On 26th January 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip raised the Union Jack and proclaimed British sovereignty over the eastern part of the Australian continent. What historically started as a day to celebrate the founding of the British colony of New South Wales, January 26th has now become a day when many Australians celebrate national identity and unity.

Fourth Sunday of the Year

Jesus gives us a glimpse into God’s heart through his preaching. The gospel and first reading reveal the sentiments of God’s heart towards people. The Beatitudes are a radical inaugural proclamation of Jesus’ ministry. They are fundamental, essential, and far-reaching as well as uncompromising, activist, and revolutionary. Many often try to tame the Beatitudes.  Nearly every time Jesus teaches or heals, the barbs emerge as even “good people” are angered and threatened by Jesus’ broad welcome for the so-called dregs of society and embodied the spaciousness of God’s reign rather than narrow human rules that judge people right and wrong. 

Third Sunday of the Year

Robert Ellsberg, in A Living Gospel, describes how the gospel is written in the lives of people different people living extraordinary lives. Ellsberg focuses on people like Dorothy Day, Charles de Foucauld, Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Flannery O'Connor, and Oscar Romero who knew little of their legacy with contributions beyond their lives. However, as Annie Lamott points out, they ‘showed up’. In many cases, they participated in what Fr Gregory Boyles says, the strategy of Jesus was not centred in taking the right stand on issues, but rather in standing in the right place – with the outcasts and those relegated to the margins.