St Mary's

‘A Canaanite Woman, an Australian Saint and Anamnesis’

Two things came to mind when I first thought about Mary MacKillop, today’s Gospel and the anthem we wish to introduce to you now. The first was a recent ‘Australian Story’ episode on ABC television. It told of two sailors in World War II – a very young Ordinary Seaman named Teddy Sheean from country Tasmania, who served on board the corvette HMAS Armidale, and the then-unwell and exhausted captain of the cruiser, HMAS Perth, Hector Waller. Both gave their lives in astonishing acts of courage and currently there’s a move to have them each receive the Victoria Cross posthumously. There was reflection on the navy as ‘family’ and the need for their own to be recognised by the highest honour possible.

The second thought that came was of the fictional literature and movie boy-hero, Harry Potter. Toward the end of the last movie of the series, Harry experiences something of a Gethsemane moment as he confronts his own destruction. He encounters his deceased family and loved ones. They reassure him of their spiritual presence in his quest and of little Harry having a part in a much bigger scheme of things than he could appreciate at that moment.

These two tales reminded me that every family and community needs its heroes to achieve, and to remind them about, the truly important things – and every hero needs a community where their story and myth can live on powerfully. Which brings us to the Gospel, to Mary MacKillop and to the anthem.

In tonight’s story from Matthew we meet quite a courageous character, a Canaanite woman larger than life and smaller than you could imagine. We never learn her name and, while there is a parallel and probably older story about her in chapter 7 of Mark’s Gospel (Mk7:24-30) – where she’s labelled as being a ‘Syro-Phoenician woman’ (v26) and so still very much a foreigner to Jesus and his Jewish people – she leaves an indelible mark on our history and culture with this one, brief appearance.

After assertively and loudly grabbing Jesus’ attention with her shouted requests to heal her troubled daughter, Jesus puts her off with silence at first and then responds with the ‘..only for the lost sheep of Israel’ (v24) and the clincher, ‘.. the children’s food is not for the family dogs’. Because she is desperate she reverts to the softly-softly approach and intelligently challenges the wise Jewish teacher when he queries her understanding of faith and reality. She plays with Jesus’ metaphor, proposing that he might feed the children and the family dogs at the same time. Her persistent faith and humility represent another breakthrough in a paradigm shift in religious thinking that the Matthew author is painting in this narrative section of his Gospel. The Kingdom of God, or the ‘reigning of God’ as theologian Harvey Cox labels the reality, is breaking through again, dissolving unnecessary barriers between Jew and Gentile.

So let’s move forward almost two millennia to another portrait, this time of one of those redoubtable 19^th century and early 20^th century women who were the pathfinders for much of our contemporary social and political reform. In this case it’s Mary MacKillop, born the first of eight children at Fitzroy in Melbourne in 1842, to poor Scottish Catholic immigrant parents. Mary died in Sydney in 1909 and was canonised in Rome in 2010 for a demonstrably heroic life of just sixty-seven years. Her first official feast day was last Monday, 8 August, under the title of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.

Mary is said to have possessed a deep, native spirituality that sought to discern God’s design for her life’s path from early on. Her faith, charisma, energy and urgent response to the terrible social conditions of poverty and isolation in rural and urban settings in pre-Federation Australia, saw her form an institute of religious sisters in 1867, the Sisters of St Joseph. Poverty, trust in providence and service mobility shaped a rule of life that sought to bring education and security to the neediest in Australia and New Zealand.

We can recognise some of the myths of our national character reflected in Mary. She was a realist, having been bounced from too many pillars and posts to be otherwise. ‘We can never be sure that all that looks good is really so..’ she quipped in 1875. She was assertive in confronting misplaced authority. A five-month stint of excommunication in 1871 attests to that. She was also unashamedly egalitarian, convinced of the profound worth of each person; exemplified by a life mission to educate poor children. And she had enduring faith and hope. She and the Canaanite mother had much in common.

Which brings us to the introduction of our new song, the anthem ‘… Anamnesis’.  An anthem belongs to a particular body of people. They are songs of solidarity, usually sung standing and with the emphasis on energy and gusto as much as vocal skill. They evoke emotional commitment and have the ring of the sacred about them. ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ at the final night of the Proms, or a national anthem before a sporting fixture, come to mind.

In fact, ‘coming to mind’ is just what the ‘Anamnesis’ part of the title is all about. Just as ‘amnesia’ is about forgetting, ‘anamnesis’ is about remembering. It’s a Greek work that says, ‘Whatever you do, don’t forget. Just remember!’ It bespeaks a dynamic memorialising that looks to the past but links it to the now and to the future. The part of the Eucharistic Prayer which comes right after the words of consecration is called the ‘Anamnesis’: ‘Let us proclaim the mystery of faith….’

So, in the spirit of the determined mother of Canaan, the compelling personality of Mary MacKillop of the Cross and the Exodus people of Brisbane’s St Mary’s in Exile, we offer you what could be ‘St Mary’s Anthem: Anamnesis’. You’ll see it printed as the final song on your Mass sheets.

Verse one is about standing together against poverty and injustice in Jesus’ name. Verse two is about walking together as members of ‘the Way’ (Acts 9:20), whatever comes, all in the service of Life. The chorus comes in at this point and again after the third verse as our conclusion. It’s all about inclusion and our fundamental hope as Christian community.

The third verse speaks of working together and individually at our contributions to ‘God’s Kingdom’, the ‘Reigning of God’. There’s also reference to the Earth and to life as ‘exodus’, the Exodus experience of Moses and his people probably being the key unifying theme of the whole Old Testament and, consequently, shaping much of the New Testament and the mission of the Christian Church. There is a fourth verse but, like all good anthems, we just can’t remember it anyway…

So, if you’d like to stand, please join with us in this first rendition of the anthem ‘… Anamnesis’. Join in the melody whenever you feel comfortable – and with gusto!

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“There where you are, you will find God.”

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, 1871