This is Archbishop Mark Coleridge’s homily for the Annual Catholic Campaign delivered at parishes across Brisbane archdiocese last weekend.
IN the Gospel we’ve just heard, Jesus speaks to Nicodemus.
He’s the man who came to Jesus under cover of dark because he was afraid of what his fellow Jews might think of him meeting with the troublesome rabbi. Nicodemus says to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God”.
But the Lord then goes on to say that he’s much more than a divinely inspired and commissioned teacher.
He will be the one lifted up on the Cross “so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life”.
He is the doorway into the fullness of life that God has provided.
So the story we hear is a story of revelation in the night, a story of light born at the heart of darkness.
And the revelation is given not to one of the close followers of Jesus, but to an outsider belonging to a group, the Jewish Sanhedrin, that was seriously threatened by Jesus and was out to get him.
Eventually they will “get” him but, in “getting” him, they will ensure that Jesus becomes the one lifted up – not to condemn the world but that the world (and even the Sanhedrin) might be saved through him.
All these centuries later, we ask, like Nicodemus, Where to find Jesus?
We are all Nicodemus, and his question is ours.
The answer given today is clear: Like Nicodemus we will find Jesus in the darkness.
We find him in people living in the darkness of poverty, mental illness, family strife, abuse of one kind or another.
We find Jesus in the many people served by Centacare, whose people go out into the darkness day by day, knowing that there they’ll meet not only human need but also Jesus himself, the one who turns darkness to light.
Today you have a chance to join our Centacare people as they go out into the darkness.
That’s why I’m asking you today to join in the archdiocese’s Annual Catholic Campaign that we first saw last year.
In the past, we had what seemed an endless procession of collections and appeals for one thing or another.
The Annual Catholic Campaign now gathers all of them into a single large appeal.
As well as helping those most in need, the campaign also supports the Priests Foundation and Holy Spirit Seminary.
The Priests Foundation enables us to provide proper care to men who have served the Church through a life-time, guiding the flock of Christ through darkness towards the light.
The seminary helps prepare the next generation of priestly leaders in the Church, men who in a changing world will serve the people no less than did those who went before them.
The Church is certainly bigger than the clergy, much bigger; but without good priests it’s hard for the Church to flourish.
And we need good priests now more than ever.
At the moment, the Church is dealing with her own darkness as the Royal Commission brings to light heart-rending stories of sexual abuse and its mishandling.
The Royal Commission has already costs us plenty and it will end up costing the Church a great deal more.
But I can tell you that not a cent given to the Annual Catholic Campaign will be used to deal with the crisis we are now facing and will continue to face in times ahead.
Justice will be done to those who have been abused; compassion will be shown. But that will not involve funds raised by the campaign.
The theme of this year’s campaign is “Our Church, Our Mission, Our Responsibility”.
The Church doesn’t have a mission; the Church is a mission.
And this mission belongs not just to the bishops, the clergy of the Religious. It’s something that belongs to everyone in the Church.
All the baptised are called to be missionary disciples.
We are all called, like Nicodemus, to find Jesus in the darkness.
We are called to be disciples.
But having encountered Jesus who is the light, we are then sent forth by him to be light in the darkness.
We are called to be missionaries.
Pope Francis has put the call in ways and words that are fresh and powerful. What we have to offer the world is not condemnation – there’s already too much of that.
What we have to offer is the salvation that comes from an all-loving God and leads to eternal life.
That’s the far horizon, the deep purpose of the Annual Catholic Campaign.
So I ask you to reach out, like Nicodemus, and to be generous in supporting this year’s campaign as Catholic people in this country have always been generous. Let your giving be a form of love, something done not grudgingly but gladly. It’s this kind of practical, hands-on love that Australians are good at; and it’s also this kind of practical, hands-on love that opens our eyes to see the truth of the One lifted up and his presence in those most in need, the light in the dark of night.
