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Newsletter – 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Year C – AUSTRALIA DAY

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Australia Day Reflection by Fr Michael Tate
The Beatitudes we just heard are at the beginning of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’.
This sermon provides a picture of a society where the usual expectations of how people relate to each other are turned upside down.
Australia, ‘Down Under’, is a place to which people have been attracted by a vision of a different future, a future where human beings could relate to each other differently to the old order in their society of origin.
De Quiros, the Portuguese explorer of the 16th Century, set out on a quest for ‘Terra Austrialia del Espiritu Santo’, South Land of the Holy Spirit.
I am convinced that ‘Australia’ is a work of the Holy Spirit, one of whose most distinctive works at Pentecost was the breaking down of ethnic and language barriers between people.
Australia is a place where that Pentecostal impulse is creating a new society. Have we responded to the Holy Spirit perfectly?
No. Treatment of the earliest inhabitants of this land was shameful, and is not yet fully remedied as the Lord of the Sermon on the Mount desires.
But, we could pause for a moment and thank God.
For our land abounding in nature’s gifts of beauty rich and rare.
For the divine Spirit of Pentecost attracting us to follow Jesus in this South Land of the Holy Spirit.

© Fr Michael Tate; mt***@bi*****.com

Rev Prof Michael Tate graduated in Law from the University of Tasmania in 1968, and in Theology from Oxford University in 1971. He lectured at the University of Tasmania from 1972-78, being Dean of the Faculty of Law in 1977-78. He was a Senator for Tasmania from 1978-93, being Federal Minister for Justice from 1987-93. He served as Ambassador to The Hague and the Holy See from 1993-96. He then returned to Australia and was ordained in May 2000 and has been a parish priest in the Archdiocese of Hobart since then. He is an Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Tasmania where he lectures in International Humanitarian Law.

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