14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Laying of the Foundation Stone

Homily

By the Most Rev Don Sproxton
Auxiliary Bishop of Perth

Mother Theresa Catholic Church, Baldivis Parish
Sunday 7 July, 2019

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There has been a real flourishing of ministries in the Church since the Bishops of the world met with Popes John XXIII and Paul VI in the Vatican Council of the early nineteen sixties.

The renewal of the Church meant that the ministries that had become confined to ordained, clerical ministry, but which had been lay ministries in the beginning, were restored to the lay faithful. We are so familiar with the ministries of Reader and Acolyte being exercised by lay people that we do not take a second thought at encouraging men and women to take on some ministry in the community. More and more ministries have developed, and more and more lay Catholics have accepted the invitation to perform these services for their communities.

The Gospel today mentions the charism and ministry of the missionary that Jesus called the first disciples to, and how he began forming them. It would be one of his great challenges but, by and large, the first missionaries were able to work with him to build the first Christian communities.

Success came whenever the missionaries depended on the spirit of Jesus and his gospel message. St Luke stresses that what is needed above all else is attachment to Jesus and detachment from other plans and strategies. He realised, probably from his own experience, that when we take our focus away from Jesus and his message, and look to gimmicks and slick methods, we quickly loose our way.

Whatever the ministry that we perform, we need to know Jesus and his gospel. It is knowing him and his message that we change personally and our communities become what they are meant to be.

I understand that the parish is to begin its first Alpha program soon. I want to encourage this and the other ways by which each of you can growing in getting to know the real Jesus and the gospel.

There are people coming to your parish Masses looking for a spiritual home. They are looking for a people who show personally and communally the Jesus lives in and among them. Many more will come once your new church is built. They will stay if they find the Living Jesus in you. They will be looking for the face of Jesus in your faces.

Following the Mass, we will go to the site of the new church to bless the slab, the foundation of the building.

This next church in the Archdiocese will stand in a sort of sacramental way as a sign that a Catholic community exists in the midst of this district. In its own way, even silently, it will invite people to come and see. Come and see the One we have been seeking.

We pray that when they come to see and to find Jesus in the midst of this parish community, they will clearly see him through the warmth of our welcome, and their inclusion in the community as brothers and sisters.