Subpriory retreat led by Fr Peter Matheson 18-20 Feb 2025 –  Report by Prof. David Kissane

At the Melbourne summer retreat, we were blessed to be offered reflections drawn from the teachings and encyclicals of The Holy Father, Pope Francis. Fr Matheson shared his great love for this Pope, his teachings and impact upon the Church, and how we might react as a pilgrim people of God.

Key message: We belong to God, to creation and to each other.

We are wonderfully made, out of love and for love. We can get to know God through his creation and our creation. Let us make God central, rather than ourselves. We need to journey as pilgrims with the Holy Spirit, discerning the mission that God has for each of us.

The basic sin of the modern world is self-sufficiency, rather than discerning the will of God. Bergoglio believed that the Church needed to come out of herself, moving to the existential peripheries, or else it remains closed to transcendence. He spoke to the assembled Cardinals about this diagnosis of the Church before the Conclave that elected him as Pope. The Lord’s gaze falls upon each of us as it did upon Matthew in the Gospel, clutching his bags of money. Are we closed in, or open to the movement of the Hopy Spirit?

While the devil undermines God’s purpose through the subtlety of worldliness and self-sufficiency, Jesus offers mercy and forgiveness. A wounded Church is not perfect but can grow from its failures. We are not asked to hide our failures as sinners, rather to realise that a graveyard of failures can be the building site of new faith. We need to discern the good from evil spirits that promote humanism and self-sufficiency with a political worldliness which “Trumps” religion.

Thus, Pope Francis issues a call to holiness, wherein doors are opened to the poor and refugees, to climate control, and to the care of God’s gifts. Trust in the grace of God. Holiness empowers evangelisation.

Fraternity results as we gather at the common table of the Church, a table of synodality where all belong as a sign of God’s kingdom. How do we live together? Fraternity is a task for our time, says Pope Francis in Fratelli Tutti. We need a Church that can practice the art of communal discernment, valuing its diversity and welcoming the different gifts that individuals bring as one body in Christ. The synod embodies fraternal coexistence during a time of fragmentation so that everyone can find a home in the Church.

Christ teaches us how to accept suffering, while the repugnance of suffering in the modern world is Satan’s biggest success. Creation moaned as Christ died on the cross for us. Christ’s silence, meekness and defencelessness on the Cross revealed the shared hatred and ferocious attack in the devil’s apparent triumph, as every political institution failed and abandoned the innocent Christ. Then God’s wisdom was revealed in the Resurrection – the triumph of the Cross brings Christ’s peace. The Church is born at Pentacost, and today it must come out of itself, resist the closed doors of the upper room and bring God’s grace to the world.

As Pope Francis struggles with pneumonia, bone marrow and renal failure and he waits to meet his God, let us be inspired by his Pontificate, his guidance to the Order of St John of Jerusalem, and his leadership of our Church.

 

Upcoming Order of Malta Retreats:

• Sydney -3 to 6 August 2025
• Brisbane – 12 to 14 September 2025
• Adelaide – 10 to 11 October 2025
• Melbourne – February 2026 dates to be confirmed

All members and candidates are welcome to these retreats and will be notified by email when registrations are open.