EMBRACING Australia’s diverse multicultural makeup is a sign that a society promotes and values life, a Sunnybank priest told his congregation during their annual Multicultural Mass.
Fr Raju Joseph is associate pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Sunnybank, well known for its rich multicultural congregation.
More than 750 people over three Masses attended their annual Multicultural Mass at the end of June, representing more than 20 different cultures associated with the large parish.
During his Homily for the Mass, which was live-streamed on the parish’s Facebook page, Fr Joseph said acknowledging other cultures through the process of enculturation and acculturation “will enable us to promote life”.
“We have to assimilate the culture of others,” Fr Joseph said.
“And why we want to assimilate other cultures? It is through assimilating other cultures that we will learn many new things, and also, ultimately, it will enable us to promote life.
“Nobody can say that, it is my culture, I will always remain in that culture, I don’t want to mingle with any other culture or people.
“We are all part of this nation, and as we are here, it is our duty to see that we assimilate other cultures so that we can grow together.”
A multicultural society like Australia, where people of different races and nationalities lived harmoniously together, was witnessing to a culture of life “based on love, respect, acceptance”.
“We know, when we love others, when we help others, when we do good things to others, we are nurturing life,” he said.
“So when we look around, we can see today and culture of death, a culture of death in the sense, in the form of abortion, euthanasia, suicide, homicide, these are all a culture of death.
“What we want today is a culture of life, we have to promote life.
“As we celebrate this great day, we are celebrating life.”
Jesus’ own example of nurturing life “shown from his life, death and resurrection” points Catholics to the importance of celebrating life in all forms, Fr Joseph said.
“Jesus, all through his life, he was promoting life by curing sick people, by raising dead people,” he said.
“He was always telling us the importance of life and Jesus himself told us, ‘I have come so that they may have life and life in its fullness’.”
Multicultural Masses then are not just an opportunity to highlight the Church’s universal nature but to show an “understanding in our mind that we belong to one community, we belong to one society and we are more than our differences,” he said.
During the Mass, Fr Joseph encouraged the congregation to pray the Lord’s Prayer aloud in their native tongue, to express the unity and common home of the parishioners.
“What we have in common is much to be appreciated, and we should appreciate others, we should acknowledge others, and we have to see Christ in others,” Fr Raju said.
“Only then can we promote life, we can focus on life, and thus we can be truly called the true disciples of Jesus.”
