Retired Clergy Mass
Tuesday of Week 14 of Ordinary Time (Year A)

Homily

Most Rev Timothy Costelloe SDB
Archbishop of Perth

Tuesday 7 July 2026
St John's Pro-Cathedral, Perth

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At the start of our Mass this morning, there's something special about coming here to the Pro-Cathedral to celebrate this annual Mass for our retired clergy. It's also a very practical thing, because we've grown in numbers, and while the chapel at Highgate is big enough for all of us - the kitchen isn't big enough to provide the kind of meal we want to have together, so we had to change our arrangements a little bit.

I do think there's something rather providential about us being here, where, as Archbishop Emeritus Hickey said, it all began all those years ago. Each year, we have the Annual Mass for the clergy, and that's an opportunity for all of us to be together, to celebrate together, to reflect on our vocation and what the Lord is asking of us.

But in more recent years, we've started this tradition of having a special gathering for our retired clergy, and I think what that does is it provides us with an opportunity, certainly to look forward as we all want to do, and pray for and work for, the good of the church here in this Archdiocese; but on this particular occasion, also to look back, and to look back with a great sense of pride in the right way, but also gratitude to God for all that has been achieved here in this Archdiocese, and all that each one of you and you together as a community of brothers have achieved here in this Archdiocese.

As I was reflecting on the Gospel reading, and that's why I chose the Mass for vocations this morning, it finishes, of course, with the phrase "the harvest is rich,", and we know how rich the harvest is, "but the laborers are few." Sometimes we can begin to panic a little and think that they're getting fewer and fewer by the day. But the answer comes in the next one. "So ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to his harvest." So one of the things we can do together today, and I hope we can do every day, is continue to turn to the Lord, asking Him to send us good men, wise men, balanced men, hard workers, men of the gospel, who can continue the work that we have started together.

There's another line in the Gospel just before that that I wanted to focus on just a little bit this morning, talking about Jesus, it says, "When he saw the crowds, he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd." One of the things I thought I might invite us all to do this morning is to reflect on the ways in which we have lived our lives, trying to help people who are in so many different ways harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd, and that's the cause for our gratitude, our thanks to God for the gift of the ordained ministry that He has given to us, and through which He has been a part of the lives of so many people.

Most of you have heard me say over and over and over again, probably ad nauseum, but that ordained ministers, especially priests and bishops, are called to be both individually and together, a living sign, an effective sign of the presence of Jesus among His people, specifically as their Good Shepherd. That's our vocation, that's our role, that's our task. And so, like Jesus, we also want to be, and you have been men who look at the field, look at the people that we are called to serve, and seeing them, the ones to whom we are sent, so that we can lift them up out of their state of being harassed and dejected. So to be grateful for all of that, I think, is the main theme of today's Mass.

I thought I might just add something about the way in which we might look back and the way in which we might reflect on our ministry. After our ministry is over, some of you are very busy, perhaps even busier than you were as parish priests, doing supplies all across the diocese. Others, for health reasons, aren't able to do that kind of thing - but we remain priests. We remain men dedicated to being a living sign of the presence of Jesus among His people, as their Good Shepherd.

As Pope Francis often reminded us, sometimes that means being out in front, leading the flock, sometimes, and this is more the case perhaps for most of you, being in the midst of the flock, supporting and encouraging them in any way we can, wherever and whoever that flock, and sometimes behind, helping the stragglers to catch up.

To reflect on what it means to have been a priest, I wanted to share with you something that Pope Leo just very recently said to a group of Italian Bishops when he was speaking to them. And of course, anything that you say to bishops in terms of their job, their role, their ministry, with almost no exceptions, is equally true of priests, because all of us together are brothers in the ordained priesthood. All of us together are called to be this living sign of the presence of God, of the presence of the Good Shepherd to God's people. So, in this talk that the Pope gave to the bishops, he asked them a question, and I think that this question is a very important question.

He asked the bishops, and I'm asking all of us to reflect this morning, almost as not exactly an examination of conscience. That's always good for us to do because none of us is perfect, but more as a way of reflecting on what God has been able to do through us. This question struck me as being a very important question. He said, "What face of God? What face of God do you allow to shine through your ministry? That's a question for now, but it's also a question for reflection on our story. What face of God have I allowed to shine through in my ministry? And of course, for us as Christians, the face of God is equal to saying the face of Christ. Pope Francis again reminded us during the year of mercy, Jesus is the face of the Father's mercy. So, what face of God have I allowed to shine through in my ministry.

Have people in experiencing you in your ministry experienced the face of the merciful God? Experience the face of the merciful Christ, and I feel pretty confident in suggesting that the answer very largely will be 'Yes'. It has been the face of Christ that I have tried to bring to my people. It's the heart of Christ that I've tried to share with my people. It's the words of Christ that I have tried to share with my people.

So I'll finish with this because I think this is the question. As I said, not so much as an examination of conscience because that is always something useful to do, but more as a way of reflecting on what I should be grateful to God for in my ministry. Not in ministry in general, but in my ministry, the ministry that I exercise in my parishes to my people that the Lord entrusted to me, and to thank God for the ways in which, in spite of our limitations, we have allowed Him - and that's the Pope used - what face of God have you allowed to shine through? That we have been able to allow the face of Christ to reach our people through our lives and through our ministry.

This is the question, says Pope Leo, that we as pastors must always ask ourselves. No matter what situation we find ourselves in, no matter where we're living or what condition we are in terms of our health, we still encounter people - What face of God do I allow to shine through my life and through my ministry?