Corpus Christi College Opening Mass – 6 March 2026

(Corpus Christi College in Carlton is the Seminary for Victoria and Tasmania)

Friday of the Second Week of Lent

If someone asked what a seminary is really about, they might hear many different answers.

And many of them would contain some truth.

The readings today suggest something deeper: Seminary formation is about learning how to stand in the place of the Son.

That Son whom the Father sends into the vineyard is not welcomed with applause, rather he is rejected.

The first reading that we have heard tells the extraordinary story of Joseph.

His father gives him the famous coat. But that sign of favour ignites resentment in his brothers.

They envy him and resent him so much that first they plan to kill him. Then they throw him into a well and finally they sell him for money.

Joseph is not merely rejected. He is betrayed.

We are rarely troubled by the betrayal of a stranger.

But when someone with whom we have shared our life, our trust, and our love betrays us, the wound cuts deeply.

Joseph’s story is particularly strong because it is betrayal between brothers.

The Gospel intensifies the theme.

The vineyard owner sends servant after servant to collect the fruit of the vineyard. They are beaten, stoned and killed. Finally, he sends his son.

And the tenants say: “This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him.”

The parable points to Jesus himself.

The Beloved Son sent by the Heavenly Father would be rejected, denied and betrayed. The Son would be cast out and killed outside the vineyard, outside of the city, on Calvary.

When we reflect on betrayal in our own lives—perhaps a time when we ourselves were betrayed, or when we witnessed betrayal at close quarters—we begin to glimpse what sin feels like from the inside.

Because the stark truth is this:

Betrayal is something of which we are all capable.

The drama of these readings is not simply ancient history.

It is the drama of the human heart.

And yet—the Gospel does not end with betrayal.

The Son is rejected and killed, yet he becomes the keystone of the kingdom.

What human beings reject, God transforms.

The evil of betrayal reveals something extraordinary about divine love.

It reveals the dynamic power of God’s mercy—a love capable of absorbing betrayal and still offering forgiveness.

God’s love is stronger than our sin, stronger than rejection, stronger even than betrayal.

And this brings us to the life of Corpus Christi College.

Last Saturday I asked one of your brothers, Akalanka, what I should say in this homily.

 After thinking for a bit, he replied:

“Be open to formation—and if it is God’s will that you be a priest, you will be.”

I thought that was a remarkably good answer.

Because the deepest purpose of seminary is not proving that you should be ordained.

It is allowing God to form your heart.

Your vocation right now is not the priesthood.

Your vocation right now is to be a seminarian.

To place your life in the hands of the Lord and allow him to shape it.

If priesthood lies in God’s will for you, the Church will recognise it, and the bishop will call you to ordination.

The work of these years is something both simple and hard: to be open to formation.

And formation is not only the work of the seminarians.

Priestly formation is a shared work of the Church under the loving gaze of God:

Bishops who discern, formators and pastoral supervisors who guide, lecturers who teach and seminarians who open their hearts to the grace of God.

Together we are cooperating in something profoundly important for the life of the Church.

The deepest formation taking place here is configuration to Christ.

And the Christ to whom you are being configured is not simply the risen Christ of glory.

He is also the rejected Son of the vineyard:

The one who faced rejection and yet remained faithful to the Father.

The one who drank the sweet wine of the Passover Cup and the bitter vinegar offered on a hyssop stick.

The one who transformed betrayal into redemption.

If you are ordained a priest, you will not only represent Christ in his glory.

You will represent Christ in his self-giving love.

The Church does not need priests who simply occupy positions.

The Church needs priests who resemble Christ.

Priests who understand betrayal yet preach forgiveness.
Priests whose hearts have been shaped by mercy.
Priests who have learned to stand in the place of the Son—the Son who was rejected, the Son who was denied and betrayed, the Son who became the keystone of the Kingdom of God.

Most Rev. Anthony J. Ireland
Archbishop of Hobart
6 March 2026