IN the past 50 years, society has changed, communication has changed, fashion has changed, mobility has changed, technology has changed, medicine has changed, morality has changed, culture has changed, and what brings us together in prayer tonight, religion has changed.
It would be impossible for young people to realise just what the Catholic religion was like a mere 50 years ago.
Changes have occurred in liturgy, music, worship, the architecture of churches, in religious dress, Church laws, church attendance, vocations to priesthood and religious life, and theology.
However, lest we become too disturbed by all the change, the constants are there as well.
God is still there, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever is there, the Church is still there, the saints of the Church are still there, belief in life after death and resurrection is still there, hope in life after death is still there, Marian devotion is still there, and the Ten Commandments of course are still there.
Sadly what impacts on us more than anything else is not so much Church membership which seems to be increasing, even if slowly, nor a great diminishment of those who believe in God, but there is certainly diminishment of those who worship God regularly as people did in the past, and such lack of worship would soon be a logical consequence of lack of faith.
Where the haemorrhage is most pronounced sadly is in our young people who seem to be searching for God in many different places, not always successfully.
As well there is a tragic shortage of vocations to the priesthood which ultimately limits access to Eucharist, the heart and soul of Catholic life, and the spiritual foundation of our Church.
It is in this situation that, having exhausted from an earthly point of view, possible solutions, in what some might call a crisis, and others an opportunity, that ultimately we are forced to fall on our knees, as we are doing tonight, and pray ‘Dear God please show us a way forward, dear God please give us something to hope for, and as we search for solutions, dear God, please give us the wisdom that sits by your throne’.
Finally we pray as the pope did over Poland 20 years ago, ‘Holy Spirit of God come down upon this land and in our own particular case renew our archdiocese’.
What we are doing is throwing ourselves into the hands of God and asking God to show us the light.
In acting in this manner we are not, according to the Bible, doing something new.
We are merely joining a long line of faithful people from the past who did the same — with Abraham and Sarah unable to see their way forward, with Moses setting out for the promised land, with Mary at the time of the annunciation, with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, his dreams for the Kingdom in disarray, with the apostles after the death of Christ, with Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb, with the small band of apostles sent out after Pentecost to change the world, with the early Christians suffering persecution, with the the early Church swamped by the Arian heresy, and with a thousand other situations down the long road of history.
In more recent times, with Pope John Paul II, who watched his country Poland dying under the pressure of Communist rule.
In all these situations believers turned to God and said ‘Dear God, help us’.
Invariably the prayers were answered.
Tonight we are doing the same thing again, full of confidence and hope that through our prayers people will return to God, baptised Christians will worship again, and young people will give their lives to Christ and discover the excitement of the Gospel.
At the Synod (in 2003) I talked of the need for us to fall in love with God. The reading from the Song of Songs expresses this in nuptial language when the bride who represents ‘The chosen people’ says: ‘I will seek him whom my heart loves’.
This image of love is reinforced in the New Testament when Mary Magdalene meets the risen Christ and as the scripture says ‘clings to him’ until Christ sends her forth to become a prophet of the resurrection for the frightened Church that so badly needed the witness of her faith.
The letter to the Romans then reminds us that the spirit of God helps us always, especially when we are weak.
Tonight in the midst of our apparent weakness we can have every confidence that God will come to our aid if only we are prepared to ask.
And so my dear people, let us begin by doing precisely that on this feast of St Mary Magdalene, by changing our lives as Mary Magdalene changed hers in order to become witnesses of the resurrection to the world.
Next year our archdiocesan Church will make ‘mission’ the focus of its study and action. We are now preparing for that moment by an archdiocesan campaign of prayer beginning tonight and lasting until Pentecost.
We will call our campaign the 799 campaign, because 7,9,9 indicates the times I pray each day, and when I hope you may be able to pray with me.
At 7 o’clock in the morning when I say my daily Mass, at 9 o’clock in the morning when I say the Morning Prayer of the Church, and at 9 o’clock at night when I say the Evening Prayer of the Church and the Rosary.
I invite you to join with me at those times, even if all you are able to say is the prayer written on your cards tonight ‘Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of the faithful’.
I have no doubt that if enough people are prepared to do this, then great things will happen.
I have been astounded, as I’m sure you have too, when the power of God is unleashed even in response to our prayer for individual needs.
Think what might happen if the whole archdiocese could pray together. I look forward in hope to what might happen when the prayers of thousands of people are unleashed in our archdiocese for the sake of God’s Kingdom.
May the Holy Spirit fill our hearts and minds tonight with God’s peace and joy, and may Mary, Mother of Jesus, and St Mary Magdalene, prophet of the resurrection, be models for our deeper conversion to Christ, as well as being our intercessors for the success of our mission to the world in 2006.
This is an edited text of Archbishop Bathersby’s homily at the launch of the Come Holy Spirit Prayer Campaign.
How to join the prayer campaign
- Pray one or more prayers to the Holy Spirit each day (eg in your workplace, at home, on the phone, in the car, with a friend, at the start of meetings, at your computer).
- Make each Friday a focus day when we can pray in communion with the archbishop (9am and 7pm) and one another (12 noon).
- Take time to reflect on the action of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures and ask God for that the same dynamism and power to be released within our Archdiocese.
- Share stories of how the Holy Spirit has touched your life and how this has made a difference in our world.
- Invite family members, friends, work colleagues and fellow Catholics to become involved in this campaign.
- Visit the PrayerFIRE Web site for further information and resources at www.bne.catholic.net.au/prayerfire
