On Friday, June 7th, 2024, on the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Cathedral of St. Stephen was brimming with joy as hundreds gathered to witness Archbishop Mark Coleridge ordain two new priests. We are delighted to introduce Fr. Michael My Van Tran and Fr. Bradley Davies.
Let us take a moment to honour Fr. Michael and Fr. Bradley for their dedication, sacrifice, and unwavering commitment to God’s work as they embark on this new chapter in their lives. We offer our prayers and support, uplifting them in their journey. May they be beacons of love and light, touching the lives of many with their compassion and faith as priests of God.
Watch their ordination highlights video below.
Archbishop Mark’s Homily at the Priestly Ordination of Michael My Van Tran and Bradley Davies
Not just for those ordained but also for the ordaining bishop, every priestly ordination is important and memorable. But this is particularly so for me in the year when I celebrate the Golden Jubilee of my own ordination to the priesthood. I am also conscious that, with my retirement looming, this may be the last priestly ordination at which I will preside as Archbishop of Brisbane.
In certain circles piercings have become fashionable. I have none myself, and I’m not in favour of piercings for priests. But I do agree with what Karl Rahner said of the priest of the future way back in the 1960s – that he will have to be a man of the pierced heart if he is to be a priest of Jesus Christ, who is the only true priest. If he is not a man of the pierced heart, a priest of Jesus Christ, he will be a self-serving religious functionary or worse, bringing sorrow to the Church and to himself.
This evening we celebrate the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and the heart of Jesus is pierced. “One of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance”, we have heard from the Gospel of John, “and immediately there flowed forth blood and water” (19:34). In the great vision of Ezekiel from which John draws, the side of the Jerusalem Temple is pierced and water flows from the Holy of Holies down into the Kedron Valley, over the Mount of Olives and out into the Judean Desert, until it hits the Dead Sea (47:1-9). Wherever the river flows, we are told, death is turned to life. In the fourth Gospel, the Temple which is Christ’s body (cf John 2:21) is pierced on Calvary, and there flows forth a river not just of water but of water and blood, out into the deserts of the cosmos, turning all death to life.
According to St Bonaventure, this is the river which flows out of Eden in the Book of Genesis, dividing into four streams to water the whole earth and make it fruitful (2:10). In the Psalms, it is the river which gladdens the city of God (46:4); and in the Book of Revelation, it is “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” through the middle of the heavenly Jerusalem (22:1).
The piercing is not a death-wound but a life-wound, bringing forth a new world of unimagined possibility, transfiguring the cosmos. The wound becomes a fountain of life-giving water, springing up to eternal life (cf John 7:38). This is to be the truth of the priest of Jesus Christ: he is to be a man of the pierced heart and therefore a man of the Sacred Heart. The heart of the priest will be pierced by the way the world is, its violence and injustice. It will be pierced by the way the Church is, our failure to live the way of Jesus and our collusion with those who send him to the Cross. It will be pierced by the priest’s experience of his own weakness and failures, the gap between what he is and what he is called to be.
But none of these will be a death-wound – at least not if the priest lives the mystery of the Lord’s Cross which makes of them a life-wound. Shortly I will speak these words to the newly ordained as I present to them the bread and wine offered by the people: “Understand what you do, imitate what you celebrate, and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord’s Cross”. The newly ordained are not just to celebrate liturgically the mystery of the Lord’s death and resurrection; they are to live it in their day-to-day lives as priests. They are to become the Paschal Mystery.
If this is what happens in their ministry, then we will see in them a sense of gift not entitlement, of service not power, of self-sacrifice not self-glorification. They will get themselves out of the centre of their life and allow God to be the centre. This is a painful process, a real crucifixion, but it must happen if the heart of flesh, the Sacred Heart, is to replace the heart of stone which can never be pierced (cf Ezek 36:26). If it doesn’t happen, they will be imprisoned forever in their false self. Only if God is the centre of their life will they discover their true self. Only then will their “hidden self grow strong”, as it must according to St Paul (Eph 3:16). Only then will they “find rest for their souls” (Matt 11:29).
In the life of an ordained man, the signs that he and not God is at the centre of his life are not hard to name:
He is quick to take offence, hyper-sensitive to criticism.
He is prone to anger and the urge to strike back.
He blames others rather than looking to himself.
He is given to self-promotion and opportunism.
He is competitive rather than collaborative.
He has a taste for control and tends to be a one-man band.
He gives the impression of knowing it all and is unable to listen.
Such things take us into the mirror world of narcissism and they define clericalism which, though it may hide behind a semblance of something else, remains what it always was, very far from him who is “meek and humble of heart” (Matt 11:29).
This is all the work of sin which can take root even in a minister of grace. Yet as St Paul says, where sin abounds, grace abounds still more (cf Rom 5:20-21); and it is grace above all that we celebrate as we ordain these two men on the feast of the Sacred Heart. As we do, we pray that you, Bradley and Michael, will as priests die to yourself, to your false self, and live to God, to your true self which is “hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3).
However, to gain access to your true self you will need to discover that the piercing in the heart of Jesus and in your own heart is a doorway which is both an exit and an entrance. Through the wound, the life of God flows out into the cosmos; and according to St John Chrysostom, it is from the wound that the Church is born, just as Eve came forth from the side of Adam. But the piercing is also a doorway through which you will enter the life of God to take possession of your true self. It is the gate of Paradise through which alone you will enter your true homeland, bringing with you, we pray, the host of others you will serve as priest through the years, all of them with a heart of flesh pierced just like yours and just like Christ’s. Amen.