Late bishop’s Holy Week homilies

The Holy Week homilies of the late Bishop Basil Meeking, seventh Bishop of Christchurch, for the last seven years of his life, have been published in a book.

The book, titled “Holy Week with Bishop Basil Meeking”, was put together by Christchurch priest Fr Michael Pui, who was the executor of Bishop Meeking’s will. The preface to the book explains that Bishop Meeking’s homilies for the 2020 Triduum were never preached, because New Zealand had gone into a Covid-19 lockdown, and Bishop Meeking had also been hospitalised after a fall.

A few weeks later, Bishop Meeking died on June 11, 2020. During his time in hospital, Fr Pui kept in daily contact with him by phone.

“It was in one of those daily conversations that I had with him that the genesis of this book came into being,” Fr Pui wrote in the preface.

“The idea of getting some of his ‘work’ or homilies published came out of the blue in one of those daily conversations. It was the first and last time he ever expressed that thought. It had never been part of our regular conversations when we met regularly to update his wishes, after he appointed me to be the executor of his will and [have] enduring power of attorney.”

The conversation about “publishing his work” came at a time when Bishop Meeking’s medical condition was such that he varied between periods of having a clear and lucid mind, as against periods of confusion, Fr Pui wrote.

“It meant [that] I could not really clarify what he wanted to explore. Mostly our daily conversations during the time of lucidity were to do with his immediate needs. After he died, it took me some soul-searching and praying to come to the decision on what to do. Time and providence provided clarity.”

Most of the homilies, apart from those for Chrism Masses, were preached, or were scheduled to be preached, at a parish in Melbourne which Bishop Meeking would visit. Fr Pui wrote that the collation of the texts was made possible because Bishop Meeking kept hard copies of his homilies in his later years.

Fr Pui recalled many times seeing Bishop Meeking take the hard copy of his homily from his sleeve before commencing preaching from the pulpit. Fr Pui called this the bishop’s “trick up his sleeve”.

“Reading this book, you will find that Bishop Basil Meeking put a lot of thought into crafting his homilies. May his homilies for the Holy Weeks of his final seven years, and especially those of 2020 (that were never preached) help you capture the essence of Holy Week and the Holy Triduum. May they also give you a glimpse of him as a bishop, a priest, a theologian, a preacher and a Christian,” Fr Pui wrote.