by Vincent | Mar 7, 2020 | Reflections, Religion
I was asked to write some homily thoughts for Trócaire’s Lenten Campaign. I was happy to be asked and able to do this. Just going to include here the piece for this weekend.
Hope all is going well.
V
If there is a specific word presenting itself to us in today’s readings, I think it is the word “promise”.
It is a wonderful word that gives hope and helps us to cope with difficult situations in life. If we can believe the promise will be fulfilled, we can work our way through moments not of our choosing and challenges that are difficult.
Broken promises are heart-breaking. Something as simple as a service provider saying he or she will call you back, but the call does not come or that a job will begin on a given day, but nobody turns up. This leads us to feel frustrated, left down and disappointed. At its worst, the broken promise leads to anger and maybe even some form of retaliation.
In Trócaire’s Lenten Campaign 2020, we are face to face with people who know the meaning of broken promises. Their set-backs are more serious and life threatening than a plumber turning up on Wednesday evening rather than Monday morning. Their very lives and the lives of their families are at risk.
When Jesus takes Peter, James and John to the mountain top, they experience something wonderful and beyond expectation. They encounter the one they had known as friend in a way they had never seen before and he is truly revealed to them as the Son of the Father. Though they could not take it all in, they knew their lives could never be the same again. Transfixed as he was transfigured, they ask “Lord, can we build three tents?” It was as if they wanted to stay in this moment forever.
Gently, he points them towards ground level again. It is here they must live their lives, not forgetting what they had witnessed. It is here, at ground level, they must make a difference. They and all who followed them in his name and because of this moment, share in the fulfilment of the promise.
There are so many people at ground level, living under daily threat and in constant fear, looking to us today, seeking our help today that they too may know the promise kept.
by Vincent | Feb 26, 2017 | General Interest, Reflections, Religion
Maria, the girl featured on this year’s Trocaire Box, with Alexis – one of the Trocaire Team in Honduras
Last November, in the company of Trocaire, I visited Honduras with a group from Ireland. I’ve written about this on the blog before (Check posts from November 2016). I know that one of the reasons Trocaire asked us to come along was that we might help in promoting the message of the Lenten Campaign 2017. I’ve been trying to do that over this weekend, with some thoughts in our Parish Bulletin and on www.achonrydiocese.org I also had the opportunity to have an interview on Mid West Radio’s “Faith Alive” programme with Monica Morley. I’m grateful to Monica for that opportunity.
Meeting Maria – child featured in this years Lenten Campaign
I feel I want to make an effort to support Trocaire’s campaign this year and hope that you will join me in that. Whatever support we can give, not least by “opening the TROCAIRE box” will, I have no doubt, make quite a difference.
There are many fine resources on www.trocaire.org and included among them are:
Resource Links:
The visit to Honduras brought me to a deepened awareness of global needs. In going there, and I’ve said this before, I was well out of my “comfort zone”. Those who know me best, know that I like my comforts and so to be in a place where people live so frugally and exposed to such dangers – both from nature and society – is something I am not likely to forget. That said, I had the luxury of flying to Honduras and the escape of flying away from it again. For the people we met, this is not really an option. It is their home and circumstances make it very difficult for them to leave that home. Indeed I met one man after one of our meetings. He lives close to where Miriam and Maria live and we had been told how dangerous this place is and how many in the village would like to move to an alternative location that would give them more protection against the elements and the sea. I spoke to this man – just “hello” and a smile and he spoke back with a broad smile on his face and said something I did not understand. One of the Trocaire team asked me did I know what he had just said and I replied “no”. The man had said “The only way I will ever leave here is dead” …. I knew what he meant. It was his home, flawed and dangerous as it was, but always his home. Trocaire, I concluded, is doing its best to make his home a better place.
“The only way I will leave here”, he told me “is dead”
SO “open the TROCAIRE box” this year and let’s see what we can do …..
Make it part of the home – your home, school, workplace – and never under estimate the difference your contribution during Lent can and will make.
Boxes are available in all our Parishes as Lent begins and it’s also possible to support Trocaire directly via its website
www.trocaire.org
