Christmas Day, 25 December 2012, Luke 2:1-14; John 1:1-18

Gerrit(Gerard) van Honthorst: Adoration of the Shepherds (1622)

(This homily was designed both for Midnight Mass and for Mass during the day of Christmas Day)

Santa is cool, but Jesus is King!

This year, my parents became grandparents for the first time, and I became an Uncle for the first time as well. I also became a godfather for the first time, as my brother and his partner honoured me by asking me to stand for their first-born child. Her name is Aoibheann. She was born at about 5:30 on the evening of June 19th last, and she has changed all of our lives. She has a wonderful personality; she seems to have great independence and she seems to have become a bit of a Daddy's girl as well! Her Mother is wonderful with her, maybe because she works in childcare so she has no fears about how to look after her child.

I'm sure many of you have had the wonderful experience of holding a new-born baby for the first time. Two men that I know, sharing with me their experience of holding their new-born baby for the first time, described it to me as a life-changing moment. One of them described how his heart melted as he held his first son, the other described how he felt that nothing else mattered except his daughter. An image that I have for it is like putting on glasses – everything becomes clearer, there are no doubts about how we must adjust our own lives in order to love and care for a child.

Tonight we celebrate the birth of a child. And, like all children, this child is very special. This child's mother would fret over him and worry about him and love him, like any mother would. And, sadly, like so many, this child's mother would see him die a painful death on the cross.

This child would not be a magician, but rather would be 'Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace' as our first reading from the prophet Isaiah tells us.

The Incarnation

So, the story of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, the story of Emmanuel, of God-with-Us, is the story of the incarnation.

If you have ever visited Italy, you might remember ordering from a menu in a restaurant – they always have a section called 'Carne' – which is the meat section. There you will find beef and lamb, maybe veal or venison. A more literal translation in English of the word 'Carne' would not be 'meat', but 'flesh'.

So, to become 'in-carn-ate' is to become flesh, not just to be 'enfleshed' but to 'become flesh'. There are many religions and philosophies that look upon our flesh as corrupted, as bad, as evil. But, for us Christians all flesh – all carne is holy, because God became flesh in Jesus.

Santa is cool, but Jesus is King!

I know that tonight, along with Jesus, a very special person will be coming to visit all of the houses of the world to bring glad tidings and presents, especially for all the good boys and girls. And Santa, Father Christmas, or indeed St. Nicholas, as he is sometimes known, comes to give us presents to tell us how special all children really are, but especially Santa comes to tell us how special Jesus really is.

So, when we are really good, when we go to bed early and shut our eyes and go to sleep, we can be sure that Santa will come to give us presents in honour of the baby Jesus. In a way, that tells us that Jesus is already inside every boy and girl, indeed in every man and woman, because Santa comes to give us presents to honour Jesus.

Santa is cool, but Jesus is King!

3 Sunday Advent, 16 December 2012, Luke 3:10-18

A few years ago, sitting over lunch a classmate of mine was talking about how he would help out on his family farm over the holidays. For whatever reason, he got around to explaining the whole process of dairy farming to us. Needless to say, many of us, coming from the countryside had a reasonable idea what he was on about. A friend of mine from Dublin, listening to the conversation churped up: "Don't be silly, sure we all know that milk comes from the supermarket. Milk from a cow! You must take us for idiots altogether!"

Now, we all knew that this friend of mine was kidding around. We all know that milk does, in fact, come from cows.

Many of the images that we have from the gospels are agricultural images – and at that they are images from a time when agricultural technology was much more primitive than it is now. The image from this Sunday's gospel of a winnowing fan is a great example of this. A winnowing fan is a small, hand held basket. The winnower uses the fan to throw the grain in the air. By moving the grain in this way, the heavier grain falls more or less straight down, while the chaff, a much finer and lighter substance is carried away to the side. And so, you are left with clean grain, ready to mill into flour.

A Winnowing Fan

We never see winnowing happen today because most of us do not live on the land. We find our grain, i.e. our bread, on the baker's shelf, or indeed like my friend said – on the supermarket shelf. It requires imagination and knowledge for us to understand the image that the gospel is presenting us with today.

The most interesting part of the image from the gospel is that the chaff is part of the grain. Eventually it becomes a waste product, but before that it serves a very useful purpose in being part of the grain.

That is just like us as human beings. Often all we can see is the chaff – we cannot see our own greatness, or worse we cannot see the greatness in others. All we can see is waste. We forget that, when the time is right, we will be 'winnowed'. That means that we are disturbed, thrown up in the air, as it were, so that the separating and purifying breath of God's Holy Spirit would purify us of the chaff that was necessary for us to grow into the fullness of life.

This Sunday is Gaudete Sunday. It is one of only two Sundays in the Church's year when rose coloured vestments can be used. Today is the Sunday that the rose coloured candle is lit on the Advent wreath. Gaudete is a latin word that means: 'Rejoice'. And for us, our reason for rejoicing is the Lord, for it is the Lord who reveals us as worthy grain, ready to be milled into the flour of the bread of the Eucharist – which is to be Christ in the world. We become what we receive.

From the entrance antiphon for today's Mass, taken from St Paul's letter to the Philippians: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice!"

2 Sunday Advent, 9 December 2012, Luke 3:1-6

Maybe you saw in the news during the week that China plans to spend over £2.2bn to flatten 700 mountains. The headline in the Guardian newspaper read: "China to flatten 700 mountains for new metropolis in the desert". (Click Here to read about it in the Guardian newspaper)

Reading that for the first time, I was quite astonished. The Lanzhou area, where the mountains currently are, will be the location of a brand new city, with a possible development area of 500 square miles.

Our gospel reading, and the first reading from the prophet Baruch, both promise the same thing. In the gospel: "Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley will be filled in, every mountain will be laid low, winding ways will be straightened and rough roads made smooth." In the first reading from Baruch: "For God has decreed the flattening of each high mountain, of the everlasting hills, the filling in of the valleys to make the ground level so that Israel can walk in safety under the glory of God."

The line from the prophet Baruch that we have just heard again highlights what this Sunday is all about. It is about the flattening of mountains, the straightening of paths; in the gospel it is to prepare a way for the Lord – in the first reading it is to prepare a way for Israel to 'walk in safety under the glory of God.'

So, our readings this morning are pointing at the Church. What is the Church? What is the Church's mission? And why am I here? Why are you here? Some of the answers to these questions are quite interesting. Theologians say that there are four aspects of the Church – or, rather that throughout history there have been four developments of the Church: there is the Church that all of creation is, not just the earth of course, but of the whole universe. And there is a strange harmony to the universe that science speaks about – a kind of song that the universe is singing all the time. For us, that song used to appear on our television screens as 'snow', as a kind of interference. But, so they say, that snow was actually sound of the echo of the big bang down through the universe.

The second phase of the Church is the People of God, Israel, the chosen people. And this new people comes about because of God's choice to reveal himself to them – and God's revealing himself is what gathers them together; twelve tribes of Israel, one People of God.

The third phase of the Church is the Church of Christ, which we are members of. This is the Church, the gathering that occurs around Jesus Christ because of his passion, death and resurrection. That is us, that is what we are doing. We are gathering around the Lord today, and each day we come to Church.

The fourth dimension of the Church is the Kingdom to come. The heavenly Jerusalem. When we shall see God face to face.

So, when we ask ourselves why do we go to Church on Sunday, very often we will come up with answers from our own point of view. 'I go because I get something out of it.' 'I need my faith', 'I like to pray', 'God is important in my life', 'My parents gave me the gift of faith.' All of these answers are from our own point of view. But maybe a better or more profound answer is that the Lord calls us to gather as one People of God, as one Gathering unto the Lord, so that we may prepare for the Day of Christ and the heavenly city of Jerusalem.

1 Sunday Advent, 2 December 2012, Luke 21:25-28, 34-36.

A new beginning, a fresh start!

The Church begins it's new year this Sunday. This is a new liturgical year. This is a new opportunity for us to begin again in our faith. For us, and by us I mean us human beings in the Ireland of 2012, it is easy to somehow disregard faith, to stand back from it – to keep it at a safe distance from ourselves. The way that we think in our time creates this 'safe-distance' possibility. We think that we can hold faith, Church, God at a distance. But God comes, the gospel warns us, like a thief in the night.

A friend of mine was recently driving down the M7 motorway in County Kildare. She was driving a brand new car. She was driving relatively slowly for the motorway, about 100km/h. Suddenly she had a blowout. Her tyre punctured violently and she lost control of the car. Thankfully the car veered to the left, no other car was involved, and she was able to chalk it down to experience. She posted photos of the shredded tyre on the internet afterwards. People reacted in many ways: Thank God you're all safe; you should sue the tyre company; you should sue the car manufacturer; what a blessing that your children weren't in the car!

In our world we can be removed from reality and the story I just told explains what I mean: it is a reality that each and every time we drive our cars we are engaging in a dangerous activity. We believe that if we maintain our cars, replace them when they are old, drive safely and efficiently, that if we keep the rules of the road and all of the other good, safe and lawful things we should do, that nothing bad should happen. And most of the time, we are right. But sometimes bad things do happen, as we all know. I'm not telling you all of this to make you afraid of getting in your car. As you know, there is hardly any activity that we can be involved in that is completely without danger. I'm thinking, for example, of the family that died in their home in Gurteen a couple of years ago from Carbon Monoxide poisoning. They never knew that their house was dangerous. And, we can't really go around in life imagining that we're going to be badly hurt or fatally injured by our life's activity. So, I'm not trying to scare you, but rather to encourage you to change the way you think about things. In fact, let me tell you another story to emphasise the point.

Almost ten years ago, a friend and I were travelling in Kenya. We stayed with the Irish Christian Brothers in Nairobi, the capital city. The only way that we could get around was by 'Matatu'. Now, Matatu's are like old Toyota Hiace vans, converted with windows and bench seats inside. They carry up to 27 people in each one. They were a cheap and cheerful way of getting around the city. One day, my friend and I were waiting to get into a Matatu to make our way into the city centre. While waiting, I read in the local paper about 24 people having been killed in an accident involving a Matatu the day before. Both my friend and I were agreed that we really should not get into another Matatu especially after reading about the horrific accident. And yet, without agreeing to, we both calmly walked to the place where the Matatu's picked up passengers and got on board. We had no choice! We knew that it was dangerous, that we could pay the ultimate price, and yet we had to live. We had to continue on.

So, what am I trying to get at? Simply, we live in a buffered, constructed image of reality. Our centrally heated homes, tarmac roads, technology, travel, artificial whatever. We begin to think that what we have created, or rather what we have super-imposed on the world is reality. And that's not to mention all of our addictions or other things we do to relieve the pain of our existence.

Think of the fascination of 'virtual reality' a few years ago. Or, now the prevalance of facebook and the internet in our lives. A world that we know is virtual is slowly becoming our 'real' world. During the week I was listening on the radio to someone who mentioned that people are more honest now in their dealings by internet because they know that everything they do online is somehow captured forever somewhere!

Real moments occur when something breaks this image of reality that we have created. When a family member is diagnosed with cancer, or when a loved one dies – our image of reality shatters and we encounter reality itself. And it is a painful experience. For many of us, the only time that we encounter reality in this way is, as I have said, when something tragic occurs.

A few years ago, when I was newly ordained, a religious congregation of sisters asked me to preach a day of recollection for them. It's like a mini-retreat that they undergo once a month. In preparation for this day, the sisters often went to confession in the days beforehand, or indeed on the day itself. They were aware that this was an element of their monthly schedule, something that they had done since they had entered the religious life. An interesting question that they had from their statutes, from the constitution governing their life as religious, a question that they were to ask each month on this day of recollection is: "Am I prepared for death?" That is, have I faced my own mortality squarely. And, as we mature as people and as Christians that question begins to provoke very deep questions for us. If I ask myself each day, week, month, or even like this season of Advent: "Am I ready to meet my creator, my redeemer, the one who draws me into communion with himself and with all of humanity?" This is a 'reality check' question.

The mystery of the incarnation, of God becoming one of us,  this mystery that we are on the cusp of now in Advent is no safe thing. It is the most disturbing and strange of mysteries. In a way, the incarnation is the most 'real' aspect of our faith. And, like other aspects of life that disturb us, that pull the fraudulent image of reality that we have constructed down, we need time to process reality. We need time to prepare ourselves to think differently about it, about who Jesus really is. And, to think differently means that in some way we have to disregard the safe place of how our world thinks.

People often want to know what prayer really is, and how they can become better at prayer, or how they can be successful at prayer. I have some advice for you, prayer is a two-way encounter – it is an encounter with God and it is an encounter with my deepest self. The Pope, some years ago, described prayer as a crucible place. A focal point, where everything meets. A crucible is not a comfortable place. So, if we really want to succeed at prayer, if we want to develop spiritually, as Christians we have to be ready to face reality when we pray. Prayer is not an escape from reality, neither is it a deeper version of the so-called reality that ourselves create, no, prayer is a deep encounter with the real. And, for us, the real is a person who gently waits for us and calls us forward in faith.

Meeting Jesus changes our lives, it provokes a deep contrition in our hearts not simply for the sins we have committed, but for the fact of our unfaithfulness to him, our unfaithfulness to reality. And real contrition provokes a real sorrow, which is not at all a feeling sorry for ourselves, nor is it being hung up with our own sinfulness, but rather a sorrow for the gap that exists between me, God and others. And this real sorrow, born of real contrition will provoke in us real conversion, which is to say that we encounter the Lord in a real way, a sure way.

For us Christians, God is no judge, sitting in the heavens counting up our good and our bad deeds. By keeping the rules we cannot earn brownie points with God. No, for us Christians, God is intimately involved in our everyday lives. And God became one of us in Jesus so that we might become one with God and with all of our brothers and sisters in humanity and in Christ.

We imagine God maybe safely in the tabernacle, locked away in the Church. God is something that only holy, religious people encounter.

We couldn't be further from the truth. God is with us; God is among us. And our prayer together in these weeks of Advent is a waiting that prepares us to encounter God with us, God amongst us, in our neighbours and friends, in those who believe in God and those who don't, in those who live good lives and those who live bad lives, God is with us.

So, being a Christian is not at all a safe thing. Like my friend and I getting on the Matatu, we have to just jump into faith, even though it means risking not less than everything. We have to take the risk of getting involved, because one day, whether we like it or not, one day our image of reality will break and we will meet God face to face. This life isn't a rehearsal for the life you will lead someday. This is real life, here today, in this moment. So, as our gospel for this first Sunday of Advent puts it:

"... stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand."

34 Sunday Ordinary Time, B, Solemnity of Christ the King, 25 November 2012, John 18:33-37

Christ the King

This Sunday is the last Sunday in the Church's calendar. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, and with it comes a new year. On this Sunday, the thirty-fourth Sunday of the Church's year, we celebrate Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King.

This Solemnity was first instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925. In his encyclical entitled Quas Primas, the Pope sought to say the things that really matter as he looked out on the post World War I world. He saw the rise of fascism as the result of the economic decline that would culminate in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. As Pope, as Pastor to the world, he could see some of the serious difficulties that the world was heading towards.

Living now, as we do, at a time of increased uncertainty and anxiety, primarily as a result of economic recession, we find ourselves once more called to re-evaluate where our deepest allegiances lie. To do this we must first of all take a hard and honest look at what is really happening in our world. Like Pope Pius XI, we find ourselves living in an uncertain time, with the possibility for great good and for great evil.

We must be careful to discern the truth, and even if we found ourselves being swept along by the talk of economic certainty and fortune, we must now be careful not to be swept away by the blue talk of economic downturn.

If we are to have an anchor, some stability in this storm of words, then we must float on top of words like depression, unemployment, recession, economy, loss of jobs. Like St Peter, we find ourselves trying to step out in faith, to do that which seems impossible, to walk on water, only in our case the water is made up of ugly words and ugly talk. Only by placing our trust in Christ who reigns over everything will we find a firm foundation, free from the stormy waters of economic upturn and economic downturn. This was what Pope Pius XI was attempting to do in 1925 when he inaugurated this feast day. He was attempting to call people to have allegiance to Christ, to recognise that we are not kings or princes of our own destiny, but that in Christ the King we might find peace.

Our Gospel for today, a snippet of the Passion account from the Gospel of John which we hear proclaimed every Good Friday, points us in the way of truth. All who are on the side of truth listen to the voice of Christ. These are words written for us in our time. The truth, which is difficult, and at times is a two-edged sword, is the only way that we can follow. Christ is truth personified; we cannot claim to be followers of Jesus Christ if we deny truth. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

Today is a day to ask ourselves about how we have lived up to the demands of the Gospel in our own lives. The bottom line is not about money. The bottom line is about truth, the bottom line is about people.


Pope Pius XI's encyclical Quas Primas is available at:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_11121925_quas-primas_en.html

33 Sunday Ordinary Time, B, 18 November 2012, Mark 13:24-32

The Greenwich Meridian

Time

A few years ago, I was visiting London. While there, I took a water-taxi down the River Thames to Greenwich. This was one of the things that was on my to-do list.

Located at Greenwich, the Royal Observatory is a laboratory of time. As the British Empire spread across the world, navigators needed to have reference points so that they could calculate where they were on the face of the earth. And so, in 1884, Greenwich Mean Time was adopted internationally as a reference point. Everywhere on the earth tells its time by Greenwich Mean Time. So, here in Ireland we share the same time-zone as London, Lisbon, The Ivory Coast, and Morocco along with many other places. Rome, Paris, Berlin, Madrid are all one hour ahead of us.

One of the fascinating places to visit at the Royal Observatory is its museum. There are timepieces there from the last four hundred years or so. Some of them were made by Isaac Newton. Some are from very recent history. Most of the early attempts are very inaccurate by our standards today.

The gospel this Sunday is all about time. It is about the end of the world, a so-called apocalyptic vision of the end of time.

Time is strange for us human beings. Our perception of time is effected by our personality, by the activity we are engaged in and by our mental state. If we are depressed we can lose all sense of time and time can seem to move very slowly. If we are intoxicated with alcohol we can lose our sense of time. If we are having great fun, time can seem to fly by. And, we are told that we have to occupy our time, because as the old saying goes: 'idle hands are the devil's work.' And, of course, time might seem to go very slowly when we are at Mass listening to the priest rabbit on!

Our sense of time changes as we get older. Time seems to slip by very fast as we age, whereas when we are young, time can seem to go very slowly. When we are a teenager, our body clock is set around a 25 or 26 hour day which means teenagers are always sleepy and will happily sleep in any chance they get. But, the average 60 year old can actually cope with a lot less sleep as there body clock is set around a 20 hour day. The older we get, the earlier we wake up!

The gospel this Sunday is an apocalyptic vision of the end of time. The closest we can come to understanding this is when a loved-one belonging to us dies. Time can seem to stand still. We cannot understand why the world keeps going, the trains keep rolling, cars keep driving by. We want to scream and shout at the world to stop. We want time to stop because of what has happened to us. Time has stopped.

Whatever our experience of time, one thing is for certain. We don't have a lot of it. And in today's world we seem to have less and less of it. We are so busy that time seems to slip through our fingers. We forget to catch up with friends and family. We meet at weddings and funerals. Our career becomes all-important. Time is too short.

Some day our time here will come to an end. Becoming more conscious of this every day can lead us to live fuller, more fulfilling lives – dare I say, holier lives. An awareness of our mortality, that death comes for us at a time that we know not, this awareness of our mortality helps us to live our time here in the best way that we can. Our time on this earth is valuable and not to be wasted. Its time to put our time to good use.

31 Sunday Ordinary Time, B, 4 November 2012, Mark 12:28-34

A Standard / Measuring Tape

Before I entered the seminary I was a student of Civil Engineering at IT Sligo for three years. I still love anything to do with roads or bridges, railways, airports or airplanes. Indeed, my two brothers and I share a huge interest in cars, in buying and selling them, in servicing and maintaining them, and in polishing them up to look shiny and new.

Like most disciplines today, there are standards in engineering and in design. The world of work, the world that many of us share, is a world of standards and meeting standards, of procedural guidelines, of reform of standards and renewal of practices.

And standards make for a high quality of life. They are an imposition, but standards mean that when you turn the key in the ignition, the car will start, when you flick the switch on the heat in your house, the boiler will kick in.

So, standards are important. And, in many ways, Church is one of the few places in our world where some would have us lower our standards and change our practices. The standard bearer has become tarnished.

A Sieve / Flour Sifter

I am my father's son, but I am my Mother's boy! What I mean is that, like my father, I love apple pie! And, guess what, my Mum is great at baking them!

When we were children, my Mum taught us how to make all kinds of breads and doughs, and to make a really good apple pie you have to make a pastry dough. This is one that has fat, or butter incorporated into it to make it flaky, crumbly and really tasty! But, among the many tricks to making the perfect dough, a key step is to sift the flour. This isn't so much to get the lumps out of the flour, but rather to add air to it before trying to make a dough with it.

Today's Gospel

Last Sunday, we heard the gospel passage all about the healing of Bartimaeus. This Sunday we take a jump, from the middle of chapter 10 of Mark's gospel all the way to the middle of chapter 12. We jump over stories like the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem that we hear on Palm Sunday. We also skip over the section where Jesus throws the money changers out of the temple. And, the story of the widow's mite. In short, then, the stories that we skip over are important to understand the gospel for this Sunday. The story of the money-changers is about a purification of the temple from the business side of religion. Jesus throws them out of the temple because the temple is supposed to be a pure place, not a place of profit. And the widow's mite is something to do with us offering everything that we have to live on to God, or perhaps to give ourselves completely to God.

Shema

So, then we land at the gospel for this Sunday. And here, we find Jesus quoting the words from the book of Deuteronomy that we heard in our first reading. “Listen, Israel: the Lord our God is the one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Let these words I urge on you today be written on your heart.” (Deut 6:4-6) The passage continues: “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” This passage from the book of Deuteronomy is arguably the most important passage in the whole Jewish Bible, for the Jewish people. It is known simply as the 'Shema' from the first two words: 'Hear O Israel...', in Hebrew 'Shema Yisrael...'.

To the Shema, Jesus adds in the gospel: “The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

Here then, for the Christian is the fulfilment of the Law & the Prophets, promised by the Christ. It is the binding together of our religious life with our non-religious life. Our love of God is to be matched by our love of our neighbour, which is to be bound up with how we love ourselves. Let me repeat that for you, because it is super-important: Our love of God is to be matched by our love of our neighbour, which is to be bound up with how we love ourselves.

Practical Implications of the Gospel

Is the gospel a standard or a sieve?

Very often in our religious lives we might wonder where we should begin. Indeed, when we are telling a story, we very often say: where will I begin? The first practical implication of the gospel is that we must love ourselves. Or, to put it more basically, I must love me, and you must love you. If I do not love myself adequately – and I don't mean vanity, or being self-centred – if I do not love myself adequately then how can I love my neighbour? And how can I love God? Or, more to the point – grace, which is the love God has for us, which he makes known to us through the death of his Son Jesus – this grace comes to life in us when we begin to love ourselves, which is to admit that I am loveable, that you are loveable. Out of this place of true love of self, I am truly able to share with other people, with my neighbour, the love that God has for them, which evidently leads me, them and us to God.

A Sidenote

A couple of weeks ago, I met Fr Muredach Tuffy in the refectory in Maynooth. He looked well. I was impressed with how well he looked. I remembered him as being well groomed, a capable young priest. And so, like all of you I am sure, I was genuinely saddened to hear of his sudden and tragic death. That he died by suicide makes it all the worse, because it tells me that in some way Muredach did not know how much he is loved. I dearly hope that he knows now the love and mercy that God has for him. As we wonder at his death, perhaps this Sunday's gospel sheds a little light for us. We have to learn, carefully, painfully at times, struggling at other times; we have to learn to love ourselves. We have to learn to seek the help and assistance that we need from each other to begin to love ourselves, and it is only then that we can possibly minister to our neighbour.

A Final Note

For me, the gospel is a sieve, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't have standards.

I was telling you at the beginning of this homily all about my Mum teaching us how to make dough, and how I love apple pies! I was telling you about sieving, sifting and aerating the flour to make the dough. This Sunday's gospel, what we might call the 'Golden Rule', what the Jewish people call the 'Shema'; this golden rule is like a sieve through which we can sift the bits and pieces of our life, which is to give air, the breath of the Holy Spirit, the grace of God which is love, to allow God's love to sift through our lives, bringing healing and peace, hope and joy. In this way we can hope to offer ourselves as bread to be broken, wine to be poured out in joy.

The Shema of a Christian

Jesus said:
“This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)

30 Sunday Ordinary Time, B, 28 October 2012, Mark 10:46-52

The Way

The 'Camino'

I want to speak to you this morning about salvation. A couple of years ago, the well-known Catholic actor, Martin Sheen and his son, Emilio Estevez, collaborated on a film called 'The Way'. Martin Sheen plays Tom, a wealthy American businessman, a 'boomer', i.e. someone who was born just after World War II, for whom the core values of life are making money and working to make that money.

Emilio Estevez plays Tom's son, Daniel. At the beginning of the film, we are introduced to Tom and Daniel, just as Tom is driving Daniel to the airport in his lovely Jaguar car. They are arguing over what Daniel is going to do with his life. It is then that we discover that Daniel is flying to Spain to take part in 'The Way of St James, better known in Spanish as 'El Camino de Santiago', or simply 'The Camino'. A little while into the film, Daniel's father, Tom, gets the phone call to say that Daniel has died while making the pilgrimage. Tom make his way to Spain, where he identifies Daniel's body and is given the relics of Daniel's life. These include the accoutrements of the walking pilgrimage – a backpack, jeans, hiking boots and a rainjacket, a journal and some rosary beads. It is at this moment that something happens to Tom that makes him decide to make the pilgrimage for his son Daniel.

Salvation

So, salvation. What does it really mean? There are loads of things that we can say about salvation, but I'm going to share three with you today.

1.We might have a very small, narrow and reduced understanding of salvation which means to get into heaven when we die. This is the salvation that we might be worried about for our loved ones who have passed before us. We might be worried about them, or we might be very sure about them, or indeed we might not really know. There's nothing wrong with this, provided we understand it as merely one aspect of salvation, and not the be all and end all of salvation.

2.Another kind of salvation that we could have in mind is a the kind of idea that says if somebody has been saved, if they have experienced salvation, then they'll be really wealthy! This kind of salvation understands blessing in the sense of prosperity. So, we might be wondering where God is in the tough financial times! In a way, this is the God of Tom in our movie. Or, rather, God becomes reduced to money, prosperity, career and success.

3.The best understanding of salvation, the one that we find in the gospel this evening is a kind of salvation as a renewal, or a reconnection, or as a restoration. The blind man in the gospel is told by Jesus: “Go, your faith has saved you.” This tells us that faith, in Jesus, is fundamental to salvation, because it is through the encounter with Jesus that salvation in the fullest sense is achieved by Bartimaeus.

Jericho, Joshua and Jesus

The gospel passage for today is set on the outskirts of Jericho, one of the oldest cities in the world, and the city where the Israelites were led in to the Promised Land. They were led by Joshua – which would be like calling me Sean, instead of John. Joshua is old Hebrew for the name Jesus. Jesus means Joshua – both names mean 'one who saves'. For the first hearers of the gospel, this would have been obvious. So, for Bartimaeus, the bling beggar this 'one who saves' is: Jesus of Nazareth, Son of David, Jesus, Rabbuni, Master. For us, he is Lord, he is Son of God, he is the Christ, the anointed one. And this 'one who saves' offers us salvation too.

Conclusion

In short, then, salvation is to become fully alive, i.e. to become fully a part of the human community and the divine community. These two are fundamentally linked in Jesus of Nazareth, and so it is only in Jesus that we, that all of humanity can achieve the fullness of life that salvation is. The Church then, as the human and divine community of faith, is the core way that we have to encounter Jesus in and through our encounters with other people, with the Word of God and with the mysteries of faith, the Sacraments.

29 Sunday Ordinary Time, B, 21 October 2012, Mark 10:35-45

It was with a great sense of joy last week that I heard of Sligo Rovers’ winning the league title for 2012. We all like to see the local team do well. Indeed, Sligo’s success in Gaelic football in recent years is also a source of joy for me, and I’m sure for you as well.

The story of the famous Glasgow football club, Celtic FC is fascinating. It was founded in 1887 by an Irish Marist Brother called Brother Walfrid. He began the club with the intention of using it as a means of fundraising to alleviate poverty among the poor immigrants, mostly Irish, living in Glasgow at the time. Specifically, his charity was called the ‘Poor Children’s Dinner Table’. Anyhow, I’m pretty sure that when I mentioned Celtic, that one of your first thoughts may have been the name of their so-called arch-rivals: Rangers. We imagine the world in this way. What gives Celtic their identity is that they are the ‘Catholic’ club, while Rangers are the ‘Protestant’ club. Identity is everything – but what happens when one side disappears? When we have no rival anymore, our identity can slip.

In a way, that’s what its like to be a Catholic in Ireland today. We could be identified as being ‘traditional’, ‘conservative’, ‘un-enlightened’, ‘stuck in the past’. We might even feel like this ourselves, even though we may come to Mass on a regular basis.

So, what does it mean to be a Catholic? Especially if we choose, carefully, not to define ourselves in terms of groups who are not Catholic. This is a difficult question to answer. When we think ‘Catholic’, in our mind we might compare it to being ‘Protestant’. Or, in our pluralistic and multicultural world, we imagine ourselves as not being a Hindu, or not being a Muslim, or whatever. So, if we cannot take refuge in the safe place of comparing ourselves to others, then, again: what does it mean to be Catholic?

Maybe it means that you are a good person. But, sure, there are people who are very good and are not Catholic. Maybe it means that you are a Christian. But, sure, there are people who are wonderful Christians and are not Catholic.

So, there are answers to this question, answers that may be regularly on our own lips that are kind of safe answers, but which do not really give us an insight into what being Catholic actually is.

My understanding, which I hope is based clearly on the Church’s understanding, is that being a Catholic means to be involved in the Catholic Church.

That means to be part of, a member of, the One Church of Christ. It means that my faith is not mine alone, but that rather, my faith, or, our faith is actually a participation in Christ’s faith, because Christ is the one human being who is completely faithful to his Father, to Our Father.

So, Our Father, God in heaven, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Moses, the God of Jesus Christ is One God. And, this One God sent his Son, the anointed One, to redeem us, which means to gather us together again into One Humanity in the Kingdom of God.

And so, this Sunday we celebrate Mission Sunday. This is the Sunday when we remember that the Church carries out the Mission of Christ to the World. And, because we are part of one humanity, broken, suffering and imperfect as it is, because by being human ourselves we already participate in one humanity, so we reach out to the poorer Churches and offer them some material support.

This really is a work of grace, because by being generous with what we have, by putting our money where our mouth is, our faith is made real and tangible. To be a Catholic is to be in solidarity with all of humanity – rich and poor alike.

On the 2nd January 1971, a disaster happened at Ibrox, the home of Rangers Football Club. It is known as the ‘Ibrox disaster’. 66 people lost their lives when people were crushed trying to exit the stadium after the game. By all accounts, it was a horrific incident.

The amazing thing is that before the end of that month, on 27 January 1971, a fundraiser match was played at Scotland’s national stadium, Hampden Park. The teams were: Scotland X1 and Rangers/Celtic Select.

The Rangers/Celtic Select team was captained by John Greig and included Bobby Charlton and George Best of Manchester United, Peter Bonetti of Chelsea, Jardine, Smith, Henderson, Johnston, McCloy and Conn of Rangers and Celtic were represented by Murdoch, McNeill, Johnstone, Brogan and Hood.

The Scotland X1 team was taken from Jim Cruikshank (Hearts), Pat Stanton (Hibernian), Joe Harper and Bobby Clark (Aberdeen), John O'Hare and Archie Gemmill (Derby County), Bobby Moncur (Newcastle), Charlie Cooke (Chelsea), Tommy McLean (kilmarnock), Peter Lorimer (Leeds United), Tommy Gemmell and Davie Hay (Celtic), and Ron McKinnon, Colin Stein and Sandy Jardine (Rangers).

Celtic manager Jock Stein said:

I would like to think there could be no greater silent memorial to the disaster victims than the joining together of the fans here at Hampden tonight to tumble the barriers which have besmirched Scottish football so often in the past.

Rangers manager Willie Waddell said:

This was a Rangers commitment, but we were not left on our own. Celtic rallied to our side immediately. Bobby Charlton personnified the willingness of his fellow footballers when he said "I'm thrilled to be asked. Just tell me when you want me and where."

Sometimes it is in suffering that we are brought together into the One Humanity imagined for us by Christ Jesus who suffered and died, that all may be one.

(Source for information: http://www.celticprogrammesonline.com/PROGRAMME%20COVERS/7071/scotlandXI/scotlandXI7071h.htm )

28 Sunday Ordinary Time, B, 14 October 2012, Mark 10:17-30

The Rich Young Man

A few years ago, Ryan Tubridy was interviewing Amy Huberman on the Late Late. Amy was just about to get married to Brian O'Driscoll, and so the talk was all about marriage and having babies.

There was a short exchange between Ryan and another woman on the show that night, where they talked about how proud they were of their small children, especially when they finally went to the toilet in the potty! They both remembered also how delighted their young child was to display the contents of their potty to them!

To some degree, all of us look to our parents and other important people in life. We crave their love and affection, we want them to be happy with us. That is why we present our potty to them, and show them what we have achieved. There is nothing altogether wrong with this.

However, especially those of you who have children; what if your ten year old child, or your teenage child, or even your grown up child were to continue all through life literally showing you their potty? To say that it would be a sign that they had not moved on would be an understatement! Showing our parents our potty may be a stage of development, but it is definitely one that we don't want to stay at.

Today's gospel, the story of the rich young man, has been presented at different times as a story of the need for justice, a story of how to grow in the spiritual life by giving away what we have achieved; it is a story of the arrogance of youth: "I have kept all these from my earliest days."

Most of all, however, it is a story about recognition. The rich young man wants to be recognised as having done everything, achieved everything, gained everything, kept every rule, ticked every box. He wants the 'good master', Jesus, to be really impressed by him, to grant him eternal life because he deserves it. And Jesus looks at the rich young man, lovingly, in a way he looks at this man, presenting his potty, and he tells him that he must develop, he must grow, he must learn still a better way.

All of us are tempted, in our own way, to display to God how good we have been. And God looks at us, and loves us, and calls us forward to the fullness of life.

27 Sunday Ordinary Time, B, 7 October 2012, Mark 10:2-16

http://www.chooselife2012.ie/

Choose Life!
Right throughout my life, I have been enticed by the 'A Grade.' I always wanted to do well academically. That is one of the reasons that I am back studying. I want to understand more, develop more, be more human, more alive, and to grow in passion for the preaching of the gospel. What one of us doesn't want to thrive? Survival is important, but once we are managing to survive, another impulse comes: the impulse of thriving in life.

Surviving and Thriving: A subtle lie
One version of 'thriving' in life that rose to prominence during the twentieth century was the push to 'thrive' that arose in Germany under Hitler. The people were barely surviving, and Hitler convinced the people that the root cause of all their problems, the reason why they were only surviving and not thriving was because of the Jew, the Communist, or the Homosexual in their midst. We know, now, that this is a very basic lie. But, before it was discovered as a lie, six million people had died as a result of this lie. And the lie is subtle – for you to thrive, somebody else, maybe even other people, must not survive. Another version of the lie pervades our society that says in order for me to thrive, others must barely survive. Another version of this lie is in the subtle thinking that says all foreigners must leave because there isn't enough work for us Irish. For me to thrive, others must not thrive. This is a lie.

Surviving and Thriving: Living life to the full!
The Church's understanding, i.e. what the Church teaches us, stands this lie on its head. The Church teaches us that in order to thrive, we must first survive; to be fully alive, we must first live. And the 'we' here is not limited to me, or us, but rather the 'we' that is all of humanity. I cannot really thrive unless all of humanity is at least surviving, and that they are on the way to thriving.

We can apply this 'surviving and thriving' model to many of the difficulties that are raised in our world today. It is like a 'rule of thumb' for some difficult moral questions, such as:

1. For our society to thrive, like other societies appear to be thriving, do we not need to bring in the same laws as they have? Or, to be more exact, because other countries have legislated for abortion – for the deliberate killing of the unborn – do we not need to do the same? Isn't that what progress is?

2. So, for us to thrive as a country, must not some die? This is the same idea that I proposed earlier – for me to thrive, or, for us to thrive, must some not survive?

The answer for us as Catholics and as Christians is that no-one need die for us to thrive. In fact, our thriving is bound up with the thriving of others. It is together that we thrive.

Divorce – the Gospel teaching
Today's gospel is one of those gospel passages that can grate on our contemporary ears. I think that this is the case because the gospel is written in a particular way – it is a dramatic story. It is like a three-act play. The first act is the scene with the Pharisees testing Jesus about the Law. The second act is "Back in the house" and the third act seems to move outside again.

Divorce and Discipleship
Those tough lines in the middle – about divorce and adultery, they are given "Back in the house", so they are 'Top Secret', for your eyes only, if you will. Jesus brings the disciples into the house – the house here is a metaphor for the Church – he brings them into the house, into the parlour we might say, and it is only from that inside place that the teaching of Jesus makes sense. It makes very little sense to us – until we recognise that the disciples questioned Jesus about this. Struggling with A Grade Christianity is like competing in the Olympics of life. It isn't easy. So, asking questions is good. Asking questions of the 'house', i.e. the Church, is good because it means that we are in the same company as the disciples!

Humanae Vitae – The Culture of Life
The contemporary Catholic tradition of love, care and respect for human life began decisively with Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical 'Humanae Vitae'. Here, Pope Paul VI carefully re-affirmed the Church's respect for the mystery of human life, relationship and procreation. Building on the tradition of Humanae Vitae, the Church under Pope John Paul II published 'Donum Vitae' in 1987, and 'Evangelium Vitae' in 1995.

Humanae Vitae (E) – "On Human Life" which deals with regulating birth
Donum Vitae (CDF) – "Respect for Life" which deals with the Church's teaching on IVF
Evangelium Vitae (E) – "The Gospel of Life" which deals with Murder, Abortion, Euthanasia

You can see that the common word here is: 'Vitae', which means 'Life'. In a way, these documents all deal with 'Life' issues.  As such, the Church's tradition is well established that "from the moment of conception (until the moment of natural death), every human life is beautiful, every human life is precious, and every human life is sacred." (Irish Bishops, Day for Life, 2012)

Further Notes:

The Day for Life – celebrated each year since 2001 here in Ireland
Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae in 1995 asked that a 'Day for Life' be celebrated each year that would highlight these issues.
Day for Life 2012 – Choose Life!
Day for Life 2011 – A call to solidarity and hope in difficult times
Day for Life 2010 – The meaning of Christian death
Day for Life 2009 – Suicide
Day for Life 2008 – Mental Health
Day for Life 2007 – The sacredness of Human Life
Day for Life 2006 – Celebrating People with Disabilities

So, this Sunday the Bishops of Ireland, our bishops and leaders in faith, are asking us to engage in a number of ways:
1. Pray the 'Choose Life' prayer each day from today until the Feast day of All Saints on Tuesday November.
2. Visit the website: http://www.chooselife2012.ie/
3. Get a pamphlet
4. Get involved in discussions! Make your view heard.

26 Sunday Ordinary Time, B, 30 September 2012, Mark 9:38-48

We all like to get our own way! There was a great ad on TV a few years back. It was for Vicks First Defence and its slogan was: "Attack is the best form of defence", a debatable catchphrase. Anyhow, the bit about the ad that I remember was that it was set in a supermarket aisle. A Mother and her young son are walking down the aisle when the boy picks up some crisps and sweets off the shelf. Looking at his Mum, he realises that she is not too keen on him getting all these goodies, so he begins the first stages of a tantrum. At which point, the mother throws herself on the ground, and has a full-blown tantrum, after which she gets up off the ground, having won the day. Her son, realising that he has lost this battle of the wills decides that he had best put the goodies back on the supermarket shelf. Then they join hands and away they go. "Attack is the best form of defence."

I love getting my way. In fact, when I was in training for priesthood my family had a nickname for me that emphasised this. Unfortunately I can't share the nickname with you. But, suffice to say that it emphasised the specialness of what I was doing with my life, and, of course, how my Mum would look after and spoil me when I came home from college. I'm sure you can imagine what I mean.

I think we all like to get our way. Certainly the disciples in the gospel liked to get their way. So much so, in fact, that they were disturbed by someone who wasn't doing things their way! "Master, we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name: and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him." Another way of putting this is: Because he doesn't follow us, because he doesn't do what we do, we tried to stop him. This is a more challenging way of putting it. What it highlights is that, in the Christian community, in the Body of Christ, there are always those who are less interested helping people to follow Jesus and more interested in getting people to follow themselves. So, this is a critique of the abuse of power in the early Church. It is also a critique of the abuse of power in the contemporary/modern Church. This happened among the apostles, whom we remember from last Sunday were more interested in discussing which of themselves was the greatest rather than listening carefully to the bad news that Jesus was breaking to them about his passion and his death.

To emphasise the point, Jesus sounds out a number times, notes of positive encouragement and then, four times he reproaches the disciples for their attitude, simply because they don't get it. Jesus is clear. There is only one Way. And it is Jesus' Way. God's way, not man's. It's not my way, or your way, or our way. It is Jesus' way. To get the attention of the disciples, Jesus throws a hissie fit.

"You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us. If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink just because you belong to Christ, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward. But anyone who is an obstacle to bring down one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone round his neck. And if your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off;... And if your foot should cause you to sin, cut it off;... And if your eye should cause you to sin, tear it out;..."

This tantrum that Jesus throws is with the disciples – attack is the best form of defence. Jesus wants to show them, and to show us, the futility of power for power's sake – he wants to show them that the most important people in the Kingdom of God are the little ones: the ones who we perceive have no power, no authority, no voice. It is they who are in first place in the Kingdom of God.

And how we know that we have not lived up to this instruction of Jesus. How we know now how the contemporary Church was involved in the abuse of those with no power, with no authority, with no voice. So, the Gospel is fresh, and new, and full of new life. Because the Gospel is Jesus' way, not our way.

A quick note as I finish today's homily. We can be tempted to read or hear today's gospel passages to do with cutting off hand or foot or tearing out our eye; we can be tempted to read them in an individualistic sense which would mean that we do not hear or read the Gospel as it was intended. It is a clear criticism of the Body as the Body of Christ – as the community of faith. So, to cut off a hand or foot or whatever should be heard as addressed first of all at the community not at the individual.

15 Sunday Ordinary Time, B, 15 July 2012, Mark 6:7-13

Mother Kevin

Mission

Back in January I travelled to Uganda with Trocaire as many of you know. Almost everywhere we went we came to hear of 'Mama Kevina'.

Mother Kevin was born, Teresa Kearney, on the 28th April, 1875, near Arklow in Co. Wicklow. By the time she was ten years old, both of her parents had died. She was raised from that time by her granny, who died when Teresa was at the tender age of 17 years old.

Teresa was already an assistant teacher. It was after her granny's death that she joined the Franciscan Sisters, initially for the mission to the USA. But, her journey would take her to Uganda, prompted by the request of a missionary Bishop there. She built new convents and primary schools, clinics that eventually became hospitals, women's development groups, and much else besides.

All over the country of Uganda her influence is to be found. She would eventually found two new orders of Sisters. Firstly, in 1923 she founded the 'Little Sisters of St Francis'. Then, at the age of 77 in 1952, she founded the 'Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa'. This Order was specifically to provide Sisters for the Mission to Africa. She became the first Superior General of the Order, until 1954, when she recognised that younger sisters with more energy for the mission might be better able to continue her great work. She died in Boston in 1957.

Do's and Don't's:

To be a missionary is to first be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Mother Kevin had a very simple three-word mission statement: "For thee, Lord". This very simple mission statement gives us an incredible insight into the woman. It tells us that she was obviously a disciple of the Lord. It tells us that she felt able, in her heart, to communicate with her Lord and Master. And, most of all, because what she was doing was for the Lord, it seemed as if she had boundless, unbridled energy for all aspects of her task.

The twelve in today's gospel are missioned – sent out, two by two. They are given some very clear instructions, a list of Do's and Dont's for the journey. Do wear Sandals. Do bring a staff. Do not bring a beggar's sack. Do not bring money. Do not wear two tunics.

The mission is always to people. The mission is never away from society, or away from the world. And the Do's and Dont's of the Disciples missioning by Jesus strongly affirm this. The Do's are about being prepared for the journey. Be prepared for long walks, so wear footwear. Be prepared for whatever comes at you on that walk, be it wild animal, or mountain, or whatever, so bring a staff. But, wherever you find people, stop. Where you are made welcome, stay. Be regular. Don't be bothersome. Be natural. Every person that you meet who welcomes you is worth spending time with. Don't bring your own bread, or your own money. To do so would keep a distance between you and the people you meet.

So, to be a missionary is to first be a disciple of Jesus. Only secondly can we head out on mission. And mission is about giving people an experience of the Lord. So, it is not about force-feeding religion down someone's throat. Rather, it is like sharing an adventure that you went on. Becoming religious, going to Mass and praying and receiving the Sacraments are all responses to the encounter that we have with Jesus, and usually through other people.

Reminder: We are all missionaries

It is good to remember that we are all missionaries! At the end of Mass today, in the name of Christ you will be sent on that mission and you will respond by thanking God for it.

It's good to remember today that it is not just Africa, or America, or China, or anywhere else that needs missioned to anymore than Ireland, Connaught, our diocese, our parish, your street, your house, your heart. Going on mission is a response to the incredible experience of God in our lives, and the mission of Jesus is to every dimension and aspect of our world.

"Mother Kevina is a woman of God. She is the same to us all without considering their race or colour. She belongs to us all, not only to the Christians or the Catholics"

"She is an amazing woman. The whole Department (Government) may have firmly decided that she cannot have approval for all her private enterprises. She calls on us. She is perfectly simple, perfectly charming and perfectly inflexible. Invariably she gets what she has come for; invariably she is proved to be right. She is a wonder, a woman totally dedicated to religion, she keeps us all on our secular toes."

http://www.fmsa.net/

14 Sunday Ordinary Time, B, 8 July 2012, Mark 6:1-6

Where is Jesus?

Honour

"Once upon a time, in a land far, far away..." So begins many a fairytale. Our ears are so tuned in to those words that they can immediately remind us of our favourite childhood stories. If a story was to begin: "Yesterday, outside my house..." it simply wouldn't be a fairytale; there's no excitement and it just sounds wrong. So, our ears are attracted to the exotic – to the far away – to the extraordinary. In our minds we give honour to the exotic and assign shame to the ordinary. Dublin, London, New York, Paris, Tokyo – Exotic, exciting, relevant – what about Roscommon? Its good to remember that all good fairytales pass on wisdom to us that we use in our everyday lives. And its good to remember that exotic places have ordinary people living in them! And those ordinary people look at our lives and see the exotic!

Belonging

We all belong somewhere – in a family, a town, a street, a community, a sports club, a Church, maybe even a Choir! We know that we belong somewhere when we can be ourselves in that place, when we don't have to put on a mask, or create a perfect image of myself to put on show. When we belong we are at our most real. The people and places where we most belong will ground us. Like a lightning conductor on the side of a building to protect it from going on fire in a storm, so also people who know us as we really are conduct the energy from the storms of life back to where it belongs. They don't shield us or protect us from living our life, but they are there like a port on the stormy seas of life. For me, going home to visit with my family grounds me because with them I am not Fr John. I'm just John. The real me. And that's healthy and normal.

Our Lady of Good Counsel Gospel Choir

Brothers and Sisters of Jesus

We forget just how grounded we can be. Sometimes we can be grounded in a false or very 'base' place. Like when men gather together in the pub and share smutty jokes, or perhaps when ladies share the latest gossip about someone down the street or up the road. We can mistake this for being real, healthy and normal. Talking about other people in a less than dignified way means that we don't treat them like the human beings they are. And so, we cannot see that every person, no matter what they have done, or where they come from, every person is a miracle. A miracle of life and creation, a miracle of many bodily systems that keep them alive and breathing, a miracle of mind that can think and feel and analyse. And every person is a miracle that we believe Jesus makes his home. Jesus makes his home in every single person. Without exception.

The Sacraments remind us of this; that, Jesus exists in the ordinary, everyday, humdrum stuff of life –  in bread, and wine; in water, and oil; by light, and in the dark; in our everyday rituals, and in the things that we forget to do.

Jesus is present in the people that we meet everyday, in the rich and the poor, among settled people and traveller folk, in those who suffer from addiction and in those who are teetotallers, in our brothers and in our sisters, in those we have judged and in those who have judged us, in our enemies and in our friends.

Recognition

It is not that the Church has to be more relevant, nor is it that it has to be more exciting or entertaining. No, the gift of the Church is Christ. And the work of the Church is opening our eyes to see him. Everyday. All around us. And in us. In the ordinary and the extraordinary moments of life.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all who love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

From St Patrick's Breastplate

Note: Our Lady of Good Counsel Gospel Choir came to Roscommon to share their talents and Sacred Music with us this weekend. They are normally based in the Parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Johnstown, Killiney, Co. Dublin. www.johnstownparish.org

Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODBL9pN4SMc

Feast of St Maria Goretti, 6 July 2012, John 12:24-26; 1 Cor 6:13-15, 17-20

Sainthood

St Maria Goretti

Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen has begun the process in Rome, but it is on record that he fell out with Cardinal Spellman over money! Saints are very real and realistic people. They are first and foremost, human beings first. What is a Saint? Well, the first requirement to be a Saint is to be a human being.

When we ponder the life of St Maria Goretti we can make her untouchable. We don't imagine children today as being saintly because we imagine that a saintly person, or a saintly child would be perfect – a kind of 'goody-two-shoes'. But if Saints are human beings, and Saints have to be human beings in order to be Saints, then St Maria Goretti was first and foremost a little girl of 11 years old. So, I would imagine that she would have liked sweets. I'm sure that she loved to play, and I imagine that she had to be coaxed into doing her homework when she came home from school! It's important to 'humanise' the Saints. Otherwise we make out that we could never be a Saint and then we've left ourselves off the hook! 'Sure, I could never be a Saint!' Ah, but you could!

Chastity

chastity here is the capacity to hold oneself, in the same manner as I must be continent – learning how to use our body in a correct manner – teaching a child to use the potty, and then the toilet – we don't simply go to the toilet where we stand – we wait, we hold ourselves until we can get to the toilet, sometimes until the point of bursting! To lose that control over our bodies is a difficult moment – one that can happen for many reasons

Chastity then is not so much a suppression of our sexuality but rather a 'holding' of our own self. I know my own deep desires and I feel them in much the same way as I need to use the toilet. But, we learn to wait for the proper place and time – the proper place being the married relationship and the proper time being the time when we have been married in public before Christ and his Church.

We can use chastity as a model for our conduct in all kinds of walks of life. There can be moments in life when we are deeply tempted to take what is not ours. And we can experience that temptation as a deep urge – and usually it is quite a private experience – 'no one will ever know'. The difficulty is that we ourselves know, and of course God knows. So, to be tempted by greed or pride or honour or lust is human – to act out on these temptations are all ways of being unchaste, that is unfaithful to the Lord of our life – and not just to the Lord, but to the Body of Christ which is the Church.

The Body of Christ

The Body of Christ as the Church – the Body of Christ as Communion – our bodies as members of Christ's Body – to be chaste is to be faithful to Christ – as a wife is to her husband, as a husband is to his wife

The Body, i.e. the Church, is not meant to be in relationship with anyone else – the Church is faithful to Christ – the Church is chaste in it's faithfulness to Christ – and is unchaste when it is not faithful to Christ

Purity

Difference between ritual purity and actual purity
Rituals – The externals of religion – dressing in a collar as a priest is a 'pure' ritual – signing ourselves with the cross is a 'pure' ritual – coming to Mass is a 'purity' ritual – receiving Communion is a public statement of 'purity' as much as not receiving may be interpreted falsely as being a public statement of impurity.

St Maria Goretti is remembered for her purity, and specifically for her sexual purity. We call this particular form of purity 'chastity'. It is a requirement of all followers of Jesus Christ, whether celibate or married or single, whether one is a consecrated religious or a member of the lay-faithful, whether one is a priest or deacon, Bishop or Pope. In the history of the Church there are many famous examples of those who have not been chaste, especially in the exalted roles of leadership such as Popes or Bishops.

So it is important, first of all, when we consider chastity to not set the standard of chastity by the failures of others or the failures of ourselves to be chaste. No, rather we entrust ourselves and others to God's grace and mercy. Then we can begin to discover with fresh eyes and ears the standard set by those who have been spectacularly chaste!

Novena

Isn't it amazing how our human minds and hearts work? We remember bad news instead of good news. And, in order to remember good news, sometimes we have to make it bad news first! We would rather set our standard by the failure of others, rather than by the spectacular successes of the Saints!

There is an incredible effort of will required of us to really hear a spectacular story like Maria Goretti's story. It is for that reason – because we have to make this incredible effort to really hear St Maria's incredible story – it is for that reason that we need the pure ritual of a Novena of preparation for today. It is only by prayer, listening to God's Word, and celebrating the Sacraments over nine consecutive days to prepare for this moment that we can really be in this moment.

So, I am jealous of you! I am already not as well prepared as you are for this moment! I have been busy with my pastoral work and so could not be here every evening for this great preparation prayer.

Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist, 24 June 2012, Luke 1:57-66, 80

The Holstee Manifesto

Who were you named after? I'm named after both of my Grand-fathers: John on my Mother's side, Patrick on my Father's. So, I am John Patrick. At least, that's how I understand it. It's an interesting question to ask of ourselves: 'Who am I named after?'

Naming a child is a very significant moment. We take it for granted, so much so that we rarely spend a bit of time wondering about why we have a name, and why we bother to name other people.

Maybe it's only when we reflect on situations in history where people have had their name taken from them that we realise the significance of being named. Prisoners in the concentration camps in Nazi Germany were assigned numbers, which were tattooed on to their arms. Their name was removed from the forceably. They were known in the camps by the number assigned to them. We can feel revulsion about this, especially if we put ourselves in the prisoner's shoes. What is it that makes it so horrendous? Perhaps it's the last straw in terms of our dignity as persons. If we aren't recognised by a name, then we lose our standing as human beings. We become sub-human.

Naming a child bestows the dignity of humanity on that child; it affirms them as created in the image and likeness of the creator God.

Our gospel story today is built around a controversy about what to name this newborn baby. The controversy is not among the parents, but between the community and parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah. Zechariah is deaf, struck down in the temple when he didn't fully believe the angel of God. So, he cannot hear his wife's insistence on the name John. The miracle occurs when Zechariah writes the name John on the writing tablet. The creator God, the Lord, has acted in an amazing fashion:

Elizabeth, in her old age, has conceived and borne a son – which was clearly seen as God's blessing upon her, upon her husband, and upon their family.

And then God acts in the naming of the child. A prophetic act occurs – Elizabeth insists on the name of John, and the deaf Zechariah also insists.

The Lord's role in naming John indicates for the community the prophetic person that John will be. Even before John himself discovers what his calling will be, the community are already primed to find out.

As named human beings, and as baptised Christians, each and every person has a vocation and a calling in life. We have a contribution to make, something that no other person can do. Our own relationship with God is dependent on us listening carefully for what our call is – and it is only in the answering of that call, the writing of God on our hearts, that we can become the best version of ourselves that we were meant to be.

Each one of us ignores the deepest call of God in our hearts. And this is perhaps the most significant sin of our lives; that we do not listen to what God is telling us about ourselves, and so we become deaf like Zechariah. It takes courage to continue listening for God's call when we find ourselves numbed and deafened by life.

If all of life is about a preparation for our inevitable departure from this life when we die, and if we allow this to shape our whole existence, then answering God's call becomes much easier. And no doubt, John was aware that his prophetic words and actions would bring him close to the fickle sword of this world's authority. Being rooted in the authority that is beyond this world allowed John to answer fully the call of God.

"Ruah" Input for Elation Ministries - 25 May 2012

http://www.elationministries.com/

 

I want to set the scene for a moment. I promise you that I won't stay with the doom and gloom, but I think its important to situate ourselves concretely in the here and now.

Last July, the Taoiseach spoke in the Dail at length about the Church in the wake of new revelations in a diocese here. He accused the Vatican of undue interference in Irish affairs. Following this watershed moment, the Minister for Foreign Affairs closed the residence of the Irish Ambassador to the Holy See. He claimed that it was for financial reasons, although it later transpired that the saving would amount to just over €700k per annum which doesn't seem to stack up as a good reason.

Having said all that, if the closing of the Ambassador's residence was genuinely for financial reasons, then I would accept it. However, I don't believe that it was for financial reasons that it was closed. I believe that it was closed because it was politically expedient to do so. We may not be Soviet Russia where people were murdered by the ruling elites for political expediency, but what is happening to the Church here is a form of politicide.

It is politicide because the Church has held political power in three ways: in the areas of health, of education and of sexual morality. We have lost our moral authority to speak on sexual morality. This was the first step in the politicide of the Church, although here the greatest wounds were self-inflicted by means of the abuse crisis. Now the continuing annihilation of the Church in the political, cultural and social life of Ireland has created a power vacumn where the Church once stood strong. The focus of the current politicide of the Church has now shifted to the eradication of the Church from the area of education and it will gradually focus on the removal of Church influence in our health system.

Meanwhile, since the mid-1960s the institutional Church has been greatly depleted by rapidly falling vocations, not to mention the number of clergy and religious who have left ministry and/or religious life. So, to use an analogy of the military, the standing army that the bishops and superiors once stood as Generals of, no longer exists. What remains is a skeleton crew, taking turns at keeping watch, hoping against hope that the cavalry will come riding over the hill to relieve the situation.

So, here we are. What are we to do? We don't have enough 'troops' to fight off those who are stripping us of our power, although this is not stopping us from trying to use lay-people in this way. They are, understandably, wary of being ushered into the trenches where certain annihilation appears to be just over the next parapet. To stand and fight appears to be the only option because there is nowhere for us to fly to.

I think that it is important to tell the story like this, because that is what it feels like to be a priest or a Catholic in Ireland today. At times it feels like being hung, drawn and quartered, but of course, not physically but rather emotionally and therefore spiritually. And so we do not know where we are. Has our God abandoned us to the wolves? Where is the Chief Pastor, the one who promised to be there with us, to protect us? For faithful and committed Catholics it can feel as though God and Church have abandoned them.

So, how are we to chart a course forward? We have only a sketchy map and instruments that we have not used for generations. These are the ancient ways. They are to be found in the Gospels, in the letters of St Paul and in the Acts of the Apostles. They, in turn, draw deeply on the Scriptures of what we call the Old Testament. First and foremost in this is that the Christian Way leads all of us, at some time or other, to the Cross. And second is that no person has ever volunteered for the Cross. Even the Lord himself, we are told, struggled with the prospect of what was ahead of him, and sweated blood.

So, we have to be ready to sweat blood also. This means that when we contemplate what the future holds for us, we have to be real about it. Being a Christian can be a very painful experience. There is no point to hiding that from ourselves. So, if we are looking for virtual religion, then we are in the wrong place. What happened to Jesus can, does and will happen to us.

This is one of the key weaknesses of our Church today. We operate in the world as if the Cross never happened. We are surprised and 'saddened' when the world moves in a way that is not in-keeping with the Church's beliefs. And yet, from the ancient ways we know that all of this has happened before. None of it is new.

What should be the focus of the Church's mission now? For many years the focus has been on upholding the Church's total power in the areas of health, education and sexual morality. And, it is good to be clear about this, the Church did hold almost total power in these areas. So, I think we have to at least propose that it is not such a good thing to hold total control over any area of public life. A brief look at any authoritarian or totalitarian political system gives good reason for this. That there are other viewpoints and perspectives in the world challenges us to understand ourselves more and more.

An example of this is that up until the present time in the field of education, Catholic ethos was not articulated, but was simply presumed. This created a situation where the majority of schools were Catholic in name but not clearly in identity. So, there is already some good coming out of the current moves by the State to propose change in the patronage of schools. And, already some parents are beginning to articulate their desire to have their children educated in a specifically Catholic school. This is good. It gives freedom of expression to schools that are Catholic to be explicitly Catholic in their identity, outlook and ethos.

So, what we should be convinced of now is that the Church's total power in any area is not a good thing. It breeds complacency and commands the resources of the Church to uphold a false total structure. As that 'totality' is usurped we are coming to realise that now the Church can choose the mission it wants to focus on. And that mission is surely the one that Christ entrusted to those whom he had gathered around him. It is the mission of evangelisation.

Evangelisation comes from the greek word for the good news: "evangelion". So, to be evangelised means to be "gospelified". It means to be completely immersed in the gospel. In an ideal world evangelisation would come before the ritual and sacramental baptism where we are literally immersed in water. We were all sacramentally baptised and initiated into the Way of Christ. The question is: were we all sufficiently evangelised beforehand? I wasn't, mostly because I was baptised as an infant. So, we don't live in an ideal world. We live in the real world. So, here in the real world, sometimes the cart does go before the horse, and sometimes, perhaps most of the time, our evangelisation occurs after baptism. Indeed, it often occurs after we have been baptised, confirmed, received holy Communion and the Sacrament of Penance, maybe even been married or ordained as a priest!

So, we must be careful that we do not evangelise people into contaminated water. The water that we use to baptise people symbolises both the death and the resurrection of Christ. We are to be baptised into Christ. We must be clear that at one and the same time as we were baptised into Christ, we were baptised into his Body, the Church. There is no gap between these two. We cannot be baptised in Christ, and not be baptised into the Church. Similarly, our evangelisation draws us deeper into the love of God, and also into love of his Body, the Church. While the water of Christ is pure, the water of the Church can be impure and contaminated. This is the human side of the divine institution that the Church is, and it was so from the very beginning. If we briefly consider Judas' betraying role in the story of Jesus' life, then we know how our human weakness very often determines the direction the Church takes. And also, the Church at times can be contaminated with the desire for power, which the Lord specifically condemns in Matthew's Gospel:

Jesus called them together and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:25-28)

These are just a couple of examples of what can distort Christ's mission in the world. Each one of us must be aware of ourselves. Do we perceive that the Church is under attack, and therefore must be defended at all costs? Or, do we recognise the call to journey to the Cross that is at the heart of the Christian journey of life, not forgetting that the Cross leads to the Resurrection?

This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost, which is the time when we commemorate the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and to the Church. What is the Holy Spirit? There are some stock answers: the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit is the creator Spirit that we read about in the book of Genesis:

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:2)

I think, however, that on the feast of Pentecost we are celebrating the Spirit of Christ, which is at the same time the creator Spirit of the Old Testament and the third person of the revealed Holy Trinity. I say this because the gospel for the Vigil of Pentecost reads:

He [Jesus] was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive; for there was no Spirit as yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:39)

To say that there was "no Spirit as yet" means to say that Christ's Spirit had not yet passed to his adopted brothers and sisters. They were not yet imbued with his Spirit. So, as Christians, compared to all other non-Christian peoples, we are promised to be imbued not simply with a vague "Holy Spirit", but rather the Holy Spirit of Christ – the Spirit that through him, through his life on this earth, we came to be part of. It was that Holy Spirit which came upon Mary enabling her to conceive the child Jesus; that same Spirit that awoke in Elizabeth when John jumped in her womb as Mary greeted her. And yet, there is some characteristic difference for all of us who follow on after Jesus walked on this earth. And this is the Spirit of Christ that we are exposed to, for it is through Christ, through Jesus that we are gifted with the Holy Spirit. Christ is the lens through which we encounter the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of Christ is also in some sense Christ's soul – it is that which animated him while he was on the earth. And in giving his own Spirit to the Church, Christ imbues each one of us with his own self. And it seems that not one of us gets exactly the same bit of that Spirit – some of us are beautiful singers and musicians, some of us are teachers and preachers, others are involved in ministry to priests and to the liturgy, more of us are making discoveries every day about who we are and what we are called to be and do in the Church and in our world.

So, in short then, as people of faith we are called to be converted and converted and converted, over and over again. That is to say that we are to be immersed in Christ, which is to be evangelised or gospelified over and over again. Our sacramental baptism and our sacramental confirmation are not ends in themselves but rather are beginnings. And, like an inspirational song, we have to tune in all the time to that one true Spirit that Jesus promises us. It is his Spirit. And it is to be found in Scripture, in the Sacraments, in the Church understood as the gathered people of God, in other people, in people that we minister to, and in people that minister to us. The Spirit of Christ is real, perhaps it is the most real experience we ever have in life – the most true experience that we ever have in life. And Christ's Spirit is with us always, we simply have to open our eyes and ears, reach out and touch other people, pray, sing, be gospelified, evangelised, converted, whatever you want to call it. And Christ's Spirit always draws us together – gathers us into the "ekklesia", the great gathering unto Christ that the Church actually is.