Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Isaiah 22:19-23; Psalm 138; Romans 11:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20
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Every now and again, it’s necessary to preach on a distressing topic. This is one of those weeks. In the darkness and shadows, let’s see light of a new dawn on the horizon and find hope in the scriptures.
Peter probably died in about 60AD. Matthew is writing for his largely Jewish community of Christians in about 85AD. So 25 years after Peter’s death, he still enjoys a special place in the Matthean community which for the first time in today’s gospel is described as the ecclesia, or church. Jesus says: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ Especially for us Catholics, Peter continues to enjoy a central role in our church, as do the bishops who share his teaching and sacramental role.
The informed Jewish listener to this gospel would have called to mind the scene in Isaiah from today’s first reading. Eliakim is promoted by the Lord and entrusted with the keys of the House of David: ‘when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open.’ Eliakim is clothed with the robe and girded with the sash of authority, with the key of the House of David on his shoulder, fixed like a peg in a sure spot, occupying the place of honour in the community.
Eliakim is promoted because Shebna the master of the palace is to be sacked. The Lord says to Shebna: ‘I will thrust you from your office and pull you down from your station.’ Contemplating these words this week, I have been preoccupied with the statement issued by Archbishop Tim Costelloe, the president of our bishops’ conference, in relation to the dreadful crimes of which Bishop Chris Saunders from the Kimberley has been convicted. Archbishop Costelloe rightly said that the crimes ‘represent a betrayal of everything the gospel and the Catholic Church stand for. They are a violation of the human dignity of victims and survivors and a complete betrayal of their trust: these crimes deserve the strongest condemnation.’[1]
Bishop Tim Norton, the successor to Bishop Saunders as bishop of the Broome Diocese, has told his people in a pastoral letter:
‘We are deeply sorry for the hurt (the victims) have experienced. We are sorry for the shame they have endured. We are sorry that it has taken so long for their voices to be heard and for their pain to be acknowledged. We will do all we can to reach out to them for hope and healing. We are acutely aware that the victims of this betrayal are not just those who have told their stories to police and before the court. Trust has been broken and wounds of betrayal and division have been exposed across the diocese. The hurt extends to those who have placed their trust in our leadership and our Church.’[2]
It is truly shocking to recall that Bishop Saunders seemed to be one of the more credible and transparent bishops when he appeared before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. When he appeared before the Commission in 2017 he told the commissioners:
‘I think that we need to share, as a Church, the wrongdoing that has happened, the sufferings that are apparent amongst those who are survivors or victims, or whatever word you wish to use, to recognise as a group, as an entire national Church, just how awful and how dreadful this has been, but to move on from that and to do whatever is necessary to make sure that it never happens again.’[3]
He seemed to indicate that there was less prospect of abuse occurring in his diocese than elsewhere. There were only 13 priests in his diocese. He told the commission:
‘We know each other very well. We work very closely together. We’re also very busy people, but we are involved closely with the workings of the communities in which we are immersed and we work closely together. There wouldn’t be a day go past that I don’t ring one of the priests and talk to them. There wouldn’t be a week go past when I haven’t spoken to most of, if not all of, the pastoral associates that are also at work there. So it’s one of the advantages of being small. As a diocese, and as a small diocese, we can do things in a way that other places can’t.’[4]
And to think that Bishop Saunders has been convicted of sexual abuse offences against young men committed both before and after he gave this evidence to the royal commission. And it was one of his own priests who left the diocese and became a whistleblower. There is still so much that needs to be done to ensure that our church with its structures traditionally placing so much unreviewable and non-transparent authority in our bishops can be fit for purpose.
We give thanks for the leadership of Bishop Tim Norton amongst his devastated flock. We join him as he prays to ‘Our Lady Queen of Peace, the patroness of (the Broome) diocese, to intercede for us and to accompany us on this journey of reconciliation, healing and hope.’ We not only hope and pray; we also must commit ourselves to work and advocate for the appropriate church and civil structures so that all our bishops might be modern Eliakims, there being no place for even one Shebna.
After such a dreadful couple of weeks exposing the sinfulness of our church, let’s take heart from Paul’s hymn to the Romans: ‘Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!’
Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
I will give thanks to your name,
because of your kindness and your truth:
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
The Lord is exalted, yet the lowly he sees,
and the proud he knows from afar.
Your kindness, O Lord, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
[1] President, Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Media Release, 14 August 2026.
[2] Bishop Tim Norton, Pastoral Letter, 13 August 2026.
[3] Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Transcript, 21 February 2017, 25797, available at https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/Case%20Study%2050%20-%20Transcript%20-%20Institutional%20review%20of%20Catholic%20Church%20authorities%20-%20Day%20252%20-%2021022017.pdf.
[4] Ibid, 25792.
