At the priestly ordination of Fr Isaac Demase SJ and Fr Joshua Choong SJ at St Mary’s Church, Our Lady of the Way Parish, Sydney on 5 July 2025, this homily was given by Bishop Greg O’Kelly SJ, Bishop Emeritus of Port Pirie, South Australia.
Fr Joshua Choong celebrated his Thanksgiving Mass on Sunday 6 July at Holy Family Parish, Emerton, under the pastoral care of the Jesuits.
SHOWING THE WAY TO GOD
Bishop Greg O’Kelly SJ, Bishop Emeritus of Port Pirie, delivers the homily during the priestly ordination of Fr Isaac Demase SJ and Fr Joshua Choong SJ at St Mary’s Church, Our Lady of the Way Parish, Sydney, in July 2025. Image: Daryl Charles Photography/Australian Jesuits/Supplied
Isaac and Joshua, this is the day your Jesuit brothers and your families have been waiting for, when, as in the reading from St Paul, you will become a new creation in Christ. In taking this step, called formally by the Church and affirmed thereby in your vocation, you will put new heart into the saints, again as Paul said. We rejoice for you; the whole Province does. Your generosity of commitment lifts us up.
To your parents and family and friends, the people who formed you, we express our deep thanks. Circumstances have prevented your immediate family from being here, Josh, but we hope that the online facility will bring them close. I add my welcome to that expressed by Fr Richard Leonard, especially to those Jesuit brothers of ours from Boston, and to those present here who are not of the Catholic persuasion; know that you are most welcome and your presence enriches Joshua and Isaac in this most significant moment of their lives.
In a few minutes some awesome ministries will be entrusted to you, despite any unworthiness – to consecrate the Eucharist; to raise your hand in absolution; to anoint the sick and those on their last journey. And you are to do this “in persona Christi”, acting in the place of Christ. At the same time, you are to seek the face of Christ in the ordinary, in the humdrum life of those to and among whom you are sent. As Pope Francis commented, Jesus spent most of his public time with people, in the crowds, even crowds that one week cried, “Hosanna, Hosanna” and the next week, “Crucify, crucify”.
Fr Isaac Demase SJ (left) and Fr Joshua Choong SJ during their priestly ordination at St Mary’s Church, Our Lady of the Way Parish, Sydney, in July 2025. Image: Daryl Charles Photography/Australian Jesuits/Supplied
In his first ordination of priests as Pope, Pope Leo exhorted the 11 ordinands to be “ministers of hope”, echoing Francis, surely. He reflected on the Church’s mission of reconciliation in a broken world. “Together”, Leo said, “we will rebuild the credibility of a wounded Church, sent to a wounded humanity, within a wounded creation.”
Fr Brendan Byrne has commented: The priest is ordained to lead people into the mystery of God and to mediate that mystery back into their lives. At the moment of consecration of the Eucharist, the priest actually stands in the place of Christ when he says, “This is my Body” … “This is the chalice of my Blood.” In Penance he says, “I absolve…”, taking the place of Christ, who alone forgives. And in the anointing, it is the priest who confers the healing power of Christ – “may the Lord in his love and mercy help you…”
There is mystery in your vocation, Joshua and Isaac. Pope John Paul II said that the ordained priest as shepherd is called to remind and reinforce in the Church the sense of the presence of Jesus amongst us, the one who in Holy Orders is called through his witness “to prolong the presence of Christ amongst those whom he serves.” And Pope Francis told priests whom he had just ordained that their vocation called them to enable those they serve to feel something they only feel in the presence of Jesus. Such words surely challenge us, and inspire us.
Fr Joshua Choong SJ (left) and Fr Isaac Demase SJ (right) with Bishop Greg O’Kelly SJ during their priestly ordination at St Mary’s Church, Our Lady of the Way Parish, Sydney, in July 2025. Image: Daryl Charles Photography/Australian Jesuits/Supplied
Christ was the most exalted figure who ever walked on the face of the earth, but who became the servant and slave of all, washing away our sins through his death on the cross. The true priest must hold these two aspects of priesthood together, the sacred and the servant, as modelled in the ministry of Jesus. The very night before he died, in that most symbolic of actions, Christ went on his knees to wash the feet of others; he associated this act of service with the gift of his body and blood in the Eucharist. The most exalted figure on earth submitted to being broken on the cross for us, and you have now, through his grace and blessing, been chosen to be a priest in his name.
General Congregation 34 took place thirty years ago, but its document 6 on the meaning of Jesuit priesthood still cuts through to challenge us. It quotes Paul VI, who described the Jesuit vocation as taking place between the boundaries of human culture, between the deepest human desires and the Gospel – the crossroads of ideologies. It places the contemporary challenges before us as priests and Jesuits in clear, almost confronting terms – “the Spirit continues to shape what Jesuits do as priests; their ministry is particularly directed towards those who have not heard the Gospel; those who are at the margins of the Church or of society; those weak in faith or alienated from it; those whose values are undermined by contemporary culture; those whose needs are greater than they can bear; how to find words that speak to the men and women of our time who are no longer moved by the Christian message … how to minister effectively to both the poor and the rich … how to be faithful to the tradition of the Church and at the same time interpret it in secularised cultures … how best to serve in a Church in which there are tensions…”
Fr Isaac Demase SJ (left) and Fr Joshua Choong SJ during their priestly ordination at St Mary’s Church, Our Lady of the Way Parish, Sydney, in July 2025. Image: Daryl Charles Photography/Australian Jesuits/Supplied
We priests are but empty vessels, earthen ones, that must be filled with the grace of Christ if we are to be effective and true in our ministry. We say to the newly baptised, “Receive the light of Christ”, so we must tend that lamp if we are to carry that light and let it shine for others. We do this, fill the vessel of our lives with the grace of Christ, enrich our human weakness and emptiness, through faithfulness and prayer, service and sacrifice, irreplaceable needs for our vocation, the prayerful union with Christ that must be the basis of our ministry. We are missioned to live in our lives and in our ministries, as St Jean Vianney said, the expressions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, his compassion, forgiveness, unconditional love, merciful healing. Cascades of tenderness…
At the Mass of Chrism in 2019, Pope Francis told the priests of Rome:
We are not bottled oil. We anoint by distributing ourselves, distributing our vocation and our heart. When we anoint others, we ourselves are anointed anew by the faith and affection of our people. We anoint by dirtying our hands in touching the wounds, the sins and the worries of the people. We anoint by perfuming our hands in touching their faith, their hopes, their fidelity and the unconditional generosity of their self-giving.
Isaac and Joshua, very shortly the people of God will pray to the saints for you in the litany, and for you they will pray:
Bless these chosen ones; Lord, hear us.
Bless these chosen ones and make them holy; Lord, hear us.
Bless these chosen ones and make them holy and set them apart for sacred duties; Lord, hear us.
Fr Joshua Choong SJ (left) and Fr Isaac Demase SJ during their priestly ordination at St Mary’s Church, Our Lady of the Way Parish, Sydney, in July 2025. Image: Daryl Charles Photography/Australian Jesuits/Supplied
Isaac and Joshua, may the joy of the priesthood be for you an abiding truth.
May the love of the people sustain you.
May the grace of Christ always fill your souls, His chosen vessels.
May the closeness of Christ be always the truth of your lives.
May the saints of the Society share always with you their own rich blessedness.
May Mary, the gentle mother, guard you as her sons.
May you live happily and faithfully, priest-servants of the People of God, according to the heart of Jesus – ad multos annos – for all the years to come.
To enquire about becoming a Jesuit in Australia, contact vocations@sjasl.org.au and for more info, visit our Vocations page.
This article was originally published by the Australian Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Reproduce with permission.
