It's not natural, it's supernatural.

Some people don’t get why a person will consider religious life or priesthood as a way of life. I believe this is true for several reasons but perhaps the main one is because of the profession of the vow of celibacy. As human beings you see, most people are meant to find a life partner. Relationships are what make the world go around. So unlike what Tom Jones says; it IS unusual. One of our late Capuchins; Fr. Godfrey Mannion once said; “It’s not natural but it’s supernatural.”

So we religious always try to keep one eye on the next world while we go about our daily lives. This is also true of many others who are not monks, nuns or priests, but we religious have promised to daily or even more regularly check in with Jesus Christ in prayer.  So we look to the next world because after all, we believe that we’re going to be there an awful lot longer than we are here on planet earth.

So why did I choose to be a Capuchin? Or as so many people have asked me; what made me become a Capuchin? Well, it took a long time percolating as a young person Breakdancing, Dee-Jaying on our Kilnamanagh Summer Project Radio, and going out with two or three girls. And then joining in 1987 and being professed in 1994 and continuing until my ordination in 1997.

Between the years I studied, was involved in pastoral ministry, laughed, cried, fell in love, felt lonely, and got scared, wondered, and struggled. But deep down too, it felt right, it fit. Just like you, my life can be a day-to-day rollercoaster. But unlike you maybe, few people understand the choice of religious life and that can be hard. Don’t get me wrong, people are very kind.

People sometimes ask; why stay in an organization that some have little time for today and perhaps people are angry with (especially in Ireland for example?) To tell the truth, sometimes in our world it isn’t easy to be identified publicly as a priest or a religious. When was the last time you saw a priest in a collar or a nun in a habit on the streets? (outside of Rome)

A few years ago, I was crossing Stephen’s Green in my habit one evening to go to Loreto College to speak at a fundraiser on behalf of Br. Kevin and the Capuchin Day Centre. I couldn’t get parking near that side of the Green so I parked a bit of a walk away. In the middle of the Green I walked right into a load of teenagers. Suddenly they were calling to their mates to come and see this real monk. I was surrounded and mobile phones were out. Could they have a picture? I stood in with some of the group for the picture – I imagine I was all over Snapchat or Instagram in the days after.

I stay in religious life because I’ve no choice. I can’t leave – I don’t want to. That’s what a vocation does when it’s internalised, in other words when I try to understand it on the inside. It’s a love relationship with Jesus Christ that’s fuelled by prayer. And I need your help too and I’m glad when you say you’ll pray for me and you often do.

So here we are on Vocations Sunday, this year in the teeth of a Global Pandemic, when we can’t meet up or invite you to ‘come and see’ I still invite you who are considering what do with their lives to consider what it might be like to be a member of a religious order or a priest. It’s all about serving – maybe you can handle it. 

Easter 2021

Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who has been crucified. He is not here; he has been raised. Look, there is the place where they laid him.

In Mark’s Gospel, as in each of the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection, there is an invitation to all of us to enter the story. There is an invitation to see the empty tomb and to believe that Jesus Christ is Risen. This invitation is first issued by a young man dressed in white robes to Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome in tonight’s Gospel who are sent to tell the Disciples and Peter this great news.

This invitation is fundamentally a call to faith, and it begins to change things profoundly. It changes the way the disciples see Jesus and it calls them to go out and preach this good news fearlessly. They have no more business harping back to the past and trying to resuscitate the way things were before. It is a new time now and things will never be the same again.

We are witnesses to this great news too. We can see that the stone has been rolled back and inside the darkness of the empty tomb there is no sign of the body. Therefore, believing Christians have no business in the darkness of the tomb. Like the women who fled from the tomb when they learned that Jesus was gone on ahead of them, we must hurry too, there is not a moment to lose.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a new beginning. The disciples fortified by the Holy Spirit, enthusiastically go about the world preaching this great news that Jesus is alive. As the Gospel is preached, it reaches the ears and hearts of many. Our own people received this good news in their lives, in their turn, and they passed it on to us.

There are always risks in embracing something new, but Jesus had challenged the disciples to believe. And the two on the road to Emmaus were reminded of the new mission belonging to those who follow Christ. The Church before the passion and death of Christ is completely different to the Church following the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We are called to faith.

The world has been in the throes of Covid-19 for over 12 months. In this once-in-a-century pandemic, we have painfully witnessed people suffer, become severely ill, and even die. Europe is enduring a fourth wave and here in Ireland, NPHET are working hard to make sure we are safe. Last year, we were confined to celebrating the Easter liturgies behind closed doors and online and on social media because of the Lockdown restrictions. We had no idea that we would be in severe restrictions again this Lent and Easter.

The immediate aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus meant that the disciples fled and hid themselves away. Locked in the upper room with the windows and doors bolted they feared the same fate as Jesus. On the morning of the third day as the women went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus, they found that the stone had been rolled back and seeing a vision of angels they were told that Jesus was not there. They were reminded that Jesus has said this. They were called to action and to go and tell the Disciples that Jesus was going on ahead of them. The two walking on the road to Emmaus also encountered the risen Jesus but they were prevented from recognizing him until he opened the scriptures for them and broke the bread at table. Then their eyes were opened, and their faith was rewarded so much that it spurred them on to action.

In our time in a sense, Covid 19 is confining us to stay apart and away from people in those ‘upper rooms.’ There is darkness and fear around and not being able to gather and meet in church is hard for people of faith. We understand the dangers of groups of people being indoors together, especially given these dangerous variants of the disease. But still to gather safely in church and to pray at a social distance and wearing masks is a source of strength and consolation to so many people. Going to the church in solidarity with our neighbor is also a powerful way of minding our mental health at a time of great stress and fear for all. Again, we pray that we will be permitted to safely worship together soon.  During this darkness, the risen Jesus comes to look for us and while right now, we are unable to fully emerge from the locked rooms of our fears, the light of the risen Lord is coming. We hold out a hope that the time will soon be right thanks to our compliance with the public health guidelines and with the further roll out of the vaccines.

I have heard that the church before Covid and the church that will emerge, around the world, and particularly here in Ireland will be different. We are challenged to imagine new ways of listening to and inviting women and men to take part in church by virtue of our baptism calling. Like the early church after the resurrection, many disciples did not feel comfortable with the newness. Returning to the safety of the old and familiar was preferable. But the Holy Spirit was powerfully at work urging the disciples to preach the Good News. I believe this is happening again today and while this may be scary, it is also exciting and to be part of what will emerge with God’s help. This is what the Risen Jesus is calling us to going forward. Let us be part of the endeavor – it’s the work of the Spirit.

“All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, yes to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 18-20)