In the past few days people have received calls from Donald Trump, inviting them to Trump Towers and they went in the expectation of receiving an appointment to his administration. He’s now in “power” and will gather around him people who seek power. He’s no different to many others in similar situations. For more than two years he has sought power, as did those who campaigned against him, for there is something in power that attracts people. That’s the way it’s always been and is certain to continue.
On the last Sunday of the Church’s Year we are given the image of Christ The King. There is little that speaks more to power than “KING” – from our childhood days we heard stories of Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses and their lifestyle. We imagined their castles, thrones, kingdoms and rejoiced with the good ones who did well by their people and hissed disapproval at the evil and warped ones who sought to make life difficult for others “Look out, he’s behind you”, was the pantomime roar. “Oh no he’s not” – “Oh yes, he is”!
Christ the King is found neither in castle or on throne. He’s crucified between two thieves. He’s mocked, jeered, spat at and offered vinegar to drink. A sign says he is “king of the Jews” but those gathered around have no regard for him or his “kingship”. It’s total humiliation. It’s awful. He is at his lowest moment and begins to doubt even the Father’s love “why have you abandoned me?”.
In the midst of all this awfulness there is a moment of light. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”. How those words must have lifted his fallen spirit. In the absence of pomp and ceremony, robes and crown, someone was still able to grasp the truth. “There’s more going on here deeper than meets the eye”. What was it that sparked that moment of recognition in the “good thief”? Where did he find those words? Where did he unwrap that gift of faith that allowed him see beneath the lashes and bruising, the nails and the blood to the one beneath and above it all? Somehow he managed it! Hands tied and in undoubted pain, he realised the man beside him was more than man. He was KING! Some kings had the name of being merciful and surely he’d be numbered among them – “Jesus”, he said, “remember me when you come into your kingdom”.
His words, far from falling on deaf ears, gave hope to a dying man and helped him realise his words had not fallen unheeded to the ground. In the midst of all this hostility and hatred, there was sill hope – still faith and a desire for something better.
“Indeed”, replied the King “this day you will be with me in Paradise”.
Trump Towers or Calvary? Power is at its best in fragility and weakness for it is from these it can draw and transform people. Power, when recognised where you’d least expect it, is a special and life-altering gift.
Remember!
Later today we will have a Remembrance Service in our parish for all who died in the past year. The words of Christie Hennessy’s “Remember Me” come to mind yet again and maybe they have a place in your day too.
“Remember me whenever you are blue, remember me when there’s no one holding you, anytime you feel like you can’t make it through, remember me and I will be with you.”
Just looking again at photos from last week, I am reminded that a week ago today we visited the Cathedral in Tegucigalpa on our way to the airport. It’s the Cathedral of Michael The Archangel and is truly beautiful. We spent a bit of time there and its size allowed for space and its space allowed for prayer and the prayer was a connection with people we’d met over the days and people we know that might be in need of a prayer (who isn’t?) I’m glad we had the chance to visit …..
Some months ago, Fr Donal Neary S.J., asked me if I’d write a piece for the Novmeber issue of the Sacred Heart Messenger Magazine. I was honoured to be asked. He wanted me to write a piece on the Pope’s Intention for the Month of November. The Messeger is a very popular magazine here in Ireland and in other countries. I’m amazed how many people I have met in recent weeks who told me they read the piece and enjoyed it. Most recently a woman today in Duffys’ SuperValu who told me she had read it before realising the words were mine and had enjoyed them (I don’t think discovering they were my words lessened the enjoyment!) In any case, I thought I might put the few words here as well. Just to keep a few thoughts going.
That within parishes, priests and lay people may collaborate in service to the community without giving in to the temptation of discouragement.
(Pope’s Intention for November 2016)
“You did it again!” John Moran often said that to me after a Sunday Mass. He didn’t add to it or take away from it, just left it at that as he shook my hand. To me, he was saying, that something I said or did at Sunday Mass made a difference to him. I’m not sure how I responded or if I did respond but I appreciated what he was saying.
A small boy told his mother on a Monday evening that she could never wash his hair again. When she asked why, he told her that a neighbour had put his hand on his head as they left Sunday Mass together the day before and said “you’re a great little boy”. That man was found dead in bed the following morning. The boy, hearing this and knowing that his neighbour had said these words, felt his hair could not be touched again lest the blessing – the praise be erased.
I asked her, following her First Confession, if she’d say a prayer for one of our two clerical students. I named them both, asked her to pick a name and suggested she pray for him. Before leaving the church, she came back to me and whispered “Can I say a prayer for the two of them?”
“The temptation of discouragment!” How tuned in is Pope Francis! How blessed we are for that attentiveness to the local at the service of the global that is central to all he is about. It is indeed the real temptation for people in parishes, priests and laity, to be discouraged. There are seeds of it blowing in the very wind that should be at our back but is instead, at times, reaching gale force pitch as it meets us head on. We want to say “enough”, “what’s the point?”, “nobody’s listening” but as Francis says, that’s “temptation”. There is a point: people are listening and it’s never a good time to stop.
Least of all now! “You’ve done it again”, “You’re a great little boy”, “Can I say a prayer for both of them?” This is collaboration. This is the message we need to hear, to share and to re-imagine. We have the framework already. It’s rooted in Schools, monthly visitations, parish groups, Pastoral Councils, sharing parish resources, clustering and so much more. It’s heard in God’s Word proclaimed by people who believe they are sharing a treasure, in Eucharist carried to the sick and housebound as treasure, in choirs hearing a hymn and making it their own that they might share it with others, in priests meeting their people and people meeting their priests so that a conversation of hope may continue. But without the framework of this encouragement of each other, many of our new structures lose life and become part of parish history.
It’s time to make real the talk of all of us “being church” and to focus less on the history of boundaries and more on the geography of truly knowing one another and caring where we live. It’s a time to look for signs of hope rather than weep into pools of despair. It’s time to face the road as one knowing that He who is the ‘One’ will walk with us, break open the Scriptures and the Bread for us and cause our hearts again “to burn within us” because he truly cares about the matters we are discussing as we walk along.
Deliver us Lord from temptation, grant us peace, grant us eyes to see and ears to hear all that is already collaboration in our day.
Over the few days in Honduras I took photos. I’ve already shared some of them in previous posts. I’m going to include a good few of them here now, without words, since photos tell their own story. I won’t mention Honduras or Trocaire again until Lent 2017. So this is it!!
Meeting with a youth group and its leaders
A village visited
Short video clip of the only road allowing access to this village. When the floods rise this road becomes totally impassible.
Shores and homes
Sharing Sunday Eucharist
Community Concerns
Should be Paradise
Farmers, farming, food and life
So that’s it! Many others took photos too and chances are I am in a few of them. These were from the other side of the lens. They don’t tell the full story but I’d like to think give a flavour of the places we visited, the people we met and the stories we heard. If there are sounds to accompany these photos, they might include, laughter, bits of music from time to time, an odd song, sadness in people’s voices as they related stories of fear, intimidation and uncertainty for their future, hope, solidarity, purpose, water and always welcomes with the sharing of food and kindness.
Someone jokingly asked if I’d be on next year’s Trocaire Box! The answer is no. The little girl who will be on it is found in these photos. I’d like to think that come Lent 2017 my heart will be in the Trocaire Box and that I can encourage people to maintain that level of generosity that comes so naturally to the people of Ireland and that I now see the necessity for in a way, truth told, I had not fully grasped until this week.
Thanks for sharing these days with me and allowing me share them with you in the words written and the photos taken.
Thanks also to the group I was honoured to be part of: from Trocaire; Kevin and Anna, from the dioceses of Ireland, Rose, Claudine, Eddie, Damian, Dominic and Paul, from Trocaire in Central America; Harvé, Alexis, Santiago and Kristian, members of the “partner” NGO’s we met, our bus drivers and all who cared for and welcomed us.
The Isle of Inisfree has always been one of my favourite songs. I especially love the beginning of the closing verse where the man recalls his home and “the folks I love” gathered around the fireplace where “on bended knee their Rosary is told”. Not prayed, said, recited but “told”. I think it is such an accurate verb to take us to the heart of the Rosary for, at best, it is telling us the story – the Sacred Story – of Christ from the moment of Annunciation to Resurrection and Ascension. The story of our Faith is contained within the fifteen and now twenty mysteries of the Rosary
Last Sunday evening we had a lovely gathering in Kilmovee Church. It was a sort of last minute decision but one I’m glad was made. Placing chairs at the front of the Altar and creating something of “fireside” we invited some parishioners to take their place kneeling at the chair as would have been done in countless homes. Each took a turn in leading us through a “decade” of the Rosary.
“On bended knee, their rosary is told” (R Farrelly, Isle of Inisfree)
It truly was special. Meeting one of our older parishioners afterwards, he said: “that brought me back years”. I’m fairly sure there was a tear in his eye as he said these words. I believe he was brought back to a good place.
As we come towards the end of October may we do all in our power to keep “telling the story” and gathering around the fireside in prayer, friendship and memory.
“Our Lady of The Rosary. Pray for us”.
Isle of Innisfree
Author: words & music by Dick Farrelly
Copyright: Peter Maurice Music/EMI Music
These are the correct words given to me by Dick Farrelly’s son Gerard
I’ve met some folks who say that I’m a dreamer
And I’ve no doubt there’s truth in what they say
But sure a body’s bound to be a dreamer
When all the things he loves are far away.
And precious things are dreams onto an exile
They take him o’er the land across the sea
Especially when it happens he’s an exile
From that dear lovely Isle of Innisfree.
And when the moonlight peeps across the rooftops
Of this great city wondrous tho’ it be
I scarcely feel its wonder or its laughter
I’m once again back home in Innisfree.
I wander o’er green hills thro’ dreamy valleys
And find a peace no other land could know
I hear the birds make music fit for angels
And watch the rivers laughing as they flow.
And then into a humble shack I wander
My dear old home, and tenderly behold
The folks I love around the turf fire gathered
On bended knees their rosary is told.
But dreams don’t last
Tho’ dreams are not forgotten
And soon I’m back to stern reality
But tho’ they paved the footways here with gold dust
I still would choose the Isle of Innisfree.
Theme of the film “The Quiet Man”
It is the melody and not the words that feature in the film.
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