Reverend Clergy, distinguished guests, dearly beloved in Christ,
In our life, we spend so much time looking down at what needs to be fixed, what is going wrong, and what we fear, and what may happen next. But tonight, on the Feast of the Assumption, the Church invites us to do something different: to look up. To Look at Mary. To Look at what God has done in her. And remember what God can still do in every one of us.
Our Maronite Church has always known this. We are Catholic in faith, Antiochene in heritage and Syriac in tradition, but we can also rightly call ourselves a Marian Church. Since the earliest centuries, Mary has been woven into our prayer and identity.
Saint Ephrem, one of the great voices of our Syriac tradition, saw Mary and the Church reflected in one another. Mary received Christ, carried Him within her and gave Him to the world. And that is what the Church is meant to do in every generation. Saint Ephrem’s insight therefore leaves us with a question that reaches far beyond tonight’s feast: if Mary carried Christ into the world, are we doing the same?
That question takes us to the heart of this feast, because tonight we see where Mary’s life with Christ ultimately leads. At the end of her earthly journey, Christ carried His Mother to her heavenly home.
The Assumption is therefore not only about what happened to Mary. It reveals something about our own destiny. God brought to completion what He had begun in her. Her Assumption reminds us that evil does not have the final word. Neither do the struggles of the present moment. It is our firm believe that God does have the final word.
Perhaps that is why our Maronite people have held so tightly to Mary. Her image has travelled with us through persecution, migration, war and uncertainty. We find her in our churches and homes. We place our children under her protection, ask her to accompany our young people, bless our marriages and pray for our departed.
Generations before us discovered something we must never forget: Mary never keeps our eyes on herself. She always leads us to her son Jesus Christ. Our Patriarchs understood this well. Blessed Estephan Douaihy attributed his healing from blindness to her intercession.
And Blessed Patriarch Elias Howayek, beatified only weeks ago, gave us one of the great signs of Maronite devotion in the modern world: the Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon at Harissa, entrusting the nation itself to her maternal care.
How beautiful that within two years our Maronite Church has given us two beatified Maronite Patriarchs. At a time when Lebanon can so easily be spoken about only through crisis, corruption and loss, heaven gives us another story to tell: Lebanon is also a land of saints.
Blessed Elias Howayek has been called the shepherd who built a nation. His example matters today because Lebanon still needs rebuilding, not only its economy, but trust in the State, its institutions and one another. Under President Joseph Aoun, there are renewed efforts to strengthen those institutions, promote reform and accountability, and restore hope among the Lebanese people.
Those of us in the countries of expansion also have a responsibility, not simply to remember Lebanon with nostalgia, but to support its renewal through prayer, generosity and a commitment to unity and peace.
And that responsibility follows us here to Australia, the country we are blessed to call home. It is fitting that the theme chosen for this year’s Feast Week is “Mary, Queen of Peace, Pray for Our World.”
It is more than a prayer for peace in this year dedicated to peace in our Eparchy. It is also a call to become people who carry the peace of Christ wherever we are. The Australian Catholic Bishops recently released their Social Justice Statement on growing division in society.
We know how quickly disagreement can become contempt, and how easily fear can turn another person into an enemy. Christians cannot simply become one more angry voice in the crowd. Our task is not to win every argument. Our task is to carry Christ into the way we meet one another.
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Building a culture of encounter has particular meaning for us as Maronites. Many of our families came to Australia knowing what division could do to a country. We therefore have a special responsibility not to recreate here the wounds our people once knew.
Our faith should make us people who build bridges, heal past wounds, protect human dignity and remain faithful to who we are, while respecting those who are different to us. Mary shows us how. She carried Christ into every encounter. So we must do the same.
And carrying Christ is not only something we do with words. It must also shape what we build and what we leave behind. Very soon, Stage 1 of the Master Plan here at Our Lady of Lebanon will begin, including the new car park and forecourt with an ANZAC Memorial.
Stage 2 will follow with a new chapel and Maronite Heritage Centre. And stage 3 the renovation and a renewed interior design for our Church. These are not simply construction projects. They are not only an investment in faith, but an investment into the future, where the new generations of Maronite will come to be formed in the faith and to worship.
This is the best way to prepare for the Golden Jubilee of this Co-Cathedral in 2028, I invite you to help us bring this vision to life, and I thank the Federal Government for their substantial support to this project, I also thank our parishioners and our generous donors whose support and generosity are helping to make it a reality.
That same desire to carry Christ into the future is guiding our work and vision. Here in our own Eparchy, I am pleased to announce an Eparchial Assembly at the end of April 2027.
This assembly will be a synodal moment to gather clergy, religious and faithful to discern together the synodal journey and the future of our Church in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania.
Before I conclude I would like to thank Fr Danny Nouah, the dean of our Cathedral, the vigilant eye on our parish and parishoners, my gratitude also to the clergy, parish teams and volunteers whose extraordinary service makes this Feast Week possible. Much of that service will never be seen by the crowd, but it is seen by God. May Our Lady bless every act of generosity offered in her honour.
All of this brings us back to Mary’s own words in tonight’s Gospel. She does not magnify herself. She says, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” That is the secret of Mary’s whole life. She made room for God, carried Christ and gave Him to the world. And when her earthly journey was complete, Christ carried His Mother to her home in heaven.
That is also the invitation of this feast. May our families carry Christ. May our parishes carry Christ. May our Maronite Church carry Christ. May we carry Him into Australia and Lebanon, into our workplaces and homes, and even into our conversations and disagreements.
Because one day, everything we spend our lives building will be left behind. What will matter is whether, like Mary, we carried Christ while we were here. And if we carry Him faithfully through this life, Mary’s Assumption reminds us where He is carrying us: home.
Our Lady of Lebanon, pray for us.
Happy Feast Day to you all!
