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All Masses (and Wednesday Liturgy) have resumed: You must sign-in using the CBR app / the form provided. Face masks are optional.

  Why does the Church year end with the Solemnity of Christ the King? Surely, a king calls to mind pomp and power whereas Jesus insisted on self-sacrificing service. Developing the First Reading reference to the ‘son of man’, Jesus would have it that the power and domination of passing empires, in today’s Gospel represented by Pilate the Roman Governor, will be trumped by the Father’s love and truth for which Jesus will lay down his life. His death and resurrection will usher in the everlasting reign of God. As John J Pilch explains: “Jesus’s followers are not subjects in a kingdom but persons who hear the truth and respond to it. It is in this sense and not in a political sense that Jesus can be understood as king and possessing a kingdom.” And so, as king in the sense of ‘Good Shepherd’, he invites each by name in the depth of their heart. Further, we enjoy the fruits of the reign of God but not yet fully so. We live in the ‘between-time’ seeking to be at one now and fully so beyond death, as we remind ourselves in praying for the faithful departed in this month of the holy souls. The mission of the Church, or more truly the mission which the Church serves in worship and action consistent with that is to the good of human flourishing. Your prayerful and practical support for Mission Sunday today, which we usually celebrate in October but delayed because of the lockdown, is much appreciated. During last week’s clergy retreat, retired Bishop of Darwin, Eugene Hurley shared that Aborigines make up 33% of the NT population but 85% of those incarcerated and 100% of those in juvenile detention. This and many other situations of injustice and deprivation are an affront to the reign of God. Stan Grant, commentator, TV host and man of indigenous and Irish heritage has spoken of living within and between two worlds. He sees it as gift and impetus to realise something new. “My epiphany came in the Sistine Chapel. There in a throng of tourists crammed into the Vatican, I gazed at our eternal struggle. Michelangelo laboured four years to produce this, his depiction of Genesis. Here is the outstretched hand of Adam, reaching for the hand of God. They extend but they do not touch. Between them is all of us: all we want to be; all we fail to be; all our ambiguity. Between them is the very spark of life - not in the act of existence but in the act of striving” (Stan Grant, ‘Australia Day’, 52). Might we support the mission of the Church to assist humanity’s striving. Lord, may your love and truth reign in each and for all.

- Fr John

The Season of Advent commences next weekend. We are offering two possible Advent programmes: 

(1) The Canberra and Goulburn Archdiocesan Programme, ‘Walking Together ‘. This free, online programme takes up the papal encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ and seeks to enrich marriage and family life. Register at: bit.ly/WalkingTogether_Advent.

(2) ‘Blessed’ is the Diocese of Wollongong programme, suitable for group or individual reflection. Copies are available in the Church foyer.