Homilies
-
Holy Thursday – 2 April 2026
In these days, when the shadow of conflict weighs heavily upon our world, and when grim economic forecasts unsettle households and nations alike, we know too well the climate of uncertainty, anxiety, and the quiet fear of what may yet unfold. It is into such moments that literature—and faith—speak with renewed clarity. In several of the Harry Potter novels by J. K. Rowling, there comes, at the end of the story, a striking insight into human nature. Such is the case in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. After all the turmoil and danger, Harry comes to a troubling realisation: that something of the darkness he opposes—something of Lord…
-
Palm Sunday – 29 March 2026
Today we commemorate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, the place from which he will be arrested, tired and crucified. Yet there is something unsettling about the way Jesus enters Jerusalem. He does not slip quietly into the city. He does not avoid attention. Rather, he chooses this moment. He sends for the donkey. He rides into the city as the crowd cries out “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” This is not accidental. This is Jesus intentionally laying claim to his city. And yet, everything about it feels wrong. Because if a king comes to claim his city, we expect strength, control, stability, visible power But Jesus comes on a donkey. Not a war horse.…
-
Fifth Sunday of Lent – 22 March 2026
One of the maxims we learn in life is that when we are in a hole, we should stop digging. It sounds simple. Yet it is remarkably difficult to live by. From time to time, we see it play out in public life—a figure caught in a mistake, who keeps speaking, keeps defending, keeps digging deeper. We cringe as we watch it unfold. And yet, if we are honest, we recognise something of ourselves in it. Because all of us, in one way or another, know what it is to dig a hole for ourselves. It happens in our work. It happens in our relationships. We say too much or…
-
Fourth Sunday of Lent – 15 March 2026
The readings of this Fourth Sunday of Lent centre on the theme of seeing. In the Gospel of Gospel of John we encounter the story of the man born blind. It is a story not only about physical sight being restored, but about a deeper vision that opens slowly within the human heart. In times like our own, that theme takes on particular urgency. In these days our world is again confronted with the tragedy of war in the Middle East, especially in the growing conflict involving Iran and its neighbours. Images of destruction, fear, and suffering reach us daily. It is easy for our vision of the world to become clouded by despair,…
-
3rd Sunday in Lent – 8 March 2026
I shall always remember my visit, many years ago, to a young woman of twenty-one who was dying of AIDS. Jeanine’s life had been fractured — childhood abuse, addiction, exploitation, loss. By most standards, people might have said her life had been wasted. And yet, sitting close to death, she spoke with extraordinary vitality. She dreamed of helping others who were sick. She wanted to write poetry. She treated each day as a precious gift. She spoke tenderly of her nieces and hoped for their happiness. She hoped people would not be crushed by her death but would trust she was going home to God. For someone who was dying, she was astonishingly alive.…
-
First Sunday of Lent – 22 February 2026
A number of years ago, Sean Penn directed one of the most extraordinary films I have seen: Into the Wild. The film tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, a 22-year-old who leaves behind his family and possessions to wander across the United States, eventually seeking the vast solitude of the Alaskan wilderness. Many reviewers saw the story as a celebration of the American pioneering spirit. But the deeper journey is not geographical — it is spiritual and psychological. The physical isolation McCandless chooses mirrors an inner isolation that has already taken hold of his life. For Christopher, that isolation becomes toxic. Yet just before his death — alone in…
-
Ash Wednesday – 18 February 2026
Nearly 1500 years ago, the great Christian writer, Augustine penned in his memoirs, The Confessions “Too late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient, O Beauty so new. Too late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside myself, and there I sought you! In my weakness I ran after the beauty of the things you have made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The things you have made kept me from you – the things which would have no being unless they existed in you! You have called, you have cried, and you have pierced my deafness. You have radiated…
-
Opening School Mass for Pius X College Chatswood – 11 February 2026
In 1986, an extraordinary film was released, Babette’s Feast. Babette, a French Catholic, is a Parisian chef who gets caught up in the riots in the French capital in 1871. Her husband and son are killed in the fighting. Babette is assisted to escape to Denmark where members of a strict Protestant sect take her into their remote village. The founder of the community has died, but his two daughters engage Babette as their cook. The mysterious woman assumes the nature of a servant. They have no idea who she is, or what has bought her to their home. Having been in the village for 14 years, Babette wins 10,000…
-
5th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 8 February 2026
The late Jesuit Superior General, Pedro Arrupe, once commented beautifully: “What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”[1] Where is my passion? It is the question to which Jesus constantly invites us. At the very outset of the Gospel, in his very first encounter with the disciples, the conversation begins with, “What…
-
4th Sunday in Ordinary Time – 1 February 2026
It is not an uncommon story to hear people who have visited countries where poverty is visibly overwhelming, coming home and saying how happy the people whom they encountered. It confuses us. How can people who have so little, have so much? How can we who have so much, through our systems of education, health and law, have such little happiness? Our thinking identifies happiness with what we have, with what we have achieved; and yet, often enough, it seems that those who have very little are the happiest people in the world. How can it be that happiness seems to be in proportion to what one doesn’t have? …