by Vincent | Jun 26, 2018 | Reflections, Religion
Fr Pat Burke 1979-2018 R.I.P.
Today’s Gospel passage points towards the Golden Rule of treating others as you’d like them to treat you. The evening finds me again on Lough Derg – as a sort of day-boy – helping out for a day or two but not on pilgrimage. I WILL do it at some stage, just not sure when!
I had Mass this evening and spoke to them, in part, about Fr Pat Burke – a priest of Tuam Archdiocese, who died unexpectedly, and – arguably – many years ahead of his time, yesterday. May he rest in peace. Pat was curate in Westport parish and was due to take up a new appointment in July. His death has come as a shock to all who knew him. He’d mentioned the day before that he was not feeling very well but nobody expected his death. It is a huge loss to his family, his parish, diocese and to all who knew him.
I cannot believe how sad I feel about this. A few months ago, I put a few words on this blog about vocations. It took the form of a letter to myself. The next day I had a message from Pat, telling me he enjoyed it and that it spoke to him “you could have written it to me” he said. I replied, thanking him and telling him that we’d “keep motoring” in priesthood. We had spoken many times about meeting up at some stage, having lunch and a bit of a chat. That’s not going to happen now. I feel great regret about that. It was so doable. Less than an hour would have seen us in one place or the other. It never happened.
My admiration for Pat was in watching him at Knock Shrine where he was curate and Master of Ceremonies at many of the events in the Basilica. He always seemed so unassuming but his role was central. He never sought limelight but helped others find their place in its rays. He was a good man.
Later I met him when I was involved with the priests of Tuam Archdiocese in their annual Diocesan Priests’ Retreat. Pat was the only person younger than myself there and his presence was so supportive. He wrote me a very kind note afterwards, thanking me for the retreat but I told him that he had supported me, by his presence, in a way far more supportive than I could have been of him. I meant it. There was something very reassuring and calming in his presence. He made a difference.
At days end, Pat treated people with kindness – the way we’d like to be treated and his place in this evening’s Mass on Lough Derg, is to encourage us to do likewise. There is also something about not putting things off for another day. That day has a way of overtaking us.
The Water’s Edge, Lough Derg – June 26th 2018.
AT THE WATER’S EDGE
Pat,
Earlier today I read about your work on the islands off Mayo and how much you enjoyed it. As I came across on the boat this evening, the stone’s throw of a journey, I wondered about you heading off to celebrate Mass and the sacraments on Innishturk and Clare Island or your visits to Caher Island. You made a difference there. I’m sure you are missed tonight. Your feet, between boat and shore, brought something very special and sacred. You were priest among the people and the people enveloped you as one chosen, one called to be with them and for them. It was good work Pat.
I stood at the water’s edge here on Lough Derg this evening. shoes on and phone in hand – feeling less than worthy as I watched barefooted men and women of all ages, walk around and behind me, focusing on their prayers and being pilgrims. Phones turned off, no photos just searching for something of Heaven and finding it – I hope and pray. I watched the waters but looked beyond them to people gathering in Westport, to walk past you – not barefooted but brokenhearted, bless themselves and offer a prayer and wonder “why?” I heard them whisper to your parents and your brothers how wonderful you were and how shocked they are. “Sorry for your trouble”, they’d have said, one after another. I see them walking towards Charlie McDonnell and the other priests there, shaking their heads in disbelief. There are no words. Your loss to them is immeasurable. Certainly you didn’t know the fullness of all you meant to people. I wonder where you are in all of this? I can’t help but believe you believed in the Resurrection you preached to so many and that you are now fully caught up in it.
Then water splashes onto the slabs at my feet. Water of the lake meeting the solidness of stone. Changing its shade, moistening its hardened surface. Travelling to meet the land. How often you poured the waters of baptism on an infant’s head and watched it trickle back into the font from which it came. Parents smiled and so did you for it was God’s work. Your last Sunday was John The Baptist’s Day. Waters made holy by the one baptized and the one baptizing.
I sensed you stepping ashore Pat as the waters of Lough Derg met the stone beneath the pilgrims’ feet. I walked away from the water’s edge, believing you had found solid ground too and put your own mark on it as the stones were coloured by the lake’s edge this evening.
I told them about you Pat, at Mass. People sympathised with me afterwards on the loss of “your friend” and I felt oddly hypocritical since we didn’t know each other that well and I felt cheated too because I’d like to have known you better. I was proud of you as a priest, grateful for your text on a Monday in April and for your phonecalls every now and again. Yes, we should have met.
Pray for us Pat. We need someone to take your place. Be “vocation” now. Call people to walk where you walked and to cross the waters to the islands where you encountered something of a church we all want – a church of belonging and a church of shared vision.
Rest in peace Pat. You’ve crossed that point where the waters meet the land.
Vincent
![Archbishop Joe Cassidy, R.I.P.]()
by Vincent | Feb 3, 2013 | General Interest, Reflections, Parish and Diocese, Religion
Archbishop Joseph Cassidy, R.I.P.
Earlier today I attended the Funeral Mass of Archbishop Joe Cassidy, the retired Archbishop of Tuam and former Parish Priest of Moore-Clonfad Parish.
Ordained in 1959 for the Diocese of Achonry, the Charlestown native was sent to the Diocese of Clonfert on loan and, as events transpired, was never to return to our diocese. He taught in St Joseph’s College (Garbally) for nearly twenty years, was its President for two and then was appointed Bishop of Clonfert and later Archbishop of Tuam from 1987-1995. He didn’t enjoy great health and retired as Archbishop but, anxious to maintain pastoral ministry, he moved to the parish 0f Moore-Clonfad where he remained until his final retirement in 2009. He died on January 31st.
A gifted preacher and communicator, he did much to share the Gospel message and Church teaching – doing so in his own way and with a personal touch. I liked him and his style very much and though I didn’t know him very well he was the sort of a man you felt at home with – he had a good way with him. May he rest in peace.
I just took a look at the Tuam Archdiocesan website and am happy to see the text of Archbishop Neary’s homily there so thought I might share.
Communicator of the Word of God
St Francis of Assisi once said: “Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words”. Joseph Cassidy was a master of words. Words, to paraphrase Yeats, ‘obeyed his call’. Their master’s strong, compelling voice is silent now. A voice that once summoned them to serve the Gospel is heard no more. Wherever the good news of Jesus Christ was heard through the words of Archbishop Cassidy his translation was clear, challenging and fresh. He was a word man, a man who crafted words so that when the Gospel was heard none of us could say that the Scriptures were tired and predictable. The word of God became flesh in a striking way when he spoke. They broke into our world, spoke to our poverty, whispered to our pain and loneliness, reassured us in our brokenness.
The Teacher
Just before dawn, on the feast of St. John Bosco, his own pain ended. The feast could not have been more poignantly significant. John Bosco, the teacher. Twenty years of Joseph Cassidy’s priesthood had been spent in education. Like St. John Bosco he communicated a great love for wisdom and particularly for English literature. He influenced and helped to form young men, introducing them to English literature, enabling them to enjoy its riches. He was gifted with great patience, understanding and sympathy which enabled his students to identify with him and to trust in him. Today, many of those students will acknowledge the extraordinary influence which he had on them as he introduced them to drama, debating and public speaking.
Spokesperson
As Bishop he was a very articulate spokesman for the Bishop’s Conference. He could communicate theological ideas in a way that was understandable and in the language of everyday life. He will be remembered by different people for different things. However he will be remembered by everyone who has heard him speak as one of the outstanding preachers of our time. In his homilies he made contact with real life which is there in our streets, our hospital beds, in broken homes and breaking hearts where love and hate, war and peace, grace and despair intermingle.
Spéis sa Ghaeilge
Bhí spéis faoi leith ag an Ard-easpaig Seosamh Ó Casaide sa Ghaeilge. Is cuma an raibh sé ag labhairt i mBéarla nó i nGaeilge bhí bua na cumarsáide go smior ann. Cainteoir den scoth a bhí ann.
Creativity and Imagination
As a proclaimer of God’s word, Joseph Cassidy was involved in a search – a searing search for God and the human person through systematic reflection on experience. He relived the language of Job who struggled with God, bewildered, confused, not understanding why terrible things had happened. As a weaver of words, Joseph Cassidy had few equals. His creative imagination found expression in his power of story, where we recognised our own pilgrimages, and in painting pictures which were true to life. Life, with all its paradoxes and contradictions, its sorrows and its joys.
Ability to make a text come alive
Few preachers speak with quite the power of imagination that was his. He brought to his preaching the precision of a careful scholar and gave life to these dry bones with all the narrative skills of a novelist and the powerful imagery of a poet. In him we found a rare combination of warmth, insight, and vitality. He comforted and challenged, as he communicated with mind, heart and conscience. His unique story-telling style insured an attentive congregation as they listened to a message that was profound and contemporary. He was witty, touchy, full of humanity and wisdom.
Master of Language
He used language with care, with discrimination and with feeling. He loved to play on words and to pun. His homilies were not only education but entertainment. His language was fresh, his vision poetic. Measured syllables, rhetorical balance all contributed to a gentle yet forceful Christian persuasion. And through his warm and appealing personality, he demonstrated that God’s grace is not a quality given only to a select few. It is a gift, a spiritual resource, if you will, available to each and every one of us. In his proclaiming of the word of God we recognise that God is to be found in the bits and pieces of daily life, whether local, national or global. Joe was sensitive to where people are and where they are going.
Archbishop of Tuam
Recognising the pressure under which marriage and the family operate today he set up the Family Centre in Castlebar with an outreach to the various parishes. When he became the Archbishop of Tuam in 1987 he realised what emigration was doing to the West of Ireland and became very involved in the movement to develop the West together and provided a great source of inspiration and encouragement to all involved.
An Dúlra agus an Timpeallacht
Bhí suim faoi leith an an Ard-esapaig Seosamh sa Ghaeltacht agus sna hOiléain. Bhí árd-mheas aige ar áilleacht an dúlra agus an ceantar mór-thimpeall san Ard-deoise seo, go háirithe Cruach Phádraig. D’oibrigh sé go dícheallach an áilleacht agus naofacht nádúrtha sin a chaomhnú ar ’chuile bhealach.
Coping with the cross and suffering
For all that, perhaps the most eloquent sermon of his life is not the words stored in someone’s memory or found in the written word of his homilies but rather in the way he lived through the pain of the last year and particularly during the last few months when his voice was silent. This was the testing period for all his words and he proved that his preaching was not just directed at others but that he had taken deeply into his own life the directions he had placed before us all. In those months of suffering he brought a sense of patience and trust to all who kept that lonely vigil at his side. The best sermons do not use words. In these last months, Joseph Cassidy preached very well.
Feast of the Presentation
As we lay Archbishop Joe to rest on this day, we are reminded that this is the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. The feast is typified by light, at once a delicate, mysterious element as well as an overpowering and blinding force. Candles are blessed today. When lighted, their wicks can be easily snuffed out. Yet these candles symbolise Jesus, our eternal light, our sun that illumines the path of our existence, our pillar of fire which cannot ever be put out.
Theology of Presentation
Today’s feast offers that most special grace to expend our lives heroically for God in kindness and in love. God is seeking to transform us into our very best selves, so that our entire lives will please the Lord. The book of Exodus prescribed that every first born Israelite son belonged to God. The Jesus who is presented in the temple is the living word of the Father and a friend and companion for our journey. Jesus, who speaks to us in human words, is, in the mysterious depth of his being, one with God. He opens our horizons to and through the possibilities God has given us, so that we too can be one with him.
Thanksgiving
As we celebrate this feast we return the precious gift that God has given us in Archbishop Joseph Cassidy. We thank God for his ministry as priest and bishop and for all those whose lives have been influenced and inspired by him. He who commanded words has answered the living Word and has returned to him. May he rest in peace.
Condolences and sympathies
Joining with the whole congregation gathered here in prayer I offer my sincere smypahty and the support of my prayers to his sisters Concie, Angela, Mary, Bernadette, Patricia and Imelda. To his brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews, and his wide circle of friends.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilís!
THE LAST WORD
On Sunday, February 3rd, Mid West Radio’s “FAITH ALIVE” paid tribute to Archbishop Cassidy.
The greater part of the show centred on the replaying of an interview that had taken place with Monica Morley, Brendan Hoban and Colm Kilcoyne over twenty yeas ago. I hope they don’t mind (and I will check!!) but I made a recording of the replayed programme and will include some of it here.
