It is a great joy and a privilege to be here today.  It is lovely to be here on Mary’s Feast, for she is the Mother and Queen of all saints as we dedicate this lovely chapel to all the saints of Ireland, for the glory of God and the service of God’s people.  As I do so, my mind goes back to the origins of the Irish College and I think of the important part which the chapel has played in the lives of the students for almost four hundred (400) years.  I am delighted to think that of the nine figures, represented in the apse, three actually were students of the college, St Oliver Plunkett, Blessed Columba Marmion and Father Ragheed Ganni.  

It was once said of Dante’s Paradiso that it sings of the eternal happiness of man in vision, love and enjoyment united to his Creator.  I dare to say that, in this chapel, we find something of that same eternal happiness in the beatific vision, love and enjoyment of the saints, united to his Creator.  I congratulate most heartily all involved in producing the final outcome.  

I warmly congratulate the Rector, Mons Liam Bergin, who has planned and carried out this project of renovating the College chapel from the very beginning.  I also congratulate the other members of staff, Fr Albert, Fr Billy and Fr Chris who have ably assisted and abetted their leader in this glorious enterprise.  I want you to join with me in offering this Mass for Fr Albert’s parents, aunt and uncle who have died in the last six months, as we once again offer him our deepest sympathy on his great loss.

I rejoice with Fr Marko Ivan Rupnik on the excellence of his mosaics.  I also congratulate the artists of the Centro Aletti Rome and of Vetrate Giuliani on their outstanding contribution to the beauty and grandeur of this chapel.  I am just a little envious of you, the present staff and students, who have such a wondrously beautiful place in which to encounter the living God, the source and origin of all that is good and true and beautiful for meditation, contemplation and inspiration.

To help us consider the part played by the college chapel in the lives of various students I am going to call on four witnesses.  

Witness 1:
What part did the college chapel play in the life of Oliver Plunkett?  My mind goes back to 1669 – Oliver Plunkett has been appointed Archbishop of Armagh.   As he paid his last visit to Santo Spirito Hospital where he used to tend the sick and the dying, a saintly Polish priest, Jerome Mieskow, bade him farewell with these prophetic words,

“My Lord, you are now going to shed your blood for the Catholic faith.”  Oliver replied, “I am unworthy of such a favour but help me with your prayers that this desire of mine may be fulfilled.”

Surely his prayer-life as a seminarian, his uniting his suffering to Christ, played a role in the formulation of that desire in the Heart of our Martyr Primate to shed his blood for the Catholic faith?  St Oliver’s strong faith and his sacrificing of his life rather than give up his faith are values of perennial worth.  He did not run away or abandon his flock.  

The college chapel has been in many different places, Via degli Artisti, Via degli Ibernesi, Sant Agatha dei Gothi, Via Santi Quattro and in different shapes and sizes.  It was at Sant Agatha where Columba Marmion came in 1877 from Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, who is my second witness.

Witness 2:
No matter where, there was always an altar representing Christ the fixed point of time and space.  Blessed Columba Marmion took that lesson to heart, exalting the person of Christ and making Him the centre of the whole spiritual life.  Hence we have his writings,

Christ, The Life Of The Soul
Christ In His Mysteries
Christ The Ideal Of The Monk
Come to Christ All You Who Labour, and
Christ The Ideal Of The Priest

Witness 3:
My next witness does not have a name.  He represents the various generations of seminarians and priests who have prayed in this very Chapel.  Here they discerned what God was calling them to do.  Here they prepared to be shepherds, good shepherds, after the model of Christ, the Good Shepherd.  They first came here in 1926 when  the fledging Irish nation was just emerging from a War of Independence and a bloody civil war and was about to face an economic war.  There was a lot of hardship in prospect and plenty of reasons to despair and yet they did not despair.  They did not despair because they were sustained by the memory of their glorious history going all the way back to Luke Wadding and Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, to Oliver Plunkett and John Brennan and they never lost hope.  The prayer life in this chapel surely contributed to that hope.

I have just come from Ireland.  It is an Ireland, as you know, where it will be especially difficult this year to see Christmas as a time of peace and joy.  Families are under pressure.  People have lost jobs, some have even lost houses.  The banks are being implored to show to others something of the compassion already shown to them.  We face years of hardship.

In that context, in a way, it is a welcome relief to be here to dedicate a Chapel to All the Saints of Ireland, with Christ the Good Shepherd as its wonderful centrepiece.  What a marvellous mosaic of the Good Shepherd.

Good Shepherds, that is exactly what we need in Ireland at this time, good shepherds, political and economic good shepherds and spiritual good shepherds. People with the ability to find and seek out “lost sheep”, hoist them on to their shoulders and carry them to safety.  Shepherds, with the vision to see a way forward and a sense of the common good.  But more importantly we need spiritual Good Shepherds, the kind of people who can say, with conviction, that despite the lack of even a glimmer of positive expectation, their hope remains strong.  Yes, that hope definitely remains strong because ultimately it is a hope that comes, not from ourselves, but from God, from a God who alone is good, almighty and loving.

That hope includes the expectation for a better future.  The recession won’t last forever – yes, we may face years of hardship but hope is the capacity to see God in the midst of trouble and to be co-workers with the Holy Spirit and others to find a way out of the trouble.  The others I have in mind are those brilliant, creative, dedicated, men and women, with a sense of the common good and the vision to find a way out of the morass.  From this vision can certainly come the strength to be steadfast and the tenacity to hold fast and the will to work to change the reality in which we find ourselves.  Hope above all means not succumbing to the prophets of doom and negativity who, when all is said and done, have nothing to offer.

Hope is the gift by which God provides us with, what we could never achieve on our own.  Precisely because it is a gift, we should ask for it, for everybody, not just for ourselves.

Right now, not only Ireland but the world needs Good Shepherds, the kind of Good Shepherd who can lead his flock into those places where the encounter with the living God takes place and where the salvation promised to all of us truly becomes a reality.  This lovely Chapel is just such a place where those who pray here are invited into the bosom of God, from whom all comes and to whom all returns.

I am told that the key to understanding this marvellously renovated Chapel is the belief that the prayer of the Christian community gathered here on earth is one and the same as that of the Communion of Saints in heaven.  The conviction that when the College community gathered for prayer, it joins with the glorified Lord, and our Lord and all the saints in praising God is fascinating.

Witness 4:
My final witness is Father Ragheed Ganni, who is featured on the extreme right of St Brigid.  He is depicted without a halo but holding the palms of martyrdom.  Born in 1973, Ragheed became an engineering graduate from the University of Mosul in Iraq.  He became a student of the Irish College in 1996, was ordained a priest in 2001 and celebrated his first Mass in this Chapel.

During his seven years as a student he spent many summers in Ireland, working in various places, especially the pilgrimage island of Lough Derg, Co Donegal in the diocese of Clogher.  Father Ragheed went back to his native Mosul.  He was appointed to a parish where he, and his family, received many death threats; his house and Church were often attacked.  Ragheed insisted on staying to make sure his people had the Eucharist and pastoral care.  On 3 June 2007, he, and three Sub-Deacons were murdered.  The relics of St Oliver, wrapped in Father Ragheed’s stole, will be placed in the altar.  They are put there to remind us that the life of grace is received from God, made man in Christ Jesus.

My mind also goes back to 1960 – 50 years ago when I myself first set foot in this chapel, as a student of First Theology.  To tell the truth, I sometimes feel a little bit like Oisin, back from Tir Na Nog – when I think of those far off distant Pre Vatican II days – of soutanes, sopranos and ferraiolas; of tonsured heads and cameratas and yet, yes many things have changed, but only superficially.  The underlying realities remain the same.  They are well captured and expressed in the motifs of this refurbished Chapel.

•    Jesus crucified,
•    John the Baptist beheaded,
•    Oliver Plunkett hung, drawn and quartered,
•    Ragheed Ganni shot dead with three sub deacons.  
•    Mary, the Mother of Jesus, whose soul was pierced with the sword of suffering.
•    St Patrick calumniated and harassed by his enemies.  
•    Columbanus, no stranger to conflict and opposition.  

    What sustained them all through their trials and tribulations?
    What have they in common?  

Their union with Jesus Christ.  

I am glad St Brigid gets such a prominent place, the Mary of the Gael and that her cloak is included at her feet.  It reminds us of her monastery at Kildare.  There she made her foundation where she was able to express her love of God in her hospitality to the stranger and her care for the poor.  That also is a vital part of the work of every Good Shepherd.

It is Mary’s Feast and she is there at the place of honour, at her son’s right hand, looking at Him and looking at us, pointing us towards Him in the time-honoured pose of prayer of intercession.  May she always be venerated in this place and may she always remind all of us to do whatever Jesus tells us.  Then all of us will be Good Shepherds, not only in word but in reality as well. Mary said to the Angel:  “Let what you said be done”.  It is not an easy prayer to make.  Jesus prayed it himself in Gethsemane. It raises issues of trust and surrender for all of us.  

I once heard it said that the most important piece of furniture in any Church is the presence of believers at prayer.  I invite you all then to spend a lot of time here.  Like the saints, fix your gaze on Christ. “In Jesus Christ who allowed his heart to be pierced – the true face of God is seen” as Pope Benedict told the young people in Cologne.  

In Jesus we contemplate beauty and splendour at source….the truth of God’s love in Christ encounters us, attracts us, delight us.  Tonight we give thanks and praise to God for the beauty and splendour to be seen here, leading us to contemplate Beauty itself.          AMEN

This I command – to love one another.  This Gospel and these words were spoken by Jesus.  He spoke them at the Last Supper.  On the night before He died He spoke them to his nearest and dearest.  They are precious.  They are a gift to all of us.  They have inspired me.  He just did not speak to them and leave it at that.  He accompanied with these other gifts.  Jesus gave them examples of what he was talking about.  He commanded them to love one another. He got up from the table, put on an apron and stooped down and washed their feet.  He knew that this was going to be a hard act to follow especially as he was going to lay down life for them, his friends, the next day on the cross on Calvary.

But Jesus is not unreasonable.  Because he knew that his command was going to be tough.  He was not going to ask something and not supply the wherewithal with which to deliver.  So he gave us two more gifts – His Body and Blood to be our food and drink, the priesthood, the sacrament of Holy Order to guarantee His Eucharistic presence.

It is my great privilege and joy to have been with Pope Benedict XVI in Scotland and England last weekend.   When I got back to Armagh yesterday evening, I remembered that this Mass of Thanksgiving, to mark the retirement of Mr Patrick McAleavey, was taking place here this morning.  I was also very pleased to find that Mr McCoy had kindly sent on the text – contained in this lovely booklet.   I was even more pleased when I discovered how carefully chosen, and so very appropriate, the texts which have been selected are for this very special occasion.

Mr McAleavey is retiring after forty (40) years outstanding service to this school – St. Patrick’s High School, Keady.  We are here to thank God for all those years but especially for the thirty (30) years as Principal.

I met someone of Mr McAleavey’s age – who is also retiring from teaching this year.  I wished him well on the new chapter of his life now beginning.  “Ah yes” he said, “Sure it is only a turning of the page in the Book of Life”.

So Mr McAleavey – whether you see it as a turning of the page or the beginning of a new chapter – we are here today to thank God for all that has been and to implore from God, graces and favours for all that will be.

We thank God for all that has been given to you and through you – to what Pope Benedict called ‘the noble task of education’.

It is a noble task because every pupil and every teacher and every parent is, in the words of the First Reading, ‘precious to God’.  God loves each one of us and give us honour.  For that reason we must not be afraid.  God is with all of you.  

In the words of Pope Benedict to young people in St. Mary’s Twickenham last Friday, ‘A good school provides a rounded education for the person and a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints’.  And, dare I suggest that we are celebrating the efforts of Mr McAleavey, over forty years, here in St Patrick’s High School, Keady to make this not only a good school but to make it a good Catholic school – providing a rounded education for the whole person and for every pupil.

I read with great interest the comments on the gifts which Brian Watters, Deputy Head Boy will deliver in a few minutes.  Philip Nugent will carry a candle – a symbol of our Baptism.

Then we give thanks for Mr McAleavey’s parents – Patrick and Kathleen – who handed on their faith to their son.  We will pray for all parents that they will have strong faith to pass on, lasting values, courage to have boundaries for their children and compassionate hearts with which to love their children.

I have to confess that, for me, one of the joys of the Easter vigil in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh is to hear Mr McAleavey sing the famous responsorial psalm:  
Like the Dear that yearns for running streams,
So my soil is yearning for you my God.  

His years of service to the Cathedral Choir are even longer than those dedicated to St. Patrick’s High School as he has been a member of this choir for 50 years!  Those years show his keen appreciation of why we are here on this earth:
•    To give praise and glory to God in word and song,
•    In what we think and what we do

It was a great delight to read that he has untiringly endeavoured to instil in the student this spirit of being involved in your local community – and not just involvement in sporting activities but in every activity.  You see the God who saves us – will save us as members of a community.

Last Friday Pope Benedict inaugurated a Sports Foundation in St Mary’s University College, Twickenham.  Perhaps we have some graduates of St. Mary’s here.  He prays that all who would come there would give glory to God through their sporting activities as well as bringing enjoyment to themselves and others.

Then he addressed the students directly and said:  “It is not often that a Pope or indeed anyone else has the opportunity to speak to the students of all the Catholic schools of England, Wales and Scotland at the same time.  And since I have the chance now, there is something I very much want to say to you.  

I hope that among those of you listening to me today there are some of the future saints of the 21st century.  What God wants most of all for each one of you is that you should become holy.  He loves you much more than you could ever begin to imagine, and he wants the very best for you.  And by far the best thing for you is to grow in holiness.

Perhaps some of you have never thought about this before.  Perhaps some of you think being a saint is not for you.  Let me explain what I mean.  When we are young, we can usually think of people that we look up to, people we admire, people we want to be like.  It could be someone we meet in our daily lives that we hold in great esteem.  Or it could be someone famous.  We live in a celebrity culture, and young people are often encouraged to model themselves on figures from the world of sport or entertainment.  My question for you is this:
•    What are the qualities you see in others that you would most like to have yourselves?  
•    What kind of person would you really like to be?

When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best.  I am asking you not to pursue one limited goal and ignore all the others.  Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good in the world, but on its own, it is not enough to make us happy.  Being highly skilled in some activity or profession is good, but it will not satisfy us unless we aim for something greater still.  It might make us famous, but it will not make us happy.  Happiness is something we all want, but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places.  The key to it is very simple – true happiness is to be found in God.  We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God.  Only he can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts.
This I command – to love one another.  This Gospel and these words were spoken by Jesus.  He spoke them at the Last Supper.  On the night before He died He spoke them to his nearest and dearest.  They are precious.  They are a gift to all of us.  They have inspired me.  He just did not speak to them and leave it at that.  He accompanied with these other gifts.  Jesus gave them examples of what he was talking about.  He commanded them to love one another. He got up from the table, put on an apron and stooped down and washed their feet.  He knew that this was going to be a hard act to follow especially as he was going to lay down life for them, his friends, the next day on the cross on Calvary.

But Jesus is not unreasonable.  Because he knew that his command was going to be tough.  He was not going to ask something and not supply the wherewithal with which to deliver.  So he gave us two more gifts – His Body and Blood to be our food and drink, the priesthood, the sacrament of Holy Order to guarantee His Eucharistic presence.

Today the Church of St John, Middletown is being re-opened and rededicated.  Next Thursday the Chapel of the Irish College in Rome will be rededicated to the praise and glory of God after a major work of renovation.  The centrepiece of the renovation is a beautiful mosaic in the sanctuary.  

The mosaic, which is a picture made of precious stones, represents Christ and Mary, his mother, surrounded by the saints of Ireland.  I am glad to say that St. Patrick, St. Brigid, and St Oliver Plunkett, all saints with Armagh connections, are shown in that lovely mosaic.  In the mosaic, Jesus holds in his hand, the Book of the Gospels.  On the page that is open we see the words:  I am the Good Shepherd. For Jesus is indeed the Good Shepherd.

•     The shepherd that never runs away
•     The shepherd that knows his flock
•     The shepherd that loves his flock
•     The shepherd that ultimately lays down his life for his lambs and his sheep

Sometimes the enemies of Christ have the insolence to suggest that Christ is not such a good shepherd after all.  They would not dare to say so explicitly but they would be hinting at it.  They would be pointing to things like the decrease in vocations to the priesthood and religious life and perhaps implying that the Good Shepherd may be forgetting about us.

But the Good Shepherd never forgets his people.  This is why he raises up people to build and renovate churches where the Good News can be preached and heard, where faith can be nourished, and the praise of God’s name sung.

That is why the Good Shepherd inspires people to think no only of themselves but to be mindful of others – especially the hungry and the homeless; the Good Shepherd inspires his followers to stand at gates and on street corners to collect.

The snow has made us all more conscious of the needs of the little birds and of the animals.  But, first and foremost, let us not forget our fellow human beings and their needs.  The Good Shepherd inspires people to challenge poverty wherever it is found – as happened last week with the publication of a joint statement by St Vincent de Paul, St Mary’s University College, Belfast and the Northern Ireland Catholic Church Council on Social Affairs entitled:  Challenging Poverty in Northern Ireland.

Because the Good Shepherd knows and loves his people, he raises up candidates to become Permanent Deacons in the Church.  The word ‘deacon’ basically means servants.  The deacon is essentially one who serves.  That service can take many forms – the service of the Word of God – that reading and explaining and preaching the Good News – so that people may hear that Good News as Good News.  It means prayers with, and for, God’s people.

It can mean service at the altar in the form of celebrating the sacrament of Baptism, or witnessing, on behalf of the Church, the sacrament of marriage – which is always celebrated and administered by the spouses themselves to each other.  It could mean bringing Holy Communion to the sick and elderly and housebound – something that is already being done and will continue to be done by the ministers of the Eucharist.  
Finally, being a Deacon can mean serving that section of the Family of God who are poor and hungry and homeless – who are sick or in prison.

So today is a red-letter day in the history of the diocese as six candidates officially declare their desire to serve the people of God as Permanent Deacons.  I thank them.  I thank their wives and families who support this decision.  I thank Father Gates and his team of helpers who have conducted the process of selection and preparation and formation.  I ask God to bless all concerned in this noble adventure now and always.  The Good Shepherd does not, and will never, leave his beloved people without the care of his saving grace and love.  

Today’s celebration takes place on a day when the Church really gets it teeth into preparing for Christmas.  We are constantly reminded of the ever diminishing number of days left until Christmas.  The hint is to get on with the shopping and spending, the decorations and the Christmas cards and all the rest.  

Now I am all in favour of all of that – provided it is kept in proportion to our means and that it is not allowed to become so overpowering and oppressive as to cause us to forget the real meaning and purpose of Christmas.  I am delighted that the world makes such a fuss about the birthday of my Lord and Saviour – provided that my Lord and Saviour does not get lost in all of that fuss.

To make sure that this does not happen, the Church has, what you might call a couple of big hitters which it wheels out very prominently at this time of year – every year. They are the prophet Isaiah and St John the Baptist, St Joseph, the foster father of the child Jesus and, of course, the Virgin Mary – the mother of Jesus.  Between them they continue to haul us back to concentrate on what Christmas is all about.

Christmas is essentially a remembering of the first coming of Christ.  That is why we have cribs to remind us of how it actually took place – in a stable in Bethlehem – because the big busy world had no place for them in the inn.  The big busy world and indeed all of us need to be reminded to make a place for Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the Inn of our Hearts.  If that does not happen, well I am afraid Christmas will not really mean very much – no matter how perfect all the other preparations may have been.  

Bethlehem was King David’s city and David was the son of Jesse.  That is why Israel could write foretelling – hundred of years earlier:  

•     A shoot shall spring from the stock of Jesse
•     A scion thrusts from his roots
•     On him the Spirit of the Lord rests.

The prophets took care of the remarkable preparations for the coming of Christ.  But the immediate and detailed and most important preparations were entrusted to the one and only John the Baptist.

Strangely those preparations took place not in the big City of Jerusalem but out in the wilderness of the desert.  I would say that there was not nuch use for credit cards in the desert!

But obviously there was great use for a character like John the Baptist – because the people flocked to him in their thousands from all over the place.  What was his secret?  Someone has ventured the opinion that it is extraordinary how a mortified man draws people.  They admire the man whose needs are minimal, who is the Master of his own appetites, who has a deep interior freedom.  John the Baptist, with minimal clothes and minimal food was a magnet.  People trusted him because he could not be bought.

His message was simple and clear:  in fact Jesus began his preaching with the exact same words:
“Repent for the kingdom of Heaven has come near”.

The people believed him and, as a sign of their belief, they were baptised and they confessed their sins.

Some years ago the Archbishop of Dublin, Desmond Connell, wrote a Pastoral Letter for Christmas entitled:  Come Home for Christmas.  It was an invitation to go to Confession for Christmas and I think it takes us to the heart of the Christmas message.  Jesus came preaching repentance of his sins because he knew that if we did not do so and change our lives, his suffering and death would be of no use.

John the Baptist had fierce words of condemnation for the Pharisees and Sadducees despite the fact that they came to him for baptism.  He rejected them because they had rejected his message of the need for change in their own lives. They went through the motions without any real change of heart.

Who are the Pharisees and Sadducees of today?  I don’t want to judge anyone but it is possible to go through Christmas, enjoying all the benefits of food and drink and presents, without making a real effort to change our attitudes towards sin and the need to repent, and the need to think of others besides ourselves.

The final point is to remember that Jesus came in the flesh, as a human being 2,000 years ago.  He will come again in glory at the end of time.  But Jesus comes now – in a real but mysterious way – recognising him now and welcoming his call to repent – that is the secret I think of a happy Christmas.

Amen.

To bury our dead with dignity is a most sacred duty.  The fulfilment of that duty is sometimes associated with the name of a princess in Ancient Greece called Antigone.  She was prepared to defy the decree of the king and lose her own life rather than leave her brother’s body lie unburied on the streets of the City of Thebes.  

When Jesus came he taught us that mercy will be the quality on which everyone will ultimately be judged.  Traditionally, this teaching has been handed down to us as the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.  They are the works which should be the outstanding characteristics of the lives of those who claim to follow Christ.  

The corporal works require us to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit those in prison and, last but not least, to bury the dead.  And so, after all these years of waiting we come here today to bury the mortal remains of Gerry Evans.  

There is a great sense of relief that, at last, the waiting has come to an end.  At first that waiting was filled with hope – the hope that Gerry was still alive and would, one day, turn up safe and sound.  But then, as the years rolled by, one kind of hope was replaced by another – the hope that his remains would be found and identified so that the mourning could begin, and the burial take place, and proper respect be paid to his memory and prayers be offered for his eternal rest and happiness.

And so, our first reaction today is one of great sympathy for Mary and Noel and Tom and Seán for the great crime committed against a brother and a son, for the great wrong that was done to them.  Our sympathy is also tinged with great admiration for the fact that they never lost hope that Gerry’s remains would be found one day and given proper burial.  

Along with that there has to be great anger and even sadness, great fear and pain perhaps, at the thought that we live in a society where certain people took upon themselves to play God with regard to the life of Gerry Evans.  They took upon themselves to be judge and jury, executioner and undertaker.  What arrogance.  What appalling wickedness.  I just want us all to try and take on board the enormity of it.  Then each one of us will determine, hopefully, to do all in our power to ensure that something similar never happens again.  God alone is the Lord of Life – from its beginning to its end.  No-one can, under any circumstances, claim for himself, the right to directly destroy an innocent human being!.

As in every funeral Mass, today we celebrate the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We believe that in Baptism Gerry Evans was united with Christ – the Christ who not only suffered and died but who rose from the dead.

Gerry Evans died before his time.  He died because someone or some group decided to take to themselves the right to destroy his life.  People die before their time for various reasons.  Others live to ripe old age.  What is absolutely certain is that we are all going to die.  What is absolutely important is that we all be ready to die when death knocks at our door, as eventually will happen one day.  What is absolutely important is that, in the meantime, we live virtuous lives – righteous lives.

Gerry Evans was baptised.  In Baptism he was united with Jesus – the same Jesus who, for love of us, suffered, died and rose from the dead.  By rising from the dead, Jesus conquered death, once and for all.  Gerry made his First Communion and was confirmed.  In other words, he received his share of the riches of Christ.  He received the gifts of the Holy Spirit to guided him and direct him on the journey of his short life.  In his death he passed from this life to the next in union with Christ to be purified in soul and to be welcomed into Heaven.

We are here to pray for Gerry – in union with his sorrowing mother, Mary and with his brothers, Sean, Noel and Tom as they have faithfully prayed for him all these years.  We pray that he may be found worthy to enter into the company of the saints with his father, Gerry and his brother, Martin.  Found worthy that is to enter into the mysterious presence of the Eternal God.  Then we shall proceed to bury his mortal remains at last.  We Christians do so with great care for we believe that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit and we believe in the Resurrection of the Body.

In death our soul is separated from our body.  As a result, the human body decays but the soul goes to meet God – while it waits to be reunited with is risen and gloried body.  

From the very beginning the Christian faith in the Resurrection was ridiculed and rejected.  Yes, many accept that your life and my life could continue in some spiritual way – that is, without a body after death but they ask:  How could you expect us to believe that the body so clearly weak, could rise to everlasting life.  And yet that is exactly what we do believe.  We believe that God will give incorruptible life to our bodies in the resurrection.  God will reunite our bodies with our souls forever.  The profession of our Christian faith ends with a proclamation of the Resurrection of the dead and of life everlasting.  

In this Mass we pray for ourselves that we may be ourselves, ready for death when it comes.  We pray for those who killed Gerry.  We are moved to do so because we believe in Christ’s victory over sin.

“Raise up your power, O Lord and come” is our constant prayer in this Advent Season.  The power in question appears most wonderful when in fact it becomes mercy and victory over sin.  God is never revealed so great as when his power becomes pardon.  God will not refuse His pardon to all who ask it.

“They have taken my Lord away and I do not know where they have put him” was the anguished cry of Mary Magdalene.  Gerry Evans was brutally taken away and, for all these years, his grieving mother and family did not know where they had put him.  What was not taken away was their faith -the faith of the Evans family in their Risen Lord and Saviour.  Jesus has never ceased to give them hope in all their trials and tribulations.

We pray for ourselves that our faith too in Jesus may remain strong.  Yes he has returned to His Father and His God, to our Father and to our God.  But. He has also promised to be with us to the end of time.  It is our challenge to grow in our awareness of His presence.

We pray in thanksgiving for the work of the Commission for Victims – North and South for their assistance, Patience and perseverance are essential elements of genuine hope. The patience and perseverance of the Commission have sustained the hope which we see fulfilled here today.

AMEN

I met an amazing person yesterday.  His name is Father Emmanuel.  For the past fourteen years he has been Parish Priest of Gaza.  Gaza is a city in south-west Palestine – that is, the Holy Land.  It is part of Palestine but surrounded by Israel with which it has been at war for many years.  The stress of it all took its toll on Father Emmanuel’s health .  So he has had to retire to his native village in another part of Palestine.  He has recovered somewhat and now is on an international tour.  He has come to Ireland to speak, to quote his own words: “A word of faith – Hope and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering”.  

I have myself been to Gaza and I have seen that suffering with my own eyes.  The present situation does not promise any quick solution or the end of the occupation that is imposed upon them.  And yet they say:  “despite the lack of even a glimmer of positive expectation, our hope remains strong”.  

I find those words truly inspirational.  I find them inspirational because the people of Gaza see that the various talks and visits and negotiations have not brought any change in the situation or the suffering.  Even President Obama – who wants to put an end to the tragedy – has not yet been able to change this reality.  

But despite all of this – their hope remains strong because it is a hope from God and God alone is good, almighty and loving.  They are convinced that God’s goodness will, one day, be victorious over the evil in which they find ourselves.

As St Paul said:  ‘If God is for us, who is against us?  Who will separate us from the love of God?  Will hardship or distress or persecution or famine, or nakedness or pain of sword”.  That is St. Paul’s list.  We could add a few more of our own – recession, bleak economic prospects, economic depression.  Yes, all of these are really depressing and painful and practically unbearable, and yet they cannot separate us from the love of Christ.  I say they cannot separate us from the love of Christ because the hope that is within us means, first and foremost, our faith in God and God is love.

Secondly, our expectation, despite everything, is for a better future.  Hope is the ability to see God in the midst of trouble and doom and gloom and to be co-workers with the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us. Such people are beacons of hope in the midst of doom and gloom.  Being a co-worker with the Holy Spirit to improve things – no matter how desperate – usually involves working with others.  It certainly means not giving into evil but standing up to it and resisting it.  Here in Ireland we have big problems.  Terrible economic problems but really they are not in the same league as the problems which Gaza and the people of Gaza face.  And yet I think we could learn something from them about the Spirit of Hope with which they face these difficulties.

I attended a Conference recently in Zagreb in Croatia.  We were told that today in certain parts of Europe, one in four pregnancies ends in abortion.  People are talking of the population winter – which, if it is not halted, will end up in certain nations disappearing off the face of the earth.  Happily, Ireland with its high birth rate is not one of those!
 
Pope Benedict is determined not to yield to this terrible threat.  He is determined to stand up to it and to continue to resist it.  That is why he is celebrating this Extraordinary Vigil for all unborn human life tonight.  It is timely and inspired.  It is a clear call to all of us to work and pray to ensure that the deliberate destruction of human life never takes place, at any moment of its existence.  This surely must be one of our great hopes in this Season of Hope.  

Tonight we gladly join with this Prayer Vigil for all Unborn Human Life.  The vigil is meant to become a cry of all humanity.  That cry goes up to God the Father – who is the Giver of all good things.  Throughout the world it cries out for every human life to be respected, protected and loved.  God entrusts to every woman and man, the task of defending and promoting life.  Yes, it involves prayer, liturgy and the sacraments.  But, above all, it ought to happen in the daily life of each one of us.  It means a spirit of charity towards everyone. – that spirit is shown by our own self-giving and by showing care for all life and for the life of everyone.  

One of the great signs of life in the Church is vibrant parish communities.  That is, communities which make their faith active and present in service to the poor, in love of neighbour and in prayer for the needs of the world.  To facilitate all of that and provide leadership, an active Parish Pastoral Council is essential.  I am very pleased that the Rite of Commissioning of the new Parish Pastoral Council is part of tonight’s ceremony.  I am also pleased to know that the recently published book Parish Pastoral Council by Debra Snoddy, Jim Campbell and Andrew McNally will be launched next month.   

The final part is the Installation of the Parish Priest.  I ask you to pray for Father Keenan as he is installed as Parish Priest in this parish of Haggardstown and Blackrock.  I also ask you to pray for Father Brennan and for his family.  In fact I ask you to pray for all the clergy of this diocese.  Pray that by getting to know the love of Christ we may all put on the mind of Christ in order to become servants of Christ and bearers of Christ’s love for all and to all.

Pray that we all unite our lives and our sufferings with the sufferings of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ for the Cross of Christ is our only hope.