Thanksgiving Mass for Mr Wayne Bull 
Tuesday of Week 16 of Ordinary Time

Homily

Most Rev Timothy Costelloe SDB
Archbishop of Perth

Tuesday 22 July, 2025
St John's Pro-Cathedral

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The gospel to which we have just listened this evening contains some strange words which Jesus directs to Mary Magdalene. “Do not cling to me because I have not yet ascended to my Father”. What might these words have meant to Mary Magdalen – and what might they be saying to us today?

As I am not a Greek scholar, I am not sure of the precise meaning of the word translated into English as cling, but at least as we tend to use that word today we cling onto something because we are frightened of what it will mean for us if we lose something which is precious to us.

In this sense the reaction of Mary Magdalene to her encounter with the Risen Lord is perfectly understandable. Like all the disciples, she had been through the agonising experience of watching Jesus die. Like them she would have been convinced on that dreadful Friday afternoon that everything was lost. All her hopes in Jesus and in the promises he made about his Father‘s love, and about the power of life over death, of love over hatred, and of peace over violence, had all come to nothing. And now, beyond every hope and expectation, Jesus was alive. Mary had lost him once; she was not going to lose him again - and so she tried to cling on to Him.

In the days following the resurrection of Jesus Mary, like the other disciples, began to understand that they were not going to lose Jesus. Rather, he was going to remain with them in a new and more powerful way. He would be with them through the gift of His Spirit who would not replace Jesus or succeed Jesus but who would instead draw the disciples into a deeper, life-enriching and permanent communion with him.

In God’s divine plan this new and deeper presence of Jesus was to be focused and realised through the Church which in a certain way came to birth at Pentecost. This Church, because it is the community of the disciples of Christ and is rightly called the Body of Christ, becomes a sacrament - a sign and an instrument - of God at work in the world, drawing people into communion with him and drawing them into an ever-deeper communion with each other.

This is the beautiful theory, the beautiful theology, of the Church. But it is more than just a theory or a theological explanation. It is a concrete reality in the world, because God continues to draw people into the Church and continues to pour out His gifts of grace on His people so that as we, His people, respond with courage, with faith and with generosity to God‘s call the work of the Church continues, the light of Christ continues to shine, and the healing and forgiving power of Christ continues to heal wounds and warm hearts as we faithfully give our yes to all the God is asking of us.

Tonight we are celebrating with and thanking Wayne for all the ways in which, through his life of generous commitment to his family, to his parish, to the schools in which he has worked and to leadership of our Catholic Education system at such a senior level, he has indeed been a sign and bearer of the love of God made known in Christ to so many people, especially the young.

The beautiful Angelus prayer reminds us that when Mary said yes to God’s call the Word became flesh and lived among us. We thank you tonight, Wayne, for your faith-filled yes to God’s call. Your yes has allowed the Word of God to grow in the hearts and minds of so many people, taking flesh in them and certainly helping many of them to become, in their turn, signs bearers of God’s life and love. Tonight we entrust you to the prayers of that same Mary, the mother of Jesus, asking that through her prayers you will be able to continue to say yes to all that God now seeks to do and be in you and for you in all that lies ahead.