St Marys Catholic Church, North Sydney
Wednesday 21 January 2026
Homily Notes by Michael Whelan SM
First Reading: Ecclesiasticus 44:10-14
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:4-13
Gospel: John 14:1-16***
As I reflected on Kevin’s life and the readings for our celebration today, the word “integrity” kept coming to me: Kevin was a man of “integrity.” With that in mind, I recalled a story that Kevin told me.
In 1925, his father, Walter, was courting Lavinia McIntyre. Lavinia was a Presbyterian. Archbishop Michael Kelly – the Archbishop of Sydney from 1911 to 1940 – had let it be known that Catholic priests should avoid celebrating mixed marriages.
Walter asked three different priests on the north side of the harbour, where he lived, to celebrate their wedding. Each declined his request. Walter then came across to St Patricks and asked the French Marist priest, Fr Peter Piquet, to celebrate their wedding. Fr Piquet was happy to celebrate their wedding at St Patricks.
By a happy coincidence, last Friday, 16 January 2026, was the 100th anniversary of Walter and Lavinia’s wedding at St Patricks in The Rocks. It gave me particular joy when we celebrated the baptism of Walter and Lavinia’s great granddaughter, Kevin and Annette’s granddaughter and Andrew and Jo’s daughter – also called Lavinia – at St Patricks on the 24th of August 2019. Lavinia-the-second is with us today!
***
Imagine if Archbishop Kelly had gotten his way? Imagine if Fr Piquet had not been there for Kevin’s future father and mother? Imagine if Kevin’s father had not been a man of integrity, unwilling to take “No!” for an answer when the answer should have been a welcoming “Yes!”?
The story gives us insight into the sort of influences that gave shape to Kevin’s integrity. What was his inheritance became his legacy. Today’s words from the Book of Ecclesiasticus say it beautifully:
“Here is a generous man whose good works have not been forgotten. In his descendants there remains a rich inheritance born of his; his descendants stand by his covenants, and thanks to him, so do his children’s children.”
***
It is the gift and task of each of us to be the place where God’s promise is fulfilled: “I am with you!” That promise is repeated over and over again throughout the Bible. That promise, “I am with you!”, is the heart and soul of the Bible and is fulfilled in the enfleshing of God in Jesus Christ. That promise is fulfilled in people like Kevin: “I am with you!” For that is what integrity ultimately means.
There are two foundational truths implicit in this, both are key to our living the Christian life.
The first is, “Do not be afraid!”, a command expressed more than three hundred times in the Bible, more often than any other command. “Do not be afraid!” It flows from the promise, “I am with you!”
The second foundational truth is, “Let me love you!” God seeks us out in the stuff of our days, inviting us to be in love – literally, to be in love. That is the essence of the Christian life. That is where we find what it means to be human.
Our being in love gives the energy and direction for the Christian moral life. We are not Stoics. We are Christians! That is not a slur on Stoics but a statement of fact about our Baptism. If we choose, it will be manifest in some very concrete ways. St Paul reflects in his First Letter to the Corinthians:
“Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence and is not resentful.”
All of which sheds a particular light on the exchange between the Apostle Thomas and Jesus in today’s Gospel. Thomas asks a question of Jesus that implies he is actually thinking like a Stoic:
“Lord we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?”
The implication of Thomas’ question is: All we need is the address and we’ll get ourselves there!
Jesus’ response is world-shaking:
“Thomas, I am the way.”
Pope Benedict, in a statement at the beginning of his first encyclical writes:
“Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (Deus caritas est (December 2005)).
***
I conclude with a statement by one of the great exemplars of integrity in the history of the Catholic Church – St John Henry Newman. I think Kevin could justifiably have spoken these words:
“I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling” (John Henry Newman (1801-1890), Meditations and Devotions, Edited by Rev. W. P. Neville, Longmans, Green and Co, 1907, 302).