Isaiah 5, 1-7 The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel
Phil 4: 6-9 Do these things and the God of peace will be with you
Matthew 21; 33-43 He leased his vineyard to other farmers.
Let’s listen to St Paul again for a moment:
Fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise. Then the God of peace will be with you.
In our gospel reading we have a parable of Jesus where people acted with great dishonour, acted ignobly, acted out of greed and envy, and acted untruthfully.
As we sit here, each one of us is probably somewhere between these two poles, and hopefully towards the end of the spectrum that St Paul urges us to embrace.
As we sit here, our nation and our world are lurching around in-between these two poles as well. Many people, and many of them unknown, are living heroic lives, striving to transform their world into the world that God entrusted to us, a world where everyone has an opportunity to live with dignity and freedom, a world in which everyone has the choice to seek the good, the noble, the beautiful, the virtuous.
Similarly as we sit here, much of our world is in the grip of fear, terror, anger and prejudice. Our own happy-go-lucky nation is bit by bit being infected with fear of the most recent arrivals to our shores. When you think of it and reflect on our history, we’ve always been a bit like this and at the moment the temperature in the room has gone up a few notches to the point where we are having absurd arguments about what people may or not wear when they visit parliament!
At this time we are holding over one thousand children in detention centres in Australia and in off-shore facilities.
Last week our Government, with the support of the Labor Opposition, sealed a deal with Cambodia, one of the most brutal, secretive and poorest nations in Asia. We offered them $40 million dollars in assistance and they agreed to take a handful of asylum seekers from Nauru. These people we are told can freely choose to re-settle in Cambodia. Their options are limited to this choice: to re-settle in Cambodia, to stay on Nauru indefinitely in the tents provided, sleeping six men to a tent, or to return to the countries from which they fled in fear – some choice they have.
Our Government, again largely with the support of the Opposition is seeking to re-introduce Temporary Protection Visas for people seeking refuge here, so that they can live and work in the community on a temporary basis. Under the Howard Government, 98% of people on Temporary Protection Visas eventually became permanent citizens. Under the proposed new TPV’s, they will have to reapply for a new temporary visa every three years for the rest of their lives, thus being condemned to live in permanent insecurity.
People in the public services related to asylum-seeker policy are now instructed to refer to people seeking asylum as illegal. In fact they are perfectly within their rights to have sought asylum here and are in no way illegal according to Australian and International law.
These policies are popular with the majority of Australians. We elected our members of Parliament in part on the basis of these policies which they are now implementing.
The Record, the quarterly bulletin of the St Vincent de Paul Society in its latest issue has a full treatment of the Vinnies Refugee Policy which was finalized this time last year.
It is a thoughtful, thorough, practical and compassionate document. If you want some intelligent and honest reading around this issue I recommend the Vinnies Record to you. Any of our St Vincent de Paul members can tell you how to access it and I will put the Web address on our bulletin next week.
Our Australian Catholic Bishops in May this year released their statement on our treatment of people seeking asylum. In part they write:
The policy can win acceptance only if the asylum seekers are kept faceless and nameless. It depends upon a process of de-humanisation. Such a policy would be widely rejected if the faces and names were known. Bishops have seen the faces; we know the names; we have heard the stories. That is why we say now, Enough of this institutionalised cruelty. We join with the Catholic Bishops of Papua New Guinea who have voiced their strong opposition to the use of Manus Island for detention. They have urged Australia “to find a more humane solution to people seeking asylum”. We do not accept the need for off-shore processing. But even if it continues, it surely does not require such harshness.
The Government and Opposition want to stop the boats and thwart the people-smugglers. But does this require such cruelty? Could not the same goals be achieved by policies, which were less harsh, even humane – policies which respected not only our international obligations but also basic human rights? Can we not achieve a balance between the needs of people in desperate trouble and the electoral pressures faced by politicians? We believe we can; indeed we must – The time has come to examine our conscience and to act differently.
Let’s listen to St Paul once again:
Fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise. Then the God of peace will be with you.
In the light of his encouragement to us, can we hope for the God of peace to be with us, while ever we support policies and practices that are anything but noble, true, just, virtuous or wise? Violent, punitive behaviour, behaviour based on fear rather than love, can never ever lead to true peace.
Let’s listen to the truth of our own hearts and ask ourselves how we can possibly reconcile our behaviours as a nation with the call of the gospel
Phil 4: 6-9 Do these things and the God of peace will be with you
Matthew 21; 33-43 He leased his vineyard to other farmers.
Let’s listen to St Paul again for a moment:
Fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise. Then the God of peace will be with you.
In our gospel reading we have a parable of Jesus where people acted with great dishonour, acted ignobly, acted out of greed and envy, and acted untruthfully.
As we sit here, each one of us is probably somewhere between these two poles, and hopefully towards the end of the spectrum that St Paul urges us to embrace.
As we sit here, our nation and our world are lurching around in-between these two poles as well. Many people, and many of them unknown, are living heroic lives, striving to transform their world into the world that God entrusted to us, a world where everyone has an opportunity to live with dignity and freedom, a world in which everyone has the choice to seek the good, the noble, the beautiful, the virtuous.
Similarly as we sit here, much of our world is in the grip of fear, terror, anger and prejudice. Our own happy-go-lucky nation is bit by bit being infected with fear of the most recent arrivals to our shores. When you think of it and reflect on our history, we’ve always been a bit like this and at the moment the temperature in the room has gone up a few notches to the point where we are having absurd arguments about what people may or not wear when they visit parliament!
At this time we are holding over one thousand children in detention centres in Australia and in off-shore facilities.
Last week our Government, with the support of the Labor Opposition, sealed a deal with Cambodia, one of the most brutal, secretive and poorest nations in Asia. We offered them $40 million dollars in assistance and they agreed to take a handful of asylum seekers from Nauru. These people we are told can freely choose to re-settle in Cambodia. Their options are limited to this choice: to re-settle in Cambodia, to stay on Nauru indefinitely in the tents provided, sleeping six men to a tent, or to return to the countries from which they fled in fear – some choice they have.
Our Government, again largely with the support of the Opposition is seeking to re-introduce Temporary Protection Visas for people seeking refuge here, so that they can live and work in the community on a temporary basis. Under the Howard Government, 98% of people on Temporary Protection Visas eventually became permanent citizens. Under the proposed new TPV’s, they will have to reapply for a new temporary visa every three years for the rest of their lives, thus being condemned to live in permanent insecurity.
People in the public services related to asylum-seeker policy are now instructed to refer to people seeking asylum as illegal. In fact they are perfectly within their rights to have sought asylum here and are in no way illegal according to Australian and International law.
These policies are popular with the majority of Australians. We elected our members of Parliament in part on the basis of these policies which they are now implementing.
The Record, the quarterly bulletin of the St Vincent de Paul Society in its latest issue has a full treatment of the Vinnies Refugee Policy which was finalized this time last year.
It is a thoughtful, thorough, practical and compassionate document. If you want some intelligent and honest reading around this issue I recommend the Vinnies Record to you. Any of our St Vincent de Paul members can tell you how to access it and I will put the Web address on our bulletin next week.
Our Australian Catholic Bishops in May this year released their statement on our treatment of people seeking asylum. In part they write:
The policy can win acceptance only if the asylum seekers are kept faceless and nameless. It depends upon a process of de-humanisation. Such a policy would be widely rejected if the faces and names were known. Bishops have seen the faces; we know the names; we have heard the stories. That is why we say now, Enough of this institutionalised cruelty. We join with the Catholic Bishops of Papua New Guinea who have voiced their strong opposition to the use of Manus Island for detention. They have urged Australia “to find a more humane solution to people seeking asylum”. We do not accept the need for off-shore processing. But even if it continues, it surely does not require such harshness.
The Government and Opposition want to stop the boats and thwart the people-smugglers. But does this require such cruelty? Could not the same goals be achieved by policies, which were less harsh, even humane – policies which respected not only our international obligations but also basic human rights? Can we not achieve a balance between the needs of people in desperate trouble and the electoral pressures faced by politicians? We believe we can; indeed we must – The time has come to examine our conscience and to act differently.
Let’s listen to St Paul once again:
Fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise. Then the God of peace will be with you.
In the light of his encouragement to us, can we hope for the God of peace to be with us, while ever we support policies and practices that are anything but noble, true, just, virtuous or wise? Violent, punitive behaviour, behaviour based on fear rather than love, can never ever lead to true peace.
Let’s listen to the truth of our own hearts and ask ourselves how we can possibly reconcile our behaviours as a nation with the call of the gospel