All Souls Day November 2nd

                                               The Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed

 

WE ARE AT A DARKENING TIME OF THE YEAR – THE LEAVES ARE FALLING, THE NIGHTS ARE CLOSING IN WITH THE ONSET OF WINTER TIME AND THE CHANGING OF THE CLOCKS AT THE WEEKEND.  ALL IS GROWING DARK. ONE BIG STORM AND ALL THE LEAVES WILL BE GONE.

I AM REMINDED OF A MEETING I HAD RECENTLY WITH A NUN FROM THE FAR EAST. SHE RELATED TO ME  THAT SHE WAS SENT HERE TO IRELAND RATHER UNEXPECTEDLY BY HER SUPERIORS AND ARRIVED IN DUBLIN ONE NOVEMBER 10 YEARS AGO HAVING LIVED ALL HER LIFE UP TO THAT WITH THE TROPICS AND LUSH GREENERY. SHE DIDN’T HAVE ANY ENGLISH AT THE TIME – SHE WAS LANDED STRAIGHT FROM SINGAPORE, AND THE FIRST QUESTION ON HER LIPS WAS - WHAT IS IT WITH ALL THESE DEAD IRISH TREES THAT ARE  ALLOWED TO STAND EVERYWHERE? SHE ASSUMED THEY WERE ALL DEAD - HAVING NEVER SEEN AN AUTUMN IN HER LIFE. AS SHE HAD NO ENGLISH AT ALL IT WAS FRUSTRATING FOR HER – SHE DIDN’T HAVE THE LANGUAGE TO COMMUNICATE AND HAVE IT EXPLAINED TO HER WHY NO ONE WAS CHOPPING DOWN ALL THESE – TO HER MIND – DEAD TREES!  SHE HAD NO CONCEPT OF SPRING AS SHE NEVER SAW ONE. SHE DID NOT REALISE THAT SPRING AND NEW GROWTH AND LIFE WAS MONTHS AWAY AND THEN SLOWLY SHE BEGAN VISUALLY TO UNDERSTAND SPRING FOR THE FIRST TIME AFTER HER FIRST LONG HARD WINTER.

WE ARE IN A SIMILAR POSITION. WE SEE LIFE AND DEATH FROM ONLY ONE ASPECT – LIKE THAT AT THE BEGINING OF WINTERTIME. BUT WE BELIEVE THAT THERE IS ANOTHER LIFE – NOT FAR AWAY FROM US – EVEN THOUGH OUT OF OUR SIGHT. WHILE WE KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE THAT SPRING FOLLOWS WINTER, WE HAVE NO DIRECT EXPERIENCE THAT THERE IS A LIFE AFTER THIS ONE – OR PUT ANOTHER WAY A LIFE ALONGSIDE THIS ONE. WE KNOW WITH CONFIDENCE THAT THERE IS A SPRINGTIME, BUT WE ARE UNCERTAIN ABOUT ANY OTHER LIFE THAN THIS BECAUSE NO-ONE HAS EVER COME BACK TO TELL US DIRECTLY – AND NO-ONE EVER WILL. IT IS LIKE THAT NUN FROM THE TROPICS - WE DON’T HAVE THE LANGUAGE EITHER FOR SOMEONE TO TELL US IN A WAY THAT WE CAN UNDERSTAND – THAT THERE IS MORE BEYOND OUR SIGHT. AND WE DON’T HAVE ANYONE TO ANSWER OUR PUZZLEMENT OR OUR QUESTIONS. ALL THAT NUN NEEDED WAS FOR SOMEONE TO SAY TO HER – ‘WAIT AND SEE, AND ALL WILL BE WELL.’ SHE HAD TO LIVE IN UNCERTAINTY WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING OR EVEN AWARE OF WHAT WAS ABOUT TO HAPPEN, THAT THE DAYS WERE GETTING EVEN DARKER AND COLDER - AND THEN THEY WOULD OF COURSE TURN BRIGHTER, LONGER,  AND MILDER. THEN NEW GROWTH.

WE ARE LIKE HER IN SO MANY WAYS, BUT WE ON THE OTHER HAND HAVE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE LIFE TO COME AND ABOUT RESURRECTION.

WE ARE PRETTY SURE JUST THAT THERE WILL BE SPRINGTIME IN 2013 – THERE WILL BE SPRINGTIME IN THE LIFE TO COME FOR OUR LOVED ONES THAT THE LORD WILL FORGIVE THEM ANY FAULTS THEY COMMITTED IN HUMAN WEAKNESS. THAT IS OUR PRAYER FOR THEM TODAY ESPECIALLY – THAT IS WHY WE PRAY, IN THIS VALLEY OF TEARS, IN THIS LONG SAD WINTER OF WAITING.

MAY WE ALL EXPERIENCE THAT SPRING TIME AND EASTER OF RESURRECTION ON THE LAST DAY. MAY WE BE UNITED WITH ALL OUR LOVED ONES AGAIN. THAT IS OUR HEARTFELT PRAYER TODAY.

MAY THEY REST IN PEACE, AND MAY WE BE RE-UNITED WITH THEM AGAIN 'WHERE SADNESS AND WEEPING WILL BE NO MORE', WHERE 'THE LORD WILL WIPE AWAY THE TEARS FROM EVERY CHEEK', (ISAIAH 25:6), AND WHERE 'THE WORLD OF THE PAST IS GONE' (REVELATION 21:4)

ALL SAINTS DAY 1ST NOVEMBER

All Saints Day

 

MPH!

The readings at Mass today respectively describe and prescribe the life choices of those are - and those who would be, and are called to be, saints.

The acronym MPH can be a helpful one to sum up the eight saintly qualities of the beatitudes. In metric days we know it means Miles Per Hour! I find it a handy acronym to give me the key words to the qualities required of us as preached by the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of today.

What are these qualities or characteristics of those who see, or who wish to see, heaven?

Those who Mourn, the Meek

The Poor in spirit, Pure in heart, the Persecuted, the Peacemakers

Those who Hunger and thirst for righteousness

The readings at Mass today re-iterate two of the ‘P’ qualities in particular:

The pure – we must purify ourselves, to be pure as Christ, to be with those who have ‘washed their robes clean in the blood of the Lamb’, ‘the man with clean hands and a pure heart’ is among those who seek the Lord’s face ‘while He is still to be found’.

The persecuted - The world fails to acknowledge us, and all people ‘who have been through the great persecution’ as described to us today in the second reading from the book of Revelation.

On this feast of all the saints  we recall – not just canonised ones and the blessed – but all those men and women gone before us marked with the sign of faith who in our minds displayed these qualities of faith and virtuous living – fellow parishioners who everybody without hesitation declared to be living saints’, those we feel deserved to go ‘straight up’, those who had holy and peaceful deaths, those whose ‘good deeds go with them' (Revelation), those who suffered patiently persecution even from a spouse or within the family circle for their piety or from troubled family members, who suffered long with mental illness or from a family member with chronic addiction and abuse.

Or those whose hearts and minds  and conversations were pure, who never uttered a bad or uncharitable word, who displayed a goodness that could not be readily explained, who had a charism or gift, who we felt the better for having known them, and that the world was  a better place because they were in it. those whose example we found inspiring, even unbeknownst to themselves.

All you saints, all holy men and women, pray for us.

31st Sunday of the YEAR B - November 4th 2012

The smallest words in the English language are often the most significant, such as YES and NO, or IF and BUT. Jesus teaches us to say YES when we mean YES and NO when we mean NO. All else is window dressing.

Here in the Gospel today Jesus re-iterates the Jewish teaching regarding the greatest commandment of all – when we get down to brass tacks, the bottom line, when we cut to the chase.... What is the bottom line? What is the last word? We want brevity and clarity and simplicity, for guidance and direction. Short is sweet. The moral precept of the Law fulfilled in Jesus is simple, direct but with many implications.

To love God with all your strength, heart and mind

To love your neighbour as yourself

Those are the ‘simultaneous equations’ as it were.

The two smallest yet vital words that apply to our relationship with God and neighbour have to do with the measure of love or respect due to them.

In relation to God the word is ALL – our strength, our mind, our heart, our will

In relationships with others the simple yet profound word is AS – to love our neighbour as ourselves, or in other words, the Golden Rule – treat others as you yourself would like to be treated.

Like all legislation, the devil is in the detail - it is all very well we might say to boil it down to one thing, when ‘all is said and done’, in the here and now, or ‘at the end of the day’ –  the words we find hard to swallow are ALL and AS. It is a mission statement, a plan for life, the blueprint, the writing on the wall.

Of course many of us live lives that fall short of ALL or AS. Instead of ALL in relation to God, we use the phrase – unconsciously – ‘some’ – some of our heart, strength, will or mind (and some of the time). That is the way to Purgatory. But the worst choice of all is for someone to consciously and deliberately employ the word NONE in relation to God and it is the way to hell.

As we commemorate our dead – ‘those gone before us with the sign of faith’ in the Month of November, we begin the month with the Feast of ALL SAINTS – those for whom ALL in relation to their love for God became the only option, and the best and only way, by the grace of God, open to them. As we remember to pray for the Holy Souls too we realise that the word SOME applied to them. Theirs, often like ours, was a love that was partial and incomplete - a love that was somehow lacking in perfection.

As for love of our neighbours as ourselves, instead of saying AS we may imperfectly love and unconsciously employ the term ‘AS IF’! Our love for them – and maybe their love for us - is not yet ‘truly heroic’; it is often sporadic, disjointed, and inconsistent, full of good intentions but not persevering, inconstant – in thought, judgment, word, action and omission.

Why is this a problem for us? Because ‘AS’ challenges us to love others as much as we love ourselves. But we end up loving ourselves more. As Scott Hahn put it: ‘I may not be much but I’m all I think about!’ we are called to put others’ concerns on at least an equal par to our own. Our three loves are God, others, self –or as I have said elsewhere : Jesus, Others, You –which equals JOY.

But we struggle to get that right.

Jesus is the prime example of love because GOD IS LOVE.

No greater love has man that He lay down his life for his friends.

ALL and AS are, as it were, etched into both sides of the coin of love as God intended us to live it– the coin we cannot keep to ourselves. Let these words be written on our hearts

Jesus wants us to love, and love is at once free and yet costs us a great deal, because true love involves commitment, and to commit oneself to love is to sacrifice oneself and most of all implies that we need to forgive and move on – so love costs. It is therefore a case of ALL or nothing.

Love – heaven – the place of true and everlasting love – costs nothing less than everything. It is where the saints want us to follow, it is where the Holy Souls are destined to go in all certainty. The way of love begins now, today. Let us begin again. Heaven cannot wait.

 

30th Sunday of Year B

Jericho is at a crossroads - it is a crossroads in Jesus journey that will lead him up to Jerusalem. It is a last meeting place before the half-day’s journey to Jerusalem on foot.

Beggars, like Bartimaeus, always go to where there is a heightened human interaction, and especially, we feel, at places of worship, to play on perhaps, our religious sensibilities, to play the guilt trip and guilt - tripping us in to giving if we do not want to appear hypocritical.

There is a unique – a once in a lifetime – opportunity too for Bartimaeus - and so he is at a crossroads in his life. Jesus is passing by, it is now or never.

Bartimaeus’ heightened sense of hearing makes him keenly aware – it is in hearing that ultimately he uses his other faculties – his sense of speech in crying out to Jesus in prayer, then - oblivious to the crowd, listening for Jesus’ response, then, jumping up - using his arms to throw aside the cloak, using his legs to walk to Jesus. While he is blind, he sees Jesus with the eyes of faith – ‘Son of David’.

He shouts: above the crowd, to be heard, he is persistent, and because he pleads for pity, he is the model of prayer for us, to persevere above discouragement and peer pressure to be people who pray ‘without ceasing’.

The crowd also change their attitude once they hear Jesus’ invitation extended to Bartimaeus – and become a congregation, a community – encouraging him – and then he too becomes a follower – one of them, and joins them as a fellow disciple on the journey.

The words of Jesus: What do you want me to do for you? How do they apply to you and me today?

Where are we blind – through pride – or too proud to change? What have we overlooked? Why do we refuse to change for the better? Why is it so hard for us to get rid of long ingrained bad habits? Why are we so quick to see the faults in others and so slow – with our ‘blind spots’ to see the work we have to do in order to become the best version of ourselves?

We have seen a number of personal encounters in Mark in the last few Sundays - with the rich young man, and with the disciples James and John looking to sit on the right and left of Jesus in His kingdom. Whereas they were blind in a spiritual sense either through avarice or ambition, Bartimaeus’ blindness is on the physical plane.

What do you want me to do for you?

Bartimaeus throws off his cloak.

What does this cloak symbolise? Comfort, security, all his worldly possessions, a hindrance?  Whatever it may be – some things likewise prevent me from total surrender to God’s will for me.

Let me see again. So this was man who lost his sight and wants it restored. Why does Jesus ask the question when it is so obvious what the man needs? The man must verbalise his needs – as must we in prayer.

Let me see again.

May we see again with renewed minds and hearts and persistent prayer asking the Lord what needs to be done, what changes must be made in our lives. May we enter his kingdom whole and entire, lacking nothing.

‘Immediately’ his sight returns. In Mark there is a sense of urgency as the word ‘immediately’ is used 40 times. Let us change now. Let us be unimpeded followers.

Mission Sunday

‘What is it you want me to do for you?’

This is one of the 200 questions – often rhetorical – that Jesus poses to His disciples in the Gospel. This question in fact echoes down the ages and into the heart of every follower of Christ. It is a question worth pondering today. In fact the question remains the same but our answers as well as our requests often change throughout our lives.  As children we have childish concerns, as adolescents we have confusion and uncertainty with identity and purpose, as young adults we have fears as we embark on a career path, and a choice of state in life, as married adults we have concerns about finances and child-rearing, as older people we ask 'who will look after me in my old age?', 'will I have enough to ensure proper care?', and so on. These are some of the understandable common and important life questions we all have.

‘What is it you want me to do for you?’

‘Master we want you to do us a favour.’

What the disciples are in fact looking for is future security but also status. The latter is a purely worldly concern, and in fact is something that we have to take care doesn’t lurk in our hearts. The desire for notice, being the centre of attention,  of celebrity and notoriety – are all deep down vain quests and attempts to achieve immortality.  It is vanity and pride that we feel that we are somehow deserving of a special favour. This can be accompanied - in worldly terms - by a certain glitter, glamour, wealth, comfort with buzz words like ‘fabulous’, ‘gorgeous’ in fashion and celebrity magazines.  It appeals to our baser instincts of competitiveness and a drive to get ahead of the posse. It is about assuming a particular kind of power and influence. It is short-lived, vain, empty and useless.

This is not to take away the proper application of talent – but it is where we can get callous, stepping on toes, not caring who gets hurt along the way, utilising the phrase ‘tough’ to losers – that is worldly and in fact unchristian. This is why Jesus uses the term ‘so-called rulers’ who ‘lord it over them’.

THIS MUST NOT HAPPEN AMONG YOU

This is the temptation of clergy – that of careerism and ‘getting ahead’, with titles and obeisance. But it is also the temptation that faces us all.

‘The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many’.

Like the famous quotation ‘ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country, so it with Jesus. He turns our ambitions on their heads, and reminds us that we are called to serve, because it is in giving that we receive. We must be the ones asking the question of Jesus; ‘What is it You want me to do for You?’

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Today is Mission Sunday when we as a Church community are annually reminded of the fact that many men and women throughout the world have devoted and continue to devote their whole lives and livelihood to the great mission of the Church to ‘go make disciples of all nations’.

We thank God that Ireland has been one of the leading missionary countries in the Church to provide priests and nuns, brothers and sisters to mission areas, to schools, colleges, orphanages, hospitals, hospices and clinics – providing material and spiritual assistance to those in greatest need, often in dangerous conditions, in forbidding climates, in disease-ridden places, and many have died away from home and family.

We think of the many missionaries who embarked from Cobh who celebrated Mass for the last time in the Cathedral – many older men in the parish have told me of their experience of getting a half crown for serving Mass as altar boys for an American missionary priest at one of the side altars in the cathedral. We think of missionary martyrs who died as a result of persecution in communist lands, and we remember in prayer those who continue to minister in places with a Muslim majority who can at times be hostile to the faith. We think of parishioners or relations who have spent time on the missions – spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ, baptising and spreading the Faith.

We think of the many millions of punts and Euros contributed down through the years by Irish people. God will never let of an act of generous sacrifice go unnoticed or forgotten.

Finally we think of the importance of prayer for the Missions. I recall one story of a priest in a Chinese Communist prison for a number of years. Each evening he would feel the burden and suffering lift – for a full hour every day he felt a great sense of peace and consolation. It was only after his eventual release from prison and return home that this hour of relief exactly coincided with an hour of prayer his anxious mother prayed for him each day.

SUPPORT the Missions  - the word can sum up our efforts:

Sympathising 

Understanding

Prayer,

Penance

Offerings,

Remembering in your will and

Thanking God

28th Sunday of the Year

Can you recall what was the most important meeting of your life?  Who was the single most significant, inspirational and influential person in your life up to the present moment? What was the most important decision you have ever made? What conversation with another can you recall?

'A man came running up to Jesus.'

The sense of urgency is apparent. For this nameless man a unique opportunity that could easily be lost of he did not take this chance to catch up with Jesus in case He would be gone from sight.

Jesus was on an external journey but the rich young man was in an internal journey of discernment - his whole life journey, especially his moral life is laid before Jesus as one of strict adherence to the Commandments of the Law. While Jesus does not list all 10 of them he does refer to 6 of the 7 commandments that relate to love of neighbour.

Did Jesus deliberately exclude the one that seems to have most relevance to the reason for the man’s sadness at the injunction to ‘go sell all that you own and then come follow me’? Can you think of which commandment is missing?

Jesus looked at the man and loved him. He held him under his gaze causing the man to come to a complete stop. Under that penetrating gaze Jesus scrutinised the heart of this sincere and imperfect young man – and looking into His eyes gently but forcibly invited him to take one more step – a step in faith, a risk, an investment in Christ, a long term investment that would pay dividends in heaven, but which required the abandonment of what he held dearest – his wealth. He went away sad, ‘he couldn’t have his cake and eat it’. He coveted riches.

As Pope John Paul II put it in Veritatis Splendor, n.7

For the young man, the question is not so much about rules to be followed, but about the full meaning of life. This is in fact the aspiration at the heart of every human decision and action, the quiet searching and interior prompting which sets freedom in motion. This question is ultimately an appeal to the absolute Good which attracts us and beckons us; it is the echo of a call from God who is the origin and goal of man's life.

We might easily ask what this curious episode has to do with your life or mine – especially you might say to yourself - I am not rich or young or even a man, so what relevance has this to me? I am none of these things!

The Holy Father continues:

The question which the rich young man puts to Jesus of Nazareth is one which rises from the depths of his heart. It is an essential and unavoidable question for the life of every man, for it is about the moral good which must be done, and about eternal life.  ....

People today need to turn to Christ once again in order to receive from him the answer to their questions about what is good and what is evil. 

 Consequently, "the man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly — and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being — must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter him with all his own self (VS 8).

There may be one key statement in all of this, that directly impinges on each one of us  ‘there is one thing you lack, in order to inherit eternal life’ to let go of the thing or things that prevent you from full freedom to do what God wants.

What is this one thing I lack. I want to get to heaven, but what is blocking my path?

It may be one or more of three things and I call them the three Cs. The first C word is that of Comfort – to do what God wants sometimes may mean giving up some comfort an taking up the C word of the Cross – after all Jesus did say we must deny ourselves. The second C word is that of Convenience – giving in to what others want, not getting our way all the time. The final C word is the hardest of all to give up – in relation to life and what comes our way – in a sense it sums up the rich young man’s dilemma – comfort, convenience but above all, Control.

What do you lack? What is the one thing standing in the way of God’s complete take-over? Is it, after all is said and done, trust? Perhaps the most important 2 words of all in following Jesus which we can utter  every day – until we truly mean it and apply it to every aspect of our lives  - are:

‘I surrender’.

Annual Day for Life 2012

•        The First Reading comes from the Creation Account in Genesis 2-3. This provides an ideal context in which to speak of the beauty and sanctity of human life as part of the gift of God’s creation. In marriage a man and woman become ‘one flesh’ and cooperate in the creative action of God in the marvellous gift of bringing forth new life. In chapter 1 of Genesis, God has already proclaimed that he is author of the life of every person, who is formed in his image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26-28). Every human life therefore has a sacred and inviolable character and no one can, in any circumstance, claim the right to directly destroy an innocent human being.

•        The Response to the Psalm is ‘May the Lord bless us all the days of our Life’. As we celebrate our annual Day for Life, we ask the Lord to bless us with a sense of the wonder and preciousness of our life and the life of others, from the first of moment of conception, to natural death.

•        From the moment of conception, every human life is beautiful, every human life is precious and every human life is sacred. From the first moment of conception a new, unique and genetically complete human being comes into existence. From that moment onwards, we did not grow and develop into a human being, but grew and developed as a human being.

•        The Gospel shows Jesus welcoming the little children to him; today we place all children, including those waiting to be born into the loving care of Jesus.

•        Any mother or father who has gazed in wonder at an ultrasound scan of their baby, or heard his or her heart beating for the first time, will know how rapid and beautiful is the development of their baby in the womb. They will know that their baby does not suddenly become a human being at birth. And they will know that the daughter or son now present before them as an infant or teenager is the same human life, the same human child they saw in that first scan.

•        The child in the womb is not a ‘potential’ life, but a human life with potential – a precious and God-given potential that all of us, whether as parents, nurses, midwives, doctors, politicians, lawyers, citizens or voters, are called to respect and protect.

•        International research shows that Ireland, without legislating for abortion, is consistently one of the safest countries in the world for a mother who is expecting a baby.

•        Legislating for abortion denies the humanity and dignity of the child in the womb and violates the most basic human right of all – the right to life.

•        It is never necessary to directly target the life of the baby in the womb to save the life of the mother. Both can be treated as individual persons with an equal right to life.

•        The Irish Government does not have to provide for abortion in Ireland to comply with the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in the 2010 case known as ‘A,B & C vs Ireland’.

•        On the contrary our Government could chose to protect the life of the unborn baby in the womb, while upholding the equal right to life of the mother, by introducing laws or a Constitutional amendment that would set aside the Supreme Court ruling in the ‘X-case’, which allowed for abortion in a potentially wide range of circumstances.

•        International experience shows that once abortion is legalised, even in apparently very limited situations, it becomes more widespread than was first intended.

•        Many women who have had abortions speak of their deep regret, and research also confirms the harm that abortion can cause women.

•        As a Christian community we must reach out with great compassion and care to those who find themselves faced with difficult circumstances in pregnancy and those who have had an abortion and may now live with the regret.

•        We ask everyone to pray the ‘Choose Life: prayer for the unborn child in the womb’ during this special month of prayer from the Day for Life to the Feast of All the Saints of Ireland on 6^th November.

•        We ask everyone to read the special Day for Life message, to visit the special ‘Choose Life 2012’ web site and to watch the videos there. We ask you to consider signing up to the dedicated 'Choose Life 2012’ Twitter account to receive regular messages on the theme of respect for human life and you are also encourage, as active citizens, to raise these issue with our elected representatives.