God is calling you. How will you respond?

God is calling you. How will you respond?

By Bishop Anthony Randazzo

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

Two of my favourite saints are Saint Paul and Saint Catherine of Siena – one the greatest missionary in the life of the Church, the other a profound mystic and spiritual writer. Paul of Tarsus, the heroic figure of the New Testament who proposed solutions to a chaotic world making Christianity an authentic instrument of change. Caterina, the woman from the city of Siena in Tuscany, whose political boldness to speak the truth to the powerful, influenced the Papacy, politics and Western history. They were both faithful advocates of conversion, renewal and reform. Neither one of these people ever visited Australia; neither of them knew that this great Southern Land even existed!

Australia – where our Aboriginal brothers and sisters have lived for thousands of years, moving over large tracts of land and living in deep harmony with nature. Mapped and colonised by European people, Terra Australis de Spiritu Sancto was the name that it was given: in the Christian tradition, they called it after the Holy Spirit.

Australia is now a largely urban, modern and secularised nation, in which successive immigrations from Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania have contributed to make it a multicultural

As Saint Paul VI reminded us when he visited Sydney in 1970, Australians are “an original people, the result of the meeting of people of very different nations, languages and civilizations.”

One of the great challenges that faces us today is how to preach the Gospel to such an original people.

In our Catholic faith tradition, we believe that the Good News can only be known and understood through personal encounter with Jesus Christ. A relationship with the person of Jesus happens through the witness of the Christian community. Moreover, history has shown us that one usually reaches Jesus by passing through the community

However, for Saint Paul the Christian community is not some cosy place where believers meet to feel good about themselves! It is, rather, where one is formed in the mystery of Christ and transformed into a disciple. It is where the obligation is placed on each member of the body to preach the Gospel, for Christ calls each to service (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:16) as a disciple.

In a society where the Good News is not always welcome and where devoted service to the master is often shunned, this might all sound strangely countercultural. And of course, it is. However, being counter-cultural does not invalidate or neutralise the Good News. It is precisely in this manner that we Christians are commanded to live the faith. It is in this setting that the Gospel is planted, takes root, grows from within and becomes a sign that God reigns on earth and in heaven.

Why would anyone offer himself or herself for this work? Saint Paul guides us to the solution when he says, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

To be like Christ is our ultimate vocation. To be a disciple of Christ is how we live out that vocation. Each one of us can be inspired by the great Paul in our discipleship. Lay women and men together with their priests, again to use the words of Saint Paul, “make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ.”

Our priests too are an essential part of the community of the Church. The priestly vocation is one that is born out of the baptismal vocation. And so, when some question why would anyone make himself available for priestly ministry within the community of the Church, the answer is simple – he does not choose the priesthood, God calls him to the priesthood for sacred service to the Body of Christ. As I said when I ordained Fr Paul Tran to the priesthood at Gosford, “we priests more than others must be willing to abandon ourselves to the will of God, so as to be completely at the Brothers and sisters, when we were baptised we were admitted to the Christian community and each of us took on all the dignity and responsibility that entails. Baptism made us sons and daughters of God and called us to serve the community of the Church and to evangelise the world. Baptism imposed a duty on each of us, a duty of serving others.

Today just as Christ called his apostles to be his companions, he also calls you to be close to him. In the Christian vocation God calls some to married life, some to consecrated life, some to the single life, and some to ordained life and ministry as deacons or priests. Our vocation is first and foremost to be like Jesus, to imitate him, to be Christ-like, to be holy; to have a heart like his; to love the things he loves and desires; to reject the things he rejects. To be Christ-like involves loving like Christ, caring like Christ, thinking like him, perceiving things with his eyes and having his mentality. It means to be understanding, compassionate, and merciful like Jesus Christ.

As individuals and as a community of the Church we will succeed in our imitation of Christ if we immerse ourselves in the Word of God, the prayer of the Church, the Eucharist and the Sacraments. Through prayer and discernment, wholesome relationships, and openness of mind and heart, our community of Broken Bay will learn that being an apostle of Christ demands generosity, enthusiasm and self-sacrifice.

God is calling you. How will you respond?

May Mary, Mother of the Church and Star of the Sea, pray for us and show us the way to her son Jesus Christ our Lord.