by Vincent | Mar 31, 2018 | Reflections, Lent 2018
Sharing few lines I’ve put on this week’s Parish Bulletin. My attempt at poetry!! More importantly a memory around a man who made a difference.
Who will
roll the stone away
they wondered
as they wandered
to the empty tomb.
Borrowed!
like so many other rooms;
the Bethlehem stable
the Upper Room
Martha and Mary’s kitchen
where great things happened
welcome offered
food prepared and shared
lessons in listening
borrowed yes, but always
willing to repay
Repay!
every act of kindness
every word of encouragement
every step taken
every difference made
Made …..
the tomb was made by man
He was made of God.
The stone was rolled away.
He is risen.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
(VS – Good Friday 2018)
by Vincent | Mar 30, 2018 | Reflections, Lent 2018
We celebrated the Passion of The Lord at 3pm today. There was, once again, a very full congregation and I was glad to see this. I’m thankful to all who took part in the liturgy and to all present.
I shared a short reflection after the reading of the The Passion. I hadn’t altogether planned on doing so but listening again to the reading today, I was struck by how little Jesus said. I decided to share a thought around that, picking some though not all the lines he spoke.
“Who are you looking for?” They answered “Jesus, the Nazarene” but they were not looking for him out of any sense of respect or loyalty. Rather, their search was to bring about his demise. I suggested we might hear him ask that question of us today: “Who are you looking for?” and that our answer, though the same as theirs, might be from a better place. A place of wanting to know more about Jesus and about allowing him into our lives.
“Those who are on the side of truth, listen to my voice.” Again, it strikes me that there’s a direct invitation and maybe even challenge to us to be on the side of truth. No room for gossip or negativity, no room for envy or spite, no room for hatred or revenge. The side of truth asks us to be people of justice, people of honour – people.
“This is your mother.” is one of the few phrases recorded from the Cross. It’s as if Jesus is putting family centre stage at the most vulnerable and, perhaps, crucial stage of his public ministry. This year we celebrate the World Meeting of Families when people from all over Ireland, indeed all over the world, will congregate in Dublin to reflect on family life. It is put before us as an example of decent living and a road map for harmony. On the other hand, we are discussing the possible attack of family life at its most vulnerable stage, in the very earliest days of its existence and maybe the Lord is calling us to day to a renewed value of life.
“This is your son.” again, a call to enter into relationship with Our Lady as “mother of the church” and to ensure a lasting place of welcome for her in our homes.
“I am thirsty.” We might reflect today on the cause of the Lord’s thirst. Having reflected, we might seek to do something as individuals and community to quench that thirst in a way more rooted in decency than vinegar on a hyssop stick. We have, within us, what it takes to satisfy his thirst since that thirst is surely for a people who understand his message and seek to follow his ways.
“It is accomplished.” These final words of Jesus are maybe a call to us to live life in such a way that when our “hour” comes, we may leave this world knowing we did our very best to live life in a way that helped rather than hindered, encouraged rather than criticisesed and built up rather than tore down.
I was also mindful, though I didn’t say this in the church, that most of Jesus’ interactions were with individuals rather than the crowd. He spoke to Pilate, Peter, Mary, John and seemed to put little, if any, energy into trying to dialogue with the hostile crowd. Maybe there’s a message there about engaging with one another, one by one, rather than taking on the crowd. At the end of the day, it has to be personal.
by Vincent | Mar 29, 2018 | Reflections, Lent 2018
I am happy that I managed to post a thought here for each day of Lent. Not sure how much difference they made but hopefully they might have helped on the journey. Certainly made me think a little.
Had a great gathering this evening for Holy Thursday Mass of The Lord’s Supper. I was delighted to see so many people there from the different church areas of the parish. It’s the first year we didn’t have ceremonies in at least two of the churches. People seem to understand the changed situation in the parish and I am very grateful about that.
Someone sent me a photo he took of the Altar at the end of Mass. It looks bare and that’s the way it’s meant to be. We enter a period of mourning now in the church and will watch tomorrow with Christ as he enters the courtroom, having spent time in Gethsemane and is handed over to an angry mob. We will hear again the exchanges between Pilate and Jesus and the account of Jesus’ final moments. Though we’ve heard it before, there is a real hope that we listen a-new, open to hearing and responding in a way not done before.
LENTEN THOUGHT: Let us continue as we have begun. There’s an empty tomb to be discovered.
by Vincent | Mar 28, 2018 | Reflections, Lent 2018
Behold the wood of the cross
I sat in Carracastle Church on Sunday evening. I was there for “The Light Is On For You” Lenten Confessions. The priests of our Parish Cluster go to one another’s churches for one hour (longer if needed) to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
I looked at this cross and it took me back nearly thirty years. Carracastle was my first appointment. I remember asking a man to make a Cross for Good Friday. This is the cross he produced along with a set of smaller crosses for the Altar Servers – still, as far as I know, in use today.
The man, since dead, was called Des Callaghan. May he rest in peace. He took huge pride in the making of this cross and I’ve no doubt was happy to see it used. I was happy to see it in its Lenten place on Sunday last. Des was a handy man and was more than happy to use his talents in the name of God and in the name of the parish. I was glad I asked him.
LENTEN THOUGHT: What talents can we bring to our parish community?
by Vincent | Mar 27, 2018 | Reflections, Lent 2018
I read that Gospel passage again today – the one where Jesus tells the disciples that one of them will betray him. John is asked to try to find out who he means and when John asks, Jesus replies: “it is the one to whom I give the piece of bread that I dip in the dish.” He dips a piece of bread in the dish, hands it to Judas and says “What you are going to do, do quickly.” We are told that Satan entered him at that moment.
It is a passage that confuses me. At one level it implies that Jesus knew what he was doing when he handed the piece of bread to Judas. At another, it could mean that he was letting Judas know that he knew what he was thinking and planning. Despite that, Jesus continued to number him among his friends and helpers. Maybe there was hope there for a change of heart.
Clearly Judas’ decision was regrettable and, based on his own final decision, one he deeply regretted.
Betrayal is certainly a low point in any human interaction. We see the consequences of it every day – betrayal of trust, betrayal of friends and even betrayal of family. It brings with it total devastation and damage that can prove irreparable.
LENTEN THOUGHT: What price betrayal?
by Vincent | Mar 26, 2018 | Reflections, Lent 2018
I met a lady a few years ago who told me she has a memory of attending the Holy Week ceremonies with her young daughter. She said the daughter especially liked to go to the Good Friday celebration of The Lord’s Passion and was fascinated by the reverencing/kissing of the Cross. The priest however held the Cross in such a way that the little child couldn’t reach it. She used to ask her mother “Do you think I’ll be able to reach the Cross this year?”
The question is a good one though – “Do you think I’ll be able to reach the Cross this year?” Reaching the Cross has, I think, something to do with an awareness of its meaning in our lives. Chances are we are all reaching for it in some way or another – trying to understand more of it – some, sadly from the vantage point of the cross itself as they struggle with personal illness or the illness of a family member. The answer, we are called to believe, lies in some understanding of the Cross and Jesus’ triumph over suffering and pain.
LENTEN THOUGHT: We might pray, as our Lenten journey goes onward, that we will “reach” the cross this year and find answers to our deepest and most difficult questions.
