'Let all the peoples praise you.' Sunday Reflections, 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

 

Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Fahey (née Phelan)

14 February 1945 – 2 August 2023

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 15:21-28 (English Standard Version Anglicised, India)

Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Christ and the Canaanite Woman

Juan de Flandes [Web Gallery of Art]

But she came and knelt before him, saying, 'Lord, help me' (Matthew 15:25; Gospel).

On Friday the fourth of August I concelebrated at the funeral Mass of my friend Betty in the Church of the Holy Family, Aughrim Street Dublin, the parish in which we both grew up. Betty and I lived on the same street, though both our families moved to different streets in the area in the late 1950s. Betty spent her whole life in the parish. We were just friendly neighbours until one summer's afternoon when I was home from St Columban's seminary where I'm living once again, though there are no more seminarians here but mostly retired Columban missionary priests. We happened to be on the same 72 bus from Dublin city centre to the area where our families lived. From that conversation on the bus I became a good friend of Betty and her family rather than just a friendly neighbour.

Houses in Finn Street, Dublin

We lived in the house on the right while Betty’s family lived on the other side of the street. These houses had two bedrooms upstairs and one room downstairs with a small kitchenette and an outdoor toilet. They were built by the Dublin Artisans’ Dwellings Company.

When Betty and I were young our parish had five priests. Now it has two, the curate (assistant priest) being from Romania, Fr Coriolan Rumesan, known as 'Father Corri'. He is also chaplain to the Romanian-Greek Catholics in the Archdiocese of Dublin. Back in the 1950s we could not have imagined that there would be only two priests in our parish by the 2020s. Nor could we have imagined that a priest from Romania would be the celebrant at Betty's funeral Mass.

Betty was very much involved in the parish for many years and was an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. This sometimes involved bringing Holy Communion to the sick. She and Jerry were both involved in the chaplaincy in McKee Barracks, very near where they lived and within the parish. Jerry had been in the Defence Forces for many years.

When Father Corri arrived in Ireland eight years ago, a stranger, Jerry and Betty befriended him, helped him get settled into his house beside the parish church and adjust to life in Ireland. He became a close family friend. Betty sometimes accompanied him on his Communion calls.

Father Corri tended to Betty during her last illness, bringing her the sacraments and helping her family cope with the situation. In his homily at the funeral Mass he pointed out aspects of Betty's life that were a living out of the Scripture texts read at the Mass. His homily wasn't a eulogy but a call to the congregation to faithfully follow Jesus Christ. He pointed out some of the ways in which Betty had done this while asking us to pray for her soul and the souls of all who had died.

The friendship of Jerry and Betty with Father Corri has been a precious gift for him. Such a friendship is a grace from God for any priest, as I know from happy experience with married couples.

Holy Family Window

Holy Family Church, Aughrim St [Source]

A central theme running through the readings in this Sunday's Mass is welcoming the foreigner. In the First Reading Isaiah tells us: And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants . . . these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

One of those 'foreigners' was offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in our parish church at Betty's funeral and it was truly a house of prayer for all peoples.

It is only in the last 25 years that immigrants, some of them refugees, have been coming to Ireland in large numbers. Before that the percentage of people from overseas in the country was negligible. Recent censuses in both parts of Ireland show that around twelve per cent of people living in the whole of Ireland are from other countries. 

The Sanctuary

Holy Family Church, Aughrim St [Source]

The altar is the original one, moved forward. I celebrated my First Mass on this altar in its original position on 21 December 1967, the old feast of St Thomas the Apostle.

The Responsorial Psalm is Psalm 66 [67] and the response is taken from it: Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. It is a very joyful psalm, foreshadowing the universality of the Church.

Knock Shrine

[Wikipedia; photo]

I had a very personal experience of that as June turned into July this year. I spent a weekend at Knock Shrine in County Mayo, Ireland, where our Blessed Mother appeared in 1879. ('Knock' is an anglicised form of the Irish word cnoc, meaning 'hill'. The place is now known in Irish as Cnoc Mhuire, 'Mary's Hill'.) With me were William and Nina Cimafranca, a Filipino couple whom I have known for many years and who now live in Sydney, Australia. While there I went to confession in the Chapel of Reconciliation to an African priest, probably a Nigerian. Again, this is something I simply could not have imagined when I was young. 

William and Nina went back to Dublin on Sunday afternoon while I stayed on to make a retreat for priests to be given by Fr Eric Lozada, a priest of the Diocese of Dumaguete in the Philippines. Father Eric has been a friend for many years and is currently the International Responsible of Jesus Caritas Fraternity of Priests, a movement inspired by the spirituality of St Charles de Foucauld. William, Nina and I were able to have lunch with Father Eric before they left and the retreat began. It turned out that he knew some of William's relatives in Dumaguete. 

During my stay in Knock I met members of a large contingent of pilgrims from the African Chaplaincy in Dublin and Syro-Malabar Catholics from Kerala, India. Knock is a place that lets all the peoples praise you.

Chapel of Reconciliation, Knock Shrine

[Wikipedia; photo]

The feisty Canaanite woman in the Gospel, an 'outsider' whose faith in Jesus and love for her sick daughter touched his heart, foreshadows that our fundamental identity comes from our baptism through which we become sons and daughters of our loving Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus and, through him, of one another. Betty and Jerry welcomed Father Corri as a brother in Christ. They supported him in his ministry as a priest in what was initially for him a strange land. Father Eric in his retreat talks repeatedly addressed us as Brothers.

Let all the peoples praise you.

Laudate Dominum

Composed by Jacques Berthier

Sung by Bethlehem Choir, Catholic Church of the Nativity, Festac Town, Lagos, Nigeria

Laudate Dominum omnes gentes  (Latin) - Let all the peoples praise you.

Traditional Latin Mass

Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 08-20-2023 if necessary).

Epistle: 2 Corinthians 3:4-9. Gospel: Luke 10:23-37.

The Good Samaritan

Théodule-Augustin Ribot [Web Gallery of Art]

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine (Luke 10:33-34; Gospel)).

'This will be your opportunity to bear witness.' Sunday Reflections, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

 

Heuston Railway Station, Dublin

[Wikipedia; photo]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 21:5-19 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)

While some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, Jesus said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.”

Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge 

Knock Shrine, County Mayo, Ireland

[Wikipedia; photo]

Many of the Gospel stories of the interaction between Jesus and individuals or groups take place on the road. They are not planned though Jesus, who is both God and Man, would have foreseen them. I am often uplifted and strengthened in my Catholic Christian faith by such encounters, usually totally unforeseen.

One such was in Heuston Railway Station in Dublin on Friday 4 November. I was waiting for the noon train from Dublin to Cork, where I was to be part of a team conducting a Marriage Encounter Weekend. At the spot from where the photo at the top of the page was taken I saw a tall young man with his three children, the youngest being carried in a kind of backpack. I was struck with a feeling of utter delight. I approached the man who knew by my Roman collar that I was a priest. When his wife caught up with him and their children he introduced her as 'Lizzie'. Their love for one another and for their children, a girl and two boys aged seven, five and three, was palpable. 

The family were from Texas and were waiting for the train to Claremorris, County Mayo, the station nearest Knock Shrine where they were going on a brief pilgrimage. (Unlike other major shrines to Our Lady, most pilgrims to Knock don't stay overnight.) We chatted for only a couple of minutes. Before we parted the couple asked me for a blessing. Lizzie knelt down for this, not in the least bothered by the many people around.

I know that God truly blessed them on that occasion but He also blessed me through them. I was uplifted and strengthened in my faith.

It brought to mind a similar experience in late 1968 or early 1969 when I was studying in Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York. The Religious of the Sacred Heart, who owned the school, had just dropped 'of the Sacred Heart' from its name. It was a time of deep crisis in the Church and, in the USA, of deep crisis because of the Vietnam War.

One Saturday morning after Mass, Sr Kathryn Sullivan RSCJ, one of the first women to become internationally renowned as a Scripture scholar, approached me in the sacristy. She told me she was about to go on a lecture tour overseas and knelt down and asked me for a blessing. As a young priest, about one year in the priesthood, I felt deeply humbled. I was blessed by her humility, which reminded me of what God had called me to be.

Today's gospel reads like today's headlines and 'breaking news' - as it has always done. But in the midst of great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences Jesus tells us, This will be your opportunity to bear witness. The Texan family in Heuston Station and Sr Kathryn Sullivan, without being aware of it, took the opportunity to bear witness to me. 

The Prayer over the Offerings reminds us of what our lives are ultimately about : . . . may obtain for us the grace of being devoted to you and gain us the prize of everlasting happiness. The Communion Antiphon from the Old Testament (I wish the Church wouldn't include so many options throughout the Mass) reinforces this: To be near God is my happiness, to place my hope in God the Lord (Psalm 72 [73]: 28).

Whether in great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences or in our ordinary day-to-day quiet lives, Jesus says to each of us, This will be your opportunity to bear witness.

Tom Kettle and Columban Fr John Henaghan

Tom Kettle Memorial, Dublin

9 February 1880 -  9 September 1916

[Wikipedia; photo]

November is the month when we pray in a special way for the dead. On 11 November 1918 the Great War, the First World War (1914 - 1918), ended at 11 AM. It was the slaughter of so many young men in that war that led Pope Benedict XV to allow priests to celebrate three Masses on All Souls' Day.

Tom Kettle was a devout Catholic, a husband and father, an Irish nationalist and Member of Parliament who died in the Great War. A couple of days before his death he wrote the poem below to his infant daughter explaining why he was prepared to die in that war.

The last line of the poem was the title of a collection of writings by Columban Fr John Henaghan, The Secret Scripture of the Poor, published in 1950. Father John was one of five Irish Columbans who died in February 1945 during the Battle of Manila, four of them, including Fr Henaghan, taken away by Japanese soldiers and never seen again.

To My Daughter Betty, the Gift of God

by Tom Kettle

In wiser days, my darling rosebud, blown

To beauty proud as was your Mother’s prime.

In that desired, delayed, incredible time,

You’ll ask why I abandoned you, my own,

And the dear heart that was your baby throne,

To die with death. And oh! they’ll give you rhyme

And reason: some will call the thing sublime,

And some decry it in a knowing tone.

So here, while the mad guns curse overhead,

And tired men sigh with mud for couch and floor,

Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead,

Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor,

But for a dream, born in a herdsmen shed,

And for the secret Scripture of the poor.

Communion Antiphon 

First Mass on All Souls' Day

I am the Resurrection and the Life, says the Lord. Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will live for ever (John 11:25-26).

Fr John Heneghan

1881 - 10 February 1945

St Columban's Cemetery, Dalgan Park, Ireland

Traditional Latin Mass

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 11-13-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: Philippians 1:17-21; 4:1-3 . Gospel: Matthew 9:18-26.

Forest Landscape with Two of Christ's Miracles (detail)

David Vinckboons [Web Gallery of Art]

This painting shows the two miracles in the Gospel.