Homily given by Bishop Anthony Randazzo
Bishop of Broken Bay
Pentecost Sunday
Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral
31 May 2020
Over the past few weeks, I have received several letters from people requesting that I note in the baptismal register that they have defected from the faith of the Catholic Church. To be honest, it is one of the saddest moments of my life as a bishop.
I have written expressing my concern for them and have invited them to engage in a conversation with me before taking such serious action. One person replied that the institution of the Church has left them feeling disillusioned. In particular, the failure of past church leadership and structures to care for people who are vulnerable and on the margins.
I recognise that at times in our history, the institution of the Church has failed to proclaim that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for all people – men and women; young and old; girls and boys.
The institution can, at times, look like a faceless person that is distant and disinterested, mechanical and impersonal in its work. This saddens me, because that is not what the community of the Church is, nor should it be. Jesus’ living, dying and rising was not for the sake of creating a bureaucratic institution.
Instead, the Paschal mystery is a turning point for humanity. Easter is the liberation of a people; and Pentecost gives this people the institutions of freedom. For the Jewish people, Pentecost was the anniversary of the promulgation of the law, which had given Israel the opportunity to understand their highly paid for freedom through their exodus from Egypt.
The Christian feast that we commemorate today preserves the order of Sinai: the roar, the wind, the fire. However, Christian Pentecost announces a far more effective and lasting freedom. It is not a feast of the institution of law; rather, it is a celebration of the law of love and mercy written on the human heart by God himself.
Saint Paul reminds us that the Spirit comes upon the community of the Church imparting a variety of gifts (1Cor 12:4). There is diversity in the charisms of the Spirit because the Holy Spirit rejects the monotony of prefabricated and standardized things. The Spirit gives each person different gifts and a different vocation, according to each person’s personality.
Unfortunately, these differences can lead Christians to categorize themselves, to oppose each other, to pigeonhole others, to become ideological warriors. It is an ever-present danger, today as in the days of Saint Paul.
My sisters and brothers, the Spirit desires unity, which, however, is realised not by mechanical or institutional compliance, but by being different, each preserving their own God-given personality.
Our vocations and our personal gifts must benefit the whole community. Every Christian, animated by the Spirit, must be united with other Christians in faith, in order to be able to live the freedom of the children of God.
The gift of the risen Christ is the gift of renewal, reconciliation, and peace. By giving his Spirit, Jesus renews the creative gesture of Genesis (Gen 2:7). As the Spirit hovered over the chaos and life emerged from the darkness, so too our dying and rising with Christ makes us partakers in his triumph over evil and sin.
My dear people, there is nothing institutional in this vision of the community of the Church. Rather, the Body of Christ is personal and relational, loving and forgiving. The community of the Church is the visible Body of Jesus Christ, who redeems all of creation and by the power of the Holy Spirit draws us into communion with the Blessed Trinity.
The scars of sin and evil are visible in our Church and in our world, however, now is not the time to abandon the Christ who died on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, now is the time to be reborn and renewed in the community of the Church.
We stand before you, Holy Spirit,
conscious of our sinfulness,
but aware that we gather in your name.
Come to us, remain with us,
and enlighten our hearts.
Give us light and strength
to know your will,
to make it our own
and to live it in our lives. Amen.
(cf. Prayer from Opening Session of the Second Vatican Council)