A couple of weeks ago, Father Seamus Kelly, Parish Priest of Ballinascreen/Draperstown, phoned me: “The diocese of Derry is celebrating a Eucharistic Congress”.  “Would I come and concelebrate Mass on one of the days” he asked. I had no hesitation in saying ‘yes’, for a number of reasons. This Congress is yet another example of the very great preparations that are taking place all over Ireland for the International Congress taking place in Dublin in June.

But, I had another, more personal reason.  Father Seamus and I were students together in the Irish College, Rome in the 1960s.  We were young then but we had to spend most of the year, including Christmas, away from our families.  This could be difficult, especially in times of sickness.  Lectures were in the Italian language which could also pose its own problems and yet, I regard those as among the happiest days of my life.  Yes, it was exciting to be in Rome – one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but the real reason for our happiness was the bonds of friendship that were formed.  Cut off from home and homeland, we were forced to rely, not so much on ourselves but on each other, and also, of course, on the Lord Jesus – for, after all, the reason we were there was to study and train to become priests in the service of you, the people of our native dioceses.

We formed those bonds of friendship and communion as we walked back and forth to the university together, went sightseeing together, dined together and played together.  But, above all, those bonds of friendship and interdependence were formed when we prayed together, especially at the celebration of daily Mass in the College Chapel.  
There we learned from experience that the Eucharist was, indeed, the source and summit of our spiritual life.  There we met in the most personal way Christ himself. There we experienced him to be the sublime cause of both our sharing in the divine life and of our unity among ourselves.

Those were the days of the Second Vatican Council – it was then that the Mass began to be celebrated in English, Ministers of the Word and Extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist were introduced and a new emphasis began to be placed on the offering of Prayers of the Faithful in the Mass.

That is why I am delighted to know that today in this Eucharistic Congress Mass there are many Ministers of the Word and of the Eucharist present as well as Prayer Guides from all over the diocese.  It allows us all the opportunity to reflect on the vital part you play in the celebration of the Eucharist in the life of the Church. By being Ministers of the Word or Ministers of Eucharist, you remind us that at Mass we are nourished both by the Word of God and by the Bread of Life – the Body and Blood of Christ. As we focus attention on the Reading of the Word we realise how important it is to actually hear the word.  Faith comes from hearing of course and St Paul said:  ‘If Christ be not risen, then our faith is in vain’.  We could add:  ‘if we do not have faith, then our celebration is in vain’.  When Jesus first promised the Eucharist he said:  “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in you”.  Some said ‘This is a hard saying and who can listen to it’.  Some walked away.  But Jesus did not change or withdraw a word of what he had said in an attempt to have them change their minds’.  

Pope Benedict has declared a Year of Faith to begin next October.  He says: ‘The door of faith is always open for us – leading into a life of communion with God.  But how do we enter it? By hearing God’s word and allowing God’s grace to change our hearts.  

Today I thank all Readers of the Word here present.  I thank you for the faith and love which you bring to the sacred task entrusted to you.  I thank you for your careful preparation and determination to read well and to be understood by everyone in the congregation.  Yes indeed faith comes from hearing God’s word.  So thank you for helping to have that word heard and understood.  For the fact is that in the Eucharist, the presence of the Body and Blood of Christ can only be grasped by faith and faith comes from hearing.

To respond to the invitation of Christ to eat His Body, we must prepare ourselves for so great and so holy a moment.  I thank the Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist for helping us to prepare to receive communion by the reverence and respect and joy which they bring to the distribution of the Most Blessed Sacrament.  

I thank all Ministers of the Eucharist who, with their great sense of reverence, remind all of us of the sacred act we perform at Mass.  St. Paul – writing less than thirty years after the Last Supper, warned the Corinthians against eating the bread or drinking the cup in an unworthy manner – lest they be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.  The Church has always taught that anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to Holy Communion.

The sense of wonder and reverence in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament is brilliantly captured by St Thomas Aquinas when he wrote:

“Godhead, here in hiding, whom I do adore
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art”.

I remember once being very struck by the reverent way the altar servers knelt down to make their thanksgiving after receiving Holy Communion in a parish in south Co Derry.  I asked who had taught them to do so.  They answered:  “the Sacristan”.  So I gladly salute the work of Sacristans and Choirs and altar servers, and of all who do so much to instil, in all of us, proper devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.  

I am glad to hear of the Prayer Guides here today.  I know that in your prayer with the Word of God you help so many people to grow in their awareness of the presence of Christ in their lives.  When we see that Christ is truly risen and active in our lives – really great things can happen.  Take the example of Peter.  The Readings we have just heard describe a couple of key moments in the life of Peter after the Resurrection of Jesus.  

The First Reading describes how the Scribes and Pharisees tried to intimidate Peter into silence and prevent him from speaking of Christ, risen from the dead.  But Peter and John are defiant:  “We cannot be silent about what we have seen and heard”.  

But you may ask: Could this possibly be the same Peter who denied three times, with an oath, to a servant girl – that he even knew Jesus?  Could this possible be the same Peter who, despite having been to the tomb and seen the empty grave, was still upbraided by the Lord later that same Easter day for his lack of faith?  Yes it is.  So what is the explanation?  Let us take a moment to chart the journey.  It began when Jesus looked at him after his third denial and Peter went out and wept bitterly.

That was a start but not enough to give him the courage to go to Calvary.  The appearance of the Risen Christ to the eleven, including Peter, was another important stage.  His first words were ‘Peace’ then Jesus breathed the Spirit upon them and gave them the power to forgive sins.  (He knew that they would need it).  Finally, he told them to go and proclaim the Good News to the ends of the earth.  What a marvellous vote of confidence in his friends and brothers, on the part of Jesus despite their dismal performance of the previous few days.  

So Peter’s new-found assurance and courage in the face of huge and powerful opposition can be attributed to two things:
    his belief that Christ was truly risen and, secondly,
    his having been anointed, by the Holy Spirit, and sent to bring Good News.  

But, of course, the greatest vote of confidence was given by the Risen Christ to Mary Magdalene.  Jesus chose her to go and tell his brothers that he was risen.  They did not believe her, of course, because the news seemed too good to be true.  She wasn’t the first woman not to be believed at first, but she is an icon for so many mothers who have been chosen to bring the Good News of faith to their often unbelieving and sometimes stubborn menfolk.

The Eucharist is the heart and summit of the life of the Church.  The changing of bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood is due to the Word of Christ and to the action of the Holy Spirit.  Christ continues to pour out his Spirit among the members of the Church to continue His work in the world today – in other words – on you and me, on all of us.

We have already spoken of your part in nurturing faith through your reading and praying of Scripture.  But the Spirit also comes to organise the members of the Church – the Body of Christ – in their various functions and roles in the Church – choirs; collectors; servers and Readers.
The Spirit comes to heal hurts and divisions and to forgive sins – in the Sacrament of Confession.  The Spirit of the Risen Christ gives new life and sends out missionaries to those who have strayed.  Finally, the Spirit comes to unite the believers to the offering which Christ made of himself on the cross and to his prayers for the saving of the world.  This is important for all of us but especially for the sick.  By uniting our suffering and prayers to that of Christ on the Cross, they grow in value.

This takes place supremely in the Mass.  In the Mass Christ associates and links his Church and all her members with his sacrifice and thanksgiving.  He offered that sacrifice, once and for all, on the Cross.  

Every Mass is sacred and precious because it makes present the sacrifice of Christ and in it Christ pours out the graces we all need to be saved.  

One of the fruits of the Mass and of receiving Holy Communion is that it commits us to the poor.  When we receive, in truth, the Body of Christ, which was given up and nailed to the Cross for us, then we are committed to recognise Him in the poorest of the poor.

Tomorrow the Medical Missionaries of Mary gather in Drogheda to celebrate the 75th anniversary of their foundation.  It is a story where each decade brought its own huge, immense, challenges but also its own vast achievements.  But you can be absolutely sure that Jesus, in the Eucharist, was always central to their work.  For example, two years ago the Sisters left Ethiopia after 50 years of work – because they are assured that the work can continue there without them.  It was a painful farewell – they had covered thousands of miles by jeep and mule.  They often had to remain away from their base mission for more than a month at a time, living among the tents in the villages.  But they did it – nourished by the Word of Life and the Bread of Life.
I hope that the Eucharistic Congress, held here in Derry, will help us all to understand better God’s glorious plan to save us through His Son Jesus Christ and how the Blessed Eucharist is indeed at the heart of the plan.

AMEN

Today, Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. With joy we proclaim our faith ‘in the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come’. The Gospels make it clear that it was the same wounded body on the cross that, in the Resurrection, is transformed and glorified. With St. Paul, therefore, we proclaim our faith that he who raised Jesus from the dead will also transfigure these ‘bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body.  We proclaim the good news that this body I have is worthy of the utmost dignity and respect.  It is part of my unique identity for all eternity.

As I wish people a very happy Easter, I immediately ask myself what do I mean by wishing people a Happy Easter?  One of the things that can help make people happy is good news, especially good news that concerns themselves.  The good news of Easter, and it concerns all of us, is that:  Christ is risen from the dead.  Dying he conquered death.  To the dead he has given life.  Someday we are all going to die.  But death is not the end.

Someone asked me recently:  What would I have said or done if I had found myself among those unfortunate women, men and child passengers on the Titanic 100 years ago?  

At first I felt the question far-fetched.  But then I remembered that one of my uncles had actually sailed from Ireland to the United States four years earlier in 1908.  Then I began to apply my mind to the question more seriously.

If I had found myself on the Titanic I would hope that all the prayers I have said, asking for help at the hour of my death, would at that time, be answered.  But I would also hope that, in a situation like that, terrible and all as it is, my faith in the Risen Christ would come to my aid – with clearer realization – that yes, in fact Christ had not only destroyed death, but actually removed, the terror of death.  

I would hope that, no mater where I am, hilltop or valley, land or sea, in a crowd or alone, I would always remember that I am in the presence of God.  I would hope that even in those dire circumstances, I would not forget that the Creator, who gave me life, is within me, and is concerned for my well-being.  I would dearly like to believe that even then I would do my best to bring help and consolation to others.

So my wish for everyone this Easter is:  joy – deep joy; as the Easter Proclamation of the Church says:  

Exult, let them exult, the Hosts of Heaven.
Be glad, let earth be glad
Let all the corners of the earth be glad,
Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice.

Christ has broken the prison bars of death.  He is the morning star who never sets but sheds his peaceful light on all humanity. May the Risen Christ help us all escape from whatever prisons of darkness and despair hold us captive and may His peaceful light burn brightly, especially on the sick, this Eastertide.

Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, welcomes the announcement today by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, that His Eminence Cardinal Marc Ouellet (69) has been appointed Papal Legate for the 50th International Eucharistic Congress.  The Congress will take place in Dublin between 10 – 17 June.

Cardinal Brady said “I gladly welcome the news that Pope Benedict has appointed Cardinal Marc Quellet as Papal Legate to represent him at the 50th International Eucharistic Congress to be held in Dublin next June.   It is yet another indication of the Holy Father’s care and concern for the Catholic Church in Ireland at this time.  I attended the last international Eucharistic Congress in Quebec in 2008 as a pilgrim and Cardinal Ouellet, then Archbishop of Quebec, hosted an outstanding Congress.  Today’s announcement is a timely invitation to all of us to do our best to promote the aims of the Congress which are to increase awareness of the central place of the Eucharist in the life of the Church and to help improve our understanding of the liturgy and of its social dimension.”

The Papal Legate is the special envoy of Pope Benedict XVI.  The Papal Legate will be present throughout the Congress and his principal public roles will include presiding at the opening Mass on Sunday 10 June at the RDS and the Statio Orbis (concluding Mass) in Croke Park on Sunday 17 June next.

Before the Eucharistic Congress begins Cardinal Ouellet will also formally open and deliver the keynote address at the International Theology Symposium which takes place at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, from 6 June until 9 June (see details below).  Earlier this year Cardinal Ouellet led the penitential liturgy during the Towards Healing Conference which took place at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in February.

Life and Ministry of Cardinal Ouellet

Cardinal Marc Ouellet PSS (Society of Saint-Sulpice) is the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and concurrently president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America since his appointment by Pope Benedict on 30 June 2010.  Previously, he was archbishop of Quebec, Primate of Canada.  He was appointed cardinal by Blessed John Paul II on 21 October 2003.

Born on 8 June 1944 in La Motte near Amos in Abitibi, he is one of eight children born to a school principal father and a homemaker mother.  He received his primary education from 1950 to 1956 in his home parish. There he also began his secondary education (1956-1958) in order to finish them at the Berthier College (1958-1959), and undertook his college education as well as two years of philosophy at the École Normale of Amos (1959-1964), earning a Bachelor of Pedagogy degree from Laval University in 1964.  After his theological studies at the Grand séminaire de Montréal (1964-1968), where in 1968 he received a licence in theology from the University of Montreal, he was ordained priest for the Diocese of Amos on 25 May 1968 in his home parish, and appointed curate in the St-Sauveur Parish of Val d’Or (1968-1970).

After a few months of studying the Spanish language at the end of 1970, he taught philosophy at the Major Seminary of Bogotá in Colombia, directed by the Sulpicians, and decided in 1972 to join the Society of Saint Sulpice doing the Solitude at the Seminary of Philosophy in Montreal.  Then he continued his studies in Rome where he obtained a licence in philosophy from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in 1974, while studying German in Innsbruck, Austria during this period.  Assigned in 1974 as a member of the formation team and professor at the Major Seminary of Manizales in Colombia, in 1976 he was recalled to Canada to fulfill the same functions at the Major Seminary of Montreal. Returning to studies in 1978, he obtained in 1982 a doctorate in dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, also continuing his studies of German in Passau. Assigned in 1982 as a member of formation team and professor of the Major Seminary of Cali, Colombia, in 1983 he became rector of the Major Seminary of Manizales, and in 1988 first consultor of the Canadian Provincial Council of Sulpicians (a position he held until 1994) as well as a member of the formation team and professor at the Major Seminary of Montreal.  He assumed the rectorship there in 1990, to pass, in 1994, to that of Saint Joseph’s Seminary in Edmonton. He also taught at Newman Theological College in 1996-1997 and was a lecturer at the John Paul II Institute in Rome. From 1995 to 2000 he was consultor of the Congregation for the Clergy, and in 1996 the consultor of the General Council of the Sulpicians.  Since 1997 he was Titular Professor of dogmatic theology at the John Paul II Institute of the Pontifical Lateran University.  In 2001 Cardinal Ouellet was consecrated a bishop and appointed secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.  In October 2008 Cardinal Ouellet was appointed the ‘relator-general’ of the 12th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome.

Cardinal Ouellet is a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Congregation for the Clergy, the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  He is also a member of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of Organizational and Economic Affairs of the Holy See.  On 5 January 2011 he was appointed among the first members of the newly created Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation. On 29 January 2011, Cardinal Ouellet was appointed as a member of Secretariat of State (second section).  On 6 April 2011, he was named a member of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts by Pope Benedict.  On 7 March 2012 Cardinal Ouellet was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.

Hosanna – Save – we ask – recognise him as our Saviour

I welcome you all here today most warmly on this Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion.  During this coming week we journey, with the Lord Jesus, through his suffering and death on the cross.  We offer up our own sufferings to God, Our Father and ask that they be united to the sufferings of Jesus Christ.  We offer up our prayers in union with His prayers – for those who have disappeared and for their families and friends.

I welcome you as a very special group of people – people very well acquainted with sufferings in your own lives and therefore very well prepared to celebrate the Passion and Death of Christ.  I welcome you as people of great prayer – who are well aware that in Baptism you were bound to Jesus.  As the families of those who have disappeared without track or trace left behind, you gather today to give thanks that, due to the efforts of those who have searched, and due to many other factors and especially as believers, we thank God that the remains of

Jean McConville    Brian McKinney    John McClory
Eugene Simons    Eamon Molloy    Danny McIlhone
Gareth O’Connor    Charlie Armstrong    Gerry Evans
Peter Wilson        
Which have been recovered and given Christian burials.

As we carry forward candles in honour of those not yet discovered:
Kevin McKee    Seamus Wright    Brendan Megraw
Columba McVeigh    Seamus Ruddy    Joe Lynskey
Robert Niarac        

We see those candles as symbols of our determination to continue to pray for their discovery.

Also in this Mass we remember some others:
•    Mary McKee, Mother of Kevin, who died before Christmas;
•    We also remember Phyllis Lynskey, Sister-in-Law of Joe, who died last month.
We welcome
•    Sir Kenneth and Lady Elizabeth Bloomfield,
•    Mr Frank Murray, Commissioner for the South
•    Ms Jodie Crowe, and Mr Geoff Kupfner,

We give thanks for their commitment and endurance and we pray that they get the wisdom and the guidance they need to succeed in this holy endeavour

I welcome and commend the commitment of the Commission to continue its work in an effort to alleviate the suffering of those who, so far, have not had the consolation of knowing where the remains of their loved ones can be located. I make my own, the fervent appeal of the Commissioners to those who can offer information about the fate of the disappeared to do so.  We pray that God will give to those people, the courage to overcome their fears and share the information with those who are searching.  We are grateful that the overwhelming concern of the Commission has been, at all times, the wellbeing of you, the families.
As we begin this Holy Week we resolve to stay close to Jesus.  That is where we belong:  at his side.  We recall his suffering and the fact that he suffered and died:  We remember that he did so for love of us.  We try to unite our suffering to his suffering.  But it is so hard to actually offer our own suffering.  

Someone said to me recently – ‘nobody is born alone.  But everybody dies alone.  There may be others present – but nobody can actually accompany us through that mysterious door into the next life, into the fullness of the new life of the next world’.  

That new life begins here in faith.  It grows and develops in hope.  But it will reach perfection only when death will be swept up in the victory of life.  Only when death – the last enemy – is defeated by the victory of Christ the Lord shall we all be transformed and become like the angels.

But Christ has already won that victory for us.  Today people all over the world will carry palm branches.  The palm is the sign of victory.  In some places they carry not palm branches but olive branches – the sign of peace and of close friendship.

Today, as we walk in memory of Christ’s victory, we pray:

Lord, grant that we may be close to you always.

AMEN

I was in Cookstown yesterday afternoon for the Re-Dedication of their beautiful Church of the Holy Trinity.  It was built between 1855 and 1860 within ten years of the Great Famine and it is really something special.  In the renovation they have moved the baptismal font up to the right hand side of the altar to give it more prominence and to reflect, more accurately, the place of Baptism in the Christian life of each one of us.  Baptism is the doorway into the other sacraments – the doorway into our sharing in the life of God.  

Yesterday too I met a young Polish man who told me proudly that he came from South Poland – near the town where Blessed Pope John Paul II was born – Wadowice.  I remember once visiting that town and going along to see the Parish Church.  Up near the front, on the left hand side, there is a beautiful baptismal font.  When Pope John Paul went back to visit his native parish of course he went to visit the parish church and there is a lovely photograph of him kneeling in prayer beside the baptismal font with his hands on the font.  

•    I am sure that in that prayer he was thanking God for the gift of his baptism.
•    Thanking God for his parents who made sure he was baptised;
•    Thanking God for his sponsors – who stood for him and who made the Baptismal Promises on his behalf, and maybe when his parents died – they both died very young – helped to keep him on the straight and narrow path of the practise of his faith – for ever.
Even future popes, as young men, need guidance.  Anyhow, Pope John Paul was well aware that his baptism was the basis of his whole Christian life.  it is the gateway to life in the Holy Spirit – the life of faith.  Baptism is the door which gives access to the other sacraments.  Through Baptism, we are freed from all traces of sin – the sin of our first parents.  We are reborn as sons and daughters of God to a new life – a divine life.  

At Baptism we all become members of Christ’s body – that is to say – we become members of the Church.  I was asked to speak about Baptism and Communion with one another.  It is suggested by the theme perhaps of International Eucharistic Congress which is taking place in June and which has its theme The Eucharist – Communion with Christ and with one Another.  

When we hear the word ‘Communion’ we probably think about Holy Communion.  The Eucharist is called Holy Communion because, by the sacrament of the Eucharist, we are united to Christ who makes us sharers in His Body and Blood to form a single body.  

These days I am out and about in parishes for Confirmation.  Recently I was in Middletown and, of course, one of the highlights in the ceremony of Confirmation is the Renewal of Baptismal Promises.  But, first of all, the candidates have to be called and, of course, they are called by the name they have chosen for their Confirmation.  They stand up on their own two feet and this time they are well able to answer for themselves.  Perhaps we could do the same now.  I invite you all to stand up and in reply to my questions, to answer ‘I do’.

But there is a second string to the Eucharistic Congress bow – Eucharist – Communion with One Another.

Now we know about Holy Communion.  We talk about Spiritual Communion – that is, when we cannot go to Holy Communion – we invite Jesus to come, spiritually into our souls and we call this ‘Spiritual Communion’.  Of course in the Creed we say we believe in the Communion of Saints.  The Communion of Saints is another name for the Church.  Our way to God, and God’s way to us, passes through the way of our family – our parish – through a community of believers.  That is way we read in the Acts of the Apostles:  that in the early Church they had everything in common.  Everything the true Christian has, is to be considered as something possessed in common with everyone else.  All Christians should be ready, and eager, to come to the help of the needy and of their neighbours in the world.  That is why whoever thought of having the Trócaire campaign during Lent was really clever.    

In Lent we prepare, over seven weeks, to go up to Jerusalem in the company of Jesus – to commemorate, in his company – his passion, death and, above all, to share in his victory over sin and death.  We can do that in many ways –

•    By fasting as Jesus fasted in the desert;
•    By praying, as he prayed, in the Garden of Gethsemane that he would have the strength to do what the Father willed him to do;
•    By Alms-giving which is where the Trócaire campaign comes in.

We can also share in that victory of Christ over sin by going to Confession and have Christ pour out the healing power of his Holy Spirit over us.  The Holy Spirit comes yes, in Baptism and Confirmation, but the Holy Spirit also comes every time a sacrament is celebrated.  The Holy Spirit comes as the Spirit of Love and love is the first gift of the Holy Spirit and one of the first effects of love is to forgive us our sins.  

At Easter – at the Easter Vigil – we renew our Baptismal Promises and, as you have done just now, we recall the fact that Baptism is the foundation of communion among all Christians.  That is, among Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Orthodox, Copts, Anglicans.  We have all been baptised.  We have a lot in common.  OK our communion with one another is not perfect but the fact is that the communion with our fellow Christians is far more real than anything we have in common with Muslims or Jews or Buddhists or Hindu.  

I was over in Lambeth Palace, at the invitation of Archbishop Rowan Williams, to be present at an event to mark the beginning of the celebrations of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  There were nine different groups present – in nine different rooms.  The Christians were all in one room; the Muslims in another and so on.  

We Christians have the Creed in common and the Bible and lots of other things.  When we say that we believe in the Communion of Saints we mean that we do not live fro ourselves only, we do not die for ourselves only, if one member of the Body – for example, my right knee suffers, all the members suffer together.

‘Now’, says St. Paul ‘You are the Body of Christ’ – by baptism and individually you are members of the Body of Christ, so we live in solidarity with all men and women in the Church.  The least of our acts, done in charity, profits everybody because of this mysterious Communion of Saints.  So yu see our fasting and our almsgiving are linked to our Baptism.  

When we are baptised, we are anointed with the Oil of Chrism and the oil of Catechumens.  We become like Christ – who is the anointed on.  That is what the word ‘Christ’ means.  We too are Christian – Christianised.  In a sense we belong, no longer to ourselves, but to Christ who died and rose for us.  Baptism gives us rights and responsibilities.  We get the rights, to receive the other sacraments of course, but also to be nourished through hearing the Word of God, read to us and explained to us in good, well prepared homilies and to be healed and sustained by all the other spiritual helps and prayers in the Church.  

But there are other responsibilities.  By Baptism we are all made sharers in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ.  We share in the Mission, given to Christ by his Father, of teaching His people and of guiding them on the ways of God’s pardon and peace.  

We are all called to be the Body of Christ – sharing His compassionate love with all as the aim of our diocese states.  Take the example of the Penal times.  There were very few priests around and even fewer bishops.  At one stage there was only one bishop in Ireland, Bishop Eugene MacSweeney, who died in 1669.  But the faith was preserved and passed on by baptised Christians who knew their rights and responsibilities to play their part in carrying out the work of Christ – to teach – make holy and rule, guide and shepherd.  

Perhaps that is the why St. Patrick in his Confession speaks a lot about his work of baptising the people of Ireland after he had preached to them.  The baptistery in the Cathedral in shows St. Patrick baptising on different occasions but especially the daughter of the king of Croghan – modern day Co Roscommon.  Let us rejoice in our baptism and give God thanks for it and all the baptised.  

AMEN