'If you have love for one another' - the hallmark of every Christian. Sunday Reflections, 5th Sunday of Easter, Year C

 

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.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

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

Frs John Blowick and Edward Galvin were the co-founders of the Columbans. Fr Blowick, the first superior general, accompanied the first group to China but was based in Ireland.

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.

Intramuros (Walled City), Manila, February 1945

[Wikipedia; photo]

Mariupol Hospital airstrike, 9 March 2022

[Wikipedia; photo]

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.

Blessed Titus Brandsma OCarm

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.

Blessed Charles de Foucauld

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]

'From now on do not sin again.' Sunday Reflections, 5th Sunday of Lent, Year C

From The Gospel of John (2003) directed by Philip Saville

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

  

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

Gospel John 8:1-11 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.  Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”

Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, Rembrandt, c.1644

National Gallery, London [Web Gallery of Art]

More than 33 years ago I did a number of brief supplies in parishes in one of the western states in the USA. In one parish, where I stayed only from Saturday till Monday morning, the Sunday gospel was one showing the mercy of Jesus. I forget which one, but know it wasn't today's. In my homily I emphasised God's love for us as sinners and how he wants to welcome us back when we turn away from him, partly or fully, by sinning.

The following morning I found an anonymous note that had been shoved under the front door of the priest's house. The style was that of a teenage girl. But the message was one for which I thanked God.

The writer said that for years she had hated God, thinking that God hated her. But whatever was in the gospel that Sunday and whatever I said in my homily had touched her deeply, making her aware of God's unconditional love for her precisely as a sinner, a love that led her to let go of the hatred she had been carrying.

Today's gospel shows so clearly the profound, merciful love that Jesus has for the sinner. We tend to focus on his mercy for the woman taken in adultery. She is indeed the main focal point. But we also see the merciful love of Jesus for those who had accused her. Jesus often spoke harshly to and about hypocrites. But on this occasion he brings the men who had wanted to execute the woman to reflect on their own sinfulness. Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. 

And the men did respond. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders.

Today's gospel reflects that of last Sunday, the parable of the Prodigal Son. The older son couldn't see beyond the great sins of his younger brother and failed even to see his father's love shown each day. But the father gently points out, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

The men in the gospel could see only the sin of the woman. And she had committed a grave sin. Adultery is never a 'peccadillo', a 'little sin'. It is among other things a sin of injustice and causes grief to the other spouse and to their children, as I know only too well from listening to young people on retreats over the years.

We live in a time when it is considered a 'grave sin' to be 'judgmental'. The 'grave sin' is not against God but against current 'thinking' and 'feeling'. Yet certain persons are called by their very professions to be 'judgmental': judges, referees and umpires, for example.

And Jesus in this instance is judgmental in that sense. He first asks the woman, Has no one condemned you? He then goes on to say, Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again. 

Jesus judges the woman - but doesn't condemn her. He acknowledges her sin - but sends her away forgiven.

Jesus has given us through the Church a powerful way of experiencing what the woman in today's gospel did. It is the Sacrament of Reconciliation/Confession/Penance. We're not usually dragged to the confessional by people condemning us. But we acknowledge our sins while acknowledging God's mercy. 

Among other things, 'The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God's grace and joining us with him in an intimate friendship.' Reconciliation with God is thus the purpose and effect of this sacrament. For those who receive the sacrament of Penance with contrite heart and religious disposition, reconciliation 'is usually followed by peace and serenity of conscience with strong spiritual consolation.' Indeed the sacrament of Reconciliation with God brings about a true 'spiritual resurrection,' restoration of the dignity and blessings of the life of the children of God, of which the most precious is friendship with God. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No 1468).  

Let us restore to the center – and not only in this Jubilee Year – the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a true space of the Spirit in which all, confessors and penitents, are able to experience the only definitive and faithful love, that of God for each one of His children, a love that never disappoints. St Leopold Mandic reiterated that God's mercy outstrips all our expectations. He used to say to those who suffered, 'We have in Heaven the heart of a mother. The Virgin, our Mother, who at the foot of the Cross experienced all the suffering possible for a human creature, understands our hardships and consoles us'. May Mary, refuge of sinners and Mother of Mercy, always guide and sustain the fundamental ministry of Reconciliation. Pope Francis, 4 March 2016.

'The Virgin, our Mother, who at the foot of the Cross experienced all the suffering possible for a human creature, understands our hardships and consoles us'.
Pietà - Malate - 1945

Our Lady of Remedies Church, Manila

In memory of the people of Malate who were killed during the Second World War and the five Columban priests who stayed with them and died with them.

The compassionate figure of Our Lady of Healing calls the Church to heal our crucified world, to walk with the poor and the oppressed, and to be the voice of those who cry for justice.

Mary, who inspired the women of Malate, represents the women of all times; women bring life into the world and most understand the sacredness of life and the insanity of war. With them, we pledge to work for a world without war where all people will live in that peace which Christ promised.

Kyrie from Missa Criolla (1964) by Ariel Ramírez

Columban Fr John Vincent Gallagher RIP

Fr John Vincent Gallagher

(24 December 1923 - 18 December 2015)

Fr John Vincent Gallagher, known to his fellow Columbans as 'John V', died peacefully on 18 December 2015 in St Columban’s Nursing Home, Dalgan Park, Navan, Ireland.  Born on 24 December 1923, in Glasgow, Scotland, but raised in Dún Lúiche (Dunlewey), Gaoth Dobhair (Gweedore), County Donegal, Ireland. 

St Andrew's Catholic Cathedral, Glasgow [Wikipedia]

He was educated in Dunlewey National School, Meenaclady National School, and St Eunan’s College, Letterkenny. He went to St Columban's, Dalgan Park, in 1944 and was ordained there on 21 December 1950.

Poison Glen, near Dunlewey [Wikipedia]

Assigned to the Philippines, he had a series of appointments in his first three years to Silang, Cavite, Lingayen and Olongapo, and this was followed by a four-year stint as assistant in Malate Church, Manila. In 1960 he was appointed to Student Catholic Action in the Archdiocese of Manila. His capacity for relating with young people, his sense of humour and his dedication meant that he was very successful in this ministry where he spent the next eleven years. He then spent four years as Chaplain at Makati Medical Centre where he was deeply appreciated by both patients and staff.

Nuestra Señora de Remedios, Our Lady of Remedies
Malate Church, Manila [Wikipedia]

This was followed by a period as Director of the Student Pastorate in Baguio City; at the same time he proved a generous host as he took charge of the Columban Vacation House in that city. 

Baguio City [Wikipedia]

After Baguio, it was back to the lowlands again, with years spent first in Morong and later in Jalajala, Rizal, before being assigned once more to Malate, Manila.

In 1990, he was appointed to the Mission Promotion Team in Ireland. His abiding interest in people, his extraordinary memory for names and his gift for relating to young schoolchildren, made him a very valuable asset to the team. He returned once more to the Philippines in 1995 and spent his last three years there in pastoral work. When he returned to Ireland in 1998, he was available for all sorts of tasks, including radio interviews, in Irish and English, on all news events to do with the Philippines.

Father John V.  was a dedicated missionary, a fascinating companion and  a unique character. People who met him once never forgot him. He will be sadly missed by all of us. He was buried on 21 December from the chapel in St Columban's where he had been ordained priest exactly 65 years before.

May he rest in peace. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal - May his noble soul be on the right hand of God.

The obituary, slightly edited here, was written by Fr Cyril Lovett.

Fr Patrick Raleigh, Regional Director of the Columbans in Ireland, mentioned in an email that the lunch after the burial was followed by a sing-song mostly of songs dealing with Donegal. The song above, The Green Fields of Gweedore, is sung by Clannad, the members of which are from the place. The opening line refers to the townland where Father John V grew up: Down past Dunlewey's bonnie lakes.

Gleanntáin Ghlas' Ghaoth Dobhair, 'The  Green Glens of Gweedore', is sung by Altan, the lead singer of which, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, is also a native of this beautiful place. She sings in Irish (Gaelic), Father John V's native tongue, the ancestral language of most Irish people. The readings at the funeral Mass and the traditional decade of the Rosary at the graveside were in Irish. 

Both songs are songs of exile about the singer's native place and both videos show scenes around Gweedore.

Columban Fr Francis Carey RIP

Fr Francis Carey

(19 August 1937 - 6 December 2014)

‘He had a gentle presence and a kind heart.’ That is how Fr Dan O’Malley, Regional Director of the Columbans in the Philippines, described Fr Francis Carey when he informed the membership of his death on Saturday 6 December. Father Frank was diagnosed with a form of cancer late in October. His death has been a great shock to all who knew him.

Father Frank was the son of Paul and Marion Carey and was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He attended a secondary school there run by the Christian Brothers. He received his formation as a Columban in Sassafras, Victoria, and in Wahroonga and Turramurra, New South Wales. He was ordained in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, on 13 December 1962 by Archbishop Ernest Victor Tweedy, at the time the Archbishop Emeritus of Hobart, Tasmania. 

St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne [Wikipedia]

Father Frank often recounted the difficulty in finding a bishop and setting a date for his ordination, since all the active bishops in Australia were at the first session of the Second Vatican Council, which ended on 8 December. His father, a solicitor (lawyer), phoned the Columban superior at the time in Australia telling him that he understood the difficulty but that he, Paul, was responsible for arranging the family celebration and needed to know the date as soon as possible. The date was set very quickly!

A Columban who knew Father Frank very well wrote, ‘He had a great relationship with his father.  When he’d arrive home on holidays from the seminary Frank and his Dad would spend the whole night catching up. He got many of his priorities and values from his Dad. He hated to see people bossing others around.’

St Michael's Cathedral, Iligan City [Wikipedia]

Father Frank arrived in the Philippines in September 1963 and was assigned to Mindanao. After language studies he spent more than five years in parish work, He served for relatively short periods in Oroquieta City and Bonifacio in Misamis Occidental, Kinoguitan, Balingaon and Linugos, Misamais Oriental, and Malabang, Lanao del Sur. He then spent almost four years in St Michael’s, Iligan City, now the cathedral of the Diocese of Iligan. There he formed a great friendship with the late Fr Peter Steen who was parish priest at the time.

Father Peter had a very sharp wit and once remarked at the breakfast table in Manila when we got news of the death of a Columban priest in Ireland who had been in the Philippines for many years and who tended to be on the strict side, ‘He’ll probably find that God is a lot kinder than he thought he was’. When told of this in an email some years later Father Frank responded, ‘The statement about X was the ultimate Steen. He certainly believed in a God of understanding.’

Father Frank might have been speaking about himself. One who knew him very well described him as ‘unflappable, calm and non-judgmental. He was balanced, weighed things up and saw both sides. He allowed people to have their point of view and could sit with ambiguities and opposites. But he had great courage and always made up his own mind.’

Christ healing the blind, El Greco, 1570-75

Galleria Nozionale, Parma, Italy [Web Gallery of Art]

Fr Carey’s life as a priest was guided especially by Luke 4:18-19: ‘”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.”’ A friend noted, 'Even with the ecology it was about healing, reconciling and liberating.’  Luke 4:14-19 was the gospel read at his request at the funeral Mass in Our Lady of Remedies Church, Malate, Manila, on 11 December, with the passage Jesus read, Isaiah 61:1-3, as the First Reading.

This is what guided him when he spent nearly seven years, from 1969 till 1976, in Australia, working as a chaplain to overseas students, promoting the work of Columbans throughout the world and seeking vocations to the missionary priesthood. He could be creatively practical. He once spent a month in an outback parish in Australia and told the people on his first Sunday there that he couldn’t cook and would appreciate it if each day of his stay a different family would invite him to their home for a hot meal. The people were delighted to do so and around 30 families by welcoming this friendly missionary priest learned quite a bit about the work of the Columbans in the Philippines.

Shearing the Rams, Tom Roberts, 1890

National Gallery of Victoria [Wikipedia]

On his return to the Philippines in 1976 Father Frank spent nearly a year in the parish of Tambulig, Zamboanga del Sur, before moving to Manila where he was to spend most of the rest of his life, apart from a stint on mission promotion in Australia from 1991 to 1996 in Victoria, Western Australia and New South Wales. From 1981 until 1991 he worked with third-level students in Manila, with periods as chaplain in Philippine Women’s University, Far Eastern University, and with Student Catholic Action, which was founded by Columban Fr Edward J. McCarthy in the 1930s.

Sanctuary, Our Lady of Remedies Church, Malate [Wikipedia]

From 1996 till 2002 Father Frank was an assistant priest at Our Lady of Remedies Parish, Malate, Manila. The Center for Ecozoic Living and Learning (CELL) and the Eco-Farm Retreat Centre in Silang, Cavite, south of Manila, the brainchild of Columban Fr John Leydon whose vision was shared by Elin Mondejar, the owner of the land where CELL is located. Father Frank was part of this from its early days.  This Center demonstrates permaculture and organic farming and zero waste management in place of landfill. Malate Parish was also involved in this project. Fr Dominic Nolan, also from Melbourne and deeply involved in the project for many years, described Father Frank as ‘the glue that kept CELL together.’

A Columban employee who visited CELL in 2009 wrote in an online tribute, ‘Thank you for giving me inspiration in advocating and living a life dedicated to nourishing the earth and everything that God put in it. I remember my short time at CELL, feeling the earth, inhaling the freshness of the surroundings, enjoying the meals that were served to us straight from the lush garden, everything. I will never forget the excitement I saw in your eyes when you munched on some mint leaves just to convince us that these things are actually good and can nourish our bodies.’ This same person, a young married woman, said to me on hearing of his death, ‘I would have loved to have asked him to adopt me!’ This echoes what St Athanasius wrote in his life of St Anthony the Abbot: ‘And so all the people of the village, and the good men with whom he associated saw what kind of man he was, and they called him “The friend of God”. Some loved him as a son, and others as though he were a brother.’

Our Lady of Atonement Cathedral, Baguio City [Wikipedia]

Father Frank, who over the years quietly helped raise a considerable amount of money for the education of students, continued to be involved in CELL even though in recent years he was in charge of the Columban house in Baguio City, in the mountains of northern Luzon. It was there that he began to feel ill in October and returned to Manila.

Pope Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel, ‘When we live out a spirituality of drawing nearer to others and seeking their welfare, our hearts are opened wide to the Lord’s great and most beautiful gifts (No 272).’ May the gentle heart of Fr Francis Carey be opened wide to the gift of eternal life.

Father Frank loved jazz music. In the video above Stéphane Grappelli (on the left), one of the greatest jazz violinists, plays with Yehudi Menuhin, one of the great classical violinists. Yehudi Menuhin once lived in the house in Sassafras, Victoria, where Father Frank began his formation as a Columban seminarian.