Pentecost Sunday

Have you ever wondered about your lucky number?

Seven is most people’s number. In common parlance to be the seventh son of a seventh son is to be lucky indeed.

Yet in the Bible 7 is a sacred number and it appears time and time again. It is not luck, or a charm or a superstition, but a convenient and indeed sacred way of marking time because the Lord rested on the 7th day. Other sevens include: the Ark of the Covenant was carried seven times around Jericho before the walls fell; David was the 7th son of Jesse. In the Gospel, Peter asked:'How many times must I forgive my brother? Seven times?', and the Lord answers - as if to say, more perfectly, 'seventy times seven'; Jesus multiplied 5 loaves and 2 fish; he multiplied 7 loaves among 4000 people; seven men of good repute were chosen in the Acts of the Apostles to serve as deacons, and so on.

In the Church we believe that there are 7 sacraments; seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; seven deadly sins.

'Pentecost' comes from a Greek word meaning 50th - today 7 weeks have elapsed since Easter, or seven time seven days.

It was a Jewish festival 50 days after the Passover and the giving of the Law to Moses. It is tied to a Jewish feast. 49 days (7 weeks, or “a week of weeks”) after the second day of Passover, the Jews celebrated the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot). Passover celebrates the freeing of the Jews from slavery; Shavuot celebrates their becoming God’s holy people by the gift and acceptance of the Law; and the counting of the days to Shavuot symbolises their yearning for the Law.
From a strictly practical point of view, Shavuot was a very good time for the Holy Spirit to come down and inspire the Apostles to preach to all nations because, being a pilgrimage festival, it was an occasion when Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims from many countries. [www.universalis.com]


Each of us has received 7 gifts from God - the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Do we know them?

They are Wisdom: Understanding; Counsel; Fortitude; Knowledge; Piety; Fear of the Lord.

They were given to us on Confirmation Day. But do we use them?

I often think that they are like our muscles - they need to be used, flexed, put to work. Otherwise they go limp, become flaccid, useless in us. If we think of taking up a new sport or form of exercise, we are stiff and sore after our first attempt. I will never forget how sore I was after my first try ever at water-skiiing! I was sore the following day in places I never thought possible. But it became easier with regular practice. It is the same with the Holy Spirit's gifts - we must value them and exercise them, but we must first pray that they may bear fruit in us through the practice of a virtuous life.

Come Holy Spirit!

Ascension Day

Today’s feast is the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, 40 days after his death and resurrection. 'Where He has gone, we hope to follow' (Preface of the Ascension).

The Ascension reminds us of our calling, our identity and our destiny.
Have you ever thought about what we say about those who have gone before us who have died? Have you ever thought about what people will say about us when we die? I have often heard it said of someone ‘they must have gone straight up.’ We think of saintly people, people of peace, prayer, faith, devotion, integrity, kindness, who never had a bad word to say about anyone. ‘They went straight up, or else there’s no hope for us’! We are inclined to pray to them rather than for them. We think of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, or Pope John Paul II – we couldn’t imagine a heaven without them, and we count on their intercession.

We think too of the words and expressions we use in attempting to explain death to a young child, who can’t understand why a grandparent has died and can no longer be seen. We explain that they have gone to heaven. We all struggle to come to terms with the death of a young person; it doesn’t seem fair when their lives are cut short, and we who were born before them, outlive them. Life is short and mysterious.
Sometimes we say of someone who has died: ‘they have gone home’; ‘they have gone to their heavenly reward’ or we say ‘they have gone to a better place’; ‘they are at peace’; ‘their sufferings are at an end’, or ‘it was an ease to them’ or ‘God took them’. We just cannot explain death to our own satisfaction, but we can accept and let go of someone because we find some comfort in statements such as these. But such understandable sentiments should never distract us from our obligation to pray for them: 'It is a good and wholesome thing to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins' (The Second Book of Maccabees 12:46).

Christian funeral rites help us to try to make sense of death. At a funeral Mass we hear the words:
‘Open the gates of paradise to your servant and help us who remain to comfort one another with assurances of faith.’

One of the pieces of Scripture often read at the graveside in the Rite of Committal is from St Paul who tells us: ‘Our true home is heaven, and Jesus Christ whose return we long for will come from heaven to save us.’ (Philippians 3:20).

So heaven is our true home, where Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us. I remember once when comparing life to departures at the airport terminal, where we are all waiting for our flight to be called; someone ruefully said to me: ‘well Father, you’re alright, some of us are already on the tarmac!’

The second implication of the Solemnity of the Ascension is: what do we do now that Jesus has gone from our sight?

Like the disciples in Bethany that day 1980 years ago we too are called to be His witnesses.

A witness gives evidence in public to a fact and an event; is prepared to take an oath to that end; and some witnesses have died preserving the integrity of the truth of their beliefs. (Martyrs mean 'witnesses' in Greek). We have an opportunity each day through words, actions, example, behaviour, appearance, conversations, standing up for what is right, what is true, what is pure and honourable, unafraid of the consequences – for the right to life, the sanctity of marriage, chastity, honesty and unafraid to be identified as a Christian. We are called to be witnesses to the fundamental truths of our Faith.

It is by our persevering efforts to pray and live out our call to be His witnesses that we merit heaven: 'he who honours Me, honours the one who sent Me', Jesus said.

The promised Holy Spirit enables us, empowers us with His gifts of fortitude and courage to do this. We collectively re-await His coming at Pentecost next Sunday to renew us in our efforts. In the meantime let us pray continually praising God in company with Mary and the saints to help us usher in what Pope John Paul II called ‘a new springtime of Christianity.’

6th Sunday of Easter

The scene is the Last Supper – the night of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest. It is the last opportunity He has to speak at length with His disciples and so it does not surprise us the he leaves the best till last.

This Sunday’s Gospel contains hints to prepare us for the next 2 Sundays – Ascension and Pentecost – Jesus at the Last supper with his disciples tells them of his imminent departure from them and His return to the Father; and of the promise of the Spirit who will lead them to all truth and who will remind them of all He Himself taught them.

Have you ever had the experience of visiting someone in hospital you knew who was terminally ill? I have often had this experience with parishioners and more recently with a friend who died recently - I never knew which visit would be my last. It is this kind of atmosphere that is the context of Jesus’ words in the Gospel today. Jesus is saying, ‘I am going away, but I shall return.’ In effect He is saying ‘I am not going to be around much longer but there is something I want you to do for me and there is something I want you to have.'

They are His parting words and His parting wishes. His disciple John – under the influence of the Holy Spirit - has preserved these words for us as they are meant for us too and for all posterity.

Jesus has 3 things to say:

The first thing is that He is about to leave them.

It seems appropriate as at this time of the year actually priests are being told of their moves to other parishes. Another priest of the parish was told this time last year so all the priests are on the alert for the telephone call –maybe!
I remember not long after my arrival a parishioner gave out to me (not for the last time) – I don’t remember who – said ‘Father, if you hadn’t come, Fr X wouldn’t have left!’ So it was all my fault and I was under no illusion that in this person's mind I would never live up to my predecessor’s reputation.

The second thing he has to say is that he asks us to do something for him.

When someone is on the point of death we are conscious of any favour they might ask of us, and of course of any parting gift they might want us to have as a keepsake.
Jesus asks us to love Him and to keep His word. The Spirit helps the Church to remain true to His teaching so that the Church faithfully transmits and is faithful to the Word of God and that the Spirit is the guarantee of our certainty. Jesus asks us to be faithful.

The third thing he has to say is that He has gifts for them.What are your most cherished items, heirlooms?

I remember one day noticing an ornate pair of china vases on our mantelpiece at home. I had never seen them before. They belonged to my great grand parents and had been handed on to my grandmother and mother. My mother said – ‘do you think they would have lasted while I was rearing ye?’ They have survived for another generation to keep and admire and pass on. They are the most valuable heirlooms and are 120 years old. Another cherished item is the baptismal shawl that 50 of us members of the family have been baptised in. My most cherished item is a chalice. At ordination I received a gift of a chalice from my Parish Priest which he had used and which had belonged to his uncle. It dates back to the 1920s. I hope I can hand it on to another priest at the end of my days.
Items like these are cherished, kept intact, perfectly preserved, unbroken, and now of greater value, materially and sentimentally.
What is Jesus passing on?
He is sending us the Spirit. The Spirit is like a guarantee that we insist on when we buy something, something that is from the manufacturer! But the guarantee of the Holy Spirit is of lasting value, without an expiration date, forever – our salvation, eternal life.
He gives us peace, 'a peace the world cannot give'. We all strive for peace. The peace Jesus gives us through the Spirit is freedom from anxiety, uncertainty and confusion. The Spirit gives us certainty and therefore Hope. We restate these words very Mass before the sign of peace.
Let us seek Jesus – only in him through constant prayer can we obtain the peace we all seek.

Know Jesus Know Peace, no Jesus no peace!

Fourth Sunday of Easter Year C

Gospel - John 10:27-30
The Lord is Our Shepherd, we are the sheep
The most popular and familiar Psalm of all is of course, ‘The Lord is My Shepherd’ (Psalm 22). In today’ Mass readings and prayers we learn about the Good Shepherd.

‘I know them’

A priest friend of mine who loves hill-walking related to me how he was spending a couple of nights in a farmhouse Bed and Breakfast in the Dingle Peninsula. Anyone familiar with the West knows that the hills, mountains and ditches are dotted with sheep. On the first morning my friend met the farmer who tended to the sheep who told him he was setting off to find three missing sheep. The following morning they met again and the farmer had been successful in finding the strays. My friend –reared in the city – asked, ‘How did you know they were missing? You have hundreds of sheep here.’ The farmer simply replied:’ I missed their faces’.

‘No one will ever steal them from me’; ‘I know them and the follow me’

When I was in the Holy Land in 1999, our Palestinian tour guide told us of a recent event relating to this Gospel. A Palestinian farmer woke up one morning to discover his flock of sheep were missing. He could only conclude that someone had stolen them. He went to the nearest town on market day and went to the pens where many sheep were up for sale, and he called out to them. As he stood calling, they made their way over to him and he led them away. Shepherds in Israel take the lead and the flock follow. They listen to their master’s voice.

‘The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice’

Anyone with a pet or anyone working with animals knows that they respond to familiar voices. We might not find it very flattering to be compared to sheep, as the Psalm reminds us [‘we are his people, the sheep of his flock’]but the analogy is a good one as we are called to respond to the Master’s voice and to listen out for Him. We heard the Father speak from heaven on the Sunday of the Transfiguration during Lent: ‘This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him.’ At Cana, Mary’s last recorded words are ‘Do whatever He tells you.’
We do so in responding to His Word in prayer and reflection on the Gospel, in faithful living according to the truths and doctrines of the Church, and in listening to Him in the cry of the poor. We ought also to listen out for Him in the advice of a good confessor or director, in the example of others, and in the voice of a well-ordered attuned conscience. We need to listen out above the cacophony of many other disruptive voices clamouring for our attention.

‘And they will never be lost’

Recently at First Confession, the children in the school where I am chaplain had a little drama based on the Lost Sheep. There was an interesting exchange towards the end of the drama where the ‘99’ sheep scold the lost sheep for going missing. The lost sheep snaps back ‘and how could you let me go off by myself and get lost? Why didn’t you go looking for me?’
We all have a role in assisting the Good Shepherd in looking out for the strays through our good example, through a gentle word of encouragement to prayer and Mass attendance or encouragement to confession, through assurance to people that we are praying for them, through works and organisations of evangelisation and outreach in our parishes. Today we pray for (grand)parents anxious for their straying (grand)children. We pray for vocations - that many will hear the Master’s voice and assist Him in shepherding the flock that is the People of God.

‘The Father and I are one’

At the Last Supper, Jesus said to Philip, ‘to have seen me is to have seen the Father’. The Opening Prayer and Gospel acclamation refer to the words of Jesus: ‘I am the Good Shepherd’, yet the concluding prayer of the Mass this Sunday addresses God the Father as the ‘eternal shepherd’.
‘Father, eternal shepherd, watch over the flock redeemed by Christ, and lead us to the Promised Land.’
It echoes the sentiments of the Opening Prayer: ‘Give us new strength from the courage of Christ our shepherd and lead us to join the saints in heaven.’
May He lead us ‘to pastures green and quiet waters by.’

Third Sunday of Easter Year C

Third Sunday of Easter Year C

It is the most profound, beautiful and most deeply personal question we can ever ask or be asked by anyone: ‘do you love me?’ I wonder if you can recall ever being asked this question in your own experience by a loved one, or by a close friend.
We are not very articulate and would rather show our love to others by our actions. We squirm at American sit-coms or family soaps where the phrase is used so readily. We become tongue-tied and embarrassed; avoid eye-contact at the thought. To whom can we say confidently and readily ‘I love you’? We might say it to a child, but rarely to an adult. When did we last say it to a parent, or a spouse? We excuse ourselves saying, ‘they know it already.’

It’s a tough question because we feel it is also a question that leads to further commitment if it being asked of us. We feel threatened to our own security and wants. What is the other person implying by asking it? What is it they are looking for? We would rather change the subject!

Peter is asked this very question by Jesus three times. Why did Jesus ask it?

Peter had run from the Cross and had denied Jesus three times by the charcoal fire in the high priest’s courtyard. Cursing and swearing He cried I tell you I do not know Him. And then the cock crew. Now, here to prick his conscience at early morning by the fire – with bread and fish, with a miraculous draught, and asking for is love three times, Jesus reminds Peter all that He has done for him and implicitly forgives him by commissioning him to go forth and feed the lambs. Peter has to be fed by Christ by love and prayer first.

Jesus is telling Peter that out of love for Him he must hand over his fate to the Lord in his service. John was writing this account after Peter had died a martyr’s death in Rome by crucifixion. Jesus sees the potential in all of us too to do great things for Him and out of love for Him in the Church and in the world as His witnesses, but we all have to come to that point where we have to answer the question for ourselves – the leap, as it were, to an adult faith, by answering the question Jesus asks of Peter today and which is extended to all of us - you and me - ‘Do YOU love Me?’

Complete surrender to Christ is asked and demanded of each of us, but we fall and linger as Peter and the disciples did. They went back fishing, which shows a falling away from trust and complete confidence. Once more Jesus shows them (half of the 12 apostles) but particularly Peter who He addresses as Simon, his old name before becoming a disciple, how little they can accomplish without Him. All their work, effort, toil, and experience – even as a team – achieves nothing without Christ’s word and instruction.

The story makes clear that nothing can be accomplished by our own efforts in the darkness because we toil without Christ. But with Him, attentive to His voice, we can accomplish wonders. Christ is the light. We must cultivate our love for Him in prayer. He gives us a sense of purpose, a sense of meaning and especially CLARITY. But first we must answer the question that Christ puts to each one of us this morning – DO YOU LOVE ME?

It was then out of friendship and love with Christ – the driving force of his life that Peter accomplished so much as the first Pope and leader of the Church. Peter leaped into the water and drew near once more to Christ. We see in the First Reading what Peter was capable of just weeks later having received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost - the festival of the first fruits of the harvest for the Jews - now becomes the first fruits of the Church as 3,000 converts were added to the early Church in a single day after Peter gave resounding and fearless witness.

"Follow me." The Risen Lord says these words to Peter. They are his last words to this disciple, chosen to shepherd his flock.

We pray for our Holy Father Pope Benedict – who is celebrating 5 years as Pope tomorrow and who celebrated his 83rd birthday during this past week, and who preached on this very Gospel [before becoming Pope] as he reflected on the life of Pope John Paul II as his funeral homily.

Christ the Lord is looking for something only you can give Him – your free heart. He knows our future – just as He predicted to Peter but He still wants us to follow Him no matter what happens, and what future 'suffering for His name’ (First Reading) awaits us.

MAY OUR RESPONSE BE – YES LORD, YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU!

Doubting Thomas

Doubting Thomas and the showing of wounds

It is not easy to live with uncertainty and ultimately we must place our faith in someone or something to give us reason for living. To have our faith in a cause or a person shattered is a terrible experience. This was the scenario facing St. Thomas.
Perhaps Thomas’ doubt was the fruit of bitter disappointments of the past. He may have had people in his life who let him down and who betrayed his trust. He was not born with this sense of hesitation or suspicion – we can speculate that those things are acquired from bitter learned experiences. He had learned caution and wariness about who he could trust. The word of others was not enough for him- he wanted proof, not testimony. Having staked everything on Jesus, the Lord, he had much to lose if he was wrong to trust Him.

Like Thomas then, there are plenty of people today who rationalise the supernatural and the spiritual and demand empirical evidence and refuse to believe. The danger is that we fall into the trap too – it ultimately leads to frustration, cynicism and despair. I once heard that ‘a cynic is a disappointed idealist.’ Their disappointment rankles with them and they are bitter with life and with others. We too have doubts, but more often they are really difficulties than doubts.

Thomas was lucky, because Christ came to him in his doubt in the flesh, in person.
Christ brings His wounds to us like he did to Thomas – He reveals them to us too so that we can have no doubt but that the crucifixion really happened but that so too did His resurrection. By his wounds we have been and will be healed.
I think that the significance of the feast of Divine Mercy today is this: not only does Christ show us His wounds – He invites us to show Him ours and allow Him to place His healing hands upon them. A physician will ask us where it hurts, causing us to howl in pain when he has reached a tender spot. Only then can he discern the nature and extent of our problem. It cannot serve our interests to hide away the pain. We must face the pain that healing will bring.

We are wounded in many shapes and forms, but maybe not physically. For example many carry around within themselves hidden psychological wounds and emotional traumas of the past – the stuff that they have nightmares about, the things they dread. Nightmares say a lot more about them and their fears, as well as their memories, than their dreams do. Common in men is a fear of exposure, of being seen for who they really are – as frauds, afraid that the veneer of carefully built defences will be erased, afraid of rejection and ridicule. Nightmares may also be a dread of the future and what it may bring.

I remember while in seminary passing around a series of tapes of conferences given by Fr Benedict Groeschel CFR – the one that seemed to strike the deepest chord in people was that entitled ‘Self-hate, hesitancy, and the love of God’. It deals with self-loathing, obviously more common in sinners than we realise.

If what I have said above about the need for healing in the area of the emotions or the psyche, what then of our souls? We must bear in mind that the side effects of Original and personal sin play havoc on our minds and emotional states causing fear, guilt, shame, troubled consciences, as well as the afore-mentioned self-loathing.

It is time therefore that we bring our wounds, spiritual, emotional, psychological, relational - whatever they may be - to Christ the Healer. Chief among them are the self-inflicted wounds of our sins. Christ alone can give us the healing (therapy), forgiveness and inner peace we seek especially when we find it hard to admit our failures, ot to admit to the pain we may have caused to God, to others and ourselves, and yes, when all is said and done, as self-serving as it sounds - to forgive ourselves. But by his wounds we have been and will be healed.

‘Doubt no longer, but believe’.

Happy Easter

There are two questions we can ask about the resurrection of Christ.
How do we know it happened?
Today a simple detail proves that Christ has risen. Think of the people you live with or if you live alone think of the habits of other members of your family as you grew up. We are creatures of habit – how we dress, how we eat, how we keep our rooms, how we present ourselves, what we eat and what we wear, what we say and how we say it – are all habits that are unique to us and known to others. When you live with someone you know how they leave things after them – how they squeeze the tube of toothpaste; how they leave their clothes lying around or not; how they clean up after themselves. A newly married woman complained to me how what annoyed her about her husband was not anything major –it was the little things – like how he would help himself to too much butter on his bread and then scrape the unused butter on the side of the plate. It is little things that can stress us or on the other hand it is the little things that prove that we are considerate, that matter in appreciation as well.
I say this because it a seeming little detail that is crucial in today’s Gospel. The disciples lived and travelled alongside Christ the Lord for three years – and how did Peter know that Christ has risen? The way the cloths in which Christ that been wrapped had been rolled up – Christ did it – it was His trademark way of tidying up after Him that convinced Peter that Christ had been there and had risen indeed.
What does it matter as we celebrate today?
If you were to think of the 5 things we are afraid of - that most people fear, and most Christians should be afraid, they are: fear of pain or sickness, death, sin, Satan, the future.
Sin entered through the world through man Adam, and victory has entered through one man – Christ Jesus. We have all died to sin through Baptism and we rise to new life through Baptism. Today we celebrate and rededicate ourselves -because the day we were baptised we entered into the mystery of Christ’s death and we rose again –we were born again and we were set free. Today is a day of rejoicing!
We are all afraid. But Christ has conquered all. There is no longer any need to be afraid. What we celebrate today is that in Christ we are free indeed.
All over Europe every May, at least in Western countries, V-E Day is celebrated to commemorate the end of World War 2. An end to hostilities, an end to death, and soldiers would be coming home at last.
Today is our victory day celebration. Christ has conquered sin, sickness, death, Satan and He has promised that He will return to take our loved ones and us with Him. We shall be free forever. Alleluia.