Good Friday

At first glance, the cross is THE symbol of failure. Those who were crucified by the Romans were executed as ‘non-persons’ and they were crucified in public so as to de-humanize them even more. Crucifixion was designed to cause maximum pain and agony for the victim.

Jesus was crucified after a long night of being tortured, mocked, humiliated, and a brutal scourging with barbaric instruments made from bone fragments, metal, and chain mail. He carried the instrument of his death, his cross through crowds of people while being kicked, and whipped along the way, and as he fell in exhaustion, he was pulled to his feet to continue.

When they came to the place of the skull, they crucified him along with two criminals on either side of him. As he hangs upon the cross, Jesus is made to look like a fool, one who called himself the King of the Jews. Pontus Pilate, Caesar’s representative in that region who condemned Jesus to death, writes a death-note. The note reads; “Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews.” It is placed above Jesus’ head as he hangs upon the cross. Again designed to mock him, in a strange way, the Romans, who don’t believe in God, by crowning him with thorns, and placing a staff in his hand, proclaim Jesus a King.

The cross of Christ is to the onlooker a symbol of shame, but looking deeper, it is the ultimate triumph of a loving God who sent his only Son to be our Saviour. Jesus’ death upon the cross is the theatre of redemption where we are all saved from our sinfulness. As we venerate the cross at 3.00 p.m. today in all our churches, we do so knowing that as Jesus says in John’s Gospel "No Greater love can anyone have than to lay down one's life for one's friends." 

The cross of Jesus Christ is evident in a week where we see people bent on mass- murder in Brussels, and so-called Gangland murders on our streets here in Ireland. Lord, we pray that hard hearts will be changed and transformed. However, we also see a heroic man risking his life to save a drowning family in Buncrana. "No greater love..."

"...But we, we thought of him as someone punished, struck by God and brought low.
Yet he was pierced through for our faults, crushed for our sins. On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed.

We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and Yahweh burdened him with the sins of all of us. Harshly dealt with, he bore it humbly, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers, never opening its mouth..." (Isaiah 53: 5-7)

Set your hearts on the higher gifts - a guilt free love

1 Cor 13
Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited,
it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances.
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth.
It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes.
Love never comes to an end. But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will fall silent; and if knowledge, it will be done away with.
For we know only imperfectly, and we prophesy imperfectly;
but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will be done away with.
When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and see things as a child does, and think like a child; but now that I have become an adult, I have finished with all childish ways.
Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face. Now I can know only imperfectly; but then I shall know just as fully as I am myself known.
As it is, these remain: faith, hope and love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is love.

When St. Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians, he was challenging them to reach for the stars, to be ambitious for the higher gifts. He was offering them a set of guiding principles for their love-lives.

This love he speaks of is not the same kind of love that does well on February 14th. This is not aboutcandle light dinners, cuddly toys, valentine’s cards, or boxes of praline chocolates. All these things are good in themselves but this is not what Paul is writing about. The love he writes to the Corinthians about will not put on any weight and is completely guilt free if well lived.

It is a love that turns away from humiliating the other person, and it does not enjoy other people’s sins. It is opposed to scandal and gossip, preferring to tell the truth instead. St. Paul’s view of love warns us against human prophesy which is always imperfect and putting our trust in human horoscopes or fortune tellers can be trouble. Instead, by putting our trust in God, we will always know who can take us forward in kindness.

The love that St. Paul describes is also given another name, caritas, which means charity. This does mean charity to all in need but in its essence it also means a deep love that is selfless so it sets the bar very high. It is a love for the honours course and it is for the long haul. It is a love that walks the road of life and it is a love that puts the other person first.

Today, couples often choose St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians as the second reading at their church wedding ceremony. I believe that the challenge he lays down to the people of Corinth in the first century after Christ is a relevant to us now in the twenty-first. Set your hearts on the higher gifts…

The Holy Family

There are two different messages between Christmas day and St. Stephen’s Day. Christmas Day is predominantly about the birth of Jesus Christ, the Lord of all life. Almighty God came down into the human story as a little baby born in poverty, in a borrowed cave, and laid in a manger because there was no room at the inn.

On December 26^th, the Church then celebrates the feast of its first martyr, Stephen. So, the liturgy goes from life to death in a sense. In the Acts of the Apostles, Stephen is one of the disciples filled with the Holy Spirit that will not stop preaching about the good news of Jesus Christ and those who oppose him want to put an end to him. He is stoned to death as he proclaims Christ and a young man called Saul entirely approves of the killing. Later we meet Saul as he too is transformed by Jesus Christ and becomes a champion of the Christian way.

So, in 24 hours its fitting that the Church shows in its liturgy the birth of Jesus Christ and what it means for the world, and how Stephen (and many others – even up to our time) witness to Jesus Christ by the shedding of their blood.

The feast of the Holy Family can be seen as a sign of contradiction too. In the Gospel today we see Jesus getting lost from the caravan of people travelling back to Nazareth from Jerusalem after the Passover. For three days his mother Mary, and Joseph are beside themselves with worry until they go back to Jerusalem and find him sat in the company of the doctors and experts of the law. Of course it must be hugely traumatic for Mary and Joseph after looking for him. Luke draws out the parallel between how the boy Jesus is missing for three days and later he will after his death on the cross be in the tomb for three days.

Let’s not get too caught up with the popular images of the Holy Family in that almost clinical and sterile way they can perhaps be portrayed. They had their struggles and fears. Just look at the infancy narratives of Luke’s gospel. They must be held up as a model for families today all over the world. Jesus, Mary and Joseph identify with the highs and lows of family life with all their complexities.

Look at the images coming from airports and ferry ports today as families are joyfully re-united for Christmas. There’s so much joy and excitement around the Christmas dinner table and the living room fireside. Yet, there can be tension and stress especially too as families make that extra effort. The Holy Family know that struggle. And as surely as our young people come back to the family for Christmas, there’s also the looming departure gates. I really pray that very soon our young people especially will be in a position to return home to Ireland if that’s what they want. For those that have made a new life and formed relationships overseas, may we always find new ways to make our world a smaller place.

I am also conscious of the families who will have an empty chair at the Christmas table. Families broken by emigration, unemployment, and death. The Holy Family of Nazareth, the model for all families, knows the struggles and sadness and Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are with all families as they face the new year with hope or fear.

May this Christmas time and 2016 be blessed for all. Amen. 

Jesus Christ is the mercy of God...

Some people would say I like the sound of my own voice. I’m well able to talk and I can feel quite at home in any pulpit. Words usually come easily to me. One of my faults is that I don’t prepare very well to write a homily.

Therefore, I made a conscious decision to write a Christmas homily for our Masses in the parish and the friary. I wanted to say something about God coming into our human story as a baby in a manger in Bethlehem and how Jesus Christ is the true door of mercy for all. I wanted to attempt to tie it all in with the extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in the Church. The Holy Father, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s in Rome on December 8^th. Here in the Dublin archdiocese, Archbishop Martin opened the Jubilee Door of Mercy in the Pro Cathedral last Sunday.

In Pope Francis’ Document inaugurating the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy entitled Misericordiae Vultus, some lines really jumped out at me; for example, the Pope says; “Mercy is the force that reawakens us to new life and instils in us the courage to look to the future with hope.” He goes on; “The Church is commissioned to announce the mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel.”

However, every time I tried to sit down to write something, I got distracted. I was called down to the parlour and the front office to meet different people and I also took a couple of phone calls.  At the same time, I was conscious that I needed to go out to buy some gifts for our valued helpers and volunteers in the friary and the parish. I sat in front of the computer screen and tried to put some words together based on some inspiring thoughts from Pope Francis and the minute I’d begin to get on a roll, the phone would ring.

On reflection, when I went to meet people in the parlour, at the front office, or on the phone, I became aware that I had an encounter each time with Christ. Someone came for confession and I was able to help them to begin again for Christmas.  Some people came for help of some kind or another and they needed me to give them a listening ear and spend some time with them. Someone who wanted to help Br. Kevin help the many that come to the Capuchin Day Centre for Homeless. And we’ve been moved by the magnificent generosity of ordinary people.

St. Conrad of Parzham, (1818-1894) a Capuchin, said that when he was called away to the parlour he would respond with “Yes Lord” as if it was God himself that needed him. Blessed Mother Teresa in her ministry to the poorest of the poor used to say she just saw Jesus himself in a distressing disguise.

On Christmas Day, a Saviour has been born for us, He is Christ the Lord. We need to open our eyes to recognize him and our hearts to love him as he loves us very much and indeed Jesus Christ is the mercy of God. No one is forbidden to approach the crib, there’s a place for you there, and a welcome. Amen.

In the steps of Jesus in the Market Place

On both sides of the River Liffey in Dublin, there are fruit and vegetable markets. For generations people from all over the country would do business buying and selling fruit and veg in bulk. The Moore Street and Thomas Street dealers and traders would sell fresh fruit to people from their street stalls. The fish, fruit, and vegetable dealers on Moore street in Dublin's north inner city are famous all over the world.

Today, trucks come in from Europe with shipments of flowers, fruit and vegetables. Markets people buy them and retailers then stock them in their stores the length and breath of Ireland. The markets people who work here begin their day very early and work into the afternoon. After a long day, they return home to begin again the following morning when most of us are asleep. 

In St. Michan's Parish, we daily meet the markets community as they load and unload the best of vegetables, fruits and herbs. Forklifts drive back and forth around the parish with another pallet of goods ready to travel to a shop or supermarket. 

Each year, we always had a memorial Mass for those markets people who have died and gone before us. The Mass was usually in St. Michan's Church, Halston St and the traders would come in and pray for and remember their dead. About five years ago, we decided to bring the Mass to the markets where the dealers and traders erected a beautiful altar festooned with fruit and vegetables and flowers. 

Following a conversation I had with Derek Leonard, one of the traders of long standing and also a Permanent Deacon for the Archdiocese of Dublin, we felt it would be lovely if the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Diarmuid Martin would come and celebrate the memorial Mass this year. And so, last Friday, the Archbishop came to the Market place and along with the traders, dealers, and neighbors, as well as the school children from Presentation Primary School, George's Hill, we prayed for those gone before us marked with the sign of faith. These Markets people we offered the Mass for have passed on the love of the fruits of Mother Earth as well as the love of the faith and family. We give thanks to God for their life and their generosity.

All Saints

 

St. Jose Maria Escriva: “The saint is the sinner who never stopped trying.”

St. John Paul II: “Do not afraid to be saints”

We have what it takes to be saints.

We are called by name – chosen

We are saved by the power of the love of Jesus Christ

He reminds us that God is Love.

St. John

Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God’s children, and that is what we are.”

Lavished - This means generosity.

To paraphrase Pope Francis; He doesn’t just grease us with his love. It’s an abundant pouring out of it.

So our response must surely be to be the best people we can be - or to at least try.

And indeed, the happiest people are people who attempt to live the beatitudes each day.

And as we go down through them, lived honestly, they are a recipe for happiness and contentment on the inside.

This I believe is what the saints did.

Saints Louis and Zelie Martin

This morning in Rome on this Mission Sunday the Holy Father, Pope Francis canonized four new saints for the Universal Church. Among them was Louis and Zelie Martin, a married couple. They are the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, affectionately known as the Little Flower.

Louis Martin

Louis Martin (1823 - 1894) was a watchmaker by trade.  He also managed his wife's lace business. Born into a family of soldiers, Louis spent his early years at many different French military posts.

 

At twenty-two, young Louis sought to enter religious life at the monastery of the Augustinian Canons of the Great St. Bernard Hospice in the Alps. Unfortunately this didn't work out.  Eventually, Louis settled down in Alencon, a small city in France, and pursued his watchmaking trade.

Zelie Guerin

 

Zelie Guerin (1831 - 1877) was one of Alencon's more talented lace makers. Born into a military family, Zelie didn't have a very happy childhood and her mother and father weren't particularly affectionate. As a young lady, she sought unsuccessfully to enter the religious order of the sisters of the Hotel-Dieu. Zelie then learned the Alencon lace-making technique and soon mastered this painstaking craft.

THE MARTINS

Louis Martin and Zelie Guerin met in Alencon, and they married on July 13, 1858, and thus began their remarkable journey through life. Within the next fifteen years, Zelie bore nine children, seven girls and two boys. "We lived only for them," Zelie wrote; "they were all our happiness."They had more than their fair share of suffering in that within three years, Zelie's two infant boys, a five year old girl, and a six-and-a-half week old infant girl all died. Zelie was grief-stricken. "I haven't a penny's worth of courage," she was heard to say. But her faith sustained her. She firmly believed that she would meet her children again "up above."

The Martins' last child was born January 2, 1873. She was weak and frail, and doctors feared for the infant's life. But the baby girl proved to be much tougher than anyone realized. She survived the illness.  "The baby," Zelie noted, "is full of life, giggles a lot, and is sheer joy to everyone." Although the shadow of the cross was never far from the Martin household, Louis and Zelie had always found support in their faith.

The series of tragedies had helped them to grow stronger in their love for each other and their family and they poured out their affection on their five surviving daughters; Marie, 12, Pauline, 11, Leonie 9, Celine, 3, and their new-born. Louis and Zelie named their new-born; Marie-Francoise-Therese Martin. A century later people would know her as St. Therese, and call her the "Little Flower."
(Therese was canonized on May 17th 1925 by Pope Pius XI)

(part of the above information thanks to www.littleflower.org)