"I never stop thanking God for all the graces you have received through
Jesus Christ"
(1 Cor. 1:4).
Saint Paul writing these words was really challenging his listeners to be aware
of the blessings and graces of God given gratituitiously to them in Jesus Christ
and to be thankful for them. This evening we come together, as a Christian Community,
to say thank you and there is no better way of doing this than offering the
Eucharist, the supreme act of thanksgiving.
For two hundred years the Christian Community in this area has come together
to worship the Lord, with hearts overflowing in thanksgiving, and to present
to Him their petitions and prayers for their own needs and those of the whole
world. Even before St. Mary's Church was built, the people gathered in prayer
and worship in times that were trying. The Church of the Penal Times was the
Church of the People and they, through their commitment and fidelity, kept the
faith alive and handed it on to succeeding generations.
We this evening are those who have inherited this faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
and we come to thank God that this Church, the House of God, has for the past
two hundred years been the focal point of the community celebration. But, while
we look back and give thanks for what has been handed down and achieved by generations
of faithful people imbued and on fire with the love of Christ, we must be careful
not to treat this occasion purely as an historical event, solely a Bicentenary.
The last words proclaimed in the Gospel this evening were spoken by Jesus to
the grateful leper made clean: "Stand up and go on your way. Your faith
has saved you"(Lk. 17:19). Jesus continues to be present to each one of
us, to call each one of us to respond to His love for us and thus, through Him,
be drawn into the Father's love. Our response has to be dynamic and active.
We have to be up and doing, driven on by a conviction that the way we must travel
in this world is the Lord's way. It means a faithful following of Jesus, a taking
possession of and an owning of the faith, a commitment in our times to the practice
of our faith and the handing on of it to the generations to come. Only in doing
this can our celebration of thanks have meaning.
Your presence this evening, my dear friends, is indeed testimony to your sense
of gratitude but also to your commitment to Christ in the future. Jesus says
to each one of you this evening: "Stand up and go your way. Your faith
has saved you"(Lk.17:19). That faith, which has saved our forebearers,
was kept alive by a community bonded together in love, by a community which
gathered together here in prayer and worship, by a people who, in difficult
times, saw it fit to build in their midst a house of God dedicated to the Mother
of His Son, Jesus. St. Mary's carries within it the sweet scent of two centuries
of prayer, the joy of sacramental celebrations and the grief and sorrow of final
farewells to dear ones caught up in the love of Christ and returning to the
dust from which they came. Everything that is true and beautiful, everything
that gives meaning to life and death has been celebrated here, and for that
we give thanks.
My dear people, let not this evening pass without making a personal commitment
to be up and doing as members of God's family, caring for one another with the
same enthusiasm and love that burns in the Heart of Jesus for each one of us.
Let us radiate the love of Christ Jesus in everything we do so that our living
today may permeate the society in which we live. It is possible to challenge
our world, it is possible to change our world, it is possible to heal our world
because God's love for it is permanent and is continually revealed to us in
His Son, Christ Jesus: "God loved the world so much that He gave His only
Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not be lost but may have eternal
live"(Jn.3:16).
Can we make our own this evening the words of Solomon proclaimed in the first
Reading: "Lord God of Israel, not in heaven above, nor on earth beneath,
is there such a God as you, true to your covenant and your kindness towards
Your servants when they walk wholeheartedly in your way"(1Kg. 8:22-23).
God is faithful and He calls his people to be faithful. While we celebrate this
evening giving thanks for the fidelity of those who have gone before us, those
who saw fit to build this house of God where He would be worshipped, may we
ourselves recommit ourselves to the faithful following of Jesus and to the building
up of His Kingdom on earth, a Kingdom of peace, justice and love. May we take
this occasion of thanksgiving and transform it into an occasion of renewal in
faith. If we do this the Lord Jesus will not be lacking in His support of us.
St. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, writes of the commitment of God
the Father to each one of us: "He will keep you steady and without blame
until the last day, the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, because God by calling
you has joined you to His Son, Jesus Christ; and God is faithful"(1Cor.
1:8-9).
In thanking God for the two hundred years of faithful witness in this holy place
we confide to Him the eternal souls of all who have been part of that faith-filled
history. May they be blessed and rest in peace. We also want to catch up in
our song of thanksgiving all those of the present Community of faith, priests
and people, who have done so much to make this an occasion of great rejoicing,
those who have presented this 'house of God' this evening so beautiful and fitting
for the praise of the Lord. I personally thank this entire Community for having
seen fit to celebrate this event in its faith-journey in time and I invoke the
intercession of Mary, the mother of Jesus, to whom this Church is dedicated
so that she, who cared for the home of her Son, may continue to inspire you
all so that future generations of her children may come here to worship and
to pray. May she who remained faithful to her Son ever draw you, especially
the young in life and faith, into a personal relationship with Him who said:
"Now I am making the whole of creation new"(Apoc. 21:5). May you all
be so renewed in faith and love that your forefathers may truly rejoice in heaven
today saying: "Our labours have not been in vain. Our children have handed
on the faith and still gather to celebrate it in St. Mary's to the greater glory
of God the Father".
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