Archbishop Fisher: “choose today whom you wish to serve”

This is the edited text for the Homily for Mass on the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) and 40^th Anniversary of the Samoan Catholic Community in Sydney St Christopher’s Parish, Holsworthy, 25 August 2024.

Stanislav Petrov: he’s been called “the man who saved the world”—a rather provocative title, since we know that Man and His Name wasn’t Stan. Still, on 26 September 1983, this Soviet army officer confronted a harrowing situation. Some days before the Soviet military had shot down Korean Airlines Flight 007, killing all 269 passengers and crew. Now, only three weeks later, the early-warning missile alarm system he was manning, indicated an incoming strike. It indicated the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile from the United States and four more missiles behind it. The protocol was to report immediately up the chain of command, so his superiors could decide whether to order a retaliatory strike. That would likely have set off a full-blown nuclear war…

Petrov judged it a false alarm. Though he knew that Soviet General Secretary, Yuri Andropov, and others would believe almost anything of American President Ronald Reagan, Petrov did not believe the US would initiate such an attack. So, rather than reporting the warning up the line, he registered a computer malfunction, all the while knowing that if he was wrong, his country and his loved ones would be struck in minutes.

Thankfully, Petrov was right. The Soviet detection system had mistakenly read an unusual reflection of sunlight on high altitude clouds above North Dakota as missiles. Petrov eventually received international accolades for staving off nuclear Armageddon, and there were a film and book entitled The Man Who Saved the World.

Our scriptures today deal with just such “crunch time” or “fork in the road” situations—moments when a serious high stakes decision has to be made under some stress. Like Petrov, people must decide what they believe and what they will do, and be prepared to live with the consequences. In today’s first reading (Josh 24:1-2,15-18), the tribes of Israel congregate at Shechem, and their leader, Joshua, puts an ultimatum to them: choose today whom you wish to serve, the God who brought Israel out of bondage or some other gods. One way or another they must decide: will they commit their all to the one true God or be half-hearted about it and pursue rival attractions as well. Joshua pre-empts Christ saying “either you are with me or against me” (Mt 12:30), “no one can serve two masters” (Mt 6:24).

In today’s Gospel (Jn 6:60-69), we arrive at the end of Jesus’ Bread of Life Discourse (Jn 6:25-58). It has been challenging: He has told them they must let themselves believe in Him; that He is God’s Son, come down from heaven; that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood; that doing so will gain them eternal life; but that failing to do so will mean they are lifeless. Many who heard Him had already made up their mind: No way! Thanks, but No Thanks Jesus. This is too much. See you later…

Aware many were abandoning Him because of His shocking teachings, Jesus puts it to the apostles: It’s crunch time boys. Do you want to go away too? Make your decision. Genuine discipleship can’t be about coercion, can’t be accidental. It must be free, it must be chosen, and it won’t always be easy. Peter boldly responds: Hard as some of this is Lord, where else would we go? You are the Holy One of God. We believe your words: they are eternal life. We receive your flesh and blood: they too are life eternal.

Jesus’ question wasn’t a one-off for His first century mates. It’s a question He keeps asking, a question for each of us. Each day we must decide. Every time we say Amen, we are saying yes to following Him. After every prayer, as the fullstop to the creed, at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, at Holy Communion when the priest proffers “The Body of Christ”, we give our assent with Amen If we are nodding with our lives, we are joining Joshua’s elders saying, “We have no intention of deserting the Lord and serving other gods!” We are joining Peter in declaring, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and it’s you alone I want to follow” (Mt 4:19-20; 16:16; Jn 21:19)

It’s a big Amen, that one, a big commitment, an all-of-me all-my-life Yes. St Paul compares it with a marriage vow (Eph 5:21-32). In an authentic marriage there’s a total gift of the self to the other, for the other’s good. You make the good of the beloved your own. You care for them as you would yourself, sacrificing for them. It’s a high stakes decision that plays out in our identity, ideals, choices, destiny.

Four decades ago, the parents of Sydney’s Samoan Catholic Community decided for themselves they would say Yes. They decided also for the sake of their children and their children’s children, their fellow islanders, and the whole church. Christ asked them “Will you follow me? Or go the way of those who’ve left me?” Though few in number and with fewer resources, they answered in a loud Samoan voice: “We follow YOU.” As a consequence of their decision, we have a thriving Samoan Catholic Community and Chaplaincy here in Sydney. We give thanks for their Amen. And we promise today to take it forward, until that day when we will all sing the Great Amen before the throne of God, the Samoans harmonising while the Aussies sing flat!

Happy Birthday, Samoan Catholic Community of Sydney! Ad multos annos!