Happy the poor of heart – they shall see God

Once a visitor was watching Mother Teresa clean an ugly festering wound.  The visitor said to Mother:  “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars”.  “Neither would I” replied Mother – now Blessed Teresa, “I do it for Jesus”

That was one of the great secrets of Mother’s life – her ability to see Jesus in everybody – every human person.  

•    To see Jesus in me and you
•    You and your neighbour – are my friends and my enemies.  
•    God is present within us.  
•    God has made us in his own likeness.  
•    God is present in the creation that surrounds us.  
•    God is present in those around us.

Blessed Teresa could see that because she was pure of heart.  Her heart was not contaminated with hatred or prejudices, selfishness or greed about people of different race or religion, or colour of skin to herself.  

There is a lovely hymn which goes like this:

Be still for the Presence of the Lord
The Holy One is here
Come bow before Him now
With reverence and fear.

That was one of the things that struck me when I met Blessed Teresa – her stillness – her serenity.  I regard it as one of the great privileges of my life to have met Blessed Teresa a number of times.  She attended the Mass I celebrated with the Missionaries a number of times.  She was kneeling at the back of the chapel – near the window – crouched down low – absolutely still and reverent – attentive.  She stayed near the window to read her prayer book.  She only turned on the electric light when absolutely necessary.  She was well aware of the necessity to conserve the resources of the earth and to avoid waste. When you met her she was totally focussed and devoted her total attention on her conversation with you.  

I once met her at Fiumino Airport, Rome as she arrived for a visit.  Two things struck me:

1.    The size of her luggage – it was all contained in a simple bag the size of a lady’s handbag
2.    How attentive she was to what you said to her.

It was the middle of a busy airport – she listened and looked at me as if I was the only one in the building.  It was the same when she was at Mass – she listened and looked at the altar – devoting her total attention on the host.

She saw God present in the sacrament and God present in His word – and God present in His creation and his people.  For her prayer and adoration gave her the strength to go out and do the things she did.

Blessed Teresa once said:  “I am only a little pencil in God’s hand.  He does the thinking.  He does the writing.  He does everything and sometimes it is really hard because it is a broken pencil and he has to sharpen it a little more.  Be a little instrument in His hands so that He can use you at any time, anywhere.  We have only to say ‘yes’ to God”.  She was strongly of the view that:

•    The greatest poverty in the world is not the want of food but the want of love.  
•    You have the poverty of people who are dissatisfied with what they have,
•    The poverty of people who do not know how to suffer.
•    The poverty of people who give in to despair.
•    The poverty of the heart is often more difficult to relieve and to defend.  

It may be difficult but Blessed Teresa was determined to do her best.  
The driving force of her life was love

•    The love that is strong as death
•    The love which NO flood can quench and no torrents drown.
•    The love that is always patient and kind.
•    The love that is never jealous.
•    The love that is never boastful or conceited.
•    The love that is never rude or selfish.
•    The love that does not take offence and is not resentful.

Blessed Teresa was always joyful.  “Keep the joy of loving the poor, no matter what happens” she said and “share this joy with all you meet”.  “Works of love are works of peace” she said.  That is true within families – works of love are works of peace.  

Her bedroom was tiny – about twice the size of that altar – the total room.  She always chose the hottest room in the convent – the one over the kitchen.  She could do with four or five hours of sleep at night and a half an hour of rest in the afternoon.  Her menu was simple and basic – rice and lentils and some fruit.

“We must not drift away from the humble works, because these are the works nobody will do.  They are never too small.  We are so small we look at things in a small way”.

I am delighted at the presence of the Sisters of Charity here in Armagh.  I am delighted at their dedication to prayer and especially to their adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  I hope this will continue to get good support from the local people, especially in preparation for the Eucharistic Congress of 2012.  I am delighted at their very many humble works.

I am delighted to hear of the success of their Summer School which has just ended.  They offered it to the school children of Armagh and more than 1-150 took up the offer.  I am very grateful to the two wonderful groups of young people who came from Malta to help out.  I wish more of our young people here in Armagh would discover the joy of helping people less fortunate than themselves.  It really is a joy and a richness and you could see it in the personalities and characters of the young people who came from Malta.

‘He who is mighty has done great things for me’.  Blessed Teresa could make the words of Mary her own.  She was born in modern day Albania.  At the age of 18 she saw that God might be calling her to serve as a Religious Sister and as a missionary – calling her that is, to give her life to prayer and helping others to get to know Jesus Christ who did not know him.

I think she contacted her Parish Priest who put her in contact with the Loreto Sisters.  The outcome was that one month after her 18th birthday she set out for Rathfarnham, County Dublin to become a Postulant in the Loreto Order.   Two months later she set out for Calcutta.  She said goodbye to family and home and homeland.

For twenty years she was a Loreto Sister – teaching in Calcutta – teaching orphans and the homeless and the poor.  Then in 1948 she left the Loreto Sisters to found the Missionaries of Charity.  Since then the Missionaries of Charity have spread worldwide, always helping the poor.

I welcome you all to this Mass of Thanksgiving.  Every Eucharist is a Thanksgiving.  This is a Mass of Thanksgiving in honour of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.  Today is the one hundredth anniversary of her birth.

We thank God for Blessed Teresa.  We give thanks for the wonders that have been worked through Blessed Teresa and through her thousands of Missionaries of Charity and their co-workers – throughout the world.

We pray the blessing of God on all of those missionaries and co-workers.

We pray, in a special way, for the many people whom they helping so many ways.

We pray for the speedy canonisation of Blessed Teresa

There is a story told of the time Paddy the Irishman died and went up to the Pearly Gates.  The angel in charge gave him a tour of the mansions in Heaven.  As they pass various chambers the angel points out who is who.  “This is where the Presbyterians are and here you have the Methodists.  Over there you have the Church of Ireland.  As they enter another room the angel whispers:  “Sh Sh, this is where the Catholics are.  They think they are the only ones here!!!”

The story is a humorous way of saying that we have a very limited view of the Kingdom of God.  

I once heard it said that Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.  The Readings for today’s Mass are a bit like that.  They are comforting in places; and they are also encouraging. But they are also depressing, very depressing.  In fact, they are downright disturbing.

What am I talking about?  Well we heard just now that the Lord is coming to gather the nations of every language.  They shall come to witness His glory.  People will be brought from all nations to the Holy Mountain of the Lord.  That is very consoling.

So, if we look closely at the Readings – we will see plenty of evidence of God’s plan for us.  God wants each and every one of us to be saved.  What do we hear Isaiah say in the First Reading:
‘I am coming to gather every nation and every language”
Just imagine, every nation – to gather them into glory.  That is what we all love – glory – eternal glory.  That is what we are made for.  Nothing else will satisfy us.  God’s plan is there in the psalm:
‘Strong is his love for us – he is faithful for ever’

The big event of the last week, in most locations – north and south – was the exam results.  A lot of people were happy – they got what they wanted.  I congratulate them.  Some were very disappointed – they did not get the results they wanted.  As a result they are shut out of some places they dearly wanted to go to – the door is locked.  I am sorry for those young people but I beg them to remember – it is not the end of the world.

But the most shocking image of all is from the Gospel – it is the image of the Locked Door – the Master is inside – people are knocking to get in and being told to move on.  Just imagine being locked out of Heaven – that would be the ultimate disaster.  What would it profit, any of us, to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of our immortal souls?  Surely there would be every reason for weeping and grinding of teeth.  The tragedy is that then it is too late.

So how do we reconcile all of this about the closed door with strong and faithful love?  What Jesus is saying is that once he has risen from the dead, it will not be enough for someone to come along and simply say: ‘Open the door now, sure don’t you know us well’.  

Is Jesus suggesting that some who think they are sure of a seat at that wonderful feast may be in for a big surprise.  It will not be enough to say “Weren’t we eating and drinking in your company”?

Jesus is saying it will not be enough because:

•    Eating and drinking beside me is not the same as eating and drinking with me.  You can be beside me and not be part of me.  
•    You can hear me and not listen.  
•    You can know me and not accept me.

I am not the one who is locking you out.  You are the ones that are locking yourselves out.  This is a door that is locked not from the inside, but from the outside and the only key that will open it is your own personal response.  Listen to me, accept me, love me and the door will open itself.

Another time Jesus said:  “I am the door – anyone who enters by me will be saved”.  Jesus is the door that we all must use to share the Life of God and enter into His Kingdom.  To enter the narrow door that is Jesus Christ is to enter the narrow way that is called the Way of the Cross. It is the way of repentance.  As we heard in the Second Reading, the Lord trains the ones he loves and he punishes all those that he trains.  “Suffering is part of your training.  Of course any punishment is painful at the time.  Later on, those in whom it has been used will bear fruit in peace and goodness”.  The invitation to the banquet of Heaven is given to you freely but we must not think that this is all there is to the Christian life.  

It is said we live in an age where we get very serious about very unserious things; and very flippant and casual and off-hand about things that are deadly serious.  Really I cannot image anything more serious for each and every one of us – where and how am I going to spend eternity?  

I saw a notice in a Church and it said:  

You call me Master, and you don’t listen to me  
You call me the way and you do not follow me
You call me the truth and you do not believe me
Why should you be surprised to hear me say
I do not know where you come from and you will not recognise me

This week the Parish of Tynan / Middletown marks a historic event in the history of this parish – the departure of the Sisters of St Louis – the Sisters have been here for 135 years.  Naturally there is much sorrow and sadness and loneliness.  The bonds of friendship are strong.  There are big shoes being left behind to be filled.  

This weekend is a time to give thanks – to give thanks to God, first of all – that there are people to be found who are prepared to give up so much in life in order to help others – people who left family and friends to come to Middletown to help children – children from all walks of life – rich and poor, bright and less bright.  

We thank God that the St Louis nuns came first to Monaghan.  Obviously their reputation soon spread to Middletown where Father Quinn decided your ancestors should welcome the Sisters and they got on well together.  

There was farming and schooling and lots of things to be looked after.  Sister Canice was surprised to learn that the first football jerseys for Middletown GFC were knitted by the sisters in black and white wool all those years ago.

Tonight we give thanks for all that the Sisters have done – but more importantly – we give thanks to them and to God for what they are themselves and what they represent.  People who heard the call of God and took it seriously.

This is not a time for great sorrow but a time for great gratitude and great love.  The Sisters have sown the seeds, it is up to this parish to make sure that those seeds stay alive and grow and ripen and bear fruit.  

You see we all share the same call – it is the call of God the Father, issued through His Son.  It is an invitation to share his life – to share his nature.  It is sometimes said of someone – ‘she is a good natured sort of person’.  We are all called to be good-natured – for God is good.  

That invitation begins as a way of listening.  We listen with our ears, with our eyes and with our hearts.  The invitation grows as a desire to know God and to enter into God’s love.  Like lots of invitations it is personal,  only I can decide to accept my invitation.  Only you can decide what to do with your invitation.  But the example of others can inspie us to make the right choice.  

This evening we are thanking God for the presence in this parish, over the past 135 years, of a very special group of people – the St Louis Sisters.  They are people who have heard the invitation to holiness and have taken it very seriously.  It involved a dying to self in leaving family and friends.  It involved an emptying to self that becomes a radical experience of God’s love.  

This experience of God’s love changes each person and oopens them to put on the very mind of Christ and to share the very life of Christ.  It challenges each one of us to have the same values as Christ had, all the same attitudes and to act as Christ acted.
It invites us to be instruments of God’s love and energy in the world.  It binds each one in a union with God and with each other.  It enables people to find God present in all things.  It is not confined to Religious Sisters, Brothers and Priests.  It is extended to all.  But the Religious exist to remind the rest of us that we have not here a lasting kingdom.  We seek the One that is to come.

Religious life is also called consecrated life.  The religious sisters, brothers or priest knows that personal holiness comes before everything else in life.  The religious come before the Lord to humbly ask what way he/she must follow her vocation.  The religious knows that the gospel, preached by Jesus, is the only book that really must be mastered and that spiritual perfection is the only goal to aim for.

This week I got a lovely book.  It is called The Religious Sisters and Brothers of the Diocese of Kilmore.  It lists 1056 women and 109 men who entered religious life from all parts of County Cavan and Leitrim.  They left families and homes, some for the last time, to join 120 different religious congregations.  More than 700 left not only their homes but their beloved Ireland and went abroad to follow the footsteps of Jesus – to save souls and to achieve their goal in life.  Among them were 54 Louis Sisters.  

The book includes many stories including one of Mary McEnree.  She left home at the age of 17 to volunteer to go to work as a Mercy nun in Western Australia – the voyage took four months.

We wish the Sisters God’s special blessings in the next chapter of their life that begins now.  We pray that the same freedom of spirit, which enabled them to come here in the first instance, will enable them to leave now.  

I know that the greatest gift you could give them is the assurance that you have learned well the lessons which they came to teach– that we must all strive to enter by the narrow gate which is Jesus Christ and hear his call to repent of our sins.

The seeds have been sown.  I am confident that they will not fall on hard or stony ground.  It is the invitation for each of us to become God’s instruments in the world and to find God, present in all things.  The challenge is to continue, like the Sisters, with the same dedication to the praise and glory of God and to reveal his compassionate love to others.

I visited your website to find there your Mission Statement when my eyes caught the phrase that you commit yourselves to:

“Standing in solidarity with the poor and marginalised”

And I said to myself:  ‘That is exactly what the Community in St. Joseph’s Convent, Middletown have been doing all these years – long before anyone thought of writing Mission Statement.

I am sure there is a seann focal which says that “you wont’ miss the shelter until the tree falls”.  

I think that society is only now beginning to appreciate how much your care for the poor and marginalised has meant – now that there are no longer religious around to do the sort of work which you have been doing, so faithfully and so generously, over all these years.  

So we gather here this evening to say thanks to God for the vision of the Founders of the Institute of St Louis – Joseph Louis Colmar – Marie Madeleine Louise Humann and Louise Marie Eugene Bautain – and thanks to those who responded to that radical call to conversion and to the needs of their time.  We thank God for the prayer life of this House and for the actions done to transfer and change urgent structures.
I note that the three people mentioned, lived through one of the most troubled periods of French history.  All shared one ideal – to call the society of their day back to the truths and practice of the Christian faith.

We too are living through troubled times in the history of this island and in the history of the Church on this island.  I think of the death of your beloved Sisters in the bomb on the Killylea Road.  As in France, the faith of many has been undermined by influential writers and broadcastes.

The three stalwarts saw the need for a solid Christian formation in tune with the spirit of the times. So they devoted their lives to restoring the Church.  The scene sounds remarkably familiar – the needs of today remarkably similar.  I am sure that there are many Louis Bautains out there.  They too are searching for the truth.  They are also searching for a Louise Humann to come along and guide them back to the Church as an instrument and herald of truth among people – there to be formed into a spiritual direction.

I believe that the crying need of our young people is for spiritual direction of the kind given by Louise Humann who, herself, had been formed by Louis Colmar.

I am convinced that the great need of our time is for this kind of evangelisation.  The Holy Father has set up an Institute of Evangelisation to promote the announcing of the Good News in ways that are appropriate to the people of our time.

Last year a sprightly grandmother call Catherine Wiley founded the Association of Catholic Grandmothers –but these grandmothers will need help and training if they are to be effective.

I ask the help of your prayers for the Church in Ireland that we may know how to announce again the Good News (Mount Melleray – Malachy).

There was a programme  on television last night, perhaps some of you saw it where there was a lot of talk of change and reform and renewal.   I thought Ray Kinsella made the best point – the real change that is needed is a change in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

We all need to put on the mind of Christ in order to have the same mindset as Jesus, that is, his values so that we all have his attitude towards things like truth and justice.  That can only come from our study and prayer and the stories of his life so that we will behave as he behaved.  That is how the Church will be transformed and become, in fact, the Body of Christ.  

Some weeks ago we launched our Aim for the Diocese of Armagh: to be the Body of Christ so that, with the help of the Spirit of Christ, we bring his compassionate love to others.  

Today is the Feast of Ss Anne and Joachim.  We think of our parents – and our grandparents and deceased aunts and uncles and ancestors and deceased Sisters.  They were the ancestors who gave us all they had and made us what we are.  We recall, with joy, the sacrifices they made for love of us – the efforts they made to give us good example.  I wonder, at what point did they realise the wonders that their child Mary was and how did they cope?

Three weeks ago about 300 people from the continent of Europe came to Bangor, Co Down, and Armagh City.  They came mostly from Italian towns and villages. places like Bobbio which are linked to St Columbanus.  They came to celebrate and to give thanks.  Many years ago I visited Bobbio in Northern Italy where I went to pray at the tomb of St Columbanus.  Remember Columbanus was  the man from South Leinster who left, all those years ago, to spread the Good News about Jesus Christ.  In Bobbio, I was delighted to see a vase of freshly cut flowers on his tomb.  Isn’t it amazing, after all these centuries, someone had actually remembered, felt grateful, and expressed their gratitude.  What a joy to see there are still people around who appreciate the gift, brought by missionaries.  They are the sort of people who can sing from their hearts, the words of the Prophet Isaiah  –

How beautiful it is to see a messenger
coming across the mountains
Bringing Good News
The News of Peace

So, it is a real joy to be here in Clonmel today as you too celebrate and give thank for the 200 year history of your beautiful Church of St Peter and St Paul.  I am very grateful and give thanks to my friend Bishop William Lee for his kind invitation to be here on this joyful occasion.  Bishop Willie is Secretary of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, on whom the Conference relies so often and so heavily for its smooth functioning.
I must say I am highly impressed by the huge programme set out by the Bicentennial Committee, under the outstanding leadership of Father Crowley.  I know you began by acclaiming all of the individuals, groups and organisations, who have helped make this remarkable 200 years of parish history.  Today we thank God for each and every one of them.  
I note with joy that the married couples have already honoured their marriages as the foundation of their family life and the bedrock of all parish life.  Today too we pray that their commitment, which they renewed on St Valentine’s Day, in the presence of their families and their parish community, will be abundantly blessed and flourish in the years ahead.

You have already noted that the present sense of a Church under siege links the late 18th and early 19th century to the early 21st century.  I agree that the spirit, strength and commitment- which enabled this great parish to grow and develop, despite adversity, definitely models the present needs, not only of this parish, not only of this diocese, but of the country as a whole.  

To revive our drooping spirits, to rebuild our strength and to renew our commitment, what needs to be done?  We need to rediscover the roots of our faith in Jesus Christ as Pope Benedict urges us to do in the Pastoral Letter.  We also need to drink deeply from the springs of living waters which Christ offers to each one of us, through his Church.
To get to the roots of our faith, we turn to the historians – especially the students of Church history.  I instinctively turned to Mons Michael Olden with whom it was my privilege to be a contemporary in Maynooth and Rome.  He, in turn, reminded me of other Church historians such as Father Colmcille – the Clonmel Cistercian Father and Mr Philip O’Connell – a fellow Cavan man – who wrote the History of the Diocese of Kilmore – my native diocese and who spent his life teaching in Clonmel.

So what are these roots of our faith?  In his excellent booklet, The Story of the Liturgy in Ireland, Dr Edmond Cullinan reminds us that there were Pre-Patrician Missionaries such as Declan of Ardmór.  So while I am honoured to be in the Déise county, following in the footsteps not only of Declan but also of St Carthage, I recognise that here Declan, nor Patrick, is first.

I stayed last night in the great Cistercian Abbey of Mount Mellary, (1832).  There I was reminded of the links between Armagh and Lismore.  In the twelfth century, Celsus of Armagh, was buried in Lismore.  His successor, St Malachy, studied for several years in the Monastic School of Lismore.  Christian  
O Conairce, the first Abbot of Mellifont, was ordained Bishop of Lismore in 1151.   I am also reminded of the contribution of the Cistercian Abbey of Inislounaght and of the Augustinians of Athassel to the religious life and history of this district.

The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.  I could not come to Clonmel without evoking the sacred Memory of Blessed Maurice McEnrathy, martyred here in 1585 and of Blessed William Tirrie, who gave his life in 1654 and Blessed John Carney martyred in 1653.  Coming from the land of the O’Neill’s, I cannot but remember the encounter between Oliver Cromwell and Aodh Dublin O’Neill in this locality.
Having spent 20 years of my life in the Irish College in Rome, I gladly recognise the contribution to the Church in Ireland of Fr Luke Waddina, OFM, He was a Waterford man and , founder of the Irish College and of St Isidore’s in Rome.  His cousin Fr Thomas Whyte, from Clonmel, founded the Irish College in Salamanca in 1592.  Mention of the Irish Franciscans recalls the unbroken presence of the Franciscan Missionaries in this town since 1269.

I am well aware also that I am in the land of Bishop John Brennan, the lifelong friend and companion of my martyred predecessor, St Oliver Plunkett.  Today I gladly pay tribute to the sacred memory of them both for their part in keeping the flame of faith alight and alive in our respective dioceses.

The century after the era of John Brennan was a century of trial and tribulation and persecution.  Yet the flame was kept alight.  When no priest was available or when it would have been too dangerous for a priest to appear in public, the laity conducted the funerals themselves.  Even though the Mass was in Latin, the people remained very attached to the Eucharist.  There were prayers in Irish to accompany the parts of the Mass and even to be recited on the way to and from Mass.  We are grateful to Nioclás MacCrath who collected a beautiful set of such prayers in An Rin.  I love the prayer which was said before Mass.  

During the penal years the people of Waterford and Lismore resisted well the onslaught of this evil.  When the laws, restricting the public expression of Catholicism, were relaxed, the first of the new Cathedrals to be built was that of the Holy Trinity in Waterford City in 1793.  Not to be outdone by the Waterford people, Clonmel made its mark in 1810.  

The building of this great Church took place because the Mother Church, St Mary’s was no longer adequate to the needs of Clonmel.  That tells me one important fact – the people of Cluain Meala – of the Honey Vale in 1810, had their priorities right.  They knew who they were and why they were here on earth, on the banks of the Suir – on the border between Na Déise and the Premier County.  They knew that to receive eternal life, they must love the Lord, their God.  Yes, they must render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar but also to God what belongs to God.  As creatures, what we need to do is to acknowledge who God is – Our Creator and Saviour – the Lord and Master of everything that exists.

‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve’, says Jesus, quoting from the Old Testament.  So the people of Clonmel decided to build themselves a new and bigger and better place of worship – the Church of Sts Peter and Paul.  The building heralded a century of tremendous expansion.  One example was the return of the Cistercian Monks in 1830 – having been suppressed in the 16th century.  This time they came first not to Armagh – that would take place 100 years later – instead they came to Mount Mellery here in this diocese of Waterford.  

Rediscover the roots of your faith.  Cut off from its roots, the tree withers and dies.  It bears no fruit.  Pope Benedict’s second piece of advice is:  ‘Drink deeply from the springs of living water’.  Christ offers us those springs to us through His Church.  To the Samaritan woman, whom he met at the well, Jesus made a fantastic promise:  ‘Those who drink the water that I will give them, will never be thirsty again for that water will become a spring that will provide them with life-giving water and give them eternal life’.  But what does at that mean?  I think it means choosing, like Mary in today’s Gospel – the right thing.  It means sitting down at the feet of the Lord and listening to His teaching.
What does choosing the better part really mean?  Martha decided to go off and make the tea or the dinner or the supper.  She decided not to sit down and listen to Jesus as Mary did.  

I think it can be helpful for all of us – no matter how busy we are or we think we are – to sit down, even occasionally, and face the great questions of life:

•    What does life call me to do?
•    What are human desires all about?
•    What am I, in fact searching and striving for?
•    Who, in fact, am i?

The tragedy is, not even to ask the questions.  The disaster is not even to wonder if life is more than one thing after another.  

It is important to be open to the truth.  For openness to the truth is openness to God – the ultimate mystery.  Those who believe in Christ, see that the goal of all our searching and seeking is, in fact, God – the God who is revealed in Jesus Christ.

You have made us for yourself O Lord and our hearts are restless until they rest in you

We follow Jesus Christ because we believe that the great mystery has been given to us in the person of Jesus Christ.  Christians believe that the real place of rest and stillness is that region where God dwells in our innermost being, where God is experienced in quiet and in silence – a silence that speaks more loudly than word.

In today’s Gospel Mary entertains Jesus. He is the Word made flesh – the real presence of God.  She sat down at his feet and listened to his teaching.  Mary is always there for him.  Mary got her priorities right.  She drank as deeply as possible the words of life – from the lips of Him who came to give us life.

The mystery of God had been hidden for ages, then it was all revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.  He longs for our company.  By baptism we have been grafted onto him who said:  “I am the vine, you are the branches”.  

The Eucharist nourishes and strengthens the bonding of our friendship.  St Paul urges us to put on the mind of Christ.  When I became a bishop I chose as my motto ‘To know Jesus Christ’ We cannot put on his mind and adopt his values, unless we actually know Jesus Christ.  We cannot make his attitudes our attitudes unless we figure out what the attitudes of Christ actually are.  But, if we do so, we experience a remarkable liberation from self-preoccupation.
Today we thank God for all who have come here for 200 years to drink at the fountain of everlasting life.  The Prophet Jeremiah laments the fate of those who have turned away from God – the spring of fresh water. Instead of worshipping God they had dug cisterns – cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.  Here in Clonmel the problem has probably more often been burst banks rather than that of cracked cisterns. When the banks burst – and I speak here of rivers – not financial institutions – the people of Clonmel turned, not to the broken cisterns of the other gods – the broken cisterns of wealth and power but instead they turn to the spring of fresh water provided by their faith in Christ.  Long may they continue to do so.

AMEN

On Sunday last there was a very sad funeral in my native parish.  Simon Sexton was buried.  He was the young paramedic who died after being flung from an ambulance, as he was caring for a patient en route to Dublin.  From all accounts the community drew on all their gifts and used their many and different abilities, which they placed at the service of the young broken-hearted widow, and her six very young children to give them strength and bring them healing and consolation.  Edel, the eldest, aged 15 was strong enough to read a reading; Catherine, her mother, felt supported enough to offer a Post-Communion Reflection – Gifts – Abilities – Service.  St Paul tells of gifts, abilities and service.  They are present in every Christian Community, in every parish, and they are present in abundance.  It was a case, not just of all working together but of all taking responsibility for what had to be done.  

In recent times Pope Benedict made this same point to the clergy of Rome.  “It is a case of seeing the lay faithful, not just as collaborators but of actually being co-responsible for continuing the work of Christ here and now.”  It is a case of someone saying, “I am only one person; but I am one.”  “I can’t do everything but what I can do, that I will do.”

We have heard, just now, St Paul tell us that Christ is like a single body which has many parts and many functions.  God has established a harmony in the Body.  If one part is suffering, all the rest suffers with it.  If one is treated with honour all the rest will find pleasure in it.  But immediately before that he spoke of the different gifts from the Holy Spirit.  There are different gifts, given by the same Spirit, different ways of serving the same Lord and many different abilities to perform service.

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, e.g., religious life, but there are many others.  The same God gives ability to all for their particular service.  God gives ability to all, to you and to me and to the people we represent.  God does not make junk.

The presence of the Spirit is shown in some way in each person for the good of all.

The Spirit is present in the hearts of all, in each one of us.  In some way, not the same way, but in some way.  

Why?  For what purpose?  For the good of all.  To help all become the Christ.  To help all to serve the Christ as described in the Aim.
This evening we are adopting an Aim for this diocese.  How do we generate enthusiasm, not just for the adoption, but for the actual implementation of this Aim?

Perhaps it would help to ask ourselves two questions – What is the purpose of my life here and now on this planet?  I would suggest that we will likely come to the conclusion that it is in fact to become the Body of Christ, to become the Christ.  But a body dies when it is separated from the Spirit and in the same way faith is dead if it is separated from good works.  It is important therefore that each one of us strives to put on the mind of Christ.  In other words, to adopt the values and imitate the attitudes and behaviour of Christ Jesus.  The Spirit of Christ lives in our hearts in order to pray on our behalf and to bear witness in our lives to the fact that we are children of God.

The main question is: What is the Church for?  The Spirit of God lives in the Church in order to guide it into the way of truth.  The Spirit lives in the Church to unify it and to equip it with gifts so that it can help all of us to become the Body of Christ.  When we welcome the resources which the Spirit provides and work with them patiently and faithfully, then, and only then, will the Church become the Body of Christ.  Then the Church becomes adorned with the fruits of the Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit that are listed by St Paul, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithful humility and self-control.

This year, as I made my way to Confirmations up and down the diocese, I decided to pray the Rosary.  We always said the Glorious Mysteries, no matter what day of the week it was.  We did this to remind ourselves of the basic truth, that we are all made for glory, we love glory.  We find our deepest happiness on earth in giving glory to God.  We are at our happiest when we give praise to God, not only in words, but in our actions.  We decided to offer the third Glorious Mystery, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, first of all, for the teachers of the faith, not only for the bishops and priests and theologians, but also for parents, for secondary teachers and primary teachers and for all who share the task of handing on the faith.  

As we reflected more and more on this task we saw that there is a huge army of people involved, not just teachers but Boards of Governors and Boards of Management and youth workers  Not only that, there are choirs, servers, sacristans, stewards, readers, collectors, Eucharistic ministers, leaders of prayer groups.  

We thought of other people who are building up God’s Kingdom, the Apostolic Workers, the St Joseph’s Young Priests’ Society, Cursillo, the Legion of Mary, St Vincent de Paul, the Pioneer Association, the list goes on and on.  The people who organise pilgrimages, the people who organise prayer sessions, the people who offer preparation for marriage in Accord.  The list is endless.  

They are the people whom the Spirit has equipped with gifts to help the Church to become the Body of Christ.  And my prayer, especially for all those this evening, is that the way we behave and act will be like a light amidst darkness.  

We pray especially that we may not hinder others from having a perfect view of Christ and His Church by bad example or the lack of justice and charity in our own lives.

Some will ask, where are we going to get the resources to carry out this aim?  I believe the resources are there, and there in abundance.  Resources, for example, of time and talent and experience, experience of young and old.  It is a question of going once more to the huge treasure-house of God’s holy people and of drawing forth from the treasures, both old and new.  

I am thinking of the treasure-house of prayer and sacrifice, especially the sacrifice of suffering.  But it is all a question of willingness to share what is being called for with others.  Here we must rely on the greatest gift of all, the gift of love, the gift that will last forever.  And here it is a case of really getting to know Jesus, who said, “There is no greater love than this – that a man should lay down his life for his friends.”  He, and He alone, gave His all for us.  He, and He alone, can inspire and enable us to do likewise.

Jesus said: 

“Behold, I am with you always even to the end of time”.

Then he kept his promise and sent the Paraclete – the Second Advocate – the Counsellor – to make sure, in fact, that he could be with us always.  The Spirit reminds us of what Jesus said and did.  So, all our pastoral plans – and diocesan aims and our deliberations – will come to nothing without the help of the Holy Spirit.  No-one can confess “Jesus is Lord” without the Holy Spirit!

Hence we must ever and always, implore the help of the Holy Spirit.  But there is another thing we must do.  We must remember what the Risen Jesus told his disciples –

“Wait for the gift I told you about.  John baptised with water but in a few days you will be baptised with the Spirit”. 

So they waited but they waited with purpose.  They gathered frequently to pray as a group, together with the women – and with Mary, the Mother of Jesus.  So this evening then, we entrust all our diocesan aims and pastoral plans and pastoral areas and pastoral resource teams to the care of Mary, the Mother of the Good Shepherd – the Mother of the  Pastor Supreme.
Pray for us O holy Mother of God
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

That lovely prayer is said all over the world every day by millions of people.  Why has Mary become our life, our sweetness and, above all, our hope?  Why is it that men and women of every time and place have recourse to her motherly kindness, in all their needs and aspirations, their joys and sorrows, their moments of loneliness and their common efforts?

I want to pick out three moments in the life of Mary which give me great hope.  The first is the time she went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth.  You remember when that happened?  The Angel Gabriel had just left Mary.  Mary had said “yes” to God’s proposal that she should become the Mother of His Son.  In the course of their conversation the Angel had made some fantastic promises to Mary.  Her Son will be great.  The Lord God will make him a King for ever because His kingdom will have no end.  Now these are fantastic promises.  This is a humble daughter of Nazareth, which wasn’t exactly the centre of the world.  Mary thought about those promises.  She believed them, because she believed that the Angel was speaking on behalf of God, and of course we know that nothing is impossible with God.  So Mary said, “yes”.  Then she set out on a long journey to visit her cousin Elizabeth.  She also had got good news.  She too was going to give birth to a son and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to Mary, “How happy you are that the Lord’s Message to you will come true.”  I am really happy that you meet faithfully here every week to celebrate the Miraculous Medal devotion.

I imagine that they give you great hope as you recall the various events in the life of Our Lady.  Last October it was my privilege to celebrate Mass at the famous Shrine of the Miraculous Medal in the Rue de Bac in Paris.  It really is a lovely church, always people there lighting candles and praying to Our Lady, asking for her help.  I was particularly impressed by the large number of people from Asia and Africa who were there.  I was very struck by the fact that these people, far away from home, seeking work, often in trouble perhaps, put their trust in Mary.

Mary put her trust in the Lord, absolutely, and not in herself.  And of course she was not disappointed.  Unfortunately today a lot of people are under the illusion that nothing is impossible for them or to them.  All they have got to do, according to themselves, is to set their minds to it and they can do it.  So they flounder underneath this myth.  They believe that they can save themselves and that they can achieve self-fulfilment on their own.  Of course they inevitably are disappointed and defeated in these efforts and the temptation is to give in to pessimism and despair.  It would seem that poor people, who are far away from home, feel threatened or in danger, turn to Mary for help in their valley of tears.  In our moments of sickness and trouble people of faith turn to Mary to give them hope.  Hope is one of the greatest gifts which last.  It is a gift of the Holy Spirit offered to everyone who is open to Christ in faith.  And that is exactly how Mary was, and is.  She was filled with the Holy Spirit because she said yes to becoming the Mother of Christ.  She put her faith in God and in His promises.  She is a model of hope because hope is all about believing in promises and being confident that they can come true.  Nobody can give what they have not got themselves.  Mary gives hope because she has hope.  The cure of all despair is hope, Christian hope.  It is a gift which God offers to everyone who believes, to help us on the journey to everlasting life.  We may never get to Lourdes or Fatima or even Knock but we are all on pilgrimage.  We know that God is calling us to himself.  We know well that we have not yet arrived at the vision of God, but hope spurs us on.  Hope makes us reach into the interior, beyond the veil, beyond the curtain which death draws down.  

Last Sunday, Pentecost, we celebrated the fact that the Holy Spirit came to fulfil the promises made by Christ.  Through the presence of the Holy Spirit we get a taste of future glory.  Come Holy Spirit, fill our hearts and enkindle in them the light of hope.  The Holy Spirit lives and prays and works in the depths of the soul of each one of us.  Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth said to Mary, “You are the most blessed of all women and blessed is the child you will bear.”  Every time we say the Hail Mary the Holy Spirit inspires us to pray the same prayer.  Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.  The Holy Spirit keeps us from going astray.  The Spirit guides us to see the true purpose of our existence which is to give glory to God in this life so that we may share God’s glory in the next life.

Our devotion to Mary and our hope in her moves us to say with her, My heart praises the Lord, my soul is glad because of God, my Saviour.  That is the cure for our discouragement.

We know that Mary saved a newly-wed couple huge embarrassment at Cana.  The wedding reception risked turning into a fiasco.  They had no wine.  Just imagine being at a wedding in a hotel that had no drink.  Well, Mary came to the rescue by spotting the disaster that was coming down the tracks.  She turned to her son and enlisted his help.  Of course the rest is history.  And down through the centuries people have taken huge hope from those words of Mary, “Do whatever He tells you.”

It was my privilege, during my thirteen years on the staff of the Irish College, to have celebrated hundreds of weddings.  And I am quite sure that every couple that came to be married had high hopes for the future happiness of their life together.  I have met many of those I married, since returning to Ireland, and I am glad to say that very many of them are happily married.  It is a great joy, especially in places like Knock, to meet people from all over Ireland who are happily married.  But, unfortunately, I know there are some who are not and who have gone their separate ways.  Now that must be a devastating experience and it doesn’t have to be that way.  It is not the wine that can run out in a marriage, people’s faith in each other can run short; people’s patience with each other can fail, people can yield to temptation and if forgiveness has run out, well then disaster looms.  So I would say that every couple preparing for marriage should try and develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  He is our only Saviour.  It is His spirit, the spirit of the risen Christ, living in us, praying in us and working in us who can give us all the gifts we need to meet the challenges of life, whether that life is as a married person or a single person, in religious life or in priesthood.  So I am sure, as you pray these devotions you turn to Mary, who got her Son to work that wonderful miracle at Cana.  I am sure that is often in your thoughts.

The last moment in the life of Mary I would like to think about is, the one described in the First Reading.  It described that after Christ had left them and ascended into heaven the disciples went back to Jerusalem, from the Mount of Olives, which is about a half a mile away from the City.  They went on a Sabbath day walk because you weren’t allowed to walk very far on the Sabbath and St Luke is making a point that the apostles were observant Jews and they kept the law.  They entered the City and went up to the room where they were staying; Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, Simon, Judas, son of James.  They gathered frequently to pray as a group, together with the women and with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.  You see, at Calvary, Jesus had given Mary to John, to be his mother.  John represents all of us.  He represents the whole Church and there Mary is, with the Church, praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit.  We see there that Mary, the Mother of Christ, was present in the Upper Room during the days of preparation for Pentecost.  Just as the birth of Christ is closely related to Mary, so the birth of the Church is linked with her.  The simple statement that she was present in the Upper Room at Pentecost is enough to show us the great importance which Luke could attach to this fact.  In the Upper Room in Jerusalem, Mary, together with the other disciples prepared for a new coming of the Holy Spirit which would mark the birth of the Church.  Yes, she was already a temple of the Holy Spirit by her fullness of grace, by the fact that she was the Mother of God, but she took part in the prayers for the Spirit’s coming again so that through His power there should burst out in the community the energy to carry out the mission which Jesus had received from the Father and had left to His Church.  Jesus had promised to them that when the Spirit would come, they would be filled with power and would be witnesses for Him in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Somaria and to the ends of the world.  The Apostles needed her presence and her devotedness to prayer.  In the prayer with Mary we see her special intercession, her special powers of intercession which she used at Cana.  That power came from the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  

The Second Vatican Council said that Mary co-operated in the formation of the Apostles, the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, the brothers and sisters of Christ with her motherly love.  The Church, in her turn, from the day of Pentecost by her preaching, brings forth to a new and immortal life the sons and daughters who are born to her in baptism, who are conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of God.  That is the teaching of the Council.  The Church, therefore, by becoming herself a mother in this way looks to the Mother of Christ as her model and that looking towards Mary, the mother of Christ, began in the Upper Room.  We are here this evening looking toward the Mother of Christ for inspiration for an increase of faith and above all for a stronger, more powerful hope.

I was here for the Christmas Message last year with Bishop Harper.  I saw some of the great things which the followers of Christ were doing to mark the compassionate love of Christ in this town.

May the celebration of this Novena in love of Mary, the Mother of Christ, gladden your hearts and fill you with hope.