I wish to extend my deepest condolences to the family of Dr Garret Fitzgerald. It is a remarkable coincidence that Dr Fitzgerald’s death this morning occurred during these historic days for our country which have resulted in no small part from his efforts to promote peace and reconciliation between Ireland and Britain throughout his life time.

Dr Fitzgerald was a committed statesman who served our country over decades as a public servant, elected representative, and Taoiseach.  He built on the legacy of generous service established by his father Desmond Fitzgerald, the first Minister for External Affairs following the independence of this state.

As a cabinet minister and Taoiseach he was a reforming politician.  He will be remembered for a profound commitment to social justice issues and in particular for his support for the New Ireland Forum and the Anglo Irish Agreement.  

Dr Fitzgerald’s independence of thought, his services to higher education, and his ongoing efforts to fostering links with Europe are examples of his dedicated and thoughtful service to our country.

We remember in our prayers today his daughter Mary, his sons John and Mark, along with his grandchildren and his wider family circle and friends.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

“I have thought long and hard to discover the common chord, the bond that unites the three big events of the week: this pilgrimage; the Royal wedding; and, the Papal Beatification.  They all have in common … the bond of love.  The love in our hearts that responds to God’s love that is given to us”- Cardinal Brady

Cardinal Seán Brady and the Irish Pilgrimage Trust are on pilgrimage this week to the Marian Shrine of Lourdes in France.  The 1,100 Irish pilgrims consist of 450 young people with special needs and carers, priest chaplains, nurses and doctors.  2011 is the 40th anniversary of the Irish Pilgrimage Trust (IHCPT).  This year 48 IHCPT groups from all over Ireland are taking part in this week long pilgrimage to Lourdes.  The pilgrimage involves daily Mass, prayer and social activities.  

Today Cardinal Brady celebrated a special anniversary Mass for the Irish Pilgrimage Trust in the underground Basilica of Saint Pius X in Lourdes. The two hour Mass was attended by 5,000 pilgrims from Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, United States of America, Croatia, the West Indies and Romania and involved music and Irish dancing.  Please see Cardinal Brady’s homily below:

My dear friends,

I left Armagh in Ireland last Monday morning very excited – all excited in fact at the thought of coming once again on this great pilgrimage:

•    a pilgrimage which gathers thousands of very special young people to Lourdes every Easter;
•    a pilgrimage which invites us to come to this special place in answer to Mary’s invitation – an invitation given to Saint Bernadette herself – then a child who had not yet made her First Communion – but a child whose heart was filled with love.  That invitation has been heard by so many other children down through the years, whose hearts are filled with love and who have inspired so much love in the hearts of their parents and families and friends.
I have to be honest and admit I was also excited about the wedding of Prince William and Miss Kate Middleton.  For it is always a great moment when a man and a woman pledge the love that is in their hearts for each other and ask to remain strong in that love.

I am also excited that this Sunday, 1 May, Divine Mercy Sunday, the Church is going to formally declare that Pope John Paul II is in Heaven.  That is the same Pope John Paul who simply loved to travel the world to meet millions of young people and to tell them, as he said during the Youth Mass in Galway in 1979:

Young people of Ireland, I love you!
Young people of Ireland, I bless you!
I bless you in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Críost liom, Críost romham, Críost i mo dhiaidh!

Pope John Paul came to Lourdes twice.  He said Lourdes has a special gift, the gift of prayer, here in Lourdes people pray.  Here in Lourdes people love to pray.  Here we love to lean into the love of God – as we heard last night – and be reconciled.  Here we love to honour Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament.  Here in Lourdes first place always is given to the sick and the old and the weak – for that is the way I think Mary would want things done.

So, young people of the Irish Pilgrimage Trust, what a joy to see you here today.  Thank you for coming and thank you for helping the Lord to teach us how to pray today.  

You know, we adults can sometimes be just a little bit shy about showing our faith, and a little bit hesitant about saying our prayers in public.  Well, thankfully you have no such hesitations.  Right from the concert on Monday night – you stated loud and clear for all to hear – “I’m a believer”.  You danced and you clapped and you sang – “give praise and glory to God” – reminding us all that we are here on earth to do exactly that – to thank God and praise God.  You have done exactly that and you did it magnificently.  How lovely this Easter week to celebrate so wonderfully and so joyfully the Risen Christ.

Dear singers and musicians – dancers and mimers: Thank you for helping us to pray so joyfully and so beautifully here in Lourdes this week.  Thank you for taking the time to prepare and rehearse so carefully so that your great talents of music and song and dance may honour God so gloriously.  Long may you continue to do so.

Dear organisers and helpers of HCPT and IHCPT: to you we owe the privilege of being here once more in this Holy Place – at Mary’s Shrine.  Today I want to thank God for the love which is in the heart of each one of you.  The source and origin of that love is, of course, in the Heart of God – a God who is at once our Mamma and our Papa.  But the response to that love is to be found – not only in the prayers that we say with our lips – but in the way we treat people.  Thank you for the respect and the patience and concern which you show to each and everyone in your care this week and always.

I have thought long and hard to discover the common chord, the bond that unites the three big events of the week: this pilgrimage; the Royal wedding; and, the Papal Beatification.  They have a lot in common: all are big celebrations in a religious place which bring together big crowds and attract lots of publicity.  But the real common bond they share is the bond of love.  The love in our hearts that responds to God’s love that is given to us.

May these wonderful days deepen that love for all of us – our love of Saint Bernadette, for the Virgin Mary and for Jesus.  But above all may it strengthen our love for each other and may the experience of this pilgrimage send us home determined to show that love to others – may Jesus, the Son of Mary, teach each one of us to pray in some new way this day.

Amen

*If we had listened to Blessed John Paul’s warnings about excessive greed more carefully and taken to heart his pleas for an end to violence more urgently, some of the worst effects of our current economic crisis and the needless pain of our violent past could have been avoided.
*Blessed John Paul’s heroic witness of faith, love and apostolic courage, accompanied by great human charisma … helped believers throughout the world not to be afraid; not to be afraid to be called a Christian, not to be afraid to belong to the Church or to speak of the
Gospel.
*In Blessed John Paul’s consistent ethic of respect for life at all its stages and the peaceful pursuit of justice and human rights, I believe we will find a light for our path to a more friendly and peaceful future between all the people of our island and of the world.

I welcome you all, pilgrims from the Church in Ireland, to this Mass of Thanksgiving for the beatification of the Blessed John Paul II.  At this special time I wish, in particular, to extend my good wishes to the Polish community living in Ireland and to acknowledge their vibrant contribution to the Church at home and throughout the world.

In the words of the special prayer for the Beatification, we are here to thank God for having given Pope John Paul II to the Church and for having filled him with the tenderness of the Father, the glory of the cross of Christ and the splendour of the love of the Holy Spirit.

As pilgrims from Ireland we are here to give particular thanks for the vision and hope of an extraordinary man, an outstanding disciple of Jesus Christ who came to the shores of our own land as a pilgrim in 1979.  He came at a decisive moment in the history of Ireland, a
decisive moment in terms of:
– our search for peace in the North;
– our response to materialism in our society and the ‘Celtic Tiger’
that was to emerge, and;
– our approach to the very future of the Christian faith and heritage
of our country.

As we look back at those momentous days, it is extraordinary to realise just how prophetic, just how important and far-seeing his message was to us at that time. Perhaps if we had listened to his warnings about excessive greed more carefully and taken to heart his
pleas for an end to violence more urgently, some of the worst effects of our current economic crisis and the needless pain of our violent past could have been avoided.
Pope John Paul II came to us in the very first year of his Pontificate, the third country he visited including his native Poland. He visited us in September and October 1979 on his way to the United States where he gave his first address to the United Nations. That was an address focused on his often repeated hope for a new era of peaceful resolution of conflict in the world. At this stage he had already established the tradition of mentioning the countries he had just visited at his next Wednesday audience in Rome. On his return to Rome on this occasion however he made mention of Ireland and, in particular, of the deep impression left on him by his visit to the ancient monastic ruins at Clonmacnois. It was from here that so many Irish missionaries had set out to bring the light of Christ to a darkened Europe, a Europe in need of a new heart and a new spirit, a Europe in need of a new vision of life and culture, a Europe in need of sound reasons to hope.
The missionaries from Clonmacnois had travelled as far as Kiev and Poland.  Blessed John Paul was always deeply grateful for the contribution of the Irish Church to the Christian faith of his own country and of so many other countries across the world. He was also very conscious that like the Church in Poland, the people of Ireland had not abandoned their faith in the face of centuries of persecution. He repeated that gratitude and affection when only a few months after his visit to Ireland he visited the community of the Irish College here in Rome.

Today, in this Mass, we return that appreciation and that thanks. In his short address at Clonmacnois he said of those who had implanted and kept the faith alive in Ireland that ‘When we look at the works of faith, we must give thanks to God’. We give thanks today for what the
Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, described yesterday as the ‘Titanic faith’ of Pope John Paul II.  We give thanks for the role John Paul II played in strengthening the faith of so many people across the world.

Blessed John Paul helped to strengthen faith in so many ways. He did it, for example, through the immense legacy of his thought and teaching. No Pope in history has left such a legacy. There are his own books both before and after he became Pope. Then, as Pope, he wrote 14
Encyclicals, 39 Apostolic Letters, gave hundreds of audiences and other addresses, oversaw the compilation of the ‘Catechism of the Catholic Church’ and the ‘Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church’, and so much more. It will take many years for the content of the life and teaching of John Paul II to have its full impact on the life of the Church.

However, as Pope Benedict said at the Beatification yesterday, it was most of all by his heroic witness of faith, love and apostolic courage, accompanied by great human charisma that this exemplary son of Poland helped believers throughout the world not to be afraid; not to be afraid to be called a Christian, not to be afraid to belong to the Church or to speak of the Gospel. By his own example of fearless courage in witnessing to Christ as the life and hope of the world, he helped us not to fear the truth. He knew that the truth of Christ is the key to the truth of the human person and therefore the key to freedom, justice and peace for the world.

He spoke this ‘whole truth about the human person’ with love. It was a truth he discovered in intense study, prayer and contemplation – a truth which he communicated with love and joy through his whole personality – a truth he spoke of fearlessly in season and out of season.

We remember with gratitude the outstanding witness of his life. We remember those defining words of his ministry – ‘Do not be afraid – throw open the doors to Christ!’ – spoken from the balcony of St Peter’s just after his election; we remember the search for renewal and hope in our own land and the wise direction he gave us when he visited our land.

We commend to the heart of Blessed John Paul, now in heaven – the needs of our country and of the Church in Ireland which he carried so often in his heart here on earth. Just as he came among us at a decisive moment in our history, thirty two years ago, we ask him to inspire and guide us to the way of Christ – to the way of freedom, hope and renewal – as we face the decisive moment that faces our country and our Church today.

In his presentation of the Church’s social teaching, in his prophetic presentation of the path between the excesses of communism and capitalism, in his prioritisation of the dignity and service of the person, I believe we will find some useful direction for the future progress of our national and international economic framework as we face a period of recession.

In his consistent ethic of respect for life at all its stages and the peaceful pursuit of justice and human rights, I believe we will find a light for our path to a more friendly and peaceful future between all the people of our island and of the world.

In his emphasis on the universal call to holiness, lived out in intimate personal union with Christ and in the ordinary, every day means of the Christian life, including prayer, service of others and the sacraments, I believe we will rediscover the authentic interpretation of the Second Vatican Council and the path to genuine, effective renewal in the Irish Church. That renewal will not be found first and foremost in ‘management-speak’, in a sociology of the Church or in radical departures from the deposit of faith but in a change of heart, in personal and communal conversion and total commitment to the tried and tested path to holiness in the sacraments, fidelity to the teaching of the Church and to prayer. This is the unapologetic, fearless witness of John Paul II and of his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.

At the Beatification yesterday, I noticed at one stage a large flag from the city of Wadowice in Poland, the birthplace of Pope John Paul II. I had the pleasure of visiting Wadowice at one stage and the Church where John Paul was baptised. I also remember a photograph of John Paul praying with great intensity and gratitude at the font of his Baptism in Wadowice. It is a reminder to us all of a central message of the Second Vatican Council, a Council which Karol Wotyla attended. It is that our baptism calls and empowers all of us to be saints – to become the blessed of God.

If we lose sight of this and of the generous, everyday means God has given us in his sacraments, in the Word and in the teaching of his Church to achieve holiness then our search for authentic renewal of the Church in Ireland will be in vain. If we lose sight of our earthly pilgrimage as a journey towards our eternal future and of our closeness to the Church in heaven – to the Blessed, the saints and the angels – then we will lose sight of an immense and vital grace we need and have to guide and sustain us through the difficult challenges that no doubt lie ahead – as a Church and as a country.

Today, we give thanks that the Church has confirmed for us that Ireland has yet another friend in heaven in the person of Blessed Pope John Paul II. By setting holiness as the gold standard of the ordinary Christian life, he has shown us the true path to renewal and the way to eternal communion with the Blessed Trinity. Joachim Navarro Valls told us at the Vigil on Saturday evening that Blessed Pope John Paul II went to confession every week. He put his trust totally in the infinite mercy of God and in the Maternal Intercession of Mary. In this he gave us a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd. We commend the Church in Ireland to his continued guidance and intercession, with St Patrick, St Brigid and all the saints of Ireland – the saints of
our venerable Christian past – and in the hope of the many saints of Ireland yet to come.

Amen

Tonight it is a great joy for the Church in Armagh to welcome into its midst Anna Soledad from Germany and Arvydas John James from Lithuania.  In a few minutes they will be baptised, confirmed and receive their first Holy Communion.  In that way they will become sharers in a new life – the life of God.

When John the Baptist baptised Our Lord in the Jordan, he plunged him down into the water and drew him up again.  That is how baptism was carried out in the early Church.  This way of baptising symbolised death.  The sinner went down into the water as if descending into his grave.  There he left behind all his sinful nature and rose up a new personality so that he might live a New Life.  

One of the many joys of living in Armagh is the beauty of its hinterland.  I particularly enjoy, at this time of year, an early morning drive up to Markethill and Gosford and onto Newry to see the sunrise behind the Mourne Mountains dispel the mists and darkness, revealing hills and valleys, full of new life. What a heavenly delight.  

Every sunrise is a reminder that Christ rose from the dead.  Each day the sun comes up and brings light to the world. Jesus rose from the darkness of death so as to conquer it forever with the light of his love and his life.  So I am very happy to have this opportunity of sending Easter greetings and good wishes to all of you.  I want to greet, in a special way,

• Those who are sick this Easter,
• Those who are troubled in any way,
• Those who are grieving – I am thinking especially of those who are lonely because they know that they are terminally ill, or because they know that a loved one has truly left them.
• I am thinking of those who are depressed because they feel today, a sense of loss or bereavement, failure or rejection.  

I am happy to send you greetings on this Easter Sunday.   For this is the day on which Christ has given us all hope – no matter what our situation.  This is the season when Christ remembered those who had forgotten his promise of rising from the dead.  So, if you are one of those for whom life has lost its meaning, do not despair; the Risen Christ can give you new hope.  If you have lost hope of ever getting forgiveness for your past, remember the Risen Christ said:  ‘Peace be with you’ and gave to the apostles, who had abandoned him, and to Peter, who denied him, the power to forgive.  

If you are afraid of dying, and who is not! – please remember that God raised Christ from the dead.  Christ himself will raise us up to life by His own power.  If your suffering is so severe that it, at times, seems overwhelming, at this time let us remember that Christ followed the way of suffering even to the cross.  He won for us all the patience to endure.  He is living now to intercede for us.

If you find it difficult to rest and be at peace, never forget that Christ can keep us united with those who have gone before us and enable us to find rest with them when life’s work is over.  

If you find the struggle with temptation awful, never forget that Christ has broken the power of hell and can destroy, within us, everything that is at enmity with God.

But this, of course, will only happen if we play our part.  The first thing we have got to do is to believe in Him.  We have got to set our hearts on the things that are of Heaven.  In Christ and in His Resurrection, a new hope has dawned.  It is the hope that if we stay united to Christ, through faith and grace, we will rise with Him but:

• We have got to be in union with Christ.  
• We have got to die to sin in our lives and opt for union with Christ – our one and only Saviour.  No-one else offers such a hope, because no-one is in a position to offer it.

So, this Easter I suggest that wherever you are, and however you feel, try and find a quiet time and a quiet space in which to contemplate the joy of the Easter story, come into the presence of the Risen Jesus.  He is alive and he is present, here and now – within you, in your friends and in creation.  He is also present in His word and in the sacraments, especially the Blessed Sacrament.  

I hope to be present at the Beatification of Pope John Paul II on Sunday next.  The late Pope John Paul had great devotion to the Divine Mercy.  He himself died on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday in 2005.  

The great promoter of the devotion to Divine Mercy Sunday was St. Faustina.  At her canonisation eleven years ago, Pope John Paul II passed on this message which she received from Jesus:

“Humanity will not find peace until it turns trustfully to Divine Mercy”.

Pope John Paul II went on to say that the light of Divine Mercy will light the way for the people of the Third Millennium – especially in the face of the inevitable painful experiences”

As the apostles once did, today too humanity must welcome into the Upper Room of History, the Risen Christ who shows the wounds of his crucifixion and repeats “Peace be with you”.

We must let ourselves be touched by the Spirit given to us by the Risen God

•    A Spirit that heals the wounds of the heart
•    Pulls down the barriers that separate us from God and divide us from one another.

Many people were surprised at John Paul’s fervent promotion of Divine Mercy Sunday and of the preparatory novena which begins on Good Friday.  They thought that it would distract us from the celebration of the Resurrection.  But John Paul II did not see it like that.  He saw the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ as the most powerful revelation of the Mercy of the Father.  

St Faustina once wrote:  “If people could only realise how much God loves them”:  May our celebrations tonight not only to heal the wounds of our hearts but help to pull down all barriers that separate.  Then we can realise how much God really loves us.

• Those who are sick this Easter,
• Those who are troubled in any way,
• Those who are grieving – I am thinking especially of those who are lonely because they know that they are terminally ill, or because they know that a loved one has truly left them.
• I am thinking of those who are depressed today because they feel today, a sense of loss or bereavement, failure or rejection.  

The reason why I am happy to speak to you is that it is Easter Sunday – the day on which Jesus rose from the dead.  For this is the day on which Christ has given us all hope – no matter what our situation.  This is the season when Christ remembered those who had forgotten his promise of rising from the dead.  So, if you are one of those for whom life has lost its meaning, do not despair; the Risen Christ can give you new hope.  If you have lost hope of ever getting forgiveness for your past, remember the Risen Christ said:  ‘Peace be with you’ and gave to the apostles, who had abandoned him, and to Peter, who denied him, the power to forgive.  

If you are afraid of dying, and who is not! – please remember that God raised Christ from the dead.  Christ himself will raise us up to life by His own power.  If your suffering is so severe that it, at times, seems overwhelming, at this time let us remember that Christ followed the way of suffering even to the cross.  He won for us all the patience to endure.  He is living now to intercede for us.

If you find it difficult to rest and be at peace, let us never forget that Christ can keep us united with those who have gone before us and enable us to find rest with them when life’s work is over.  

If you find the struggle with temptation awful, never forget that Christ has broken the power of hell and can destroy, within us, everything that is at enmity with God.

But this, of course, will only happen if we play our part.  The first thing we have got to do is to believe in Him.  We have got to set our hearts on the things that are of Heaven.  

• We have got to be in union with Christ.  
• We have got to die to sin in our lives and opt for union with Christ – our one and only Saviour.

This union we achieve through prayer and through receiving the Sacraments of Reconciliation and of the Eucharist.  They used to be called making on Easter day.

Jesus never tired of telling his friends:  “Do not be afraid”.  He knew that love drives out fear.  And I am sure that he believed that his condemnation to death would lead to new life.   I have driven through lots of Louth and Meath in recent days.  Everywhere there is new life – new life in the lambs in the fields in the flowers in the gardens.

During 2006, two miners in Australia spent two weeks trapped underground facing slow death before being rescued.  Then there is the wonderful story of the rescue of the miners in Chile, trapped for a much longer time.  They too were safely brought to the surface.

After those rescues their families and communities, their nations, rejoiced.  People across the world followed their story and rejoiced at the good news.  We are all fascinated by such stories – about people who look disaster in the face and make a new beginning.  It is as though new life is granted to those who survive against the odds.  

So, this Easter I suggest that wherever you are, and however you try, find a quiet time and a quiet space in which to contemplate the joy of the Easter story, come into the presence of the Risen Jesus.  He is alive and he is present, here and now – within you, in your friends and in creation.  He is also present in His word and in the sacraments, especially the Blessed Sacrament.  

This is the day on which Christ has made us all Children of the Light.  He has made it possible for us to escape from the darkness of despondency and despair.  He offers us the possibility of new and everlasting life.  In the Risen Christ the long reign of Satan and sin has ended.  A broken world has been renewed.

The reason we can escape is because we see that death and destruction do not have the last word – goodness and kindness have triumphed over selfishness and sin.  That is the victory of Christ and it can be our victory too.  
Happy Easter

The apostles and the holy women did not see a ghost of Jesus.  They saw him in the flesh, but in different flesh, as the oak tree is different from the acorn from which it grew.  This is a mystery beyond our imagination, but it is the centre of our faith.  As we grow older, nothing in our faith makes more sense than the Passion and Resurrection, the certainty that our body, like Jesus’, must suffer and die, and the certainty that we, in  our bodies, have a life beyond death.

But there was another day – Good Friday – as he stood before Pilate and saw the Roman Governor hand him over to be crucified.  I wonder what thoughts were running through the mind of Jesus then. .  He had just reminded Pilate that Pilate had authority over him only because it was given to him by God.  Nevertheless, Pilate went ahead and gave in to the demands of those who shouted:  “Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!”  I wonder did anyone see, in the eyes of Jesus, his conviction and his love.  His conviction, above all, that love was stronger than the fear of what was to come.

It is good for us to be here on this Good Friday afternoon.  We have come to pray – in horror and amazement – we pray in the company of others and in thanks.  We pray in horror today at the thought of the terrible sufferings of Jesus, which he endured then and which continue in his people to this day!

We pray in amazement that this suffering was caused to Jesus quite deliberately by other men and women.  We should be angry that this suffering is being caused today by others to millions throughout the world.  We think of all those who suffered with Jesus – his mother Mary and his beloved disciples and the other women – his followers.  We think of Veronica who saw that Jesus needed help and she was courageous enough to offer it.

We all need help:
•    Doctors and nurses – when we are ill;
•    Counsellors and confessors – when we are confused and contrite;
•    Social Workers – to help at other times;
•    Parents and family and friends – to console us in hard times.

We all depend on others from the start to finish of life and Jesus was no different.  Today, above all, we pray in thanks for what Jesus has suffered and done for us.  Each of the three Readings makes it clear that Jesus suffered and died, for love of us.
Listen again to the prophet Isaiah, foretelling the coming of Christ:

“A man of sorrows and familiar with suffering he was despised and we took no account of him.  And yet ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrow he carried.  He was pierced through for our faith.  Crushed for our sins.  On him lies a punishment that brings us peace and through His words we are healed.  We had all gone astray like sheep each one taking his own way, and the Lord burdened him with the sins of the all of us”.

Today we pray in thanks for all those who still give their lives to improve and save the lives of their fellowmen and women.

The Gospel just read began with the arrival of Judas, the Traitor, and his companions.  They had been sent by the Chief Priests and the Pharisees to look for Jesus the Nazarene.

St John’s account of the Passion has been compared to a drama in five acts.  

1.    The first act is set in Gethsemane – its special theme is the betrayal of Judas.  The central action is Peter’s blow with the sword and the significant declaration is that of Jesus I am he.

2.    The second Act is set in the House of Anna, father-in-law of Caiaphas – the High Priest.  Here the special theme is the defection of Peter.  The central action is the slap which one of the guards gave Jesus in the face.  But the significant declaration is Peter’s double denial of Jesus which was the real slap in the face for Jesus from his beloved disciple.

3.    The third act is set before Pilate the Roman Governor – the real boss.  Its central theme is that Pilate, the soldiers and the Jews, unknowingly proclaim Jesus king.  Here the central action is the crowing with thorns and the putting on of the purple robe.  The significant declarations are those of Christ:  “My kingdom does not belong to this world” and Pilate’s quest to the Jews:  Do you want me to set free for you the King of the Jews? And Pilate’s statement to the Jews when Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe:  “Look! Here is the man” and the remarks of Jesus – “You have authority over me only because it was given to you by God”.

4.    The fourth act is set on Calvary.  Its special theme is the crucifixion.  The central action took place when one of the soldiers plunged his spear into the side of Jesus.  Here the important dialogue is that between Jesus and his mother.  He is your son – she is your mother.  

5.    The fifth and final act is set at the tomb.  Here the central action is the anointing of the dead body of Jesus – with about one hundred pounds of spices.  The special theme of this fifth act is the reversal of all that had happened in the first act.

Jesus carried his cross to Calvary.  Now he is carried to the garden that was in the place where he had been put to death and in it there was a new tomb.  There Jesus was embalmed and shrouded as he had been stripped in the fourth act.  The body of Jesus is placed in the tomb as he was nailed to the cross in the fourth act.

In the words of Christ:  ‘We need to pray’.  We are going to pray for lots of people and rightly so.  Pray for ourselves and those dear to us.  Our crucified Lord became obedient until death.  We ask him to keep us faithful especially in the dark days of our lives.  He was scorned by the people.  We ask him to teach us the way of humility.

May we all get great consolation from the words of Jesus on the cross.  “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” and his marvellous promise to the good thief:  ‘This day you will be with me in Paradise.

He laid down his life for his friends.  May we love one another as he loved us.  He stretched out his arms on the cross to include people of all nations and all ages.  May he gather all God’s scattered children into his kingdom.  

We are left with two questions which each one of us must try and answer for ourselves:

1.    Who do you say that Jesus is?
2.    If you had been present in Jerusalem on that Good Friday, are we all quite certain where we would have been standing – with Mary and John at the foot of the cross – or with Peter and the others?  

If we want to stand with Mary and John, what do we need to do today?

On Sunday afternoon last a remarkable group of people gathered next door in the Grammar School.  They were the families of the ‘Disappeared’ and they gather there every Palm Sunday to celebrate the Mass of Palm Sunday.  Of course the Mass of Palm Sunday always contains an account of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus and so the ceremony is always packed with emotion.  There is a wreath carried in with a lily on it for every one of the disappeared whose body has not been found.  Originally there were seventeen (17) disappeared and no bodies found.  Now, ten remains have been found and seven remain unfound.  Last Sunday we pledged to continue to pray that the remains of these seven (7) will eventually be recovered.

Originally there did not seem to be much hope really – but then, one was found and later another and so on.  During this past year three more were located and three lilies were removed from the wreath.  

There is always one very sad moment during the reading of the Gospel when the betrayal of Jesus, by Judas one of the twelve (12), is recalled.  It recalls the fact that each one of the disappeared was, in fact, betrayed by someone or some group of people and condemned to death.

Every day this week the Church recalls the fact that Judas actually betrayed his Lord and Master.  He did so for the paltry sum of thirty pieces of silver – which he flung back to those who convinced him to do the foul deed – before going out to end his life.  

This evening we are celebrating the Mass of the Last Supper.  It commemorates the fact that on the night that he was betrayed – the night before he was executed – Jesus gathered with his disciples – Judas included – to celebrate the Passover Meal – the most important meal of the year.

At that supper, Jesus makes one final attempt to save Judas from his desperate plan – but all to no avail.  Satan had entered his heart and he was not for turning.  So Jesus, seeing that he was getting nowhere, told Judas to get on with it and to get it over with as quickly as possible.  Judas went out at once and St. John in a masterly phrase says – It was night.

It was night in more ways than one.  The Light of Faith had gone out in the heart of Judas.  He had come to the conclusion that Jesus was foolhardy in his opposition to the Chief Priests.  

I heard a very interesting song which represents the two views:  one says Jesus was doing fine until he fell in with some bad friends – the other point of view says that he should have been like Judas – who was shrewd and wise and always had a fair amount in the bank.  

Jesus was upset no doubt by the prospect of being betrayed but he did not allow it to turn him aside from thinking about, and making provision for, his beloved disciples in a time when he would no longer be with them.

First of all he gives them his body and blood when he took bread and wine and changed them into his Body and Blood.  He had already made that fantastic promise that he would do so – when he multiplied the loaves and fishes to feed the multitude.  He said:  ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood will have eternal life and will be raised up on the last day’.  Those who do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood will not have everlasting life.  It is as simple as that.  

In his Gospel St. John makes no mention of Jesus taking bread and wine and changing them into his Body and Blood but he does have something which none of the other Gospels have, namely, a description of how Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.  It was as if John knew that the others had described the giving of the Eucharist – which he would skip – so he was determined to include the washing of the feet.  

It was as if to say – yes, the Eucharist is important but the whole purpose of us being fed with the Body and Blood of Christ is so that we will have the strength to carry out the New Commandment which he was giving to them –
Love one another as I have loved you
So you must love one another

Jesus had already shown them how much he loved them.  Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave the world and go to the Father.  At Cana, when he worked his first miracle, he had told his mother that his hour had not come.  Now it had come.

I love the way John describes it.  Jesus had loved those in the world who were his own and he loved them to the end.  He knew he had come from God and was going back to God so he washed their feet to show to them the depth of his love.  He gave them an example and asked them to follow it.  Not only that, but he promised that if they put his commandment of love into practice, they would be happy.  I suppose that explains how those who have left all to follow Christ, are the happiest people in the world.  

Jesus is amazing.  Of course he is upset by the prospect of being betrayed by one of his nearest and dearest.  He foretells that even Peter will deny he ever knew him when put to the test.  Jesus foresees that the others will be no better.  They will run away and abandon him in his hour of need.  And yet, none of this is allowed to distract Jesus from his plans.  He is completely focussed on his love for his own, right to the end.

That love is shown by four great gifts:  

1.    His body and blood;
2.    His command to love one another as he had loved us –
3.    The example of loving his own to the point of washing their feet;
4.    The final great gift of today is the Priesthood.  Holy Thursday is seen as the Birthday of the Priesthood.  

It is really very hard to take it all in – such love not just in words but accompanied by deeds – right to the end of time.  

One has to wonder how we can remain so cold and so ungrateful in the face of such love.  Jesus had always loved his own and he loved them to the end.  Right now Jesus continues to love those who are his own and will continue to love them until the end of time.  ‘See how these Christians love one another’.  It was said so often about the early Church.  This evening the bells rang out during the Gloria to indicate our joy at the fact that we have been saved and made free by our Lord Jesus.  In some places people spend hours before the altar of repose in thanksgiving.

I am very grateful to those who have agreed to have their feet washed.  It allows us to re-enact one of the most powerful incidents in the life of Jesus.  I am not used to washing other peoples’ feet but we do it to remind ourselves of the humble washing carried out by Jesus.  By so doing, Jesus is telling us that the greatest are those who serve – not those who dominate or throw their weight around or bully others.

In the washing of the feet, Jesus gives us a prophecy, a foretelling of the passion.  His passion is nothing else than serving and giving of life for the salvation of the world.  When Jesus washes the feet of his disciples he reminds us of the Eucharist – which is nothing else than his placing himself at our disposal.  It reminds us of the purity of heart which we need to take part in the Eucharist. Finally, the washing of the feet reminds us of Baptism which washes away our sins and makes us table-mates of Jesus.  

Tonight we give thanks for the fact that the world is full of humble, generous feet-washers – who dedicate themselves totally to others – to those with special needs, to the poor, the sick, the elderly and those on the margins.  May this celebration touch our hearts and make us ready to become washers of the feet of our brothers and sisters.

Here we are at the beginning of another Holy Week.  I suppose we can begin by congratulating each other on our surviving the winter – and what a winter it was!  Holy Weeks begins, as always, with the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and the Readings of the Passion, according to St Matthew.

Today we retrace the entry of Jesus into the Holy City.  It is a glorious occasion which sees Christ heralded as the King of Israel who comes in the name of the Lord.  This really gives us only a foretaste of the glory and royalty of Christ because he must pass through the Passion in order to reach final and lasting glory.

Jesus comes riding on a donkey:

Rejoice, rejoice, People of Zion
Shout for joy – you people of Jerusalem
Look your King is coming to you.
He comes triumphant and victorious
But humble and riding on a donkey
On a colt – the foal of a donkey.

All through his Passion – Jesus rejected violence.  He orders Peter to put away his sword.  Many times, during this week, we will be invited to come together to hear the story of what Jesus suffered for us.  
•    To pray in praise and thanks in response.
•    To celebrate Mass – so as to find the Body of Christ, given for us, and to drink His blood.
•    These are days of suffering for the Church which relives in itself the sufferings of Christ.
•    Days of recollection and silence as we see God’s plan unfolded.
•    Days of hope – death has been conquered. There is life beyond the grave.
•    Days of serenity and of joy – as we discover the power of love to triumph.

God comes, battered and beaten, covered with insults and spits.  He does this for us and to take our sins upon his shoulders.

He could ask the Father and get legions of angels to set him free but that is not his way.  It is not the Father’s way.

He comes surrounded by the people who had been there when he called Lazarus and raised him from death.  They had reported what had happened – that was why the crowd met him.  They are the little people of the world.

He gives them His Body and Blood.  Then afterwards mentions the traitor and that they would all run away.

The way Jesus enters Jerusalem is important.  The story of the entry of Jesus gives us the key to understanding all that subsequently happened to Jesus.  So, thinking about this story is an excellent start to Holy Week.  

To understand the story we need to remember the words of the prophet Zachariah – who foretold that God’s chosen ones would come to save his people humbly – riding a donkey.

Jesus knew that by banishing chariots and horses and all the armour of war, he was fulfilling the prophesy.

Today we thank God for all the great public leaders of our time – Ghandi Martin Luther King and the leaders of our own Peace Movement here in Ireland – who have chosen the way of non violence.

Suffering is one of the great mysteries of life on this earth.  

•    Why do innocent people suffer so much?
•    How can a good God allow so much suffering?

I don’t have the answers to these questions.  I can only say that I find it helpful to pray this prayer every day:

O my God – I offer you all my thoughts, words, actions and sufferings of this day in union with those of my Saviour, Jesus Christ  I believe that by uniting my sufferings to the sufferings of Christ helps me to accept those sufferings and hopefully to endure them in the same spirit as Jesus endured his suffering.

I have also come to appreciate the following prayer, more and more.  

Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord
Your grace into our hearts
That we to whom the Incarnation of Christ
was made known by the message of an angel
May by his Passion and Cross
be brought to the glory of His Resurrection.

Like everyone else I believe that I am made for glory – a glory that lasts for ever and ever. The kind of glory that Christ proved is possible by rising from the dead.   But I also believe this:  I can only reach that glory by the Passion and Cross of Jesus.  

But what does that mean?

I think it means that we will reach Eternal Glory if we approach suffering and death in the same way that Jesus approached his passion and death.  We see how Jesus went to meet his death  in the Gospel – how he made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem humbly – obediently – willingly – riding on a donkey – praying that if it could be possible to skip, to avoid, the cup of suffering – let it be but if not – let the Will of the Father be done.

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  We are blessed as we come together in the Name of the Lord Jesus.  We are here to listen once more to what Jesus suffered for love of us – and to let it touch our hearts as we hear how he entered Jerusalem.  We are amazed at his humility.  He comes, riding on a donkey.

At the Last Supper Jesus is well aware that:

1.    One of the twelve will betray him.  
2.    Peter, their leader, will deny him,
3.    All of them will fall asleep and run away leaving him alone with Mary and John and the women.  

What is his reaction?

He is not concerned for himself but for them and their faith.  He gives them his Body and Blood. He washes their feet as an example.  He ordains them priests.  He gives them the gift of the great commandment – Love one another as I love you/

Jesus comes humbly – but he does not travel to Calvary alone.  He is in constant conversation with His Father – in prayer.  He meets his mother Mary on the way to Calvary and what a meeting that must have been!  He is consoled by the women of Jerusalem who wept for him!  But he is more concerned for them and, above all, for their children.  He begs them to weep for themselves and their children that they may never be deceived by Satan and may never turn away from God.

On the cross, Jesus is, at all times, thinking of others – not about himself.  He answers the prayer of the Good Thief –‘you will be with me in Paradise’. He gives his mother and his beloved disciple into the care of each other and, most wonderfully of all, he pardons his executioners:  ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’.

There is a powerful lesson here for us too.  None of us need carry our cross alone.  God carries our cross with us as he carried it with His Son.  Jesus actually accepts his cross.  It is a lowely moment to accept a cross:  

•     When you know that you are terminally ill,
•     When you know a loved one has really left you,
•     When you know the loss of bereavement – the pain of failure and rejection.
•     When you allow yourself to enter into loneliness and grief,
•     When you suffer through mistakes you have made.

Pope John Paul II died in 2005 – in Easter week.  Two weeks from now he will be declared ‘Blessed’.  That means the Church will formally declare that he is now Blessed in Heaven – where he sees God, face to face.

He achieved this because he accepted all the suffering that came his way in life – and it was huge – from the loss of his parents and brother at an early age to the invasion and the persecution of his beloved Poland by the Nazis and then the Communists.  Then there was the attempt by an assassin to shoot him and finally the terminal illness which saw him lose his voice.  All through this he united his sufferings to those of Jesus.  He frequently flung himself on the floor of his chapel in the form of the cross to show his acceptance of his suffering and his union with Christ.  

We too will be blessed if we accept our sufferings and offer them up in union with Christ to the Father.

This evening we have a very interesting and different element in our celebration.  We have in our midst a number of people who are preparing to be initiated, that is, to be introduced into the Sacramental Life of the Church this Easter.  In other words, they are adults who have been preparing to be baptised, confirmed and make their First Confession and First Holy Communion this Easter.

This evening two of them come to ask that their names be officially enrolled among the candidates for these sacraments.  It is up to all of us – the Christian community – to give our approval to their admission to our Christian community but we are also expected to give them good example and to support them with our prayers on the journey they are making.  

You may say: Why do they want to be baptised and to be confirmed and receive Holy Communion?  Are they not OK as they are – as so many others appear to be – who have, in fact, been baptised and confirmed and nourished by their First Communion but who unfortunately no longer bother to approach the table of the Lord.  The answer to that question could take a lot of time but briefly we can say that these candidates for initiation in the Christian Life, have felt the need to share in the fruits of the victory won by Christ over temptation and sin.  They want to have the help of Jesus Christ in their struggle against Satan.  Satan, sin and temptation are at the centre of this evening’s Mass. 

At the beginning of Lent, the Church summons all of us to take a closer look at our lives.  Sin is always at work here on this earth.  The danger of our faith being undermined is always present.  The temptations which Jesus met in the desert never go out of date.  Those temptations concern all of us.  They come to the good Christians and the not so good.  The devil is real.  The devil is dead set against Christ and His kingdom.  Therefore, we should not be surprised that Satan – the Great adversary and his minions, do all they can to upset Christians who are trying to build up the Kingdom of God.  Satan and his servants stir up opposition to Christ and his followers.  They multiply difficulties.  They put up plenty of road blocks.  

Christ was led by the Spirit out into the desert to be tempted.  Temptation is not sin.  Christ is the spotless lamb – the new Adam – who had not sin.  And yet, he experienced temptation.  Christ was invited by the Father of Lies to disobey the will of the Father.  Naturally, he refused point blank.

As followers of Christ, we should expect nothing less.  We too will be tempted.  But by battling against temptation, we grow in our love for God.  We show our love for God and, in fact, we give God glory.  By his all-out attack on Christ – the devil shows his hand.  The three temptations put to Jesus expose the devil’s favourite tricks.

To turn us away from God’s way, the devil will appeal to our desire for comfort and pleasure.  ‘Turn these stones into bread or into chocolates or into jelly donuts’.  I have to confess that this afternoon I was often tempted to watch the rugby match in comfort and leave the sermon to the last minute.  

We are all obliged to do penance, each in his or her own way.  Days of penance are laid down.  On these days we are to devote ourselves to prayer and works of charity or piety.  We are also to deny ourselves by carrying out our duties more faithfully and we are to observe fast and abstinence.  Now the days and times of penance are every Friday and the season of Lent and if we ignore them we are, in fact, giving in to that first temptation.

The second temptation is to give in to our desire for recognition and fame and popularity.  For Jesus it came in the form of an invitation to do a swan dive off the top of the temple.  That will impress them.  For the preacher it could be the urge to always say what is popular and pleasing; and to avoid, at all costs, anything that is not welcome.

The third temptation is our desire for greatness.  Just go ahead and do it.  It will make you rich and powerful.  Our desires for comfort, fame and influence run deep.  They are powerful, but they are not all-powerful.  To be able to resist them successfully we have got to set our hearts on something even greater.  That is what Christ did.  He met every one of them with the words of Holy Scripture – the words of His Father in Heaven.  He advises us to do the same.  ‘Set your hearts on His kingdom first and then everything else will fall into place’.

The three temptations are really variations of the same temptation – the temptation to ignore God and to put our trust in ourselves and, in the process, to become self-seeking, self-absorbed and self-indulgent.  

Even in our prayer we can become self-absorbed. That is why in the Mass we pray, in a special way, for the people in Japan affected by the earthquake and tsunami yesterday.

This week we celebrate the Feast of our National Apostle.  St. Patrick was often tempted by Satan but rejected temptation and turned to Christ.  

This year it is special because on the afternoon of St. Patrick’s Day we welcome, into our midst, the Bell which has been chosen as the logo – the emblem – the symbol – of the International Eucharistic Congress.  

On 17 March it will be blessed in Dublin by Archbishop Martin and then it will be despatched post haste to Armagh where it will stay in our diocese for two weeks.  While it is here we will consecrate an icon which will form part of the of the base on which the Bell is carried.  It is an icon representing Jesus dying on the cross – watched by his blessed mother and beloved disciple.  His side is pierced by the soldier’s lance from which poured blood and water.  The blood and water are symbols of the Holy Spirit and the sacraments which our two candidates seek from the Church.  We wish them God’s blessing in their preparation and we hope that our prayers and example will both inspire and support them on their way.

I welcome you to this Mass of the First Sunday of Lent.  In Lent we are invited to join Jesus in the desert.  There he is tempted to disobey his Father. He has to choose between human means and the means of being at the disposal of God, His Father.

The First Reading describes the first sin – of our first parents – the sin of pride, the pride of setting oneself up against God – the refusal to admit that we depend on God.  Sin entered the world through one man and through sine, death.  
•    By one man’s disobedience, many were made sinners.  
•    So, by man’s obedience, many will be made righteous.

We are called in Lent to seek God’s will for us more clearly and to follow it more nearly.