Homily given by Bishop Anthony Randazzo
Bishop of Broken Bay
Feast of Saint Josemaría Escrivá 2025
23 June 2025
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We gather today in joy and gratitude as the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Josemaría Escrivá, priest and founder of Opus Dei, a man of deep faith and simplicity, who tirelessly proclaimed that holiness is not reserved for a privileged few, but is the universal call of every Christian. And how fitting it is that we honour him this year, 2025, a Holy Year, designated by the Church as a Jubilee of Hope.
This Holy Year also marks two significant anniversaries in the life of Saint Josemaría: the centenary of his priestly ordination in 1925, and the fiftieth anniversary of his death in 1975. Remarkably, each of these years: 1925, 1975, and now 2025, are Jubilee Years in the life of the Church.
In the light of faith, we know that such alignments are never mere coincidences. They are signs, humble signs, that God uses to teach us something essential: that holiness often walks quietly through the ordinary days of our lives.
Saint Josemaría was born in Barbastro, Spain, in 1902. He was ordained a priest on 28 March 1925. One hundred years ago, a young seminarian, still unsure of what God would later ask of him, knelt before the altar and received the grace of Holy Orders. He would later say that this day marked the beginning of a long journey: not toward personal greatness, but toward deeper self-giving, service, and union with Christ.
Just three years later, on 2 October 1928, he received a divine light, an inspiration that led to the founding of Opus Dei, a work of God aimed at sanctifying the world from within, especially through the ordinary duties of daily life and work. His whole mission was a bold affirmation of what the Gospel tells us: that God calls each of us, right where we are, to be saints.
But Saint Josemaría never saw his priesthood as something isolated or separate from the rest of the faithful. He deeply understood that all Christians, lay and ordained alike, share one common baptism, one calling, one destiny in Christ.
In a homily from 1973, he reminded us of the words of Saint Peter: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light."
This was not simply poetic language for him. It was a truth he lived. “There is no such thing as second-class holiness,” he said. Either we fight to remain in the grace of God and imitate Christ our Model, or we give up the battle. And that battle is waged in the hidden corners of daily life.
In today’s Gospel (Luke 5:4–5), we hear Jesus say to Peter: “Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.” Peter, though weary and uncertain, responds with trust: “If you say so, I will pay out the nets.” This moment captures the very heart of the spiritual life: trusting in the word of Christ and obeying it in the middle of our ordinary work, even when the circumstances seem barren.
Saint Josemaría lived this kind of trusting obedience. His was a life that, as he himself said, “will always be the story of the mercies of God.” There were seasons of difficulty and silence, moments when the fruit seemed hidden, but always a deep awareness that God’s love is constant, and that in time, the harvest comes.
He taught that holiness is not the preserve of monks or mystics, nor the exclusive domain of the clergy. It is the inheritance of every baptized person. “God invites everyone,” he preached. “Each person can become holy in his own state in life.”
In Opus Dei, this passion for holiness does not vary from priests to lay people. And he reminded us that priests in Opus Dei make up only a small percentage of the whole. This is not a clerical project. It is a lay vocation as much as it is a priestly one: indeed, a Christian vocation, shared by all.
In his Letter from 1930, Saint Josemaría wrote: “Sanctity is not for a privileged few… All the paths of the earth can be the occasion for an encounter with Christ.” Whether we are mothers or fathers, students or professionals, religious or priests, the Lord meets us precisely there: in our work, in our relationships, in the little acts of love and fidelity that make up our days.
Saint Paul, in the second reading (Romans 8:14–17), reminds us that we are not orphans. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. To live by the Holy Spirit is to live with the confidence of sons and daughters, heirs to a promise, called to reflect the holiness of God in the concrete realities of our lives.
My brothers and sisters, the message of Saint Josemaría is as urgent now in 2025 as it was in 1928. Holiness is not a distant ideal. It is your baptismal calling. It is God’s invitation to you, today, in your marriage, in your family, in your friendships, in your classroom, at your office desk, behind the shop counter, or in the hidden sacrifices of daily life. That is where sanctity is found.
In this Holy Year of Hope, let us be sure to renew our commitment to the Gospel. Let us be faithful to our baptism and to our vocation, whatever it may be.
If you are married, be holy in your love and sacrifice.
If you are a student, pursue truth with integrity.
If you are a priest or religious, be holy in your service.
If you labour in the world, sanctify your work.
Let every duty, every encounter, every prayer be a chance to meet Jesus Christ and reveal Him to others.
And as the Psalmist exhorts us today (Psalm 2:12): “Blessed are all who take refuge in the Lord.” Saint Josemaría’s final act before his sudden death in Rome in 1975 was to glance with love upon an image of Our Lady. He knew where his refuge lay. Let us do the same. Let us take refuge in the Lord, and in the loving arms of Our Lady, so that holiness may not be a mere aspiration, but the shape of our daily lives.
In the hundred years since that quiet ordination in 1925, the Church has been gifted with a witness who reminds us that sanctity is possible, not only in the sacristy or the sanctuary, but in the street, in the home, in the office, in the hospital, in the classroom. This is the gift of Saint Josemaría, a priest who taught the world that every Christian has a vocation to be light in the darkness, salt of the earth, and leaven in the world.
May Saint Josemaría Escrivá intercede for us, so that in this Holy Year we may, with renewed hope, put out into the deep, trusting that our ordinary lives are the place of extraordinary grace.
Saint Josemaría, pray for us.