Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
Showing posts with label Juan Martínez Montañes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Juan Martínez Montañes. Show all posts
Gospel Luke 6:27-38 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
Jesus
said to his disciples:
“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good
to those who hate you,bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and
from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.Give to everyone who begs from
you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For
even sinners love those who love them.And if you do good to those who
do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive,
what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same
amount.But love your enemies, and do good,
and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great,
and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the
ungrateful and the evil.Be merciful, even
as your Father is merciful.
Love your enemies, Jesus tells us twice in today's Gospel, which concludes with his words Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. These words of Jesus are perhaps the most difficult of all to follow.
Nearly 50 years ago I was chaplain in a third-level school in the Philippines run by religious sisters. One day the Directress asked me to go to the station of the Philippine Constabulary (PC) in the city. One of the male students was filing a case against another. The two had been close friends but had had a serious disagreement. I went to the station with some reluctance. It was during the early years of martial law in the Philippines and the PC was deeply involved in this. They were the national police force at the time and part of the military. I saw the PC as part of 'the enemy of the people'.
I was pleasantly surprised when I met the officer on duty, a major as far as I can recall. He was speaking to the young man filing the charge when I arrived and was trying unsuccessfully to persuade him not to go ahead with this move. The other student was also present.
The officer gave me a warm and courteous welcome. When I told him why I was there he suggested that I speak to the student filing the charge and brought us to a room where we could have some privacy.
As it happened, this young man had attended a weekend retreat for male students in the college that I had given only a week or two before in the local seminary. I had remembered how well he had participated and told him that. We spoke about the retreat and how it had challenged all of us. And I reminded him that all the participants had availed of the chance to go to confession.
I could see that he was reflecting on all of this as I brought up the question of his filing a charge against a man who had been his best friend. I gently encouraged him to drop the case. I could see in his physical behaviour the inner struggle he was going through. His whole body had tightened up. The tension within him was great and very obvious. After a long struggle he agreed to withdraw the charge.
We went back to the officer on duty and the student told him that he was dropping the charge. The other student was there and very relieved to hear this. The officer encouraged them to shake hands, which they did, though the student dropping the charge didn't do so with great enthusiasm.
However, he had done something very difficult: he had decided to forgive the man who had been his friend. He still had strong painful feelings. But forgiveness is a decision, not a feeling. It is a decision made with God's grace. In some situations it can be like major surgery. The surgery heals but physical pain still remains and takes time to disappear naturally. A scar that usually doesn't bother us may remain. In some instances there may be a permanent mark such as lameness after an operation on the back, for example. But healing has taken place.
And our feelings in a situation like this need time to subside, depending on the gravity of the situation.
For my own part, I was very grateful for the kindness, thoughtfulness and wisdom of the PC officer. He had acted entirely as a friend in this situation, not as an 'enemy of the people'. I had to take that on board and not condemn everyone in the PC out of hand.
I do not know if the former friendship between the two young men in the story was rekindled. Perhaps I should have followed up. I was then a young, inexperienced priest.
The ongoing grace for me from that incident iss the awareness that forgiveness can be very difficult but, with God's grace, not impossible. The young man who withdrew his charge against his friend was the bearer of that grace from God for me, just as the PC officer and I were the bearers of God's grace to him enabling him to make the decision to forgive.
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,
Scotland, South Africa)
GospelMatthew 18:15-20 (English
Standard Version Anglicised)
Jesus said to his disciples:
'If your brother sins against
you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens
to you, you have gained your brother.But if he does not listen, take one or two others along
with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or
three witnesses.If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the
church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you
as a Gentile and a tax collector. 'Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 'Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth
about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.For where two or three are gathered in my
name, there am I among them.'
During my
primary school years I came to know an exceptional person, Brother Mícheál. S.
Ó Flaitile, known to us as ‘Pancho’ from the sidekick of the Cisco Kid, a syndicated
comic-strip [above] that we used to read in The Irish Press, an Irish daily newspaper that no longer
exists. Our 'Pancho', like the Cisco Kid's friend, was on the pudgy side,
though minus the hair and moustache. He organized an Irish-speaking club during
my primary school years and arranged for me to be secretary. I don’t think I
was too happy at the time to get that job but I realized later that he had
spotted my ability to write. Other teachers had encouraged me in this too.
My class was blessed to have had
Brother Ó Flaitile in our last two years in secondary school, 1959 to 1961,
when we were preparing for our all-important Leaving Certificate examination.
He taught us Irish and Latin. He probably should have been teaching at
university level. What I remember most of all about him was his character.
Everyone described him as ‘fear uasal’, the Irish for 'a noble man' – as distinct from 'a nobleman’. Maybe 'a man of noble character' would be a better translation. A stare
from him made you feel humbled, but not humiliated. He had the kind of
authority that Jesus had, that we read about in the gospels.
I remember one event in our last year.
‘Pancho’ used to take the A and B sections - another set of teachers taught the C and D sections - for religion class together during
the last period before lunch every day. One day he scolded a student in the B
section for something or other that was trivial and the student himself and the
rest of us took it in our stride and forgot about it. We were nearly 70 boys
aged between 16 and 18. 'Pancho' was in his late 50s then. The next day
Brother Ó Flaitile apologized to the boy in question and to the rest of us
because he had discovered that the student hadn’t done what he had accused him
of. Whatever it was, it had been very insignificant. But the apology of our revered teacher was
for me a formative moment, a moment when I experienced the truth of the words in today's Gospel: For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.I mentioned the incident to Brother Ó Flaitile many years later when he was
in his 80s. He told me he didn’t remember it, but he smiled. He died
in the late 1980s.
Some years ago a
classmate told me about an incident between himself and Brother Ó Flaitile in
1959 when we were on a summer school/holiday in an Irish-speaking part of
County Galway. If my friend had told me the story at the time I would not have
believed him. He got angry with ‘Pancho’ over something or other and used a
four-letter word that nobody would ever express to an adult, least of all to a
religious brother and teacher whom we revered. The lad stormed back to the
house where he was staying and almost immediately felt remorse. He went back to
‘Pancho’ and apologized. The Brother accepted this totally and unconditionally
and never referred to the incident again.
Looking back on the first incident I figure that
the student in question must have gone to 'Pancho' afterwards and explained to
him what had really happened. Brother Ó Flaitile was the kind of authority
figure whom you felt free to approach in such a situation. If that is what
happened, and I believe it was, then the opening words of today's gospel were
what we all experienced in class the following day: If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault,
between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your
brother
Brother Ó Flaitile's asking for forgiveness
that day was all the more powerful because he was more than three times our
age, an authority figure, a religious brother and a truly revered person. What
he did showed why he was revered, as did the 'four-letter word incident' with
my classmate.
After my father, I don't think that anyone else had such a formative influence on me when I was young as 'Pancho'. Solas na bhFlaitheas ar an mbeirt acu - The Light of Heaven on both of them.
A Thiarna, déan Trócaire
Setting by Patrick Davey from his Aifreann Feirste (Belfast Mass)
A Thiarna, déan Trócaire;
Lord, have mercy;
A Chríost (a Chríost), dean trócaire.
Christ (Christ), have mercy.
Brother Ó Flaitile had a great love for the Irish language and a keen sense of the artistic. I think he would have liked Patrick Davey's setting of the Kyrie.
Composed by Cipriano de Rore, sung by the VOCES8 Foundation Choir
Ave Regina caelorum,
Mater Regis angelorum,
O Maria, flos virginum,
Velut rosa vel lilium.
Funde preces ad Dominum
Pro salute fidelium.
Amen.
Hail, Queen of Heaven,
Mother of the King of Angels,
O Mary, flower of Virgins,
Like a rose or a lily;
Pour out prayers to the Lord
For the salvation of the faithful,
Amen.
This is a different hymn from the Ave, Regina Caelorum that is sung or recited at the end of Compline (Night Prayer), especially from the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord on 2 February through Wednesday of Holy Week.
