Episcopal Ordination of Rev Fr Nelson Po

Homily

Most Rev Timothy Costelloe SDB
Archbishop of Perth

Thursday 16 April, 2026
St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth

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As we gather this evening for this wonderful moment in the life of the Archdiocese of Perth, we are certainly full of joy as we celebrate the ordination of Bishop-elect Nelson Po as our new auxiliary bishop. This joy is a sign of the presence of God’s Holy Spirit who, as Saint Paul reminds us, brings love, joy, peace, kindness and faithfulness to our lives (Gal 5:22). This is certainly true for us tonight.

It is of course through the powerful presence of God’s Spirit, acting through this sacrament of Holy Orders, that our bishop-elect will be not just commissioned but enabled to be all that the Lord and his Church requires of him as a bishop, a successor of the apostles, in this diocese and in the Church. It is important for us to remind ourselves that through this liturgy, so full of rich symbolism, we are all being drawn into a mysterious, powerful and certain work of God. While so many people have a part to play in tonight’s liturgy it is God who is at work this evening, God who is the principal actor, God who will reach deeply into Bishop-elect Nelson’s heart, mind and spirit, moulding and shaping him into the man, the Christian, and the priest and bishop whom God is calling him to be. Tonight we find ourselves on holy ground, filled with awe.

At the heart of tonight’s Liturgy of the Word, we find ourselves contemplating Jesus, the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. As the image on the Mass booklet reminds us, the Good Shepherd, who carries the sheep on His shoulders, is characterised by fidelity, by tenderness, and by closeness. This, as Pope Leo XIV pointed out in September last year in Rome to a meeting of newly ordained bishops, is an expression, a revelation, of what the Pope described as “God’s style”. We see in Jesus – in His way of acting, of relating, of speaking - the human expression of what we might call the mind and heart of God. In Jesus, God carries us when we have no strength left to manage on our own. He finds us when we are lost. He heals us and restores us when we are wounded or broken.  In handing the crozier, the shepherd’s staff, to our new bishop tonight, we are reminding him, or rather the Church is reminding him, that through the grace of this sacrament of God’s provident love, he will be remoulded, reshaped, into a living image of the presence of our one true Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, among his people.

Our new bishop, already called to this through his baptism and his diaconal and priestly ordination, is now in a new and deeper way called to embody “God’s style” in every word he speaks, in every encounter he has, really in every breath he takes.

It is, Pope Leo suggests, echoing Pope Francis, in closeness to others that Jesus fully reveals God’s style. “Jesus loves to draw near to his brothers and sisters through us,” said Pope Francis, “through our open hands that caress and comfort; our words uttered to anoint the world with the Gospel and not with ourselves; through our heart when it bears the distress and joys of our brothers and sisters”.

This is the mission to which our new bishop will recommit himself tonight in response to the Lord’s call. It is a mission which will call for courage, for humility and for love. Like John the Baptist, Bishop Nelson will need to grow smaller so that Christ can grow greater. Like the first disciples he will need to say, when others walk away from the Lord, “To whom can I go, for you have the words of eternal life?” And like St Peter he will need to say with all his heart, “Lord, you know everything – you know that I love you”. Bishops can learn a lot from Saint Peter. When Bishop Nelson might feel that he is in danger of sinking beneath the waves of rejection, misunderstanding, exhaustion or discouragement, he will need to remember to cry out “Lord, save me”  and hear the Lord saying to him “Why did you doubt, man of little faith”. When he might feel that he has all the answers and perhaps knows better even than the Lord Himself, he will need to be prepared to hear the Lord saying to him “Get behind me, for you are a stumbling block in my path”. And when he feels overwhelmed by his own inadequacy and failure, he will need to hear the Lord saying to him, in spite of all that, “Feed my lambs, look after my sheep”. You don’t have to be perfect to be a bishop. You just have to be someone who is determined to keep trying, day after day.

In the end our new bishop, like all of us, will have to constantly remind himself that, in the words of Saint Paul, “we are only the earthenware jars that hold this treasure, to make it clear that such an overwhelming power comes from God and not from us “ and that “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me”.

Bishop-elect Nelson, may the Lord Jesus always be at the heart of your life and of your ministry. In times of struggle and fear may you hear Him say to you, “Take courage, I am with you. Do not be afraid”; in moments of doubt and uncertainty, may you be guided by your episcopal motto, walk humbly with God; and may your life bear witness to your answer to the question the risen Lord once put to Simon Peter: “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” And so, Bishop-elect Nelson, feed the Lord’s lambs – look after His sheep.