The Last Supper
El Greco [Web
Gallery of Art]
Readings, (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
Readings, (New
American Bible: Philippines, USA)
Gospel, John 13:31-33a, 34-35 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son
of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify
him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I
am with you. A new commandment I give to
you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also
are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.”
John 13: 31-33a, 34-35 in Filipino Sign Language
A familiar sight four years ago here in St Columban's, Dalgan Park, Ireland, where we have a community of more than 60 Columban priests, mostly retired and many in our nursing home, was that of Fr Jim Gavigan, then in his late 80s, pushing the wheelchair of Fr Paddy Hurley, then over 90. When I came home from the Philippines in 2017 Father Jim was using a wheelchair himself for a while after a hip operation.
Father Paddy went to his reward on 15 April 2019. He had spent more than 60 years in the Philippines on the large island of Negros. His two Columban brothers, the late Fathers Dermot and Gerry, had spent many years in Fiji. That's where Fr Jim Gavigan had worked all his active years, being a member of the pioneering Columban group that went there in 1952, as was Fr Gerry Hurley.
I sometimes saw Father Jim 'driving' another priest's wheelchair. (We have professional staff here who do this work very efficiently and with great care but sometimes others chip in.)
Father Jim died on 23 June 2020 a few months before another classmate of his, Fr Terry Bennett, who had spent most of his life in the Philippines. When Father Terry began to fail, Father Jim always sat opposite him in our dining room. Someone asked him why. He replied, 'To keep Terry company'.
In all of this I see today's gospel being lived out. It is a gospel that is central to the Missionary Society of St Columban to which I belong.
Frs Owen McPolin, John Blowick, Edward Galvin
China 1920
On the evening of 29 January 1918 an extraordinary event took place in Dalgan Park, Shrule, a remote village on the borders of County Mayo and County Galway in the west of Ireland. At the time Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, which was engaged in the Great War. Thousands of Irishmen were fighting in the trenches in France and Belgium. Many, including my great-uncle Corporal Lawrence Dowd, never came home. There was a movement for independence in Ireland that led to the outbreak of guerrilla warfare in Ireland later in 1918. There was widespread poverty in the country, particularly acute in the cities.
Despite all of that, on 10 October 1916 the Irish bishops gave permission to two young diocesan priests, Fr Edward J. Galvin and Fr John Blowick to have a national collection so that they could open a seminary that would prepare young Irish priests to go to China. The effort was called the Maynooth Mission to China, because Maynooth, west of Dublin, is where St Patrick's National Seminary is, where Fr Galvin had been ordained in 1909 and Fr Blowick in 1913.
The seminary opened that late winter's evening with 19 students and seven priests. Many of the students were at different stages of their formation in Maynooth but transferred. The seven priests belonged to different dioceses but threw in their lot with this new venture which, on 29 June 1918, would become the Society of St Columban.
This Sunday's gospel was part of what the new group reflected on as they gathered in the makeshift chapel in Dalgan Park, the name of the 'Big House' and the land on which it was built. Among the seven priests was Fr John Heneghan, a priest from the Archdiocese of Tuam, as was Fr Blowick, and a classmate of Fr Galvin. Fr Heneghan never imagined that despite his desire to be a missionary in China he would spend many years in Ireland itself teaching the seminarians and editing the Columban magazine The Far East. But his dream was to take him to the Philippines in 1931 and to torture and death at the hands of Japanese soldiers during the Battle of Manila in February 1945, when 100,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed and most of the old city destroyed, like Mariupol in Ukraine today.
Fr John Blowick emphasised the centrality of the words of Jesus in this Sunday's gospel, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. The second sentence there was written into the Constitutions of the Society, drawn up the following year.
These words of Jesus from the Gospel of St John are for me the greatest legacy of Fr John Blowick to the many men from different countries who have shared his dream and that of Bishop Galvin to this day.
And not only men, but women too, as Columban Sisters and as Columban Lay Missionaries.
The Society of St Columban was born in the middle of the First World War because of the vision of two young men who saw beyond that awful reality and who took Jesus at his word. Down the years Columbans have lived through wars, in remote areas where their lives and the lives of the people they served were often in danger. Some have been kidnapped and not all of those survived. Among those who did was Fr Michael Sinnott, kidnapped in the southern Philippines in October 2009 when he was 79 and released safely a month later on 12 November. He died here in Dalgan Park on St Columban's Day, 23 November, 2019.
Fr Michael Sinnott in Manila on the day of his release
Father John Blowick's insistence on the words of Jesus in this Sunday's gospel becoming part of the very fibre of the being of Columbans sustained Fr John Heneghan, Fr Patrick Kelly, Fr John Lalor and Fr Peter Fallon, as Japanese soldiers took them away from Malate Church, Manila, on 10 February 1945, and their companion Fr John Lalor who was working in a makeshift hospital nearby who with others was killed there by a bomb three days later.
Frs John Lalor, Patrick Kelly, Francis Vernon Douglas, Peter Fallon, Joseph Monaghan and John Heneghan
Fr Douglas died, most probably on 27 July 1943, after being tortured by the Japanese in Paete, Laguna.
The words By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another are not only the hallmark of Columbans but of countless other groups, of countless families. They are meant to be the hallmark of every Christian.
Canonisations on 15 May
Pope Francis will canonise ten saints in the Vatican on Sunday. Among them will be Blessed Titus Brandsma OCarm, from the Netherlands, who was killed by lethal injection in Dachau Concentration Camp, Germany, on 26 July 1942.
23 February 1881 - 26 July 1942
Another priest who will be canonised is Blessed Charles de Foucauld. I have often written about him on Sunday Reflections.
15 September 1858 - 1 December 1916
Cantate
Domino
Taizé Chant
Cantate Domino canticum novum (alleluia)
O sing a new song to the Lord (alleluia)
These words from Psalm 97[98]:1 are the opening words of today's Entrance Antiphon.
Traditional Latin Mass
Fourth Sunday after Easter
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-15-2022 if necessary).
Epistle: James 1:17-21. Gospel: John 16: 5-14.
The
Last Supper
Abraham Bloemaert [Web Gallery of Art]
1 comment:
Dearest Father Seán,
Those Fathers that went to China and eventually to the Philippines were brave disciples of Jesus in the literal form.
Just like my great-uncle (Heeroom in Dutch) many fell to the hands of the Japanese. Heeroom survived but he lost many of the group of priests that got tortured to death.
It is remarkable that even in their final years, they continued to serve those that were weaker, or more handicapped.
The two Dutch and French Fathers you mentioned being canonized this Sunday, are more than deserving and stand out to many!
May they enjoy their eternal heavenly reward and still be an example to many.
Hugs,
Mariette
PS This Sunday we will have First Holy Communion for youngsters and will celebrate over brunch with three of them that we know personally. May God keep them on track for the duration of their lives.
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