29 January 2012

Homily

My dear friends,

We are told in today’s Gospel reading that as soon as the Sabbath came Jesus went to the synagogue and began to teach there.  InGalileeat that time every town and village had a synagogue.  It was a place for prayer, worship and instruction in the Jewish faith.  The pattern of Jesus at that time appears to have been that he went from one synagogue to another throughout Galilee teaching and preaching the kingdom of God.  We are told he made a deep impression on his listeners and, unlike the scribes, taught them with authority.

When Mark told the story of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, he said Jesus was invested with the power of the Spirit, and so acts with authority.  The power that moves Jesus has its source in God; the authority that Jesus displays, both in his actions and words, is the authority of God himself.  It is not then difficult to accept that when Jesus began teaching the people were deeply impressed; they can sense for themselves the difference between how Jesus teaches and how other religious leaders teach.  It is not a matter of decorative words.  The teaching of Jesus makes an impression, because people can see the change for good it brings about in the broken, the crippled and the dispossessed.

In Mark’s Gospel, this event described in today’s reading is the first work of the ministry of Jesus and sets the scene for what is to come, the confrontation between two powers, -  the power of good and the power of evil, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness.  While teaching in the synagogue, Jesus is interrupted by the shouts of a man possessed.  This man has been taken over by a dark power and, in a sense, he is not in control of his own life.  At the word of Jesus, the man was freed from this control and the people were astonished at this new power among them – a teaching with authority behind it.

When Jesus taught, he showed not only his wisdom but his power.  His authority originated in his relationship with God and his power was that of God’s Son.  He showed his unique authority in that his actions were his principal teachings.  He used his power to free people from the evil forces that dominated their lives.  He came to overcome the power of evil and to enable the human race to do the same.  He came to heal.  His ministry is mirrored in the care that parents try to show their children.  It is an expression of love, a love that is given for the good of others.

We are told that his reputation spread rapidly and everywhere.  Particularly at the start of his ministry, Jesus seems to have met with acceptance and approval.  So did many of the prophetic figures which the human race has produced over the centuries – Stephen, in Apostolic times who was later stoned to death, Thomas Becket who was murdered in his Cathedral, Joan of Arc who was burned at the stake at the age of 19, and Martin Luther King whose voice was eventually silenced by an assassin’s bullet.

We are a fickle lot who make up the human race.  We applaud, but things move on, and the applause dies.  If prophetic teaching makes us uncomfortable and we need shelter from it, we can always find defence mechanisms to shield us from the insight offered to us.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer made the Nazi leaders in World War 11 Germany uncomfortable and was hanged in a concentration camp.  Mohandes Gandhi, who identified with the poor of our world and tried to achieve their rights for the untouchables in his nativeIndia, was eventually silenced.  The human race has a habit of rejecting and often of killing the very prophets God sends to help them.

Jesus showed an awareness that the road from approval to rejection and even violence is a short one, and that he will not be excused from facing the rejection that most prophets before him had to face. The history of the human race shows that rejection and worse goes with the territory.  Yet the assurance that Moses is described in the first reading as giving to the people has come to pass.  Through the centuries, God has repeatedly fulfilled the promise that prophets will be raised up to speak the truth.  To be a prophet means to care so deeply about the well being and needs of others that you are willing to risk your own safety, security and life in the process.  We will always need people who are willing to lay everything on the line so that the truth will be heard.

During his life on earth, Jesus continued to be faithful to the mission given to him by the Father.  He remained committed to confronting the power for evil in using his power for good.  Applause or no applause, he continued to heal and to free those who were enslaved by illness of mind, spirit and body.  He confronted those who laid burdens on the weak.  His word, His presence, His Spirit are still active in our world and are still on offer to us this morning.  God continues to speak to human kind through the living words of the Scripture as well as through people who have been inspired by the Spirit to communicate God’s truth.  We are weak human beings and the truth can test the weakness in our knees.  Prophets may make us angry and uncomfortable but out of this discomfort can come a greater understanding of God, of others and of ourselves.

+Liam S. MacDaid

29 January 2012

The Irish News, Thursday 12 January 2012

Priests and people of the diocese of Clogher could be forgiven for being shocked and dismayed to read the above headline on the front page of the Irish News of 12 January 2012, and to learn, on reading the feature article, that it was referring to their own diocese.  You are entitled to an explanation as to how this could happen.

At 10.23am on 4 January 2012 an urgent media inquiry was received by the diocesan office from the Irish News reporter who was later credited as the writer of the feature.  The query, naming one of the priests in question, sought information on diocesan priests convicted of abusing children since 1975.  It sought information on the status of these priests and, more specifically, if they had received and were continuing to receive financial assistance from the diocese and what was the source of this assistance.  A response before 2.30pm was requested.

An initial response was drafted confirming that since 1975 two of the priests working in the diocese had been charged with abusing children.  The response stated that they were convicted (one of assisting), served a jail sentence, were out of ministry since and that neither was “in receipt of financial assistance from the diocese.”

Following a phone call from another Northern Diocese, which had received a similar query, it was decided to take legal advice, as they had done, before responding to the Irish News.  Our solicitor advised that Data Protection Legislation would not allow even negative information to be given on personal arrangements with the two priests concerned without their express permission.  He advised that this should be stated, that the responsibility of the diocese under canon law should be mentioned, and he drafted a response accordingly which was sent in to the Irish News to try and meet the 2.30pm deadline.

As you may have seen, the Irish News drew its own conclusion from the response.  Clogher,Armagh, Down and Connor “still financially support the men despite their convictions”, they said.  In the special investigation feature the reporter states, “Three northern dioceses have confirmed that they are paying for the upkeep of six priests convicted of a range of offences” and “payments in Down and Connor, Clogher and Cardinal Brady’s Armagh Archdiocese have continued to be made even after priests found guilty of crimes have been laicised.”

It further states, “Meanwhile in Clogher ………the diocese is paying for the upkeep of two former priests, Jeremiah McGrath and John McCabe.”   The feature said, “many priests are deeply concerned that monies from nonparishChurchfunds are being used and that it would be reasonable to think a bishop would take into account the moral and criminal gravity of the offence against children when making a decision.”

Victims of clerical abuse were also consulted and John Kelly, of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, said “he was astonished that northern dioceses are still providing financial assistance to convicted priests, including those who have been laicised.

Mr. Kelly said the revelation would do nothing to reverse declining Mass attendance at Catholic Churches around Ireland.”

In view of the misinterpretation of our response, and the seriousness of the consequences in relation to the public, we contacted our solicitor who wrote to the Irish News on our behalf.  He pointed out how the misinterpretation had created an “inaccurate and untrue report” which “had caused upset to the two people concerned, to the priests of the diocese, the lay faithful and, most grievously, to the victims of abuse.  At no time, in any written or verbal statement, did the diocese confirm that the priests concerned were in receipt of any payment.  The diocese indicated that, for legal reasons, it was not in a position to discuss the private arrangements of individuals.  This remains the case…  It was a decision by the reporter to falsely report that ‘the diocese is paying for the upkeep of two former priests.’  This statement is entirely untrue.”

Our solicitor confirmed to the Irish News that the “article contains serious and damaging inaccuracies” and he requested a “retraction and correction.”

In view of the lack of a positive response, I felt obliged to inform you of the facts and to explain the background as to how such a misleading and untrue headline could get so much prominence on a daily newspaper and how so many people could be disturbed by inaccuracies and misrepresentations in a feature covering three pages of the same newspaper and titled a special investigation.

I would like to assure you that no diocesan money has been used for the purpose reported.  Since leaving priestly ministry the two priests in question have not been paid by the diocese nor are they receiving money from the diocese at present.  Items of news which are matters of interpretation and presented as fact in a “special investigation” can and have seriously misled and caused grave hurt to many people, not least the victims of abuse.  Since the Irish News have so far refused the request to correct these misinterpretations and untruths, I thought it best to offer you the facts and let you judge for yourselves, and to ask you to inform your parishioners, who may have accepted the wrong conclusion in relation to the use of their contributions to their parish and diocese.

+Liam S. MacDaid

24 January 2012

22 January 2012

Homily

A young Russian in previous times, through reading Tolstoy and the New Testament, had become a conscientious objector to war.  He was brought before a magistrate.  With great conviction, he told the judge that he believed in a life which loves its enemies, which does good to those who despitefully use it, which battles evil and which refuses war.

The judge told the young man he understood what he was saying but asked him to be realistic.  “What you are talking about is the kingdom of God and it has not come yet,” he said.  The young man replied, “Sir, it may not have come for Russia and for the world but it has come for me and I cannot go on hating and killing as if it had not come.”

In a sense, the young Russian summed up what we believe about the Kingdom of God.  In creating, God’s loving purpose was to establish his kingdom by sharing the gift of life with his creation.  When Jesus said the Kingdom of God was close at hand he was telling us that God had already initiated his Kingdom when he shared his life with us through Him.  His Kingdom now looks and longs towards its completion.

The created world is part of God’s plan and plays its part in leading us towards Him and his Kingdom.  As winter shakes off its slumber, and we get glimpses of the rebirth of spring, we are reminded that the world entrusted to us can be wonderful, inscrutable and magical. The remarkable migratory birds will soon be on the wing and new shoots will re-emerge from branches and stems.

In the cautionary second reading, St. Paul advises the people of Corinth not to become engrossed in this marvellous world of ours.  It is ours only for a while, and for our use.  It is a responsibility.  We are meant to treat it with respect, so that we can pass on to the next generation an inheritance which has been enhanced rather than damaged.  We are meant to live life to the full, without forgetting that this is not a permanent residence.  We are passing through.  It is a temporary home.

The call of Simon, Andrew, James and John (sons of Zebedee) reminds us that we are called to make life better.  We all have a gift to offer, a mission to be accepted and completed.  We are asked to have a sense of God, calling us to do something worthwhile with our time and energy regardless of difficulty, danger or measure of financial reward.

A recruiter from a Teach America Programme came to a university one recent year.  This organisation recruits the country’s best college and university students to go to work in the most impossible teaching situations.  This recruiter knew his audience and took on the challenge.  He began by saying “I don’t really know why I am here tonight.  I can tell just by looking at you, that you are probably not interested in what I have to say.  This is one of the best universities in America.  You are all successful.  That is why you are here, to become an even greater success on Wall Street or in law School or wherever.”

He went on, “Here I stand, trying to recruit some people for the most difficult job you could have in your life.  I am looking for people who will go into a burnt-out classroom in Watts and teach biology.  I’m looking for someone to go into a little one-room schoolhouse in West Virginia and teach kids from six to thirteen years old how to read.  And I can tell, just by looking at you, that none of you wants to throw away your life on anything like that.  On the other hand, if by chance there is somebody here who may be interested, I’ve got some brochures and I will leave them around and will be glad to speak to anyone who might consider taking up the challenge.”  He had an exceptional response.

A friend of Abraham Lincoln’s, trying to console and support the President as he faced many difficult problems said, “I hope the Lord is on our side.”  Lincoln replied kindly, “I’m not concerned about that, the Lord is always on the side of right.  What I am concerned about is that we should be on the Lord’s side.”  If we are  on the Lord’s side, as we face the daily challenge of paying our mortgage and our bills, feeding and educating our children, we will also respond to God’s voice coming through the mouths of the poor, the sick, the broken, the needy and through the wounds which our planet shows due to our misuse.  If we are on the Lord’s side, we will use his many gifts for the establishment and completion of his Kingdom on earth.

Many of us, unfortunately, are like Jonah about whom the First Reading speaks.  We may be heading westwards while the Lord is calling us eastwards.  But the Lord can bring good out of evil, and his plans can still be accomplished through the repentance of his people.  To repent is to change and to move our perspective to God’s perceptive.  It is to turn away from selfishness, laziness, stubbornness, possessiveness and greed.  That will free us to use our gifts to make God’s kingdom come.  “The time has come” Jesus himself said, “and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent and believe the Good News.”  The invitation to follow in the footsteps of Simon, Andrew, James and John (sons of Zebedee) is still there.

+Liam S. MacDaid

22 January 2012

6 January 2012

Homily

My dear sisters,

On Christmas Eve each year, a Service of Nine Lessons and Carols is held in King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, England.  This Service was first celebrated in 1918, just after the Great War ended.  The Dean of the College, a man called Eric Milner-White, had been an army chaplain during the terrible slaughter in the trenches.  He came home with a firm conviction that Church worship should bring home to people the message of Christ.

The service he arranged, in reading and song, tells the story of the human race’s journey from the loss of paradise, and the promise of a saviour, to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.  The story of our creation, our wanderings and our rescue is vividly told in the alternating carols and lessons.  The service begins with the single voice of a boy chorister singing, “Once in Royal David’s City.”  It ends with the massed voices of choir and congregation joining the angels to celebrate “the newborn king.”

On the east wall of the chapel, behind the altar, there hangs a well-known painting by Peter Paul Rubens.  It is titled, “The Adoration of the Magi.” These travellers from the east have journeyed far to look for “the infant king of the Jews.”  The Christmas story, as told by Matthew, gives us this great feast that we celebrate today – the Epiphany, that is, the revealing of Christ to the peoples of the whole world.

In Matthew’s story, we meet the powerful political figure of King Herod.  He displays all the force and fallibility of any human leader.  Once in power, his main objective seems to be to remain in power.  Power, that could be used to help mankind, can easily become corrupted into a force for destroying mankind. Herod’s wrongdoing has made him so self-obsessed that he even fears the birth of a child as a threat to his throne.

In Jerusalem, Herod’s advisors, the religious and political elite, gather together to discuss the political situation.  They are experts at managing things, without rocking the boat.  They seem to know what they are talking about.  They know where the Messiah will be born.  They don’t seem to be very interested in when, as long as it does not upset their routines of control.  These people enjoy their position of privilege, but are not as interested in the wider world.

The travellers are different.  They are seekers after wisdom.  They are looking for the meaning of things.  They do not settle down in the comfort of the here and now.  Their life is a journey, and they seek answers to life’s great questions.  When they find him, they fall on their knees in homage to a child.  All their searching and all their studying have brought them to this place, and to this newborn king.

Today’s feast invites us to join the magi and to become wise travellers through this world.  It is a great temptation in our lives to become like Herod, little demagogues in our own world, ruling our lives according to our desires.  We can also be tempted to pose as political and religious experts, like Herod’s advisors, putting the world to rights according to our own theories of who’s right and who’s wrong.

Alternatively, we can go on the journey, like the wise men of old and look for the child and, when we find him, go on our knees.  When we accept this challenge then, for as long as we are on this earth, we are on the journey.  St. Peter himself was never finished with learning.  There is always so much more to discover.  “The truth I have now comes to realise,” Peter admitted on one famous occasion, “is that God does not have favourites, but that anyone of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

Another great traveller, Blessed John Henry Newman, the English convert and later Cardinal, in an Anglican sermon for the Feast of the Epiphany in 1839 said, “When people understand what each other mean, they see, for the most part, that controversy is either superfluous or hopeless.”  Newman believed in the unity of mankind and in the unity of Christians.  This is the challenge of today’s feast, that we go out and embrace the world, gracing it in sharing God’s love.

+Liam S. MacDaid

6 January 2012

1 January 2012 

Introduction

My dear friends,

I welcome you all to St. Macartan’s Cathedral this evening as we gather to celebrate the Vigil Mass for 1 January 2012, the first day of the New Year.  Fittingly, we begin the year with a celebration of birth and Motherhood, because 1 January is the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.  New life rarely fails to draw from us feelings of wonder, of affection and an urge to protect.  In practice, that normally expresses itself in a smile.  What better way is there to meet and greet the New Year than with a smile.  A smile will not prevent us from asking God for forgiveness for our mistakes.

The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

1 January 2012 

Homily

My dear friends,

With much hope the Church begins this new year with a celebration of Mary, Mother of Jesus, a model of faithfulness and strength for all believers.  Mary’s life, like the lives of all mothers, was inextricably bound up with the life of her child.  She is featured, especially in the Gospels of Luke and John, at each of the significant moments of the life of Jesus from his conception and birth to his ministry, to his passion and death on the cross and burial.  Mary is also featured in the Acts of the Apostles as being present and supportive in the post Resurrection community of believers.

Wherever she is mentioned in Scripture, Mary is represented as an exemplary mother and disciple, someone who hears the word of God and keeps it.  The process of hearing God’s word and translating it into actions requires a life-long effort.  In today’s Gospel Luke tells us that “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” Scripture scholars tell us that the Greek verb used “symballein” means literally “to toss things together in our heart.”

At this time, the turn of the year, a certain spirit of reflection and thoughtfulness can come over all of us.  Another year has come and maybe a certain stock-taking is in order.  We find ourselves checking where we are and where we are going and asking what changes need to be made to ensure that we are making the best use of our time and faithfully discharging our responsibilities.  We are turning over a new page, beginning another chapter and others are talking about new year’s resolutions.  That can bring a groan from somewhere deep down as we think of past resolutions that were painfully short-lived.

But then, in our better moments, we acknowledge that being human, with all the inbuilt weakness that goes along with it, means accepting the need to struggle and we can see that it is those who accept the struggle who ultimately achieve the satisfaction and joy that life can and does bring.  We all have to work hard at the commitments and relationships that are part of our lives and without the struggle over the years there will be empty bins rather than a rich harvest.

A man relates how when he was a little boy, he was forever coming home late from school.  He was late for dinner every day.  His parents finally got fed up and said, “Look, next time you come late for dinner, you will get bread and water.  That’s it!  Sure enough, the next day the boy came home late from school.  He walked into the house and there were his mother and father with plates of meat, potatoes and vegetables in front of them.  In front of his place were a plate of bread and a glass of water.

The boy was crushed.  His father waited for the full weight of the lesson to sink in, then silently took his own rather full plate and put it in front of the son.  He took his son’s rather empty plate and put it in front of himself.  And this man – or rather the boy who has since grown to be a man – now says “All my life I have known what God is like by what my father did that night.”

Oscar Romero, in one of his homilies before he was martyred said, “The truest homage that a Christian can make to Mary is, like her, to make the effort to incarnate God’s life in the fluctuations of our fleeting history.” The story you have just listened to says the same thing but maybe expresses it more graphically and more simply.

Birth is a miracle from God.  Every mother of a newborn can look down with awe at the new life she cradles in her arms.  She might ask her child, “Where did you come from, little one?”  She might speak the words of the poet, Maureen Hawkins, “Before you were conceived, I wanted you.  Before you were born, I loved you.  Before you were here an hour, I would give my life for you.”   That’s what Mary did.  She gave birth and gave her life to caring for her son and all who were part of his life.

That’s why on this the first day of a new year we celebrate the Motherhood of Mary.  She is put forward as a model for us.  What she gave is what God is asking all of us, who profess to be his followers, to give – to give our lives in loving service of one another.  Not a bad blueprint for the year ahead.  Even if we have done wrong, failed in many ways and messed up our lives, we can still share a full plate with someone who has an empty one.  We can show somebody what God is like without letting them know what we are doing.  People learn about God from others who act in a Godlike way.  It is my wish and prayer for all of you as we begin 2012 that God will give you, as he gave to Mary, the grace to live like this during the year ahead and to experience the joy of knowing that it is indeed more joyful more blessed and more fulfilling to give rather than to receive.

+Liam S. MacDaid

1 January 2012

25 December 2011

Introduction

A Phobal Dé,

Cuirim fáilte caoin romhaibh go leír.

Bishop Duffy, priests of the parish, parishioners and visitors you are all most welcome.  I welcome warmly all of those who have returned home for Christmas; you are in a position to bring much joy to your parents, grandparents and other family members.  I offer a special welcome also to those who attend Church infrequently.  You are at least as much beloved by God as anyone else, and if you listen to his voice he will guide you through.  We are all gathered to celebrate the Mass of Christmas, that magical feast which is centred, like the message of Christ, on giving unselfishly.  To dispose ourselves to participate more worthily in this challenge let us silently acknowledge our mistakes and pause a moment to ask the Lord’s forgiveness.

We begin our Mass this evening by blessing the crib.

Christmas Mass

25 December 2011

Homily

Bishop Duffy, fellow priests and friends,

Christmas is a time which is steeped in memory both good and bad.  It recalls people, places and events for each and every one of us in a very personal way.  Seamus Heaney wrote in a poem in memory of his mother called “Clearances.”  In it, he remembers the parish priest anointing his mother as she died. Around her bedside were members of her family, some answering the prayers and some crying. A scene from his childhood flashed into his mind.

It was Sunday morning and the rest of the family were at second Mass.  His mother was peeling the potatoes at the kitchen sink and he was helping her, standing between her and the sink.  As they peeled the potatoes the skins fell one by one, as he says, “like solder weeping off the soldering iron” and splashed into a bucket of clear water.  There was between mother and child a togetherness, an understanding, a sympathy, a communion, a closeness that they were never to recapture.

“I remember her head bent towards my head,

Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives

Never closer the whole rest of our lives.”

Christmas is about remembering not just the people and the places of its celebration but remembering too how it all started and what it’s all about.

When they grow and mature oaks are majestic trees but each starts its life journey as a humble acorn.  It was in a very modest place that a young Jewish woman called Mary could find no room in an inn.  She was pregnant with a baby, not her husband’s, and they were on the road to register as part of a census ordered by Caesar Augustus.  We are told she gave birth in a stable wrapped the baby in swaddling clothes before laying him in a manger.

It was pretty modest, some would say even shabby, especially marking an event which was to rock the world for centuries.  We call it now the Incarnation.  We believe, as the Gospels tell us, that the Word was made flesh.  God became man, was born in the flesh and lived among us.  Into a world of war and division he was to bring a message of reconciliation and harmony; into lives diseased by selfishness and sin he was to bring forgiveness and healing.  Fear and distrust he would offer to replace with faith, hope and love.  God entered into human history in a new way in the person of a baby on a bed of straw.  Human history could change and change utterly.

That’s why Christmas is not just a time for memories but above all a time for celebration.  Unfortunately, human weakness, mistakes resulting in deep hurt and disharmony can damage and interfere with our celebrations.  In her book “Are you somebody?” the relatively recently deceased Nuala O Faolaín describes how one Christmas Day she set off on her own walking in the Burren in County Clare, met nobody and had a meal on her own that evening.  Paul Durcan in a poem about Christmas describes how on St. Stephen’s Day he spent the day watching a phone that never rang.  A lot of pain is evident in the telling of both experiences.

Christmas can open wounds and stir memories we want to forget.  It can bring demons to the surface that we would find it more comfortable to keep buried.  On St. Stephen’s Day a separated father will take his young children to McDonald’s and watch the clock until it’s time to take them back to their mother.  The children will cry when they all have to go and something deep inside will tear their father apart but he knows he has to part and go.

For many families, Christmas will be a happy time of homecoming and togetherness.  For children it can be a magic time of expectation, of change in the ordinary turn of the week, a time of generosity, presents, games and going to bed late.  For some it will be a sad time of remembrance and loneliness, trying to cope without the love and support of those who have been taken.  There is a reflection that reads:

Sometimes people expect something extraordinary,

or even miraculous to happen at Christmas.

But when Christ came to earth,

he came clothed, not in the extraordinary

but in the ordinary.

He came dressed in the cloak

of our weak, fragile, mortal humanity.

Like the acorn that falls to earth, silently and unheralded,

in a remote corner of the forest,

and which grows into a great oak tree,

so from these lowly origins Jesus grew up

to show us the great potential of our humanity.

Whatever our memories and wherever we find ourselves on our life’s journey this Christmas, the fragile baby in the crib reminds us that we are offered the gift of a child who has come to offer us the fullness of life.  He has come to save us from failure and to guide us home.  He will tell us how to live and show us what we can be if we follow his way. He will assure us that even death need not separate us from one another and in itself does not mark the final curtain.

In his name, I wish you peace.  In his word, I offer you guidance and direction that belong not to me but to him.  In the Eucharist you are offered the grace of forgiveness, healing and the capacity to live and love unselfishly.  In a word, in the birth of Christ God offers us life, eternal life.  We thank God, we praise him and we ask ourselves – am I disposed or ready to accept this stupendous gift?  Have I still some work to do?  God direct us all.

+Liam S. MacDaid

 25 December 2012

18 December 2011

Homily

My dear friends,

The Gospel reading today relates the familiar story of Mary’s response to the angel, her yes to God’s invitation.  Maybe we should pause for a while to examine this response and reflect on it.  Our response to challenges of all kinds plays a major part in shaping our lives.

Picture a southern town inAmerica.  A father lived there with his young son and daughter.  His wife had died.  He was strict with the children but good to them and they loved him.  He was a man of integrity, and an excellent lawyer.  However, he made himself unpopular in the town by choosing to defend a black man who was accused of murder – the town was rife with discrimination against black people.

At the end of the street lived an elderly woman, who spent her afternoons sitting in her front garden.  She gave out to the lawyer’s two children as they passed on their way to and from school.  The children were very hurt by what she said about their father.  One evening the boy decided he had heard more than enough.  He jumped over her garden wall and wrecked her flower-bed.  He then ran home and told his father.

He chastised the boy and said  “Son, you should not have done that.”  “I did it for you,” the son protested.  “She’s a very sick woman.  Now go down and apologise to her.”  Reluctantly, the son did so.  The woman accepted the apology and asked the young boy to read for her.  She asked him if he would do this for her every evening.  The boy was horrified at the thought but, when he told his father, he insisted that he must say yes to the old lady and he agreed to do so.  Each evening, accompanied by his sister, the boy read for the old lady whose eyesight was failing. After about an hour, she used to get a violent fit of trembling.  As the weeks went by, the fits became less frequent.

One evening their father told the children that the old lady had just died.  The children looked at one another, thought to themselves “thank God,” but did not say it.  The father explained to them that several years previously a doctor had prescribed painkilling drugs for her and she had become addicted to them.  When she was told she hadn’t long to live, she decided to try to kick the habit.  The fits they saw her getting were withdrawal symptoms. He told them that, before she died, she told him that the reading was a great support to her and asked him to thank the children.

The children were both moved and astonished by all this.  “If we had known what she was going through, we would have been nicer to her,” they said.  Their father told them that he was just happy they had done what they were asked and said they need not have any regrets.  It was an important life-lesson for them.  They did not realise the significance of what they were asked to do but they did it probably out of love, respect and obedience to their father.  Often in life, we cannot see the full significance of what we are asked to do.  In these instances it can be difficult to persevere, especially if the task is disagreeable or if those for whom we do it are ungrateful.

In today’s Gospel reading, we heard how Mary consented to become the mother of the Saviour.  When she said yes, she did not realise the full implications of what she was agreeing to.  She had no idea of the circumstances of his birth, that she would become a refugee in a foreign country soon afterwards; and that she would have to cope with seeing him rejected by the people he came to serve, and then stand by as he endured a painful death.  It was not a once off yes; it was one that had to be confirmed regularly throughout her life.

Each one of us say yes when we take on commitments and responsibilities of one kind or another.  When we said our original yes, we may have been taking a leap in the dark in the sense that we did not know the full implications of what we were undertaking.  This may only be revealed to us gradually as we go along.  In the face of the unexpected, and coping with human weakness, we may have to confirm our original yes many times and rely on the help of God to see us through.

Mary asked questions.  The children asked questions.  We may not understand everything but faith is not altogether blind.  It is beyond reason but not contrary to it.  We may not always get answers that fully satisfy us.  But God is God and we are mortals.  In the end we may, like Mary, have to bow to the mystery and allow God to take us home.

+Liam S. MacDaid

18 December 2011

JOINT CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM THE

BISHOPS OF CLOGHER 2011

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night.  And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said “Don’t be afraid.  I bring you good news.” Luke 2,8-10

Those words are probably very familiar to you. Perhaps some of them are even more familiar than you may think.

If someone asked you what were the most frequently repeated words in the whole Bible, what would your answer be?  Perhaps you would say “Repent and believe” or “Thou shalt not..”  or even “ God is love”.   In fact the most often repeated words are in that short passage from St. Luke’s Gospel.

They were used by God to encourage the Patriarch Abraham when he set out on his mammoth trek from what is now Iraqto Palestine.  They were used again to reassure the prophets when God had asked them to bring a very unpopular message to his people.  They were used by Jesus himself again and again, and were often on the lips of his apostles.  And the angels used them. “Don’t be afraid”

Life can be full of fear.  From the moment we emerge from the warm womb into a cold world we are fearful.  As children we are afraid of not fitting in with our peers.  As young people we are afraid of not having friends.  As adolescents we worry whether that special girl or boy likes us as much as we like them.  As adults we worry about getting a job, and when we get it we worry about keeping it.

Hard and all as it is to believe, in Ireland at Christmas 2011 people are now afraid that they may not have a roof over their heads this time next year, nor be able to put a meal on the table for their children this time next week.  The turnaround in many people’s lives has been so enormous that it has completely overwhelmed them, and the authorities are struggling to cope with the consequences.

We are afraid for our children, for our security and for our country.  If you ask any psychologist he will tell you that the mother and father of all of these fears is the fear of death, made more intense by the fear of having lived a life that hasn’t amounted to anything.

And in each of these situations God says “Don’t be afraid”.  He has taken care of the greatest of our fears once and for all.  And although he cannot solve the problems ofIreland, North or South, overnight, he still offers an alternative to fear. And that alternative is faith; particularly faith expressing itself through love and simplicity of life.

I think we now recognise that we can’t have everything, and that so many of our acquisitions brought more fears but not more happiness.  They may even have diminished our relationships with one another and with God.

Let us live by faith and not by fear; faith as a response to the good news which the angel promised.  In his birth and in his life Jesus taught us that happiness flows from caring for and loving one another.  Don’t be afraid.

+Liam S. MacDaid                                                                                                                                      +John McDowell

A Christmas Prayer

Give us, Lord Jesus, the eyes of children. To see your birth with Christmas wonder. Help us to share in the songs of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and the worship of the wise men.Close the door on hate, and open the door of love, all over the world. Let kindness come with every gift,  and blessing with every greeting. Deliver us from evil, by the blessing Christ brings and teach us to be merry with clean hearts. May Christmas morning make us happy to be your children and Christmas evening bring us to rest with grateful thought, forgiving and forgiven. Amen

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

11 December 2011

Homily 

My dear friends,

John the Baptist said to the people, “there stands among you  – unknown to you – the one who is coming after me, and I am not fit to undo his sandal-straps.”  At the beginning of his Gospel, John the Evangelist writes of the same person, “He was in the world that had its being through him and the world did not know him.”  It is not a nice experience not to be recognised, not to be acknowledged.

A father came home one evening to find his little daughter crying bitterly.  He asked her what was wrong.  She said she had been playing hide and seek with her friends.  But when it was her turn to hide she hid so well that they had given up looking for her and had gone off to play another game.  She had been waiting and waiting for them to find her but they had failed to do so.  When she finally came out of her hiding place she found herself all alone.  Not finding it a comfortable place to be, this brought on the tears.

Of course we don’t have to hide to have the experience of not being recognised.  On a cold January morning in 2007, a man emerged from a Washington Metro Station and positioned himself against a wall.  He was a youngish white man, in jeans with a long-sleeved T-shirt, and wearing a baseball cap.  From a small case he removed a violin.  He placed the open case at his feet and threw a few dollars along with pocket change into the case. Then he turned around to face pedestrian traffic and began to play.  For about 45 minutes he played six pieces of classical music on the violin.

During this time over 1,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.  After about 3 minutes, a middle aged man noticed that there was a musician playing.  He stopped for a few seconds and then hurried on to meet his schedule.  About 4 minutes later, the violinist received his first dollar.  A woman threw it into the case and, without stopping, continued to walk.  After another six minutes a young man leaned against the wall to listen, looked at his watch and started to walk again.  Ten minutes later, a 3-year-old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along.  And so it went on.  In all, six people stopped and listened for a short while.  About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.  He finished playing and there was silence.  No one noticed and no one applauded.  Not one person recognised the musician or the quality of the music that he played on that January morning in 2007.

The violinist was Joshua Bell, considered to be one of the greatest classical musicians in the world; and the violin was worth $3.5 million dollars.  Two days before this, Joshua Bell had performed at a sell-out concert in Boston, where the price of the seats averaged at $100 dollars each.  Bell, a New Yorker, was in Washington to perform at the Library of Congress and to examine an 18^th century violin that once belonged to Fritz Kreisler, an Austrian born musician and composer.  The violin was handcrafted by Antonio Stradivari in 1713 and was bought by the Library of Congress for $3.5 million.

The busking episode at the Metro station was the idea of the Washington Post.  It was an experiment to check if, at an inconvenient time and place, the famous musician and the beautiful music he played would be noticed and appreciated.  The Washington Post then published an article telling the public what happened and finished with the reflection – if people do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made – how many things do we miss as we rush through life?  “There stands among you – unknown to you – the one who is coming after me.”  “He was in the world that had its being through him and the world did not know him.”

There is a children’s story which describes how a crow flew into the sky with a piece of meat in its beak.  Twenty other crows set out in hot pursuit and began to attack it viciously.  When the crow eventually dropped the meat, the pursuers left it alone and flew off shrieking after the morsel.  At this point the crow said “I have lost the meat but gained a peaceful sky.”  Our busy hurried acquisitive lifestyle may be the biggest obstacle to our capacity to recognise, acknowledge, reflect, understand and appreciate.

Christmas recalls and celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.  God became man.  In human flesh, God was more visible to the human race than ever before.  He lived among us and in the manner of his living he brought us God’s grace and showed us how to live.  He taught us in word and deed.  In Jesus Christ, we see a God who is a loving compassionate and forgiving father.  His concern is to heal and to save and he is especially close to the weak, the poor and the overburdened.  He is available to all who open to him their eyes, their ears, their minds and their hearts.  If we fail to experience the richness of the mystery of the birth of Jesus Christ, it may be because our eyes, our ears, our minds and our hearts are elsewhere. “To all who did accept him, he gave power to become children of God.”  “No one has ever seen God, it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.”  “From his fullness we have all of us received.”

4 December 2011

Homily

One of the most basic of our human needs is to find an explanation for things and a sense of purpose and direction in our lives.  The search for an answer usually involves a long journey and often many wrong turns.  A little fish in the ocean said to an older fish “Excuse me, you are much older than I, so can you tell me where to find what they call the ocean?”  “The ocean is where you are now,” said the older one. “But this is water.  What I am looking for is the ocean,” said the disappointed little fish, as he swam away to look elsewhere.  For various reasons we may not accept the answer even if it is all around us.

A neighbour called one day and found his friend in the kitchen on his hands and knees.  “What are you searching for?” he asked.  “My key”, he said.  Both men got on their knees and searched.  After a while, the neighbour asked, “Where did you lose it?”   “In the car park at the shopping centre”, he replied.  “Good Lord”, said the neighbour, “why are you searching here? “Because it’s brighter here,” he replied.

The search for an answer goes on but often in the wrong places and we can be drawn and dazzled by bright lights.

The wilderness sets the scene of today’s Gospel.  It’s an unusual place to go looking for answers to anything but it played an important role in the history of the Jewish people.  It was after years in the wilderness that they entered the country in which they were to live.  It was in a sense the birthplace of the people of God

The wilderness – mountains and hills that stretch into the far distance, deserts with uncultivated vegetation, vast areas and wild places inhabited only by wildlife, if inhabited at all – these are not always places of beauty and peace set aside from the stresses of everyday life.  We may be deterred from going there through fear of the unknown or we may be drawn by its mystery and want to enter and attempt to discover its secrets.  For the people of Israel it was a place of temptation, trial and tribulation, where they murmured and rebelled against God until they found their way under God’s direction through their leaders and finally entered their homeland.  Now a new prophet had appeared in the desert wilderness and, speaking with an air of authority and authenticity, he was drawing the crowds and telling them that he was preparing the way for someone more important and powerful than himself.

You could say we have in our own time made a version of wilderness for ourselves.  Living on borrowed money, on borrowed time, following bad example and bad advice we have landed ourselves in a difficult situation.  As a country, borrowing something in the region of €58million each day to keep the lights on, we hardly need the experts to tell us we have no option but to face reality and do what has to be done by way of correction.  With people facing the demands of Christmas while uncertain and worried about the future of their job, their home, their health needs and so many other concerns it is not easy.  It is not surprising that there is an air of murmuring and protest about.

The book of Wisdom says, “While peaceful silence lay over all, and the night had run half of her swift course, down from the heavens leapt (God’s) all powerful Word.”  The same Word speaks to us again today through John the Baptist.  He does not have a big salary nor a sizeable pension nor many possessions.  He lives frugally on what the earth provides.  In his words and by his example, he suggests we may need to disengage from the path of living we have got used to, take a while to think things over, straighten things out and get used to a simpler way of life where the more important things get priority.

Another prophet Micah put it very simply when he told us “This is what God asks of you : That you act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with your God.”  When John the Baptist urges people to repent, to change their ways and ask forgiveness of their sins he is doing so in the name of a God who is described by Isaiah in our First Reading in these terms:

“He is like a shepherd feeding his flock,

gathering lambs in his arms

holding them against his breast

and leading to their rest the mother ewes.”

Let us ask the Lord to take the blindness from our eyes, the weakness from our wills, and the hardness from our hearts so that the world may be flooded by the grace of his coming.