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| Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP DD BA LlB BTheol DPhil Third Bishop of Parramatta |
ARCHDIOCESE OF PARRAMATTA REPORT: The Homilies of Bishop Anthony Fisher
Homily - Funeral Mass for Father John Smith, St Canice’s Church, Katoomba, Feast of the Holy Family, 30 December 2011
Funeral Mass for Father John Smith, St Canice’s Church, Katoomba, Feast of the Holy Family, 30 December 2011
Catholic parties are longer than anyone else’s and so today is Christmas day still, a day that lasts for an octave of eight calendar days, and then another week as we await the last party guests, the three star-gazers from the Orient. That’s why we usually prepare enough food at Christmas to feed us for many days. Our extended Christmas day reminds us that the Baby we have been celebrating is truly one of us – hence the birthday party – and yet not just ‘another one’ of us – hence the length of His nativity celebration.
As no Sunday intervenes between Christmas and New Year this year, we miss our ordinary Sunday celebration of the Boy’s Holy Family. Instead we celebrate it today, along with the Funeral Mass of John Smith. It is not such a strange coincidence of celebrations, however, when we consider the beautiful Third Preface for the Nativity of the Lord which we will pray today. It thanks God for that “holy exchange that restores our life” that “has shone forth today in splendour”. What is this ‘holy exchange’? “When our frailty is assumed by your Word,” the prayer explains “not only does human mortality receive unending honour but by this wondrous union we, too, are made eternal.” Already at Christmas, and long before Easter, there is a glimmer of hope that we might have eternal life.
Fr John Smith moved to Australia in pursuit of a warmer climate, but by the strange providence of God and even stranger workings of bishops he ended up Parish Priest of our coldest parish, in Katoomba. Born within sound of the Bow Bells he had heard from very young the ringing proclamation of our Christmas Lord. When only 12 or 13 years old he shocked his family by his decision to enter a pre-seminary for those preparing for ministry in the Church of England. He was trained there in the Christian faith, music and classical languages, and went on to read in Cambridge. He brought that learning and culture to his priestly life, both in the Anglican communion and ultimately in the Catholic Church.
In today’s Gospel (Lk 2:22-40) Jesus makes the first of many trips to church – to the Temple in Jerusalem – so His parents can make thanksgiving to God and consecrate their newborn to Him. There they meet old Father Simeon, who has prayed all his life to see the Messiah and now, having done so, sings his Nunc Dimitis, the Church’s bedtime lullaby. “Now my eyes have seen the salvation ... the light ... the glory” he thrills. The Christmas Gospels are suffused with this light. The Word, John’s Gospel tells us, is “a light come into the darkness that the darkness cannot overcome”. Matthew tells us He was heralded by comet-light and glow of angels. Luke records Zechariah announcing the Boy as “the tender mercy of God’s dawn, giving light to those who dwell in darkness and death”. And, as Simeon sang, that dawn is not for Israel only, but for all humanity, even Englishmen, even Australians.
What is this Christmas light that is told each year in evermore elaborate displays of Christmas lights around our suburbs? We say someone is enlightened when he has the gift of seeing deeply, of grasping reality wisely. We say someone is bright when he is happy, cheery, hopeful. Fr John Smith was bright in both senses. In our Cathedral presbytery, where he was recuperating for some months after surgery, he brought to our table words – he was never short of words – both of erudition and humour. Priests are, of course, wordsmiths, as they mediate the Light of Christ to others by proclamation and preaching, by liturgical words and sacramental formulae, by words of counsel and consolation. Fr John’s words were learned but never patronising, and he would always reach out to others with compassion, with a Pastor’s love.
Fr John Smith devoted his life to the Light of Christ. That light can take you in some unexpected directions! It took John into the Anglican ministry and Naval chaplaincy, then out of both and into the Catholic Church and priesthood, “from the RN to the RC” as he used to put it; into the Diocese of Leeds and several parishes and prison ministry; then out of Leeds and England and into Quakers Hill in the Diocese of Parramatta and finally up to the Upper Blue Mountains where the presbytery and parish needed his attentions. Though he long planned retirement in Spain – and had even bought his air ticket – he has now been called to a different beach. God often has different plans for us.
In the coming year we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, what Blessed John Paul II called “the greatest grace given the Church in the 20th Century”. On reading its Constitution, Gaudium et Spes, John realised he must become a Catholic. It was unexpected. It was a great risk. But by Christ’s light we dare walk in such darkness. We dare also to be bearers of that light to the world, relaying the light of Christmas and Easter. So we must have the courage to speak openly, in broad daylight, not always worrying what people will think of us. Nor is it enough to talk of it: our very lives must radiate with the light of Christ; we must have in us a burning heart, fire in our belly, a shining enthusiasm. Like the bushfires that Mountains people know all too well, we must desire to share our fervour, our brightness, to spread it abroad.
Today we give thanks to God for a priest who answered the call to run like a bearer of the Olympic torch – more recently he walked – to relay Christ’s enlightening truth, burning compassion, shining hope, a light for those experiencing darkness and death. We offer for Fr John that Holy Sacrifice which he taught us to revere above all else, source of our joy and worthy of all praise. As he passed on the light of Christ to us so we pray now for perpetual light for him. We pray for him with that bedtime prayer of old Father Simeon: “Now, All-powerful Master, let your servant go in peace, according to Your promise, for his eyes have seen Your salvation, the Light to enlighten all peoples.”
http://www.parra.catholic.org.au/bishop-of-parramatta/most-rev-anthony-fisher-op/the-bishop-s-homilies.aspx/the-homilies-of-bishop-anthony-fisher/homily---funeral-mass-for-father-john-smith--st-canice-s-church--katoomba--feast-of-the-holy-family--30-december-2011.aspx
Catholic parties are longer than anyone else’s and so today is Christmas day still, a day that lasts for an octave of eight calendar days, and then another week as we await the last party guests, the three star-gazers from the Orient. That’s why we usually prepare enough food at Christmas to feed us for many days. Our extended Christmas day reminds us that the Baby we have been celebrating is truly one of us – hence the birthday party – and yet not just ‘another one’ of us – hence the length of His nativity celebration.
As no Sunday intervenes between Christmas and New Year this year, we miss our ordinary Sunday celebration of the Boy’s Holy Family. Instead we celebrate it today, along with the Funeral Mass of John Smith. It is not such a strange coincidence of celebrations, however, when we consider the beautiful Third Preface for the Nativity of the Lord which we will pray today. It thanks God for that “holy exchange that restores our life” that “has shone forth today in splendour”. What is this ‘holy exchange’? “When our frailty is assumed by your Word,” the prayer explains “not only does human mortality receive unending honour but by this wondrous union we, too, are made eternal.” Already at Christmas, and long before Easter, there is a glimmer of hope that we might have eternal life.
Fr John Smith moved to Australia in pursuit of a warmer climate, but by the strange providence of God and even stranger workings of bishops he ended up Parish Priest of our coldest parish, in Katoomba. Born within sound of the Bow Bells he had heard from very young the ringing proclamation of our Christmas Lord. When only 12 or 13 years old he shocked his family by his decision to enter a pre-seminary for those preparing for ministry in the Church of England. He was trained there in the Christian faith, music and classical languages, and went on to read in Cambridge. He brought that learning and culture to his priestly life, both in the Anglican communion and ultimately in the Catholic Church.
In today’s Gospel (Lk 2:22-40) Jesus makes the first of many trips to church – to the Temple in Jerusalem – so His parents can make thanksgiving to God and consecrate their newborn to Him. There they meet old Father Simeon, who has prayed all his life to see the Messiah and now, having done so, sings his Nunc Dimitis, the Church’s bedtime lullaby. “Now my eyes have seen the salvation ... the light ... the glory” he thrills. The Christmas Gospels are suffused with this light. The Word, John’s Gospel tells us, is “a light come into the darkness that the darkness cannot overcome”. Matthew tells us He was heralded by comet-light and glow of angels. Luke records Zechariah announcing the Boy as “the tender mercy of God’s dawn, giving light to those who dwell in darkness and death”. And, as Simeon sang, that dawn is not for Israel only, but for all humanity, even Englishmen, even Australians.
What is this Christmas light that is told each year in evermore elaborate displays of Christmas lights around our suburbs? We say someone is enlightened when he has the gift of seeing deeply, of grasping reality wisely. We say someone is bright when he is happy, cheery, hopeful. Fr John Smith was bright in both senses. In our Cathedral presbytery, where he was recuperating for some months after surgery, he brought to our table words – he was never short of words – both of erudition and humour. Priests are, of course, wordsmiths, as they mediate the Light of Christ to others by proclamation and preaching, by liturgical words and sacramental formulae, by words of counsel and consolation. Fr John’s words were learned but never patronising, and he would always reach out to others with compassion, with a Pastor’s love.
Fr John Smith devoted his life to the Light of Christ. That light can take you in some unexpected directions! It took John into the Anglican ministry and Naval chaplaincy, then out of both and into the Catholic Church and priesthood, “from the RN to the RC” as he used to put it; into the Diocese of Leeds and several parishes and prison ministry; then out of Leeds and England and into Quakers Hill in the Diocese of Parramatta and finally up to the Upper Blue Mountains where the presbytery and parish needed his attentions. Though he long planned retirement in Spain – and had even bought his air ticket – he has now been called to a different beach. God often has different plans for us.
In the coming year we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, what Blessed John Paul II called “the greatest grace given the Church in the 20th Century”. On reading its Constitution, Gaudium et Spes, John realised he must become a Catholic. It was unexpected. It was a great risk. But by Christ’s light we dare walk in such darkness. We dare also to be bearers of that light to the world, relaying the light of Christmas and Easter. So we must have the courage to speak openly, in broad daylight, not always worrying what people will think of us. Nor is it enough to talk of it: our very lives must radiate with the light of Christ; we must have in us a burning heart, fire in our belly, a shining enthusiasm. Like the bushfires that Mountains people know all too well, we must desire to share our fervour, our brightness, to spread it abroad.
Today we give thanks to God for a priest who answered the call to run like a bearer of the Olympic torch – more recently he walked – to relay Christ’s enlightening truth, burning compassion, shining hope, a light for those experiencing darkness and death. We offer for Fr John that Holy Sacrifice which he taught us to revere above all else, source of our joy and worthy of all praise. As he passed on the light of Christ to us so we pray now for perpetual light for him. We pray for him with that bedtime prayer of old Father Simeon: “Now, All-powerful Master, let your servant go in peace, according to Your promise, for his eyes have seen Your salvation, the Light to enlighten all peoples.”
http://www.parra.catholic.org.au/bishop-of-parramatta/most-rev-anthony-fisher-op/the-bishop-s-homilies.aspx/the-homilies-of-bishop-anthony-fisher/homily---funeral-mass-for-father-john-smith--st-canice-s-church--katoomba--feast-of-the-holy-family--30-december-2011.aspx
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