Australian Catholic Theological Association and the Australian Catholic Biblical Association 2026
Monday Evening Mass 14th Week Year 2 – St Francis Xavier Cathedral, Adelaide
Welcome to everyone who has gathered this evening: the faithful parishioners, and those who have travelled from across Australia (and beyond) for the conferences of the Australian Catholic Theological Association and the Australian Catholic Biblical Association.
There is something wonderfully appropriate about the readings that the Church gives us tonight.
The conference theme is, ‘This is my Body given for you.’ Over these days the scholars are reflecting upon the Eucharist in Scripture and Tradition as part of our preparation for the International Eucharistic Congress in Sydney 2028. You examine texts, weigh interpretations, consider traditions, and engage in rigorous scholarship. This work matters greatly. The Church needs biblical scholars and theologians who love the truth.
Yet tonight the Scriptures gently remind us that before the Eucharist is something to be studied, it is someone to whom we belong.
Through the prophet Hosea, the Lord speaks with extraordinary tenderness:
“I am going to lure her and lead her out into the wilderness and speak to her heart.”
The language is that of a bridegroom courting his beloved. “I will betroth you to myself for ever… in integrity and justice, in tenderness and love.” The whole history of salvation is the story of God drawing humanity into communion with himself.
Is that not what every Eucharist is?
The Eucharist is not merely the object of our reflection; it is the place where the Bridegroom continues to give himself to his Bride (the Church). Every celebration of the Mass is the fulfilment of Hosea’s promise. The Divine speaks once again to the human heart, not from a distance, but by giving us his own Son: “This is my Body given for you.”
Then, in the Gospel, we witness two acts of astonishing faith.
A synagogue official kneels before Jesus believing that even death is not beyond his reach. A woman, exhausted by twelve years of suffering, believes that touching only the fringe of his cloak will be enough.
Neither possesses a theological degree. Neither presents a carefully argued thesis. Yet both recognise something essential, namely, that life is found in Christ.
Matthew tells us that Jesus turned and said to the woman, “Courage, my daughter, your faith has restored you to health.”
Perhaps that sentence is addressed to every one of us this evening.
For all the importance of scholarship—and I say this as someone who has treasured the company of biblical scholars and theologians over many years—the deepest understanding of Scripture always grows from friendship with the One of whom Scripture speaks.
Saint Jerome famously taught that ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. We might also say that knowledge of Scripture reaches its fulfilment only in communion with Christ.
That is why the Eucharist remains the Church’s greatest school of theology.
Here exegesis becomes encounter.
Here doctrine becomes doxology.
And, here we learn what it is to pause and be reduced to what Karl Rahner called “ineffable silence” before the mystery of God.
As we prepare in the coming years for the International Eucharistic Congress, perhaps our greatest contribution will not simply be clearer papers or more persuasive lectures, valuable though they are. It will be lives that have been quietly transformed by the One whom we study, preach, and receive.
May our scholarship deepen our faith.
May our faith always nourish our scholarship.
May those who meet us discover not merely people who know about Christ, but disciples whose hearts have been won by him, who still speaks to his people with tenderness and who still gives himself to the world saying:
“This is my Body given for you.”
Most Rev. Anthony J. Ireland
Archbishop of Hobart
Chair, Episcopal Panel for Doctrine and Morals (Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference)
6 July 2026