FATHER AUSTIN DAY

by Bishop David Chislett SSC

"God's in his heaven, Austin Day's at Christ Church, and all's right in the world."

So it was said for many years by Australian Anglo-Catholics, indicating the crucial role of both Christ Church St Laurence (set in right in the middle of the evangelical Diocese of Sydney) and Father Austin Day whose ministry of spiritual direction and encouragement sustained the lives of countless priests and lay people right across Australia and beyond our shores. Father Austin, Rector of Christ Church from 1964 to 1996, died on Monday 5th November following a struggle with motor neuron disease.

HE LOVED THE LORD JESUS
I first met Father Austin when I was an impressionable teenager from Sydney's working class western suburbs. It was 1968. He had been at Christ Church less than four years, but was already making his own mark on the parish. The thing that struck me was how very cultured he appeared, how wide were his interests and reading, and at the same time how much he loved the Lord Jesus in a genuine and unfussy way. This was recognised by the evangelical clergy of his acquaintance and it contributed as much to the growing relationship between Christ Church and the Diocese of Sydney as any deliberate attempt at rapprochement.

He was always trying to bring people to Jesus. Just listen to this passage from a sermon he preached about John Henry Newman in July 1983:

"Newman knew God had called him . . . As he was personally chosen by God, raised up to present catholic truth as it is in Jesus and as it is believed by Anglicans, so are we called today to do just that, as individuals and as the people of Christ Church St Laurence, just as the Jews were specially called of old as a peculiar people for God's own possession 'You are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your earth to be his special possession' (Deuteronomy 7:6).

"Likewise Jesus said to His disciples in His final discourses at the Last Supper, 'You did not choose me, no, I chose you: and I commissioned you' (John 16:16.)

"The idea of being chosen by God seems odd and frightening - odd because it smacks of favouritism; frightening because it presents a God who intervenes in our lives and in His world.

"Despite that, the Catholic belief is that we are called and set apart for God's service in our Baptism, as Newman was; and right on through the whole of our lives, God continues to call us to Himself, not for any merit we possess but because in His providence we are the appropriate persons for particular tasks. God said "It was not because you were more numerous than any other nation that the Lord chose you, for you were the smallest of all nations: it was because the Lord loved you".

"Furthermore, as God's call comes to us as particular persons, inevitably it must be a very intimate association that He has with us . . . So Jesus says, "I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father" (John 15:15).

"With a pious Evangelical family upbringing it is no wonder that Newman had a dramatic sense of being chosen by God for a particular work as priest and prophet. We too as Anglican Catholics today are to follow that close and intimate call of the Saviour; to be the Sons and daughters of God, the friends of Jesus, the child of God . . . AND that is a call to personal holiness (as Newman's was), to sacrifice and service too, to private prayer, and public worship."

THE SAME JESUS
Father Austin's deep personal love of the Lord Jesus sustained him in the wide range of responsibilities that were his as Rector of Christ Church. It was apparent in the healing ministry. He took over his predecessor's motto, "Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8), and helped countless individuals, many with little or no prior involvement with churches, to know the forgiveness, love and healing of Jesus in their lives.

HEALING MINISTRY
I will never forget the visits of the great Church of England healing lady, Mary Rodgers. On her first Sunday at Christ Church, the healing service began with High Mass at 10.30am and went right through the afternoon. It included Evensong and Benediction, lasting until midnight, with large numbers of parishioners showing faith, love and hospitality to the needy whose coming and going made Christ Church look like a railway station! Father Austin was in his element, and we all learned so much from Mary Rodgers about introducing people to the healing Saviour.

A few years before, the best master of ceremonies in the parish had come down with a very bad virus, and looked as if he would be in bed for all of Holy Week. Father Austin couldn't bear the thought of the elaborate Holy Week liturgies becoming muddled, so he took the Blessed Sacrament and the healing oil to the M.C.'s house where in response to the prayer of faith and the power of the risen Lord in the Sacraments, the M.C. was marvellously restored to health so as to fulfil his unique ministry in the parish community. Holy Week that year went with even more pizzazz than usual!

NO LIGHTWEIGHT
Father Austin preached simple sermons, generously laced with poetry, and peppered with geographical and artistic allusions. This led some people to think that he was a theological lightweight. How wrong they were! In 1977, John Hick, Don Cupit and their friends produced a book of essays entitled, "The Myth of God Incarnate".

These were Church of England clergymen denying the real divinity of Christ. Of course, most of the non-evangelical Australian theological schools had already been adapting themselves to this reductionist Christology, with the result that today their Jesus has ceased to be anything more than an intensely good and inspired man. I was at High Mass on that memorable morning twenty-four years ago when Father Austin presented what was really a spirited and tightly argued lecture in which he defended the true Biblical and patristic understanding of Jesus with such depth, scholarship and relevance as to be congratulated the very next day by the evangelical diocesan leaders to whom it had been enthusiastically reported!

REAL PRAYER
It was Father Austin's intense devotion to Jesus as his Saviour and Lord that was apparent at High Mass during which he prayed earnestly, reaching out to the Father in union with the perfect self offering of Jesus. He celebrated (as was once said of holy priests) "with great recollection". The same was true of the Daily Office, weekday Masses, healing prayers and periods of quiet and meditation. For him, all prayer was mystical and deeply personal. He was perfectly relaxed with extempore prayer when ministering to the sick as well as to those who came for spiritual direction. Gently and in a most natural way he would speak to God about the problems experienced or the direction sought, sometimes with the laying on of hands, sometimes just holding hands, or with his hand on the other person's shoulder; and this was at a time when many Australian Anglo-Catholics were uncomfortable with anything less formal than collects from a prayer book.

INCARNATION
The marriage of the formal and the informal, the concern to integrate spirituality with the rest of life, and the conviction that the Mass and the other sacraments really do bring us God's grace, all flowed from Father Austin's incarnational theology. The Incarnation was not just an historical event for him: it was the divine mystery of God's way with us now. It lay at the heart of Christ Church's worship; it remained the inner principle of the parish's life; it motivated the welfare ministry of the parish.

But the Mass WAS central, and to make this point, I give you another piece of that same sermon:

"As Anglican Catholics today we perceive God as transcendent and beyond us in majesty ever to be worshipped and adored; and we see Him as coming down from Heaven in the person of Christ, a man among men, but also a tiny helpless Baby to be loved and caressed by the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Joseph those many years ago; and we know him today, in His world, in the persons of our neighbours and friends, in the poor and needy, in the sick and the imprisoned. But above all we perceive Him by faith in these Holy Mysteries, in the Breaking of the Bread . . . intimately and lovingly."

Father Austin proceeded to one of his favourite quotes, this time from Bishop Mervyn Stockwood:

"I think of the Mass as a golden cord that begins at Bethlehem, proceeds to Calvary and the Easter Garden, continues through the joys and sufferings of mankind till it reaches the kingdom of God. As it passes over the table I know that I am pegged on to it and that, as I take the broken bread and drink from the Cup, the Lord is in the midst, just as years ago he walked on Easter evening with two disciples along the road to Emmaus, before making himself known in the breaking of the bread."

To know the risen Jesus was everything to Father Austin. To proclaim the Gospel of God's love was his passion, and to care for those who came his way was his sacred calling.

HUMAN NATURE
Father Austin held a high view of human nature as being in the image of God while at the same time he taught and lived the gospel of redemption in Christ. Sin was a reality to be dealt with. He never compromised on that. His understanding of human sinfulness was far more realistic and gritty than is often found these days. Yes, the image of God is marred (sometimes, he would say, twisted and almost hopelessly deformed), but, the Creator God and the Redeemer God are one and the same, and through faith and the Sacraments, and the caring ministry of the community gathered at the altar, we enter into the mystery of redeeming love, divine forgiveness, and transformation. "There is always forgiveness", he would say.

FORGIVENESS
His own daily life was extraordinarily disciplined. At one level he was always on his guard against weaknesses that might get in the way of what God was doing through him. That was manifest in an old fashioned austerity which balanced the other side of his temperament - his love of art, beauty, fine wines, witty company and sumptuous celebration. "There is always forgiveness." Some people hurt him very deeply, but they found him amazingly ready to forgive, even if the re-establishment of trust would take longer.

Father Austin had many of the qualities which the English saw in Cardinal Hume. He was "everybody's Father Austin" - "my priest" to so many people, inside and outside the Church and in every walk of life. He was gentle and indulgent towards the entire range of those who wandered their own spiritual and emotional wastelands. Yet he was thoroughly orthodox and tried to point every person whose life he touched to the Saviour. A phrase from the eulogy at Cardinal Hume's funeral so marvellously applied to Father Austin " . . . the Christ-like instinct was to count the lost sheep in, and never out."

I think back to my time as a Deacon in 1979 when I heard Father Austin remonstrate with some who thought that Christ Church was built on great liturgy and fine music. He was actually quite upset and he replied very firmly, "We certainly have great liturgy and fine music, but Christ Church is actually built on two things: the preaching of the Gospel, and catholic pastoral care."

A vast number of young men were influenced by Father Austin to offer themselves for the priesthood. He nurtured us, inspired us, persevered with us, and was always there when we needed him.

THE PRIEST AS ARTIST
Much is written in our time about the priest as a "professional" or a "manager". For Father Austin, being a priest was much more like being an artist. He waited on inspiration; he followed his spiritual "hunches." He expected to be able to see just where God is already working in the lives of those who came to him. He painted on the broadest of canvasses; his parish was the largest of orchestras to be conducted in such a way that all and sundry could use their gifts for the glory of God.

In fact he required from his assistant clergy and lay leaders the kind of deference that would normally be shown by members of an orchestra to their conductor. I remember the pep talk he gave to me about leadership just weeks before I was inducted into my first parish. He said that a parish priest can't do anything unless the lay leaders and other clergy are prepared to defer to him; and they will only defer to him if they know that he loves them and can lead them further into God.

I cannot say how grateful I am to have been influenced so strongly by Father Austin; to have been on the receiving end of both his patience and his rebuke as a teenager (and, indeed, until quite recently!); to have had his guidance in discerning God's will for my life, to have been supported by him in times of failure and personal turmoil, to have had him preach at my ordination to the Diaconate in Ballarat and to serve him as a Deacon at Christ Church; to have conducted missions with him three times in the bush, to have preached at his 20th anniversary Mass at Christ Church in 1984, to have been launched by him at All Saints' Wickham Terrace in 1995 when he preached at my Induction, and to have had him come and stay three times since then. I cherish all those and many other memories of Father.

FAITHFUL TO THE END
It was sad to see Father Austin decline in health during his brief retirement. It frustrated him - but when he realised that he really was dying he determined to use his spiritual energy to make the last bit really count for God. Although debilitated, bent over and handicapped with the motor neuron disease, he continued to preach and to give pastoral and spiritual encouragement to others. He preached his last sermon at St Luke's Enmore just one week before his death.

One of Father Austin's favourite quotes was the expression of St Augustine of Hippo, that "God is the country of the soul." He would say that not only do we live in God now, but also that in our departure from this life our experience of that reality will be deepened. At funerals and in the pastoral care of the dying, Father Austin would talk about the Lord's victory over death, the deliverance of his people from hell and destruction, and the unity we share at the altar of God with "those we love but no longer see."

In particular, he would describe the Mass as an instant of time when "the Eucharistic veil is parted" and we are able

"to gaze out on the world of God, the angels, the saints, and our departed brothers and sisters - that great company which no man can number - and join with them in the heavenly worship, centred on the Lord Jesus."

Father Austin loved the music of Sir Edward Elgar, and he loved the writings of John Henry Newman. Both came together in that wonderful setting of the Dream of Gerontius, from which the words to Praise to the Holiest in the height and Firmly I believe and truly are taken.

I want to leave with you today some verses from the last section of Newman's poem for you to ponder as we journey through the Month of the Holy Souls, and as we give thanks to God for this great priest, for they are words that Father Austin used very often at funerals.

The angel says to the soul being made ready to experience the fullness of the glory of God in the beatific vision:

Softly and gently, dearly-ransom'd soul,
In my most loving arms I now enfold thee,
And, o'er the penal waters, as they roll,
I poise thee, and I lower thee, and hold thee.

And carefully I dip thee in the lake,
And thou, without a sob or a resistance,
Dost through the flood thy rapid passage take,
Sinking deep, deeper, into the dim distance.

Angels, to whom the willing task is given,
Shall tend, and nurse, and lull thee, as thou liest;
And masses on the earth, and prayers in heaven,
Shall aid thee at the Throne of the Most Highest.

Father Austin was one of the great priests of God. May he rest in peace.

An Address given at All Saints' Wickham Terrace in November 2001