Catholic Diocese of Broome

Our Journey of Faith

By the time this issue of the KCP is published the WYD Cross and Icon will have begun to wind their way through the Kimberley. Their journey among us is about raising awareness of our need to journey close to our Lord and God. It also draws our attention to World Youth Day.

It is an amazing thing that in an age of secularization and materialism, an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a four metre wooden cross can arouse so much attention as they move around Australia. There have already been numerous television coverages of various stages of the journey and scores of newspaper articles. Radio stories abound regarding the galvanising effect these religious objects have had in communities throughout the nation. Surely this says much about us as a people. Deep down, so it seems, our religious yearnings are still there. We struggle to touch the Divine and reach out to God, no matter how blinded we have become by our own self-centredness.

Australia is a nation that is suffering under the burden of its self-made affluence. We are so used to having as much to consume as we want or we are so occupied by our desire to accumulate and consume that not only have we lost sight of the value of simplicity in living, but we have hardened our hearts and minds to the belief that God is among us. Is it any wonder that the faith of our forebears does not occupy the place of prominence it once did in our families or in our communities? Is it any wonder that our churches lack the dynamism and imagination in faith that can light up the fire of Divine love in others? We should not be surprised that religious congregations and priestly vocations have been declining in numbers in recent decades. Everyone is subject to the temptations of affluence and materialism. And with that comes spiritual death and destruction.

Post-modernism is a measure of thought and culture that supposedly describes people today. Certainly it may describe people without faith who are lacking in humility. Until we come to terms with the fact that the Kingdom we build is God’s Kingdom and not ours alone then we shall continue to face abject failure and rejection. Humility means giving to God that which rightly belongs to God. It means rightly doing what God asks us to do. Faith is the way that defines us while it is love, so scripture tells us, which urges us on to be the sort of people God has called us to be.

The presence of the Cross and Icon in the Kimberley is not the end of our spiritual troubles or our failures. But honest and authentic devotion shown to these pious objects may lift us up above our complacency and encourage us to seek God and worship Him faithfully. So might we also be encouraged to re-establish some balance in our lives. The convictions we have of our own self-importance melt away when we lose ourselves in prayer and love for the Divine. Our erroneous passion for the accumulation of wealth and power are overcome by higher ideals and more noble causes when prayer becomes a prominent force in our lives.

As the Journey of the Cross and Icon goes elsewhere, may our journey in faith continue and may we journey together in humility and love.