Most Reverend Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv DD STL, Bishop of Parramatta
Diaconal Ordination: Ordained to dispense God’s unstinting goodness to all people.
Readings: Eph 3:8-12; Timothy 3:8-10, 12-13; John 5:1-12
Dear Friends,
Today, we gather to commend Charles Philip Hyson for the ministry of diaconate in the Diocese of Parramatta. The God who formed him in his mother’s womb has called him in the second half of his life to something entirely new and in many ways unexpected. Like Mary, Charles has listened attentively to the call and responded with humbleness, generosity and trust.
Charles has been a frequent traveler. He travelled from his native India to his new home in Australia. Professionally, he is a project manager at a freight forwarding company. So, business travel is part of his job. Yet, some journeys in life can take you to destinations that you least expect. It was a return trip to the snow in 2017 and subsequent celebration of the Mass on the Feast of the Transfiguration that Charles heard a still small voice prompting him to serve God as a deacon. With his wife, Maria, who is herself a respected teacher, catechist and sacramental co-ordinator, Charles discerned and pursued the call. 7 years later, with a lot of dedication, discipline and determination on his part as well as the support of his wife, children and others, he stands ready to say Yes to a vocation within a vocation. We have every confidence the ministry of the diaconate that Charles receives today will further enhance the quality of their family relationships and of his service to the Church.
Today, we honour St Ambrose who began his Christian vocation in the latter half of his life. He had the unique distinction of being baptized, ordained and installed as a bishop all within a week. In the age where greed and absolute power ruled the world, Ambrose developed the doctrine of social solidarity and argued that it is mutual inter-dependence that binds the society together. He set an example by giving his all money to the poor and all his land to the Church.
While it may not be well-advised for Charles to do what Ambrose did, the readings inspire us to follow the example of Christ in sharing God’s treasures of love, caring for one another and modelling the divine generosity and selflessness revealed in the one who came to serve and to lay down his life for others. We are a community that proclaims and lives the power of the Crucified. We are committed to build a society that models Jesus’ outreach to the poor, the vulnerable and the victims of economic, political, social or religious marginalization.
In the first reading, Paul is overwhelmed with the gratuitous love and mercy of God after his Damascus experience. He proclaims with a strong personal conviction that it is not our self-made righteousness but God’s unstinting goodness that is at the heart of the Gospel. He and other ministers following him must dispense this unstinting goodness to all people, the worthy and unworthy alike.
In the Gospel, Jesus uses the parable of the Good Shepherd to show how much he cares for all, but especially the weak and vulnerable. He is the ultimate expression of the divine pathos towards humanity. “I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.” In Jesus who surrounds himself with the outcast, we see a God of solidarity and vulnerability. In him, we meet God who disturbs our comfort and pushes us out to the periphery to be with the least of his brothers and sisters.
The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is one of the most endearing but also the most sentimentalized and domesticated to the extent that we are not sufficiently challenged by the message it is meant to convey. For when Jesus identified himself as a shepherd, he in fact made himself an outcast. Shepherds were not only of lower class but also of a different race to the Jews. Even to this day, shepherds in Palestine are generally descendants of the nomadic Arabs, known as the Bedouins. In calling himself a shepherd, Jesus became a boundary breaker. He broke the barriers of class, race and culture in order to embrace others who were considered outsiders.
For many, the Church today is like a flock of sheep scattered, disoriented, wounded and hurt. There is also a sense of diminishment in terms of the Church’s moral stature in society. Yet, it is not time for defensiveness or despair. Rather, it is precisely in this time of humility that we must seek to rebuild, renew and reimagine. We do so by reclaiming not the former prestige and affluence, but the essential quality for Christian living and witness. Only by standing on the side of the powerless and the vulnerable, only by living authentically the call to poverty, simplicity and humility can our voice be credible, and our trust regained.
Dear Charles! Your ordination today brings joy, hope and renewal to us. The Church here and beyond is reinvigorated by your passion for the Gospel and enriched by your gifts. Your fellow clergy and God’s people are strengthened by your companionship. May your work for the faith in Jesus Christ, as Paul reminds us in the second reading be blessed abundantly. May Mary our Mother surround you with her maternal love, inspire you with her faithful discipleship and support you with her intercession. May the good Lord bring to fulfilment his plan for you and your family.
