Given at the Ming-Ai Institute Spring Festival in Southgate, London, on 12 March 2015.
I must say, I am delighted to be with you here tonight to represent His Eminence Cardinal Vincent Nichols. Cardinal Vincent is, of course, Honorary President of Ming-Ai, as were Cardinals Murphy-O’Connor and Hume before him.
Indeed, Ming-Ai goes right back to the time of Cardinal Hume – when, in the 1990s, Dr Shak was seeking to foster goodwill between China, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. It was on the advice of Cardinal Wu that Dr Shak contacted the Roman Catholic Church in the United Kingdom and soon persuaded Cardinal Hume to become Honorary President.
I am struck by what Dr Shak has said – that Ming-Ai was the Catholic laity’s response to the signs of the times; having as its purpose to be something of a bridge between the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and China and thereby to bring about educational, cultural, social and economic changes.
And, of course, Ming-Ai has close links with Caritas Hong Kong. Rightly, your motto is: “to love is to serve”. This motto would seem to strike a deep resonance in this particular year; because we are now, of course, in the Year of the Sheep.
And Jesus is the Good Shepherd. “I lay down my life for my sheep,” He says. And He goes on to say, “there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold.” He prayed, when He was close to death, that all might be one.
Ming-Ai must be very dear to his heart – because it is about nothing if not unity: unity between nations and cultures is clearly your raison d’etre!
We need to “evangelise culture”, said Pope St John Paul II and you are doing just that - by offering a Christian presence which straddles China, Hong Kong and London.
So, at the start of this Year of the Sheep, let us ask the blessing of the Eternal Shepherd; ask his blessing upon Ming-Ai, upon China, upon Hong Kong, upon the UK – that Ming-Ai continue to be a beacon of unity, a beacon of Christian hope whose light shines far and wide across a rapidly changing world!
Let us ask the Good Shepherd to bless us; bless our food; and to teach us how to share our food with those who have less than we do.