Statuses

Fr. William (Bill) Hanly, SAC, died peacefully following a long and progressive illness on the evening of June 27th at 19.10 in the excellent and tender care of all the staff at St. Theresa’s Nursing Home in Thurles.

Fr. Bill had been in the care of the staff at St. Theresa’s since September 2012. As a community we are very grateful to each member of staff and management at St. Theresa’s for the attention and excellent care they gave to Fr. Bill, and to the other Pallottines who were residents there.

One of Fr. Bill’s favourite prayers which he recited frequently after Holy Communion is very appropriate for him at this time:

“May He support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest and peace at the last.” Card. John H. Newman.

Fr. Bill’s funeral arrangement are:
Viewing in the Pallottine College in Thurles on Sunday 2nd July from 16 – 19; followed by removal to the Chapel.
Concelebrated Funeral Mass on Monday 3rd in the College at 12 noon, followed by burial in the Pallottine Community Cemetery at St. Marys, Cabra.

Fr. Bill is mourned by his Pallottine Community, his sister, Mary Frost, his brother, James Hanly, his sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, and a wide circle of friends in many parts of the world.
May his good soul rest in eternal peace.

Derry Murphy, SAC.

Provincial

The Thomas Morton Prayer

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

– Thomas Merton, “Thoughts in Solitude”
© Abbey of Gethsemani

The Touch of the Master’s Hand

‘Twas battered and scarred,
And the auctioneer thought it
hardly worth his while
To waste his time on the old violin,
but he held it up with a smile.

“What am I bid, good people”, he cried,
“Who starts the bidding for me?”
“One dollar, one dollar, Do I hear two?”
“Two dollars, who makes it three?”
“Three dollars once, three dollars twice, going for three,”

But, No,
From the room far back a gray bearded man
Came forward and picked up the bow,
Then wiping the dust from the old violin
And tightening up the strings,
He played a melody, pure and sweet
As sweet as the angel sings.

The music ceased and the auctioneer
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said “What now am I bid for this old violin?”
As he held it aloft with its’ bow.

“One thousand, one thousand, Do I hear two?”
“Two thousand, Who makes it three?”
“Three thousand once, three thousand twice,
Going and gone”, said he.

The audience cheered,
But some of them cried,
“We just don’t understand.”
“What changed its’ worth?”
Swift came the reply.
“The Touch of the Masters Hand.”

A mess of pottage, a glass of wine,
A game and he travels on.
He is going once, he is going twice,
He is going and almost gone.

But the Master comes,
And the foolish crowd never can quite understand,
The worth of a soul and the change that is wrought
By the Touch of the Masters’ Hand.

Myra Brooks Welch

Homily At Fr. Bill’s Funeral Mass by Provincial Fr. Derry Murphy SAC

Fr. Liam O’Donovan SAC with his uncle Fr. Pat Dwyer SAC and Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan

I have to admit that there was a time when I struggled with belief in the mystery we celebrate today: that the bread and wine at Mass are transformed into the body and blood of Jesus, that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist,  body, blood, soul and divinity. Like the Jews in the gospel today many find this difficult to accept, even though it’s one of our central mysteries of our faith. As I persevered in my struggle to grasp this mystery, I realised that my problem wasn’t an intellectual one, but that my temptation to unbelief was based in fear. I mean if I really accepted that this is Jesus it changes everything; it changes what I think about God; it changes what it think about myself; it changes what I am called to become. If this is really Jesus giving himself to me, in this complete way, then I will have to change—or rather he is going to change everything if I allow him.

            This lead me to a point of decision: I could no longer live with the contradiction—on the one hand choosing a sinful, selfish way of living, and on the other hand, believing and receiving this most beautiful and good and loving gift of Jesus in the Eucharist. I began to appreciate the wisdom of the Church’s teaching that requires us to abstain from the Eucharist if we are in a state of serious sin, if we have not gone to confession for a long time—because the contradiction tears you apart. 

            Why so many refuse to believe and stop coming to Mass, is not because they find the reality of the Eucharist unreasonable or impossible to comprehend, but because they are afraid. They are afraid that Jesus is going to take away their freedom, to curtail their life style, to suck all the enjoyment out of life. The opposite is the reality, however—often all the ways we try to satisfy our hunger for life leave us in a state of spiritual starvation. Only Jesus can satisfy our deep hunger. Trust in Jesus, trust in his word: “Whoever eats me, [eats my flesh and drinks my blood] will draw life from me” (Jn 6:57).

            There is a story told of a young Jewish boy who refused to go to school. His parents tried everything, from punishing him, giving out to him, to bribing him, but none of this worked. Eventually they went to their Rabbi for advice, and he told them to bring the boy to him. When they boy came to him the Rabbi did not speak a word—he simply took the boy in his arms and embraced him. After that the boy returned to school, there was no more problem. This is what the Eucharist is for us—its God’s physical embrace that transforms everything. When everything else has failed, when we’ve tried every other way to find the meaning of life, and when we’ve tried to fulfil that hunger inside us with everything else, we discover that it’s only in the loving embrace of Jesus in the Eucharist that we are given life. It here we discover the thing that we don’t even know we are searching for.

            Consider that at each celebration of the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is made present. In a very real way Jesus hangs before us with his arms outstretched on the Cross, as if ready to embrace us. In this supreme act of love he sacrifices himself for us, he surrenders himself to us in the form of bread and wine—“This is my body given up for you.” When we contemplate the depth of his love in this way how can we reject this, or become indifferent to it? Not to come here to worship at the Eucharist, not to open ourselves up to this GIFT is an injustice to not only to God, but to ourselves also. Sometimes we can think of coming to Mass as a burdensome obligation imposed by the Church or God. But the Eucharist is for you, the Eucharist is the source of your true life—“This is my body given up for you.” With these words of the Mass Jesus addresses us as a community and each one of us personally. Jesus wants to gives himself to you in this most intimate and complete way, to enter into the depth of your being. He wants to draw you into a relationship with himself that will transform everything for you, until you realise I’m home, I’ve found the one that my heart hungered for all this time.

            Do not be afraid any longer; Jesus is waiting for you here in the Eucharist, waiting to embrace you and transform your life in ways that you can’t imagine.

CLICK HERE FOR HOMILY OF BISHOP ALPHONSUS CULLINAN

PLUS PHOTOS

The Giving of Self

I was struck by your choice of Gospel for this your ordination.  It is a sobering text. Peter getting on in years is told by Jesus that he will from now on not go where he wishes but will be shown the way, little by little, as to where he is to go and how he is to live.

How utterly counter-cultural this is. The modern thinking, the thinking of today and for perhaps three centuries, is that we should follow our own way, reach our own star, to achieve fulfilment and happiness. Instead of following our own will, Jesus says “follow me”. For us moderns so often personal happiness is the goal.

C.S. Lewis novelist (and we can say prophet) writing on happiness says;

“What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”

We see this today – people searching for life without because they don’t have life within.

Pope Francis has given us a wonderful letter about the care of our common home – In Laudato Si.  Towards the end of it he quotes from Pope Benedict – we read : “the external deserts in the world are growing, because the inward deserts are vast.”  The human person without God ends up chasing around in a kind of desperate search for happiness, needing to be continually amused and distracted because in the heart there is neither peace nor purity.

I think this is so true. So many of our brothers and sisters search desperately for meaning and a reason to live. So many are crying out for something authentic, for truth, for something good and beautiful, but who have been taught to think of this world only, and end up lost in the distractions of pleasure or power or control. They have lost God in their lives, and the habit of prayer and the sacraments, or have grown cold and indifferent. Left to our own devices the human will runs wild, like a river which has burst its banks and spreads out over the flat land to become a swamp, a stagnant lake.

 But when things seem to be falling apart maybe they are falling into place through God.

Jesus knows our weakness, and comes to our help. And he has chosen you Liam in this special way to help him heal human hearts.

In Vatican II’s pastoral constitution on the Church in the Modern World we read:

The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light…… Jesus Christ, fully reveals man to man himself. G.S. 22

And later on it states:

The human person, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of self.

Summed up by the Lord himself in the words recorded in the Gospels

He who loses his life will save it.

Jesus himself gives the supreme example:

 “the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” ( Jn. 10:11).

“ So, we are led straight to the centre, to the summit of the revelation of God as the Shepherd of his people; this centre and summit is Jesus, Jesus himself who dies on the cross and rises from the tomb on the third day, rises with all his humanity and thereby involves us, every man and woman, in his passage from death to life. This event — the Pasch of Christ — in which he completely and definitively fulfills the pastoral work of God, is a sacrificial event. The Good Shepherd and the High Priest therefore coincide in the person of Jesus who laid down his life for us.” (Pope Benedict- homily for priestly ordination)

Similar ideas of G S are in fact found in the writings of Vincenzo Pallotti, the founder of your order.

He believed that if we model ourselves on Jesus, we would always aim to become who we truly are. How do we model ourselves on him? He writes:

 “To follow our Lord Jesus Christ we need above all his spirit. This means all inner actions of our soul must be similar to those of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may truly follow Him also in his exterior actions.”  “Jesus sanctifies, improves and enriches, with His infinite merits, all the words, thoughts and deeds of our life, even those which are mediocre, as long as they are done for God and as long as we are in a state of grace”.

1. Pallotti’s life was a constant effort to live in the mystery of the presence of the God who is infinite. God invites us all into his presence.

The invitation from Jesus himself has been made to you Liam. Seven years ago you decided to answer that call to see if priesthood was his will for you and you went to the seminary and now today you say that total yes, definitively, to his invitation and you will be ordained his priest.

This is not a trophy but a service,  – a service to the people of God.

Pope Benedict said some years ago in Rome at an ordination ceremony:

“The sacrament of orders which you are going to receive today will make you a sharer in the work of Christ.” This is a simple and beautiful way to explain our work – to be sharers in the work of Christ:

to scatter the seed of God’s Word , to preach in his name, to baptize,

To dispense his mercy of God especially in the sacrament of confession,

and to nourish his people with the Eucharist. 

And tomorrow you will celebrate your first full Mass on the Feast of Corpus Christi – what a wonderful way to begin your celebrating of the Holy Sacrifice!

Liam, God is counting on you and me and all of us to help him bring salvation to the world. Without God we are lost. We read in the Gospels –

“ and as he got out of the boat he saw a great throng, and he had compassion on them for they were like sheep without a shepherd and he began to teach them at some length.”

 Liam you are embarking on a wonderful journey of sharing in the priesthood of the eternal priest – Jesus Christ.

Your task, with your brother priests in the Society of Catholic Apostolate – Pallottines and in union with good people of like mind, will be to gather his people back to him, to gather into his flock including those who stray from the sheepfold, and run away. Did he not say to us that he has come to seek out and save the lost sheep. But we are all the lost sheep and we all stray. I stray and I need confession regularly and so I too experience the healing of God’s grace in confession. Otherwise sin builds up inside and the human heart can become so used to sin that it cannot see for the darkness – like a window pane that has become so dirty it cannot let the light in.

God is asking you Liam to speak with courage, with patience and compassion to the world, to society today –  to tell your brothers and sister that this world is not all there is, that this life and all is has to offer is not all there is, that we are created by God, that we have a destiny beyond this world, which begins here but which stretches into eternity, that we are here on earth to know love and serve God and to live in a such a way as to live with him forever in heaven.

As priest you will be a sign for all this. A sign that points to God, to the need for God’s grace and salvation. And sometimes not a welcome sign. In that you will be like your father in faith – Vincenzo Pallotti who was no stranger to insult, persecution and difficulties. And as you offer the Holy sacrifice of the Mass you will offer own difficulties and sacrifices and troubles with Jesus himself in the Mass.

That will be your task Liam  – to be Christ for others, to be with his brothers and sisters who are also your brothers and sisters.

You will make mistakes, as I do and all of us, for you, like us all, are weak. But His grace lifts up our nature.

We rely not on our own strength but on the strength of God. And God is very strong – with a strength beyond all we can imagine.

I pray that I and all your brother priests will give you good example and that together and with the aid of many people around you, you will do great things for God.

None of this can be done without a commitment to daily prayer.

I know in my own life that any day I do not pray that day’s work is empty. Any day I really pray and rely on the Lord consciously and perseveringly, that day’s work is good and fruitful.

But again this is the work of God not the work of men.

May Christ’s friendship be your strength.

From today you will be his priest. May you learn more and more to give yourself as Christ did. In that way you will grow closer to Christ and to your fellow brothers and sisters.

Vincenzo Pallotti had a real and living devotion to Mary the mother of Jesus and one of his favourite titles for our Blessed Lady was –  ‘Mother of Divine Love’. May the Mother of Divine Love guide and protect you to be a good priest of the eternal priest.

Slieverue, June 17,2017

VIEW ORDINATION PHOTOS HERE

About 12 years ago I was finishing off my college degree and struggling under the pressure of essays, projects and exams. Even though I was fairly lukewarm in my faith, I decided to pray to Our Lady. I said, “Mary, if you help me out with all this work I’ll give your thing a chance.” What I meant by “your thing”, of course, was a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. I can’t tell you how far the thought of priesthood was from my mind; if someone would have suggested it to me I would have laughed. But somehow in that prayer to Our Lady it just came out of me from nowhere; it was the Holy Spirit, welling up inside of me as it were. What this experience taught me was that Our Lady opens us up to the Holy Spirit; even despite ourselves and our attempts to resist, when we turn to Mary the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives becomes apparent and irresistible.

Why is this? Because Mary is by definition openness to the will of God and the Holy Spirit. This is why St. Vincent Pallotti rightly claimed that, no one, not even the apostles, cooperated more than Mary with the Holy Spirit and in the apostolate, and so she is rightly called the Queen of the Apostles. We need her because what defines an apostle of Jesus Christ is this openness to cooperate with the working of the Holy Spirit.

As we prepare to celebrate the feast of Pentecost, I want to emphasise how ordinary the action of the Holy Spirit is in one sense, and so how ordinary and normal our apostolate should be; it is not something that we should consider an optional extra or an activity that some people partake in every so often—as Christians, being an apostle is who we are. The coming the Holy Spirit at Pentecost isn’t just this spectacular once off event. It continues in our lives—the Holy Spirit continues to be poured out to guide and direct us in ordinary everyday activities.

Mary typifies this reality. Of course she had the amazing vocation to be the Mother of God, but her “yes” at the Annunciation continued throughout her life as a wife, as a mother, as a friend. Everything she did, and everything about her was a response to the Holy Spirit. The gospel accounts show us that Mary’s whole life was about presenting Jesus to others, or showing others the way to Jesus—from her visitation to Elizabeth, to the visitors to the crib at Bethlehem, to the wedding feast at Cana. In the midst of the ordinary events of her life, she never missed an opportunity of showing to others the way to her Son—this is why she is the model for our apostolate.

In the same way our entire mind-set and attitude, our whole life, should be that of an apostle. It not that we shouldn’t engage in particular apostolates, or find new ways to spread the faith; but the foundation for all apostolates is our ongoing response to the Holy Spirit, in the everyday ordinary situations that are presented to us, never missing an opportunity to bring others to Jesus, whether at home or at work or during recreation. This was the mind-set of Pallotti when he said: “Wherever I shall be, I intend to imagine myself to be…in the Cenacle in Jerusalem…[to] remind myself to renew this desire often…[to be] with Mary…my beloved Mother and Jesus… confident that they will help me and all other creatures to receive the abundance of the Holy Spirit.”

It is easy to become despondent when we look around us today; we see the decline in the practice of faith, the indifference and the widespread ridicule of Christian values. Faced with the state of things, we can feel weak and powerless and say “What difference can I make? What am I supposed to do faced with such problems?” Maybe Jesus’ call to Mary and the Beloved Disciple on the cross can provide us with direction. At the moment that appeared to be his great failure, Christ didn’t looked down from the cross to all the people surrounding him and say to Mary: “Woman behold the crowd.” He looked at the Beloved Disciple and said “Woman this is your son.” It is not for the crowd that he was dying, but for each person in the crowd; not for the human race, but each member of the human race. He was saying to them, as he is saying to us now, don’t worry about all that scepticism and indifference and ridicule that surrounds you; your concern is that person in front of you—take him into your heart.

As apostles we are not called to solve the great problems of the Church and the world. Our vocation is that person in front of us; this is all we really have. We are not called to spread the Gospel to the faithless multitude, but to offer the Good News to a person we know is weak in or has lost their faith; we are not called to dispel the darkness and the hopelessness that is engulfing our society, but to offer a word of encouragement to that person we meet who has lost hope. The apostolate is, first of all, about cooperation with the Holy Spirit in the situation presented to us, and to the person we encounter in our everyday lives. And it is Mary, Queen of Apostles and our Mother, who teaches us how to cooperate with the working of the Holy Spirit, in this ordinary, concrete and personal way. With this in mind, let’s enter the Cenacle again, with Mary and St. Vincent, as we await a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Liam O’Donovan, SAC.
Knock, June 3rd 2017.

It’s providential that we are saying farewell to each other on the feast of the Ascension, the day when Jesus and His disciples said goodbye. Somehow, I feel that our parting is graced by the Ascension, is lifted up with Jesus and then it becomes a sacred and holy experience, an experience in which separation and union become one and the same thing because we are all held together as one in Jesus, especially every time we come to Holy Communion at Mass.

In all my years of leaving different places I have never felt as emotional as I do on leaving Shankill. I have always said that you have taught me to be a real priest but I completely underestimated the depth and strength of the bond that exists between us and I have been really touched by your response to the news of my leaving that was announced a couple of weeks ago. We are truly one body, one spirit in Christ.

The preparation for my life here came in the form of the Camino to Santiago, a journey that emptied me of every burden and left me free to be filled with something new, something very precious. St. Paul talks to Timothy about becoming a vessel fit for noble use (2 Timothy 2:21) You have filled my cup and made of me a vessel fit for God’s lofty purposes.

It seems to me that I haven’t done all that much in my five years here and my strongest memory is of celebrating Mass at this altar – the ordinary Masses of every day and Sunday; the profoundly sorrowful funeral Masses; the beautifully innocent and joyful First Holy Communion Masses; Masses of healing and hope. In every Mass, we have come together to meet Jesus, to be touched by Him, filled by Him and in every congregation, I have seen the face of Jesus – the wounded and sometimes fearful face, the challenging face, the hopeful face of youth, the graceful face of age and always the loving face of Jesus.

So, like the first disciples in today’s gospel I have no hesitation whatever falling down on my knees to worship Jesus – Jesus in Himself and Jesus in you. I would kneel in love, I kneel as a sinner who has experienced Mercy and I kneel in the weakness of who I am because I have nothing of my own to boast about.

And of course, the children have always brought me to my knees. When I anoint a baby in Baptism I am often moved to kneel – in many other ways I kneel to a child because I find my true size and height in them. I have three beautiful nieces and five fine nephews who have blessed my life and the gospel I have so often preached is about children, especially my two youngest  nieces Katie and Laura who have taught me so much about how to live a truly Christian life in a childlike way. Jesus himself places the child at the centre of the gospel, at the centre of the Kingdom of God.

This part is very difficult to speak of but it encapsulates everything that really matters!  Two days ago at a special assembly in Scoil Mhuire, I came face to face with a little boy whom I love dearly, a boy who has suffered more than anyone I know in the past year, a suffering that is often misunderstood. He was crying so I went and knelt in front of him, hugged him and started crying with him. We sobbed together in that embrace, we ministered to each other, cried for each other and represented the love of God for each other. It wasn’t that I was minding him but he also was minding me. And a while later we came together in a lighter moment with a bit of a smile when he gave me a card, I gave him a high five and a teacher gave him a piece of chocolate cake. There has to be chocolate cake and God always gives us reason to smile after we have cried!

Yesterday, when I was praying the fifth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, I realized that the encounter with this young boy was for me the finding of Jesus in the Temple and what I felt for him is what Mary and Joseph felt, what God Himself feels for the lost child in all of us.

Shankill represents the happiest period of my life but in every life happiness is often accompanied by pain and in such times, you need a place where you can be totally yourself, accepted in whatever state you’re in. I have found comfort in many people and a few good friends but there are two groups in particular who have sustained me through dark times – my family in Galway and my Pallottine community in St. Benin’s with Frs. John, Mike and Jaimie. It is a sustenance that is often without words, a safe place, a haven.

And so, as St. Paul said, “the time has come for me to be gone”, to go as Jesus Himself went “to other towns and villages” where the ministry of the Good News is needed. It is a calling from God and not just the arbitrary decision of my good friend and Provincial.

I already felt that call as far back as November. I was celebrating Mass at 8 one Sunday morning – and it might have been at the offertory – when I heard a seagull cry clear as a bell and a voice that seemed to say, “you will go to Hastings!” When God calls, the only thing to do is follow. And you have equipped me to do exactly that. You have given me plentiful food for the journey.

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to  which he has called you…” (Ephesians 1:17)

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Birthday of St. Vincent Pallotti, April 21st

ST. VINCENT PALLOTTI 1795-1850

A contemporary of Cardinal Newman’s and the Cure of Ars’, St. Vincent Pallotti was a very modern saint who organized so many remarkable pastoral programs that he is considered the forerunner of Catholic Action. He was a man of great ideas and great vision and was able to inspire others to tackle great things. He is the founder of the Pallottine Fathers and the Pallottine Missionary Sisters; however, this was but the tip of the iceberg of his accomplishments. He left behind schools, guilds, and institutes that carried the Catholic mission into the very heart of contemporary society.

He was born in Rome in 1795 and began studies for the priesthood very early. Although he was very bright, he was not attracted by studies, even though he was ordained a priest at twenty-three and earned a doctorate in theology soon afterward. He was given an assistant professorship at the Sapienza University but resigned it soon after to devote himself to pastoral work.

Before long, his zeal was known all over Rome. He organized schools for shoemakers, tailors, coachmen, carpenters, and gardeners so that they could better work at their trade, as well as evening classes for young farmers and unskilled workers. He soon became known as a “second St. Philip Neri.” He gave away his books, his possessions, and even his clothes to the poor, and once dressed up as an old woman to hear the confession of a man who threatened “to kill the first priest who came through the door.”

In 1835, he founded his two congregations and was instrumental in the founding of a missionary order in England and several colleges for the training of missionaries.

He died at the age of fifty-five and his body lies incorrupt in the church of San Salvatore in Rome. He was canonized by Pope John XXIII in 1963.

Thought for the Day: There is a certain genius that comes from the faith and we see it in our day in Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The saints tackled great and difficult things and accomplished wonders because they did not depend upon their own strength and effort. They knew that all things are possible with God and they took God at His word in asking for miracles and near-miracles. They were never disappointed.

From ‘The Catholic One Year Bible’: . . . Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he looked around at the high waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Instantly Jesus reached out his hand and rescued him. “O man of little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”—Matthew 14:29-31

Taken from “The One Year Book of Saints” by Rev. Clifford Stevens published by Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., Huntington, IN 46750.

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Easter Vigil 2017

Tonight, we celebrate Easter. We celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. We celebrate His victory over sin and death.

Easter is all about life and light and love and joy. It is all about new beginnings and dreams coming true. But then so is Christianity. If we are Christians then we should be Easter People, not just once a year but rather every day of our lives.  Easter can’t be symbolic or a mere reminder of something that happened two thousand years ago.  We should be New People always and everywhere and be a constant reflection of the Risen Christ in the world in which we live.

This is very easy to say but it isn’t easy to do. It is easy to talk about Christianity but it isn’t easy to be Christian. It isn’t easy for us and it wasn’t easy for the Christians who have gone before us. On this most holy of nights it would be well worth our while to reflect on what it means to be a Christian in today’s world, on what it means to be an Easter People.

In the readings from tonight’s celebration we have a brief account of the history of salvation in the Old Testament and we see that, in part, it is the history of the unfaithfulness of the people of God. When we look at the life of the Church, when we look at our own lives, we can see clearly that things haven’t improved much. Like the people of the Old Testament, we too are often unfaithful people. The readings however also speak of the love and faithfulness of God despite human weakness. In spite of our unfaithfulness He is always faithful. God is love and this inspired Him to send His only begotten Son into the world to save humanity, to save you and me. In the Epistle Saint Paul tells us that “if we were baptised in Christ Jesus, we were baptised in his death”.  He then goes on to say that “having died with Christ we shall return to life with Him” and that we must now consider ourselves to be “dead to sin and alive for God in Christ Jesus”. Unfortunately, our problem is like that the women of the Gospel, we are looking for Jesus in the wrong places. They looked for Him among the dead; they looked for Him in the tomb. Christ was not in the tomb just as He is not in the awful sins committed by so many members of the Church or in the many sins committed by you and me. We must look for Christ where he really is.

The angel that the women met told them not to be afraid and that message is so important for us also as we try to live out our Christian faith in today’s world. The angel told them that Jesus had risen from the dead and He was no longer in the tomb. Surely this is the message that we should learn tonight.  Christ is alive and we are truly alive if we live with Him and in Him. The angel told the women to go quickly to the disciples and to tell them the good news. This is the good news that today’s world needs to hear and this is the good news that each one of us should proclaim with joy and enthusiasm. Just like the women of the Gospel, Christ expects you and me to go quickly to our sisters and brothers and tell them the good news without fear.

The Church in Ireland has gone through very difficult times over the past ten years or so. We must hang our heads in shame for the atrocities committed by many members of the Church, especially by bishops, priests and religious. We have been castigated because of this especially by the press, and rightly so. Hopefully we have learned a lesson.  Now we must look at the causes and not just suffer the consequences of the crisis. We must correct the mistakes of the past. We have been silent for too long. We must learn to speak up, to realise that we are all Church and that each one of us, in virtue of our baptism, must take on ownership of the church and not leave matters in the hands of a few bishops or priests. We must learn to have the courage of our convictions and not be afraid to stand up and be seen. The angel of the gospel told the women not to be afraid and tonight he repeats that message for us. Let’s not be afraid to be Church.

 Last week the results of the 2016 census were published and the press was full of the news that the Catholic Church had shrunk from 84.2% of the population to being a mere 78.3 %. Isn’t it interesting that in spite of the terrible scandals that hit the Church over the past ten years and the rampant materialism that inflicts Ireland today, that 78.3% of the population still profess the Catholic faith. This shows that even though there are huge changes in the way that people live their faith, there is still a great hunger for God in the heart of the Irish Church. Any of our political parties or indeed our newspapers would be very delighted if they had such a following.  We mustn’t let the press, or any form of social media, run us down. We seem to be under the impression that we are 21.7% instead of being 78.3% of the population. Because of the sins of a small number of so called Catholics we are often afraid to defend our Christian values and feel that we have lost our right to express ourselves. But we shouldn’t be interested in numbers or statistics. Quantity isn’t important, quality is.

What we must accept and take on board is that things have changed in society and in the life of the Church. This shouldn’t terrify us. Now the great challenge is to find new answers to the new realities. We should see this as a wonderful opportunity rather than cause for concern. Change is needed and we shouldn’t be afraid of change. Together, young and old, lay people and priests, women and men, we must look for the new way forward. One old priest got it right when he said: “What got us here won’t get us there”. Now together we must ask: “What will get us there?” Let this celebration of Easter be what it should always be. A new beginning.

It is a fact that less people go to Mass on Sundays. It is a fact that many people have been hurt and disillusioned by the institutional church. It is a fact that young people reject the holier than thou way of presenting God’s message. It is a fact that everybody is so very busy with the urgent things of life that they have little or no time for the important things. We must discuss the shortage of priests in the Church, the rightful place of women, the theme of the marginalized, priestly celibacy, the themes of abortion and euthanasia, the patronage of schools in a pluralistic society. There are many questions to be faced up to and we shouldn’t be afraid to face up to them and enter into constructive dialogue about them.

I feel that we are blessed by the Pope we have. He too is looking for the best way forward. He too is facing strong opposition, especially from within the Church itself. He is criticised for speaking of God’s mercy, for reaching out to the poor and marginalised and for living a humble life. But Pope Francis is not afraid. We must support him and follow his leadership.  We should pray for him and welcome him with open arms when he visits Ireland next year.

Christ Himself faced similar opposition and His most vocal opponents were members of the institutional church of His time, the Scribes and the Pharisees.

The structure of tonight’s celebration can help us in our daily life. The East Vigil is divided into four parts: the liturgy of the LIGHT, the liturgy of the WORD, the liturgy of BAPTISM and the liturgy of the EUCHARIST. These four liturgies or parts can be represented by four words: LIGHT, WORD, WATER and BREAD and tell us what Easter is all about, what Christianity should be about.

The novelty that the Easter Liturgy brings to us each year is Christ, the LIGHT to enlighten us, the WORD to teach us, the WATER to purify us and the BREAD to nourish us. In our daily life we must follow the LIGHT and not the temptations of the world. We must hear the WORD of God and not just listen with a closed heart and mind. We must be faithful to our Baptismal promises which we will now renew and which we made through the pouring of WATER and we must feel the need to nourish ourselves with the BREAD of the Eucharist each Sunday at the table of God’s family.

We are sent from here tonight to present to the world the face of the new Christ. We are sent from here to be Church. This is not easy in the materialistic Ireland of 2017 when many people are trying to silence and marginalize the Church. The great challenge is to constantly renew the Church and make it ever more Christ like. Not renew it in the sense of destroying it but rather renew it in the sense of bringing it to its fullness. Renew it from within and not by criticising it from without. Renewing the life of the Church means renewing our own lives because we are Church. We need to build a happier, humbler and more listening Christ based Church. This means that we must come closer to Christ ourselves and be happier, humbler and more listening people. We must feel part of the Church and be responsible for her life. Each one of us must occupy our God given place in the Church.  Let us remember the words of Saint Agustin. “We are Easter people and alleluia is our song”   

On this most holy of nights, Fr. Mike, Fr. Eamonn and Fr. Jaimie join with me in wishing each one of you the joy of a profound and contagious new life in Christ.

My dear sisters and brothers, for you and for your families and friends, for the poor and for all those who are suffering in any way, for the sick and for those who are lonely, for all who believe in Jesus Christ and for all who are sincerely looking for “the Way, the Truth and the Life”, for all of you, a very happy and fruitful Easter.

Easter 2017.

Recently I took a 6am Ryanair flight, I had the window seat, and as the sun began to rise, the air hostess who had stopped at the row I was seated in, leant in and looked out of the window and marvelled at the sunrise and remarked that it was the time of day in which she felt closest to God. She went on to say that she had named her daughter Alba, which in Italian and Spanish means ‘Sunrise’.

We associate the Resurrection of Jesus with dawn or sunrise, with new light, with a new birth, a new day, new life and possibilities. In Amoris Laetitia Pope Francis writes of families gathered in prayer in the light of Easter; he writes that if faith in Christ is part of family life then he will unify and illumine the entire life of the family. He notes that married couples (and I think that we can extend it to apply to each of us in our relationships with others) ‘shape with different daily gestures a God-enlighted space in which to experience the hidden presence of the risen Lord’.

May this vision and a commitment to live it, be ours this Easter season, to shape with the gestures, activities, words and expressions of daily living a God-enlightened space where we, and those we share life with,  may experience this hidden and life-giving presence of the risen Lord Jesus.

Happy Easter.