of redemption, renewal and new beginnings for this young man, as there was for Peter.

It is a challenging thing to gaze upon the face of the Lord and know that He, in his turn, gazes on us. His gaze is always one of love, but sometimes that love is expressed through sadness and disappointment, as it must have been as Jesus gazed on Peter. At other times this gaze of love expresses hope and anticipation, as it must have done as Jesus looked hopefully into the eyes of the rich young man. Perhaps the question for each of us tonight has something to do with the way we think Jesus might be gazing at us, for we, like the first disciples of Jesus, are numbered among those whom He calls His friends.

This question, therefore, is important for our priests who tonight will be asked to publicly renew their commitment to the Lord, to His Church, to their brother priests, and to the people entrusted to their care. It is important for our deacons who are called and sent to share the joys and burdens of ordained ministry with their bishops and priests. And it is important for every single one of us, laity, religious or ordained ministers, because from the day of our baptism we have been called, chosen and sent to be disciples of Jesus. He gazes on each one of us tonight – He looks deeply into our eyes and searches our hearts – and with love and hope He says to each of us, “Come, follow me, walk in my footsteps, do not be afraid, for I have called you by your name – you are mine”.