Solemnity of Christ the King 22nd November 2009

The Church is not driven by worldly ambition to dominate. Rather it is motivated to do just one thing, the work of Christ under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For Christ came among us to bear witness to the truth and not to condemn, to serve and not be served, to seek out and save the lost.

The kingship of Christ has nothing to do with the power, luxury, splendor and pretentiousness associated with the principalities and powers of this world. The kingship of Christ comes to us with something ancient, an image we have lost, namely the metaphor of the shepherd-king. That ancient calling, that ancient role, was rich. It had a depth that we moderns are barely able to fathom. Perhaps it is now beyond our reach. But maybe not.

If you’ve read C. S. Lewis’ book, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe you’ll remember the children who entered a land ruled by a lion named Aslan. While visiting the Beaver family, Mr. Beaver tells them about the mighty lion king Aslan, mighty and yet benevolent, who provides for all of the animals while keeping order in his kingdom. “Oh,” cries one of the children, “is he quite safe?” “Safe?” replied Mr. Beaver. “Who said anything about safe? He strikes fear in your very soul. His roar is filled with power. Safe? No, not safe. But Aslan is good.” As you perhaps know, Aslan is C. S. Lewis’ analogue for Jesus Christ. Mr. Lewis is attempting to overcome our tendency to take God too lightly.

All too often we’re guilty of the sin of presumption, vainly taking God for granted, assuming that of course He will forgive us for anything we do. True, Christ is meek and mild, comforting, tender, inviting, and nurturing. And so are shepherds. Nevertheless shepherds are often weather-beaten, gnarled, and often scarred from fighting off wolves and others beasts that would ravish the sheep. Furthermore shepherds separate out the goats from the sheep, something that requires them to be seemingly harsh judges.

Today’s reading from the prophet Ezekiel throws light on God being mighty, powerful, and fearsome while at the same time caring for the lost, the plundered, the beaten-down, and the exiled. Ezekiel used the imagery of the shepherd to describe God. In Exekiel’s time, everyone would have instantly recognized the analogy. The shepherd would be their only protection; they were defenseless. God’s might and tenderness, both, were needed.

We just heard a portion of Psalm 23. If you go to Psalms 25, 26 and 27 (especially 27) you will hear our Lion King comforting us with words of tender, loving care. Perhaps in them we may feel the full impact of Christ’s inaugural address when at the beginning of His public ministry He declares: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."

If today you are feeling lost, defenseless, injured, and discouraged, then open up your hearts. Your shepherd king comes for you. If, however, you are feeling smug, self-satisfied, and dismissive about your Church, your religion, and your God, then perhaps you should feel some unease. Ezekiel, the prophet, has the word of the Lord for you: “The sleek and strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly. As for you, I will judge between one sheep and another.”

Shepherds have tender hearts, but have leathery skins, sharp eyes, and voices that cannot be ignored without putting yourself in peril. Shepherds lie down at night across the opening to the stone-hedged sheepfold and thereby put their bodies on the line so that wolves would have to pass over them to enter the sheepfold. Shepherds, in other words, are “tough cookies”, not to be trifled with.

Today, the last Sunday in the Church’s liturgical year, we are confronted with the Lion King who is our final judge. He has loved us with great passion. With all the more passion He defends us from spiritual forces on high that seek to devour our souls. The greater the love, the greater the passion. The opposite of love is not anger and wrath -- it is apathy and indifference. And God, our Lion King Shepherd, is anything but apathetic.

We hope that the new website for those involved with youth work and the Augustinians in Ireland will be launched on December 10th, 2009, when the Irish Province of Augustinians will be holding a province assembly.

This assembly will be focused on the best way that the newly-formed communities (since the chapter) can implement the decisions of the chapter.

While not a legislative body, the Province Assembly is an important forum to ensure that the voice of every member is heard and also to explore ideas and suggestions on an ongoing basis.

I hope that people will participate in the website as much as possible as it will be a great way of sharing information, ideas, photos and many other things.

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B - 15th of November 2009

When we hear the words "At that time," or "In those days" we prepare ourselves for a story about the past. This is how the first and third readings of today's Mass begin. But in fact both readings are about the future.

‘Apocalyptic’ is the word used to describe the kind of writing we see in today’s gospel reading. It is practically impossible for us to understand the serious meaning of this today, because (apart from science-fiction) the only apocalyptic we hear is from the lips of fundamentalists who appear to be gloating in advance over the destruction of the world.

Biblical apocalypse was written in times of persecution, to encourage the persecuted by telling them that their sufferings were foreseen by God, and that they would prevail in the end. Courage, not fear, was being promoted.

One aspect of it we can relate to fairly readily in our day: transience. Everything is passing, everything that is living will die. In an age of immense and rapid change we cannot fail to see that everything is passing. In some part of our minds we would like to hold this reality away from us because it is too painful to think about. But the Scriptures tell us to think about these things. “Like a weaver you (God) have rolled up my life, you cut me off from the loom” (Is 38:12). It is a pagan thing to deny death and transience, for if there is no death there is no resurrection. Let's take whatever assurance we can get from the apocalyptic message of today's gospel.

There is something else that apocalyptic writing can show us about ourselves: our bondage to calendars and clocks. A gentle Indian nun who had lived for a year in the West had finally got courage to say how she perceived us. "Western people," she said, "are always asking, 'Why?' and 'How much?' and 'What time is it?'" We want to know when something is going to happen, as if this were the heart of the matter. It is the fact that everything is coming to an end that is central, not when it will happen. There is even a sense in which it is happening every moment. Every moment my personal world, with its dream of permanence, is coming to an end. Every moment, because my world is coming to and end, I see that I cannot find security in the past but must throw myself on God's mercy, every moment.

November 13th - Feast of All Saints of the Augustinian Order

Each year on the 13th of November the Augustinians celebrate the feasts of All Saints of the Augustinian Order. There are many saints and blesseds to be found through the centuries who were members of the Order. Some of the most well known are St Rita, St Nicholas and St Thomas of Villanova. There is one Irishman among them. He is Blessed William Tirry who was martyred during penal times at Fethard, Co Tipperary.

This feast, however, is not just about these well known people. It includes all the many men and women, members of the Order who have dedicated their lives to the service of God's people down through the years. Some of these worked in parishes and schools; some were missionaries; some worked in public churches, hospitals, prisons, universities and social centres. They all have one thing in common - they were inspired by the Augustinian vision of life in common as a means to service and of a common search for God.

Many thanks to John in Galway who forwarded this article

The Augustinians in Galway

The history of the Augustinians in Galway goes back to 1508. It was in this year that the order opened a house outside the city walls. In 1602, there was a plan to fortify the city. As a result of this the friary and cemetery were levelled and a military fort was built in its place. This fort was occupied by a garrison of English soldiers. Only the church and one small ecclesiastical building were left standing, and the area became known as Forthill.

The buildings in Forthill were later demolished and the local corporation agreed to build a new church on a suitable site once peace had returned to Ireland. Unfortunately the Corporation fell through on its promise, but gave the fathers the use of the courthouse as a place of worship. In 1760 a church was built on a site in Middle Street. In 1838, the Augustinians moved from their old house in Middle Street to a new convent on St Augustine Street. The fathers began to focus on the construction of a new church on the Middle Street site and began to collect money in Ireland and abroad. The design for the new church was done by a Dublin architect B Moran.

On August 28 1859, the church was consecrated. It was a great liturgical occasion and was presided over by Bishop McEvilly. Several other Bishops were in attendence along with several many priests.

The Augustinian or Augi as it is known by many Galwegians has undergone many changes since. The most recent change has been the most dramatic, but the church still remains a very popular place of worship. There are at present 3 resident Friars. They are Fr Dick Lyng pp, Fr Des Foley prior and Fr John Whelanand Bro Noel Keane. The Augustinian is also well known for its excellent choir who sing every sunday at the 11am mass. Just recently the choir brought out their very own cd entitled "To sing is to pray twice". A visit to the city of the tribes is not complete without a visit to this beautiful church.

20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

It has just occured to me that most of you were born and infants while the very real problem of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain affected our world. I reproduce here an article from Wikipedia (not always the most reliable) and I have preserved the links so that you can learn what this actually meant - Imagine a Europe without the European Union, imagine a Europe where half the population had no freedom!!!

The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a concrete barrier erected by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany) that completely encircled the city of West Berlin, separating it from East Germany, including East Berlin. The Wall included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses.
The separate and much longer inner German Border (the IGB) demarcated the border between East and West Germany. Both borders came to symbolize the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc.
Prior to the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans had avoided Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and escaped into West Germany, many over the border between East and West Berlin. During its existence from 1961 to 1989, the Wall stopped almost all such emigration and separated the GDR from West Berlin for more than a quarter of a century.[1] After its erection, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the wall, with estimates of the resulting death toll varying between around 100 and 200.
During a revolutionary wave sweeping across the Eastern Bloc, the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove almost all of the rest. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - 8th November 2009

Readings:
I Kings 17, 10-16
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44

Difficult as it is, we Christians must constantly discipline ourselves to listen to what the gospel Jesus actually says, not to what we’d like him to say. Nowhere is this more a problem than in today’s gospel passage. Once our church “got institutionalized” this narrative took on a meaning totally counter to what Mark and the historical Jesus originally intended. Any priest or deacon who leaves out verses 38-40 of this passage will one day have to answer to both at the pearly gates.

Their inclusion is essential to correctly understanding what Jesus says about the widow’s “two small coins.”Mark’s Jesus begins by warning his followers never to give in to the temptation of imitating a leadership model that is completely at odds with the model he himself lives and teaches. “Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the market places, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets.”

He then brings up one of their most atrocious, hurtful practices. “They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very severe condemnation.” Such unscrupulous leaders prey on the poorest, most powerless people in the community, expecting them to support their scandalous lifestyle. But, don’t worry. After these helpless individuals have given their last penny, they have their leaders’ guarantee: “We’ll say one for you!”

After this seething rebuke, Mark has Jesus sit down “opposite the (temple) treasury” to present “Exhibit A.”“A poor widow . . . came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.” The very thing he warned his followers never to do was taking place before their very eyes.

We’ve so often heard this event quoted on the occasion of priests and ministers pleading with their communities to either up their weekly donations or make a pledge for a new building project that we supply something to the text that’s conspicuously missing: Jesus praising the widow for her generosity.

At no point does Jesus ever say, “Isn’t this great? I expect my followers to imitate her unselfish example.” Homilists usually tell us that’s the point of the story; but in the gospel Jesus never mentions it. In this context he’s simply pointing out how some leaders have religiously brainwashed their constituents into believing they should give their all to take care of the religious institution, even those poor individuals whom the institution should be taking care of.

How could we have so misconstrued Jesus’ words and intentions?The true biblical concern for others is at the heart of our Elijah reading. The prophet not only is taken care of by the widow of Zarephath, he, in turn, takes care of her and her son; “the jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jar of oil run dry... ."

When our Hebrews author speaks about Christ “not entering into a sanctuary made by hands, a mere copy of the true one,” he seems to be buying into Plato’s belief that everything in our world is just a poor copy of the real thing in heaven. The writer wants his readers to understand how Jesus’ actions in our lives are far superior to anything humans experienced before his death and resurrection. No building or institution can replace what he did for us and others.

In a North American College lecture over 45 years ago, Cardinal John Wright asked, “What if every church owned piece of property would suddenly be destroyed; how would we live our faith?” Were that to happen, we might actually be forced, like Jesus, to concentrate more on people than on things.