32 Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst Year in Review 2024 We look towards God’s future, confident that, whatever occurs, all our achievements and all our disappointments are part of God’s plan, which goes far beyond what we can imagine. 150th Chrism Mass Homily So, across those 150 years that we’ve been a Diocese celebrating Chrism Masses, the face of the Diocese has actually looked very different at different times. Through all that change, there have been three constants, which we are reminded of in today’s readings, which we hear each year at this Chrism Mass. In the first reading from Isaiah and in the Gospel of Luke, where Jesus quotes that text from Isaiah, we hear the mission of Jesus that he announces when he enters the synagogue at Nazareth: to bring good news to the poor; to bind up hearts which are broken; to bring liberty to captives – to those who are bound up, restrained and held up; to bring sight to the blind – those who can’t see the way forward; to set the downtrodden free – bringing care and encouragement for those who are struggling. That has always been the mission of the Christian people. It has been the mission of the local Church in this place throughout our history, and it continues to be our mission today. The second constant is about change, about living out our mission in a way that responds to the particular blessings and challenges of each generation – through experiences of war and peace; through pandemics; through times of prosperity and times of hardship. In our own time, one of the challenges that we face are the decline of smaller communities, at the same time that we see growth in larger centres. So there are increasing challenges to provide services, including Church services, for those who live in small communities. Paradoxically, in this time when communication and travel is so much easier, some of our community are perhaps facing a new experience of isolation, remoteness and disconnection. We also live amidst a growing polarisation across our communities – certainly politically, and also to an extent in our Church experience. This polarisation is taking place in a context of growing secularisation and focus on individuals, with less interest and engagement in religious experiences and institutions. Another challenge is the increasing need to take shared actions to protect our environment and care for our common home. And we live in a time when we are struggling to find ways for meaningful recognition and justice for our indigenous people, whose ancient bond with this land and its waterways stretches back countless generations, way before European settlement in this land. We profess our commitment to reconciliation, but making progress towards that is something that still eludes us as a community. After the very clear failure of last year’s referendum on the Voice, efforts to pursue reconciliation and justice have become even more difficult, and there is much healing needed for those who had such high hopes at the prospect of formal recognition and a structure where they could be heard. Finally, we live in a time where Pope Francis has called us to continue our mission as Jesus’ followers in a way that renews us synodally, in a way where we grow in our commitment to walk together and move forward on our shared journey as followers of Jesus – through our living out his mission, our participation in co-responsibility for our shared life, and our building up the communion of the People of God. At a diocesan level, we have taken significant steps towards this by establishing our Diocesan Mission and Pastoral Council, which was commissioned at this Mass last year. Responding to the Pope’s call to become more synodal is also prompting renewal and conversion in the life of our parish communities, and also in the way that we shape and govern the work of our school communities and of our social services. So, that is the second constant: in living out and pursuing the ongoing mission of Jesus, we have always sought to recognise and respond to the particularities of the situation in which we find ourselves. The third constant is one that we heard proclaimed in the second reading, which is that we are people of hope. We are called to respond to the challenges of our own time with confidence and hope, which we profess and renew today. We look towards God’s future, confident that, whatever occurs, all our achievements and all our disappointments are part of God’s plan, which goes far beyond what we can imagine. In that plan, Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, as we heard in the reading. He is the Alpha: the beginning of all of our beginnings, the beginning that underlies and makes possible anything that we attempt. And he is the Omega: the end of all that we pursue, the end that lies beyond anything that we might achieve and that brings our works and our efforts to a fulfilment that goes beyond what we could have ever imagined – the fullness of God’s plan and God’s love for us and all of creation. And so, as we look back with thanks on the first 150 years of our Diocese, and look forward with confidence and hope in the future that God is building in us, I now ask each of you to recommit yourselves to your path in the Christian life: to renew your commitment to living as baptised followers of Jesus, as professed religious, or as ordained ministers of God’s Church. Most Rev. Shane Mackinlay DD 8th Bishop of Sandhurst
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