Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
Wanneroo Parish Feast Day

Homily

Most Rev Timothy Costelloe SDB
Archbishop of Perth

Sunday 22 June, 2025
St Anthony's Catholic Church, Wanneroo

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Every Sunday, and on other important feast days in the Church, we always recite the Creed together. Sometimes we use the Nicene Creed and at other times we use the Apostles Creed which is simpler and also more ancient. In both cases the Creed is the ancient profession of what we believe as Catholic Christians. We proclaim our faith together to remind us of who we are as God’s people and as a way of re-committing ourselves to the task of becoming more and more completely the truly faithful people of God.

At the heart of the Creed is our belief in one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That God is both one and three is a profound teaching of our faith and at the same time a great mystery, but at its centre is our belief that the great mystery of God is a mystery of unity and communion. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one because in God love is one and undivided. Because we are made in the image of God unity and communion are also at the heart of our identity as human persons, and at the heart of our identity as members of God’s Church.

The Apostles Creed also uses the word “communion” when we speak about our faith in the saints. We say we believe in the Holy Catholic Church and the Communion of Saints. Because we are celebrating today one of the great saints of the Church, Saint Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of your parish, I wanted to reflect with you for a few moments on what it means to believe in the communion of saints, especially in light of our belief in the communion of love which is at the heart of the divine life of the Trinity.

The word Saint originally comes from the Latin word for holy, so to say that we believe in the communion of saints is to say that we believe in the communion of all God’s holy people. That includes, of course, all those whom the Church has proclaimed - has canonised - as saints. These are people who lived lives of such fidelity, charity and selflessness - in other words of such holiness - that the Church has been inspired by God to put them before us as models to imitate and as friends to whom we can turn in time of need and who accompany us on our journey of life and faith.

But not all holy people are canonised after their death. In fact, the vast majority of people who are with God in heaven are not canonised saints - but they are saints. This is why every year, on 1 November, the Church celebrates the Feast of All Saints. It is a reminder to us that in the end it is the grace of God which transforms people into saints, people who live the fullness of life with God in heaven – whether they are canonised by the Church or not. The Church does not make saints – God’s grace and a person’s openness to that grace do that. What the Church does is recognise some of its members as especially holy – and points us to them.

In the Creed, why do we not simply say that we believe in the saints but that we believe in the communion of saints? It is to remind us that God did not create us to live lonely, isolated and self-centred lives. God created us to live our lives in communion with others, in bonds of friendship and love, in relationships of mutual support, encouragement and forgiveness, in lives of self-less self-giving. And this, of course, is precisely what the great saints of our Church did and still do, each in his or her own God-given way. 

The lives of the saints show us very clearly that our Christian faith is not simply about a personal relationship between me and God, to the exclusion of everyone else. Christian faith is about being together the holy people of God, witnessing together to his love for us and for all people, and especially for those in any kind of need or distress. This, I think, is what Pope Francis was trying to say when he described the Church as a place where people’s wounds are healed and people’s hearts are warmed. It is our love and care for others which is the best indication that our love for God is real and genuine.

Saint Anthony of Padua, one of the earliest and most faithful of the followers of Saint Francis of Assisi, and who is always represented together with Jesus much as Our Lady often is, spent his life trying to help people understand that to be a follower of Jesus was to walk in His footsteps, treating other people with the same love, compassion, forgiveness and mercy which Jesus showed to everyone.

As we celebrate today the feast of Saint Anthony of Padua, and the feast of your parish community, we could ask Saint Anthony, who is famous for finding things which have been lost, to help us through his prayers to find the love for God which perhaps we have lost a little as our hearts have grown a little cold, to find the love for his Church which has perhaps been damaged or lost as our lives have become so busy and complicated, and to find that love for others which will help us to open our eyes and our ears and our hearts to those who are in need.

If we do this, then the community of Saint Anthony’s Parish here in Wanneroo really will be a community which heals people’s wounds and warms people’s hearts. We will be a reflection of the Trinity in whose image we are made.