BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge has thanked Church employees for their service during a Mass celebrating the Solemnity of St Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Mass in St Stephen’s Cathedral was attended by hundreds of Brisbane archdiocesan staff and Church agencies, including Centacare, Brisbane Catholic Education and Australian Catholic University.
Delivering a homily, Archbishop Coleridge referred to the Gospel reading (Matthew 1:16, 18-21) in which Joseph listens to the angel sent to speak to him in a dream and resolves to take Mary as his wife and be father to Jesus.
“What Joseph hears is mighty strange, is it not?” Archbishop Coleridge said.
“Here he is betrothed to Mary, discovers she is already pregnant – that would have been shocking enough, and the disruption of all his hopes for the future.
“Then he is told Mary hasn’t conceived out of wedlock, as you might think… she has extraordinarily conceived by the Holy Spirit.
“However strange, Joseph is the one who without ever speaking, says ‘yes’.
“He awakens to the astonishing fact that he is part of a plan of God’s far stranger than anything he imagined.”
Archbishop Colerdige likened Joseph’s openness “to the great disruptions of God” to the roles accepted by each Church staff member.
“In a sense the work that all of us do is humble,” he said.
“We all make our little contribution – whether it is the archbishop or someone who answers the phone – it’s all a humble service … but a service that is far, far bigger than us.
“And that’s why it is good for us to come together and see the hundreds of others who chip away day by day as each of us… part of a big team… you have been drawn into this vast plan of God, without which this moment, this cathedral, this precinct and this Church would be nothing at all but a waste of time.
“I can stand here in your midst and say thank you … in the name of the God that you serve.
“Thank you for being like a little part of a very grand plan.”
