Shepherd Bridgebuilder

I reflect on the significance of bridges as symbols of connection and community. Drawing from personal experiences, I recount the construction of Sydney’s Anzac Bridge and its impact on local transportation. The speaker parallels this with the role of the papacy, highlighting Pope Leo and Pope Francis as bridge-builders fostering unity and peace. Emphasising discernment, they urge listeners to attune to God’s voice, embodying love and truth. The episode concludes with a call to action for the church and individuals to be instruments of peace, building bridges across diverse communities.

00:00:00 When I was a seminarian, I lived in the inner city, in the parish of Annandale. And it was the time when the new Glebe Point Bridge, as it was called at that stage, was being built. And so I’d walked down around the foreshore, and kind of was fascinated by watching the construction of this new bridge that eventually became the the Anzac Bridge. It’s a suspension bridge. And so first they had to build the two great towers. They’re both 120m high, which is about a 40 storey building. So it was impressive. Firstly watching these two towers going up, you know the old bridge was still there. But of course, like so many old bridges that were built, when the ships came through, the bridge had to open up. In this case, they had to turn [the deck] around. You know, if you go over to the the northern beaches in Sydney and you go across the Spit Bridge, one of the problems of that bridge is of course, when the sailboats, the yachts have to go through.

00:01:06 Then the bridge has to open up to let the, the boats go through, which is one of the reasons that like the Gladesville Bridge is this arched bridge or the Sydney Harbour Bridge is such a high bridge because they all need to make room for the boats to go through. So after these two big towers were built, then all the cables were laid. And it was fascinating just watching, the cables kind of dangling there. And then as they were slowly brought back into position, and then each of the bridge sections of the deck were were slowly added. And now that’s the eight lane bridge that carries the M4, A44 traffic into the city. Bridges are significant. You know, bridges need to to serve their purpose well. Of course, they connect the different parts of a community. You know, before the Gladesville Bridge was built, there was a punt that would go across; before the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built, there were ferries that were there to to take people across.

00:02:15 Imagine having to wait for a ferry, now if that was the only way across. Now we have, of course, the bridge and the harbour tunnel and the Western Harbour Tunnel is being built. And we have now the new metro tunnel that goes under the harbour. All these different crossings that are there, but the sense of a bridge, you know, serving its purpose, connecting communities. It’s one of the images of the papacy, and it’s one of the images that Pope Leo referred to in his Urbi et orbi address — his address to the city, to the urban area, and to the orbi to the world, that he sees himself in continuance of Pope Francis as someone who wants to reach out to connect the different communities. He comes as an instrument of peace. That’s why there is so much interest in the election of the Pope. You know, even the, you know, the utterly secular media was still fascinated by this process, by this experience. And I think it’s true that there is this profound sense of hope that carries us, that sustains us.

00:03:35 You know, and I was I was quite delighted that I woke up early on Friday morning just before 4 a.m., so I could kind of watch and see the new Pope came out and began that whole ministry of unity that the Holy Father is all about. And it really captures the essence of of what Jesus is inviting us into today in our reflection from John chapter ten, this this image of Jesus as the good Shepherd, inviting us to be like sheep that know him, sheep that listen for his voice. It’s one of the characteristics of a person who discerns being able to know and discern what is the voice of God, and what is our own voice. What is the voice of the world? What is the voice of perhaps an evil power? We need to be able to be so familiar, so attuned to the voice of love, the voice of goodness, the voice of truth, the voice of the father, that naturally, we are just drawn to things that call us into that freedom, that call us into a more generous self-giving.

00:04:51 The call us into a space of peace and goodness and gentleness. You know, Paul, when he writes about the fruits of the spirit, he will talk about such things. And it’s by tuning ourselves to that voice, By allowing the voice of the Lord, as he calls us, each by name, and to recognize that voice and to respond to that, that we will naturally desire to go with. The Lord calls us naturally desire to do what the Lord invites us to do. That that is, is part of this characteristic of discernment of how we live well in the world. And part of that is to be a bridge builder. But there isn’t just one kind of bridge. The bridge has to suit the topography. It has to suit the means. It has to suit the purpose. It has to to be able to withstand all of the different requirements and needs, both of traffic that is going over the bridge, whether that’s pedestrians or heavy vehicles or trains or so forth, but also to make allowance for things that need to move along on the river or the, the harbor that the bridge is crossing.

00:06:09 So also for us, you know, the church has to be responsive to the different situations and circumstances, all the different requirements as we continue to faithfully attempt to listen to the Lord’s voice as we want and desire to be part of that community that responds to that. In our second reading, we’ve got this beautiful vision of heaven, this beautiful sense of all of the different nations, peoples, tribes, communities, tongues, languages, all the different communities coming together in one place in worship of the Lord. And that’s what we’re invited to do, to be a community that builds bridges with those around us, so that everyone is able to safely cross into the space of the sacred. Everyone is able to embrace the call of the Lord. Everyone is able to experience what God is inviting us into. This is really pray that on this day, the all of us will realize that we’re all called in our own way to be the builders of peace, to be the bridge builders into the different communities, to be places where people hear the voice of the Lord, that we don’t muddy the waters by speaking our own opinions, and don’t continue to confuse people by speaking about things that aren’t in the essence of the love of God, but to offer our hearts in union to the Lord, and to continue to pray that we might be those bridge builders of peace, that we might be the pontifex that allows others to experience that encounter with God’s love and God’s mercy.

00:07:54 We pray for ourselves. We pray for the church. We pray for Pope Leo that we might all be united with him in being instruments of peace, and instruments of that Synod, that he invites us to continue along that journey.