Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Luke (10: 13-16) in which Jesus says, ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me’.

Fr Paul says the failure of the Jews, as a whole, to respond to the Messiah was one of the sadnesses of the first Christian generation. Paul struggles with it in Romans 9-11, finally attesting that the mercy of God is such that the Chosen People will be saved in the end. But frequently in the New Testament the Old Testament is invoked to explain events in the life of Jesus, and this mystery is no exception. It is explained as the fulfilment of the prophetic statement in Isaiah 6-9, ‘They will look and look but not perceive, listen and listen but not hear.’

The tragic fulfilment of Jesus’ words in this Gospel is starkly illustrated by the ruins of villages of Chorazin and Bethsaida on the north coast of the Lake of Galilee. The former, a shambles of black basalt rocks, sits forlorn on the hill above the Lake. A ruin named Bethsaida lies, partially excavated, just on the other side of the Jordan, but has not yet yielded enough evidence even to justify a firm conclusion about its identity. The most chilling judgement is reserved for Capernaum, in the quotations from Isaiah 14, hoping ‘to be raised high as heaven’ but in fact ‘flung down to hell’.

For our reflection today Fr Paul invites us to consider: How do I respond to Jesus? Do I ignore him and ignore his message like those in today’s Gospel? Or do I respond like yesterday’s 72 disciples and go out and share the message of Jesus with others by what I say and do?

Father Leo Donnelly: Centacare grew out of a very obvious need and if you look at the projects Centacare has realised the extent of those needs. They have been an extraordinary force in our Parish here in Port Macquarie and they have been in existence now for 20 years and I would like to congratulate them on the wonderful work they have done over those 20 years.

Tony Davies: I suppose the original way of 1995 was the commencement of Centacare. We were the first Parish model Centacare in Australia to be recognised and be allowed to be a member of the Catholic Social Services Australia. That was a major breakthrough.

The second one was probably the development of our programs for people with disabilities. That was the creation of the group home, I.M.A.G.E group home. And that allowed us to have a base to operate our disability services.

The other one was, in the early days, was the achievement of retrieving the current funding of the Youth Refuge, all done on voluntary basis. So they were the three main early ones.

Then we went into the mid 90 type areas or the late 90 type areas, and we started to work on the development of community housing and now we have just over 48 properties across the Hastings area. Supporting people who are socially and financially disadvantaged.

They’re some of the major achievements. Some of the other ones that we worked alongside with was the development of the Peace Community Youth Club, establishing this and we basically went parallel with this for nearly 10 years as a ace achieving PCYC in New South Wales.

Speaker: Respecting the dignity of each person.

Validating the culture of others.

Emphasising our commonalities rather than our differences.

Actively identifying our individual strengths.