Fr Frank Brennan’s Homily – 23 April 2023

22 April 2023
Fr Bob Maguire. Image: Shutterstock.

 

Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter

Acts 2:14, 22-33; Psalm 15; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35

23 April 2023

Today we join Cleopas and his companion on the Road to Emmaus.  And what a road it is.  On their first encounter with Jesus on the road, ‘something prevented them from recognising him’.  By the time Jesus breaks bread handing it to them, ‘their eyes were opened and they recognised him’.  But then, no sooner is he recognised and he disappears.  Cleopas and his companion had been on quite a journey over those few miles en route to Emmaus.  We Christians rejoice at Easter time that the Lord is risen and that his rising is all transforming of our lives and our world.  Returning to our daily routines, we know there are all manner of things which prevent us from recognising him.  There are those brief graced moments, sometimes at Mass and other times, like when we’re beholding the wonders of nature or experiencing the love of a friend, when our eyes are opened and we recognise him.  But they are the briefest of graced moments as we come crashing back to earth and our material reality.  The Risen Lord can then seem to be totally absent.

Listen at https://soundcloud.com/frank-brennan-6/homily-23423

Cleopas and his companion would not have experienced the Risen Lord but for their concern for the stranger and their invitation pressing him to stay with them as it was nearly evening and the day was almost over, just as it was when Jesus fed the 5,000.  Their real understanding of the Risen Lord came not at the moment of encounter but later, when reflecting together, after he had disappeared: ‘Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?’

On Wednesday, one of our more colourful priests Bob Maguire died.  Civic and church leaders have been joining a wide chorus of voices declaring ‘Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road?’

The Prime Minister described Fr Bob as ‘an irrepressibly cheerful champion for all those battling disadvantage, he dedicated his life to brightening the lives of those most in need.  A man of warmth and faith who faced struggles with a cheeky grin.’  His archbishop described him as ‘a fierce friend of the downhearted, the broken and the lost throughout his whole life.  Without a doubt, he was the “larrikin priest” who had a great love for Jesus, who also lived with the outcast and the unloved.’

The Victorian premier said: ‘His generosity wasn’t confined to the walls of his church. Through his foundation, Bob provided thousands of meals every year, and he used his pulpit to advocate for those in need.   Our state is a kinder, fairer place because of Father Bob.’

Federal minister Bill Shorten said Maguire was ‘the best pope we never had’, never being  ‘constrained by convention’.  Shorten first met him as a boy at Xavier College spending a week with him helping street kids: ‘He would poke fun at those in power, but he never stopped fighting for those without power’.  Another Federal Minister Clare O’Neil said: ‘He dedicated his life to standing up for our most vulnerable and for social justice. He was the people’s priest.’

Interviewed for a documentary about himself, Maguire once said: ‘You don’t want to mess with the Roman Church … You’ve got this clash of cultures between, “What would Jesus do?”, and “What would the Roman Pope do?” … It’s a Roman phenomenon.  They’ve got to find some mechanism for dealing with dissidents.’

Bob was no saint, and he was not one for keeping the rules.  One fellow priest who knew him well, Kevin Bourke, described him as ‘quintessentially a sage prophet, imaginative philosopher and creative poet’: ‘Bob was a provocative disrupter of Trumpian proportions, a creator of chaos and confusion.  He thrived on life’s mystery and paradox, an enigma expressing himself in riddles and parables.  Tapping into his linguistic code was a mountainous challenge.  He had a wicked sense of humour that he exploited to delightfully disarming effect.’

As Bourke says, ‘Paradise will never be the same’.

Whatever his institutional shortcomings, Bob was restless and tireless demonstrating concern for strangers in need, pressing them to stay when it was nearly evening and the day was almost done.  That’s how the thousands and thousands of encounters of grace occurred.  And on reflection, so many people have said, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us, as broke open the scriptures and as he broke the bread?’

May Bob rest in peace and may the Risen Lord on the road to Emmaus inspire us to welcome the stranger and reflect on those moments when our hearts have burnt within us.

Lord, you will show us the path of life.

Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;

I say to the LORD, “My LORD are you.”

O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,

you it is who hold fast my lot.

Lord, you will show us the path of life.

I bless the LORD who counsels me;

even in the night my heart exhorts me.

I set the LORD ever before me;

with the LORD at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.

Lord, you will show us the path of life.

Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,

my body, too, abides in confidence;

because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,

nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.

Lord, you will show us the path of life.

You will show me the path to life,

abounding joy in your presence,

the delights at your right hand forever.

Lord, you will show us the path of life.

 

Fr Frank Brennan SJ is the Rector of Newman College, Melbourne, and the former CEO of Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA). 

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