I am very pleased and honoured to be asked to contribute to this book.  I congratulate the Association and the Cardinal Ó Fiaich Library and Archive for compiling such an impressive volume from an array of contributors.  A collection focusing upon the GAA is very appropriate and timely because in an age where individualism is rampant, and volunteerism is on the decline, it is good to reflect on the benefits and advantages which working for the community brings.  It is good to recognise the joys to which such work gives rise.  It is important not just to pay lip-service to the value of community work.  It is also important to identify the things which threaten those ideals of amateurism and to oppose them.

When I consider the landscape upon which the Cardinal Ó Fiaich Library rests I recall the first occasion I arrived here.  It wasn’t in the cause of religion.  It was way back in 1954 to the MacRory Cup Final.  We travelled, by train, from St. Patrick’s College in Cavan to play Abbey CBS, Newry.  Unfortunately the referee died during the match and so it had to be, of course, called off.  We were winning at the time but unfortunately we lost the replay.

This short paper gives me an opportunity to thank the GAA for the enjoyment I have derived from so many activities offered by the Association.  Not just from playing but from coaching, training, attending meetings, administration etc.   I am very grateful also for the friends I made in the Association, especially the friends who give, and gave, so generously of their time down through the years.

As a Cavan man myself, and in the context of 125 years of the GAA Ireland, you’ll forgive me if I draw attention to one of the greats of Cavan football, Mick Higgins.  He was admired for his exploits on the field of course, having played in several All-Ireland finals and winning three All-Ireland medals.  But he was admired also for what he gave to the Association after he retired from playing.  He managed teams, at County and Provincial levels; he refereed at the very highest level.   I remember him speaking with Seán O’Neill about the battle of Ballinascreen in 1968 when he was in charge of the Down versus Derry match in what would have been a day out for the yellow and the red flags now!  I was struck be the fact that quite soon after he retired he was already involved in other activities and I admire him for that.  For example, I remember, as a minor, being brought by Mick and the late Victor Sherlock to minor trials.  I wonder is that happening now?  Are young men, immediately after they retire, putting enough back into the Association? 

I am grateful for the friends I made and the opponents I met and learned to respect throughout my involvement with the GAA.  I am grateful too for the moments of nervousness and anxiety which I endured before matches and which I now realise were preparing me, possibly, for the other challenges and, indeed, for the defeats of life.  One of the great things about taking part in games is that you win some and you lose some.  You realise that we all have God-given gifts which enable us to win but we are also limited – very limited.  We are sometimes weaker than we care to admit whilst we will always meet people who are better than we are, and that is an important lesson.

After spending a lot of time as part of an organisation that places such emphasises on the community and on the Club, it was a great consolation to me personally to discover that one of the basic principles of our faith is the principle of communion.  Our way to God, and God’s way to us, is a communal way.  What does that mean?  Our religion brings about an encounter between ourselves and our God.  It is a personal and individual meeting with our God.  But this encounter is made possible only with the help of a community of faith.  So for that reason I don’t regret the many hours spent, especially in the 1970s, attending meetings, coaching teams at club and college level. I know that is exactly why the GAA people are often the back-bone of the parish.  It is good to be part of a team – that loses occasionally and reveals our limitations.

When I was preparing this paper, I had to attend a meeting in Belfast.  It was hosted by six leaders of the main Christian churches here in Ireland:  The purpose of that meeting was to provide people with a means of expressing their rejection of violence and of the killings and the murders which took place in March 2009, which threatens to take us back to a place we do not wish to go.  It was a call to pray – a call to pray in the privacy of your own heart or in your families or in your church or in the church of another community, that the peace which we have been enjoying in this part of the world for the last number of years may not be disrupted.  There is far too much at stake here at the moment and we cannot just take the peace for granted.  We have to play our part in consolidating it and indeed, I want to pay tribute to the Association for its part in the building of that peace.

During my own GAA career, growing up as a young lad in Cavan, I played for Laragh and a couple of other clubs as well and that was due to a thing which is very much in vogue now called ‘strategic planning’.  It wasn’t ‘strategic planning’ on my part but on the part of other people.  But it reveals a side of the GAA which is very real and, I think, after the profound examination of the Association and of its motivation and ideals, it is no harm to take a look at another side of it which, I know, you will appreciate. It came about like this:

In 1956 in Cavan there was a rule which allowed a parish – for minor purposes – to pick players from any parish that bordered it.   The parish of Killinkere is famous in the history of Cavan football because it was the birthplace of the late, great Jim Smith, who captained the first Cavan All-Ireland winning team, was a holder of 13 Ulster championship medals.  Anyway, Killinkere is surrounded by six parishes so a strategic planner in 1956 decided that this would be the team to enter in the minor championships and then we could have seven parishes and those parishes included Bailieborough; Mullagh; Virginia.  So it was that I was lucky enough to get my place on that team and to win a Cavan Minor Championship medal in 1956.  By 1960 I was a member of the Laragh, Sons of O’Connell.  By the time I came home from Maynooth the Laragh Sons of O’Connell were already out of the Junior Championship as was their wont. 

At this stage the strategic planners in the Laragh Sons of O’Connell realised that there was a danger that I might be poached, I suppose you would say, and that I would go to Stradone.  You know how we GAA people love one another, especially our nearest neighbours.  Some strategic action had to be taken to ensure that that didn’t happen!  Somebody, who was creative with the truth, came and told me that Father Gargan, who was formerly my Dean in the College and a priest in the diocese, wanted me to play for Cavan Gaels.  So, out of respect for my former Dean, I went in and said I would play for Cavan Gaels.  The result was that I ended up being a member of Cavan Gaels, not for very worthy motives, I admit, but that is how it happened and these things do happen in our beloved Association. 

I like this story of Tomas Ó Fiaich.  One night he was introduced to a man called Father Larry Hannan.  Tomas thought for a while and he said:  ‘Larry Hannan’ he said, ‘I marked you in a challenge match between St. Patrick’s Armagh and St Mary’s Dundalk in 1937 when you were playing left-half back and I was playing right-half forward’.  And Larry Hannan said:  ‘You are quite right’.  This is just the kind of memory that the GAA evokes.

I grew up in Cavan in the 1940s and 1950s.  Living in a county that won eight Ulster Senior titles in the 30s and nine in the 40s it was a kind of hard not to be interested in the GAA.  I would attribute my knowledge of the GAA principally to the Anglo Celt, the Cavan man’s bible.  I can well remember when I got my first football.  My father and mother went to town in the horse and trap – my brother and I must have known what they intended to buy.  I clearly remember going out the lane as far as my neighbour’s house to meet them on their return and my father throwing the football out to us as we passed.  It was that same neighbour’s house where we gathered late one September evening for the broadcast of the Polo game.  The kitchen was jammed to the door.  The radio was on the window sill and the overflow was on the street.  I am sure Aoghan described this match in detail that night.  I recall that Bob Garvey was playing havoc in the opening stages.  Obviously the Cavan defence decided some remedial action was called for and some time later it was proclaimed:  “Bill Garvey has gone down injured’.  One of my less charitable neighbours was heard to say:  “I hope to blazes he never gets up”!

Many of the places I visited when I was appointed to this diocese were also GAA strongholds, which I recalled visiting when I was involved in youth football.  I remember visiting Ardboe, Coalisland, Killeavy, Eglish, and Dungannon for example.  The generosity of those clubs in making their pitches available to college teams was remarkable and for that I am very grateful.

A memorable, but very sad event in my native parish when I was growing up was the untimely death of PJ Duke.   He was our hero, our icon, a role model when we were young boys.  By the age of 25 he had won every honour in the game:  2 All Irelands, 3 Sigersons (captaining one) whilst his last appearance in Croke Park was on St. Patrick’s Day 1950 before he sadly died on 1 May 1950.  I can still remember the shock that his death created.  Worse was to come in 1952 with the death, after a short illness, of JJ Reilly.  His passing meant that two of that famous half-back line of PJ Duke, JJ Reilly and Simon Deignan were dead.

By 1960 I was, for a short while, a member of the Cavan Senior Football Panel.  Cavan lost the League Final that year having been beaten by Dublin by three points.  Later that year, in October, I was asked, by Bishop Austin Quinn, a native of this diocese, if I would like to go to Rome to continue my studies for the priesthood.  Upon my return in 1967, I joined the staff of St. Patrick’s College, Cavan and began working my way up the GAA ladder from there.  Do you know how difficult it is to work your way up the ladder in the GAA?  I won a hotly contested election for a place on the Central Council in 1980 only for another Armagh man, Cardinal Ó Fiaich, to intervene and send me back once more to Rome!  It is one of my regrets that I only survived long enough to qualify for Ard Comairhe tickets for one All-Ireland. 

The GAA is my family.  I feel very much at home in the GAA but because of this I also feel comfortable about saying a few things about the Association.  The first one surrounds the amateur status. My heroes are, of course, the footballers that play on the field but there are also the people who turn up much earlier in the day to open the gates, who stand in cold and dusty turnstiles, people who still support their club but who might not have a son or daughter near the team.  I also applaud the GAA for its initiatives surrounding drugs.  I pay tribute to Dónal McAnallen for a motion on alcohol that he brought forward at a Congress a few years ago.  I am sure you recall that Good man!

What do I not like about the Association?  Not a lot.  I like the GAA very much butI am not happy with the win-at-all-costs mentality.  It sometimes comes across that winning is all that matters.  Winning is not all that matters because half the time you win and half the time you don’t.  I would also appeal for your help in keeping Sunday special.  Sunday is a day of rest.  It is a day of worship.  If we don’t worship God, we end up worshipping ourselves and that is a very dangerous situation.  I commend things like Scor.  The GAA is not just another games-playing organisation.  It is about culture.  It is about real life and it is about history.  It has a soul and we need to go back to that soul every so often and be nourished.

I want to finish by quoting a poem, written about the late great PJ Duke that was written by Pádraig Purcell and it moves me every time.  It still gives me a lump in my throat because it goes right to the heart and that is what the GAA is about.

As I was walking through Dublin city,
One pleasant morning in the month of May,
Near Steven’s Green I met a student,
With tear-dimmed eyes this to me did say.

This morning early as the birds were singing,
And Mass bells ringing in fervent tone,
To His great promise the Lord took from us,
Our fearless champion from sweet Stradone.

The banshee keens by Breifne’s border,
Beyond Lough Sheelin in the morning breeze,
By lake and river the rushes quiver,
In silent sorrow for one so young.

No more he’ll trod the green soil of Croke Park,
But we see him still; his manly feeling
And manhood pealing
And red hair flying in battle still.

New stars may rise in the years before us,
but none like him will they then bethrone,
The boy from Breifne, the pride of Ulster,
God rest you P.J in sweet Stradone.

I thank you for the invitation to celebrate this Mass. I compliment you on this blessed initiative – of having a Mass of Thanksgiving for the Holy Year of St. Paul.  This evening I want to thank God for the presence of the Cursillo Movement in the Church and in Dundalk in particular.  

Approximately 60 years ago, somewhere in Spain, probably in the diocese of Ciudad Real, the Holy Spirit inspired that first team of clergymen and laymen to give the first Cursillo de Cristianidad –something wonderful was born.  It is typical of the humble spirit of the Movement that the names of those first individual contributors remain anonymous.  They had learned well from Jesus who told us to learn from him who is meek and humble of heart.  What was born was a great Movement of Spiritual Renewal in the Church – a great Movement of spiritual awakening that tries to convey a new sense of the powerful and personal aspects of our faith in Jesus Christ – our one and only Saviour of the world.  We need that awakening, right now, here in Ireland in a big way.

This evening I want to thank God for those in this diocese who have heard and heeded the message.  The seed has fallen on good ground and has borne fruit one hundred fold.  That was plainly obvious to me when some of your number came to Dromantine recently and gave a brilliant personal testimony on what the Cursillo Movement has meant in their lives. It was really powerful stuff – I am glad to have the opportunity to come here this evening and tell you that.  But what is more important is that together we tell God and thank God. 

This evening I want to thank God for the deeper and richer appreciation which you have for God from Cursillo.  ‘In Christ’, is a great phrase so beloved of St. Paul.  He uses it so often to convey his deep union with his beloved Saviour.  He said:

I live not now, but Christ lives in me.
He wants to know nothing else but Jesus Christ and him crucified
He wants to fill up in his own life what is wanting in the sufferings of Christ.

I am here tonight to encourage you, with all the power at my disposal, to embark on a new programme of promoting Cursillo at every possible opportunity.  We need the New Evangelisation as never before.  People today – but especially young men and women – need to hear the Good News, brought by Jesus Christ and preached so eloquently by St. Paul – not only in word but by his deeds as well.  People don’t know it but they are hungering and thirsting for Christ who alone can satisfy the deep desires of every human being.  Every heart is longing and yearning for a love that will satisfy and last forever.  Only Christ can give that love.

Without me you can do nothing
Without Christ we can do nothing.

Archbishop Martin and I were in Rome recently.  We met Cardinal Cañizares, the Prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship.  He suggested to us that the way out of our present difficulties in the Church in Ireland, is to aim at a deeper union with Christ in the liturgy.  I agree with him.

We can only love what we know.  This is where Cursillo is so important.  The meditations, the talks, the drills, are fundamental to increasing our knowledge of Jesus Christ.  We are called, not only to know and love Jesus, but to embody, in our own lives, the attitudes and values and behaviour of Jesus Christ.

I think that is what St. Paul had in mind when he said:

“Let the same mind be in you as was in Jesus Christ”.

Last week, on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, – Pope Benedict launched a Year for Priests.  It is in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Cure of Ars St John Mary Vianney.  He used to say:
“The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus”.

The Year for Priests is meant to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal.  The purpose of this renewal is for the sake of a more forceful and incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world.   You in Cursillo talk of Spiritual Renewal.  Pope Benedict talks of Interior Renewal.  It is the same thing.  It is to enhance our bearing witness to the Good News. 

Pope Paul VI said “

“The world today only listens to teachers who are also witnesses to what they teach.  Go out to the world and tell the Good News to every creature

“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved”.  Jesus said that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains.  There are surely mountains out there – of indifference – which prevent people from seeing their need for Christ.

Father Michael McGréil recently published a Report The Challenge of Indifference: a Need for Religious Revival in Ireland. There you have it again – the need for a revival in faith in Ireland – here and now. 
Lord I believe – help my unbelief!

His Report found that indifference, rather than hostility, is the problem. People just cannot be bothered to make the effort to get to Mass on Sundays.  He says religion is still an important aspect in the life of the vast majority of adults in the Republic of Ireland.  That is consoling and a base on which to build. 

Indifference can sometimes have a transitional weaning phase in late adolescence.  Later, when confronted with the more serious problems of life, people are more likely to revisit religious practices as a meaningful dimension of their lives.

Religion and religious practice provides meaning and moral order.  He says that there is evidence that when religion is excluded, society functions badly.  The number of homicides, suicides and marital breakdowns increase.  But we preach Jesus Christ not as a solution to social problems but as the answer to our own personal problems. 

Go out to all the world and tell the Good News

“Use words only where strictly necessary” St. Francis added.

Tell them the Good News of Cursillo and tell them what it has done for you.  It is a great story which deserves to be told, loud and clear, from the rooftops.

Go on LMFM and Dundalk local radio – I know humility and modesty advises against this but as St. Paul said: 
“The time is running out – the world, in its present form, is passing away.  You have the answer”. 

Pope Benedict says: 
“There are sectors of co-operation which need to be opened up even more fully to the lay faithful”

Priests and laity together make up the one Priestly People.  Priests live, in the midst of the lay faithful, that they may lead everyone to the unity of charity.  The Pope recommends the Mass, Holy Communion, Adoration and Confessions.

I understand that the purpose of a Cursillo weekend is to try to help each other achieve a deeper and richer appreciation and knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

Why is this so important?

Because no-one has ever seen God – the only begotten Son – who is in the bosom that the Father has made him known.  It is essential that we get to know Jesus and that we love him.  We only love what we know.  All of this is so that we may serve/submit, our will to Him and be united with Him.

St Ignatius of Loyola urges us to meditate on God by using our memory, intellect and will to remember some truths that have been revealed about God so that with our intellect we may penetrate those truths and eventually submit our will in love to the God so revealed.

I note that you give a lot of time to discussing what is dealt with in the drills and to report on the discussions.  I am very pleased that
•    The Mass,
•    The Rosary,
•    Visits to the Blessed Sacrament,
•    Meditation. and
•    Stations of the Cross
are the central acts of your devotion.  People always note the atmosphere of friendship and joy that fills the time of the Cursillo meetings.  In this way you convey new insights into what a Christina community, with Christ at the centre, really looks like.

We, clergy and religious, need the help of Cursillo now as never before.  We need your prayers to get the courage and the humility and the sincerity to say that we are sorry – truly sorry- for the abuse that has been inflicted on children by priests and religious.  We need to acknowledge the harm that has been done to children and to fairly face it.  Further down the road comes sincere repentance and efforts to make amends to those who suffered.  We need your strength to remind us to continue to pray for victims of the abuse that they may recover.

We need your prayers and help for the Year of the Priest.  We need your prayers and help also to prepare for the Eucharistic Congress in 2012.  The Church depends on you.  I know you will not let us down.  We need you to get involved in the talks that will need to be given to enable people to be clued in.  There has been a very encouraging response so far and I know that it will continue.  The Irish have a great appreciation of, and love of, what the Mass is all about.  It will show itself in the lead-up to the Congress.

It is a great privilege to be here today. It is an honour to be part of the centenary celebrations of this Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in the historic parish of Kinnegad.
•    I want to thank your young and energetic Parish Priest, Fr Tom Gilroy for his kind invitation to be here.
•    I salute your Pastor Emeritus, my friend and one of my predecessors as Rector of the Irish College in Rome, Msgr Eamon Marron.  His energy and unstinting commitment continue to inspire us all.
•    I congratulate your Centenary Celebration Committee.  The wonderful range of activities and events they have put together to mark this important year in the life of your parish is really impressive. Their collaboration with the priests and religious of the Parish represents, I think, a model way of being Parish community.  It is a way of being a Christian faith community, which is crucial to the future of the Church in Ireland.
•    I also want to thank my colleague Bishop Michael for his warm welcome to the Diocese today and for his invaluable wisdom, advice and friendship over many years. Bishop Michael is one of the longest serving members of the Irish Bishops’ Conference and I can’t begin to tell you how much we depend on him in our work.
•    I also extend my gratitude and esteem to all the priests and religious who are gathered here today. I know that this parish has given so many of its daughters and sons to the service of the Church as religious Sisters, Brothers and priests.

In a heartfelt way I want to thank you all for your continued generosity and faithful witness to the Gospel of Christ and the love of the Blessed Trinity in these painful and challenging times. These are difficult times for the Church in Ireland. Much greater difficulties, however, are faced by those who suffered abuse. This is a time for much prayer, great healing and wise discernment.

As a Christian community we must face the full truth about what happened. We must face up to the full challenges of the truth of the past, as well as to the challenge of safeguarding children, of justice and healing, challenges which have been consistently set before us by Pope Benedict XVI.

When this beautiful Church was built one hundred years ago, it was built carefully and patiently. In rebuilding trust and hope in the Church, and within the Church at this time, the respect, love and care we show to every individual will be critical. Our faith calls us to see, in every individual, a unique and cherished child of God. It calls us to respect and protect the innate dignity of every person, irrespective of their age or condition of life. It calls us to care especially for the most vulnerable.

When this beautiful Church was built one hundred years ago, it was also built by a whole community. The local community of faith came together to share the effort. The challenge of rebuilding hope and trust in the future will also involve the whole Christian community. As Christians we are the Body of Christ. In the words of St. Cyprian, we are ‘a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.’  The Church ‘is a sign and instrument of communion with God and of unity among all.’ (n.4)

The Blessed Trinity calls each one of us to be in loving communion with God and everyone united with each other.  This is the vision which sustains us. This is the call which beckons us onwards in every challenge and every changing tide of human history.

Building communion with God and community and with each another is at the very heart of being a Catholic. I have noticed how important community organisations are in the parish.  Father Gilroy has mentioned to me the good work of:
Community Council
Social Services;
Tidy Town;
Youth Club and, of course,
The GAA Clubs and
The Juvenile Soccer, and others.

On this feast of the Holy Trinity we are reminded that communion and community are also part of God’s very nature. God is a community of person – not a lone, solitary figure. Not just a static community – but a dynamic community – a community of mutual love – a community of persons, equal in dignity but also diverse in their mission and roles.
The Father creates,
The Son redeems,
The Spirit Sanctifies.

As our Gospel today reminds us, at the very moment we begin our Christian life in Baptism, we are baptised ‘in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ When we gather together in prayer we begin ‘in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’. When we say Amen to the all that we believe in the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass we do so through the Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, to the glory and honour of the Father Almighty. The Trinity is at the very heart of our faith. It is important that we think about it, especially on the Feast of the Holy Trinity.
A way I find useful to throw light on the Blessed Trinity is a way used by many early Christians.  According to St Cyprian, the Blessed Trinity lives in an eternal communion of life and love which is perhaps a little like a lively dance. It is full of energy and life. It is full of harmonious movement in which each person is sensitive to and responds almost intuitively to the needs of the other. As with all human analogies about God, the idea of the life of the Trinity as an eternal dance is a limited one. But it may help us a little bit.  I am sure many of the boys and girls here today are excellent dancers. God certainly invites each of us to join that dance through the sacraments and through prayer and especially through the kind of life we live.

This insight into the Christian truth of God as a community of persons, living in harmony and sharing with each other, was of particular importance to the early Christian communities of Ireland. We have it in the emphasis given to monasticism as a practical expression of the life of the Trinity.  There individuals sought communion with God but also lived a common life in community. These communities, like the Trinity, were also intensely missionary.  They sought to share the civilisation and love that came from their life of common prayer, holiness and work, with others.
Of course we have it right here in the Parish of Kinnegad in the great monastic tradition associated with St. Finnian at Clonard. It was here that St. Finnnian became renowned as the ‘tutor to the saints of Ireland’. Many of the founders of the best known monasteries in Ireland, indeed across Europe, are known to have been educated at Clonard or studied with those who had been at Clonard.

We think of St. Colmcille, the founder of the monasteries of Derry and of Durrow before moving to Scotland to found Iona.  We celebrate his feast on Tuesday.  This week, Cardinal Keith O’Brien is coming to Derry, as Papal Legate, to celebrate the centenary of St Columba’s in the Long Tower.   We think also of St Ciaran of Clonmacnoise which became known as ‘the first Celtic University’.  We think too of St. Molaise, pupil of Clonard and founder of a major monastic school on Devenish Island in Fermanagh.

As you know, better than I, Clonard also lists among its highly influential alumni, people like St. Brendan of Birr, St. Brendan the Navigator, St. Colman of Terryglass and those others who are often referred to collectively as the ‘twelve apostles of Ireland’. Clonard is also linked to St. Comgall of Bangor. Bangor, in turn, became famous for its important role in recovering civilisation in Europe after the dark ages, through monastic missionaries like St. Columbanus and St. Gall.
The legacy of Clonard, now part of this parish of Kinnegad, underlines magnificently the power of one person. This was also a key theme in the Year of Vocation which has just come to an end here in Ireland. It was called ‘The Power of One’! The impact of the life of one person, like your own St Finnian, has been both extraordinary and enduring.  One person, faithful to God, fired up with the vision of a strong community of faith, modelled on the life of the Blessed Trinity itself, can do great things.  Rather God can do great things through the lives of those who listen to the words: “Go make disciples” and take them to heart.
I understand that you are already making preparations for the 1500th anniversary of the arrival of St. Finnian in Clonard, which you will celebrate in 2015. I wish you every success for these preparations. You are the holders of a great legacy on behalf of the Irish people. It is important for future generations that you do all in your power to preserve and promote that legacy because it is something of immense importance and good. I pray that your preparations and celebration of the arrival of St. Finnian and the founding of the monastery at Clonard will be a time of great renewal for each of you and for the whole parish as a community of living faith.  I know that in celebrating St Finnian, you will also be celebrating people like Cardinal John Glennon, renowned Archbishop of St Louis, who died in Dublin en route to America after receiving the Red Hat in Rome.

There is a second important lesson, I believe, we learn from the example of St. Finnian and his faithful followers in the Irish Monastic tradition. It is the importance of building communion and community in everything that we do. Across the Western world at the moment, many countries, especially in larger towns and cities, are experiencing a crisis of community. Where there was once a strong sense of community, there is now a growing isolation and fear. In some cases there is has been a dramatic breakdown in social cohesion. This breakdown is often marked by an increase in violence and crime. It can also be observed in a more general attitude of aggression and lack of civility towards others.

Ireland has not been immune from these trends. Even in small rural communities in Ireland I sometimes hear people express concern about a loss of neighbourliness, of loneliness or of regret that many valued community events of the past no longer take place.

The Feast of the Most Holy Trinity is an opportunity to renew our commitment to community as a fundamental part of our Christian calling. It is an opportunity to renew our commitment to being good neighbours and to caring for one another in all sorts of practical ways.  Irish people have always been renowned for and proud of their heritage in this regard.

The community is important to our well being both as individuals and as a country. We know this not just because research tells us but because the very nature of God our creator reveals it to us. We are not only created in the image of God as individuals. We also reflect the image of God in our life as a community of persons. When we live that life in harmony, mutual service and peace we reflect the image of God among us.  We reflect the harmony and love of the Blessed Trinity. This is the ideal which lies behind monastic and religious life. This is the ideal which inspired people like Finnian and Brendan and Colmcille and Columbanus and Gall. This is the vision which fired their imagination and will to go out to the far flung parts of Europe in some of its darkest days and renew civilisation with the vision of vibrant Christian communities doing good in the world. This vision still inspires young people to leave home and to go to developing countries for a spell to help in voluntary projects.  We salute the missionary sons and daughters of this parish – wherever they may be today – and remember them in prayer.  We recall the fact that by baptism we ar all missionary.

When we do not live well as a community, we suffer as individuals and as a society. When we simply look after ourselves and society breaks down and we may even begin to believe that there is no such thing as society.

So how do we build community?  Government sponsored initiatives which promote positive and harmonious relations certainly have an important part to play. Parishes certainly have a critical and irreplaceable role in building community. It is a fundamental part of their mission and duty. Even the parish bingo can create a valued point of contact and interaction for people who would otherwise feel isolated! The challenge is to reconnect people with each other in their community.

At the end of the day however, there is one thing which can do this with more meaning and more value than any other. It is captured for me in a wonderful saying of Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice.  He once said: “Were we to know the merit and value of only going from one street to another to serve a neighbour for the love of God, we should prize it more than silver and gold.”

St. John of the Cross once put it like this: ‘where there is no love, put love, and you will find love’!

Building up community, creating the civilisation of love among us, in the image of the Triune God, is achieved, in the words of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, by living ‘the little way of love’.

Every kind word, every generous action, every thoughtful gesture has immense and incalculable value in the eyes of the Triune God. Every act of love, no matter how small, continues the mission of love by which the Blessed Trinity created, redeemed and now continues to sanctify our sometimes lonely and aggressive world.

Yet, the feast of the Most Holy Trinity reminds us that the power of God’s Triune love to heal and to help us to live by the truth is greater than any evil. Beside this Church lie the remains of the old St. Mary’s Church, destroyed by a tragic fire in 1909. Out of that tragedy this better and larger Church was built. The image of these two Churches standing side by side is a constant reminder of the truth of the Cross itself. Even out of the greatest evil God has the power to bring good. That is why we draw such hope from the final words of our Gospel today: ‘and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” The Lord does not abandon his faithful people. He does not abandon the wounded and the broken. By the power of the Risen Lord the Church is given strength to overcome, in patience and in love, her sorrows and her difficulties

The monasteries founded by St. Finnian and other early Celtic saints played an important role in the development of what became known as the ‘golden age of Irish Christianity’.  On this Feast of the Holy Trinity let us commit ourselves to that radical way of living which is the ‘little way of love’.  It is the way of doing ordinary things with extraordinary love – in our homes, our schools, our workplace, our Parish, our Church and our country. This is the surest rock on which we can build our Christian hope for the future. It is the hope for healing, for forgiveness and for every person in this world to be treated with the dignity and love of a child of God.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.