Homily of Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP for Mass for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, 70th Anniversary of Delany College, Granville, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta, 2 February 2012

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St Thomas Aquinas wrote that “youth is the cause of hope on three accounts: because the object of hope is in the future, is difficult and yet is possible. For the young live in the future, not in the past; they are not lost in memories but full of confidence in what is yet to come. Secondly, their warmth of nature, their high spirits and expansive hearts embolden them to attempt difficult projects: therefore they are mettlesome and of good hope. Thirdly, they have not yet been thwarted in their plans, and their lack of experience encourages them to think that where there is a will there is a way.” (Summa Theologiæ IaIIæ 40, 6)

This great medieval theologian – who was himself a teacher of the young and is the patron saint of Catholic schools – observed that in these last two respects (their high spirits and recklessness) young people are rather like drunks! Perhaps he had his tongue in his cheek when writing this, but he was surely right to say that as we mature we hopefully become less reckless but sadly can become less optimistic too.

So youth is the symbol of hope. Yet look at the heroes of today’s Gospel (Lk 2:22-40): two real oldies, Simeon and Anna. Simeon, we are told, was well past his ‘use-by date’, had long been waiting for death, and would fall off his perch once he’d seen the baby Messiah. Inspired not by the demon drink but by a much holier Spirit he takes the gurgling 40-day-old God in his arms; with Simeon, the old world receives in its arms the splendour of God’s eternal youth.

Premonitions of doom are made to Mary, yet the mood remains a light one. Simeon now sings his lullaby, the Nunc Dimitis: You can let me go now, Lord, I’ve seen the light; instead of me singing this baby to sleep, the Baby will sing me to eternal rest and perpetual light. The theme of light is of course why this Feast of the Presentation came to be known as Candlemas. But what old man Simeon realised was that no matter how many birthday candles he’s had on his last birthday cake, he need not be gloomy. He could jump about and sing for joy and celebrate the future like any kid. He could cause astonishment to Mary and Joseph, just as their Boy would in due course as He grew in wisdom and understanding, in stature before God and men.

Next on the scene is Anna: she’s a good 84 years old. Like a lot of older women she frequents the church and this time she glimpses something that made her want to sing God’s praises and tell everyone the Good News. On this Feast of the Presentation it’s old folks who demonstrate youthful hope in a difficult yet possible future; it is the maturer characters who live full of confidence, warm-natured, big-hearted and high-spirited!

Today, we celebrate another ‘old guy’, Delany College. This septuagenarian has come a long way from the days when it was three brothers, a hundred students and one blackboard! Originally known simply as ‘Patrician’ or ‘Patrician Brothers’, this school demonstrates how the young and the not-so-young can both embody those same qualities to which Simeon and Anna, the Holy Family and St Thomas give testimony.

These aren’t the only figures that testify to youthful hope. St Patrick himself, from whom the Patrician Brothers take their name, and Bishop Daniel Delany, their founder, from whom the college takes its patronage, both expressed this youthful hope. Leo Budin, who spoke to us before Mass, was one of those first teachers at this school seven decades ago, and Robert Jeffreys one of the pioneer students, and here they both are today, as if they’d imbibed the fount of youth, still testifying to the bright future of our college.

Borne out of a time when all seemed hopeless for the young of Irish background at home or abroad, the Patrician brothers sought to offer a more Christian and humane future for their charges, including the wild colonial boys. Amidst the troubles of wartime, when enemy subs could penetrate even Sydney Harbour, they sought to be a haven for young people which is symbolised by the air raid shelter that was under the science block!Mercifully, contemporary Sydney has little need for air raid shelters but the young may still need havens of peace amidst the surrounding cultural storms, oases of hope amidst the despair implicit in much of the youth culture. How often do we hear, for instance, that young people have no ideals anymore, no interest in religion, no preparedness to give of themselves, no ability to commit; that all they are interested in are consumer gadgets, raves, fun-times, the easy life. Nonsense, says Delany College. Nonsense, says the Church. Nonsense, I say. Young people are capable of so much more, as they always were. To the students here today I say: remember the task which Pope Benedict XVI gave you at the end of the World Youth Day in Sydney: “Your task, my dear young friends, is to be a new generation of apostles, to bring the world to Christ!”

How can the staff and students of Delany College maintain that youthful openness and inebriating joy that has been the mark of the saints of old, of the pioneers of this College and their successors? Though he was already dead by my age, St Thomas Aquinas’ experience was that though the older is often the wiser, oldies can also be tired, scornful, even cynical. Yet he also knew that there is another way to face 70 years of age and more, and that was the way he lived himself, the way of the saints. He handed over all his plans and uncertainties, he handed over the future, to God. He knew that if it was God thwarting his plans that could only be because God had greater plans; if, on other hand, it was man thwarting his plans, he need not fear: for he too would see the light of God his Saviour, if he opened his eyes to being enlightened by Christ and His Church.

Today, like old Father Simeon and Mother Anna, with Bishop Delany and his sons and daughters at Delany College, we give thanks to Almighty God, for our eyes too have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. We give thanks for the blessing that Delany College has been to many young people in Western Sydney in providing them with a good education, a start in life, and witness to the Providence of God. As a son of your brother school of Holy Cross Ryde, I know how important all this is.