'May the Lord Jesus Christ receive thee with a smiling and benign countenance.' Sunday Reflections, 4th Sunday of Easter, Year C

 

The Good Shepherd

Early Italian Christian Sculptor [Web Gallery of Art]

WGA note on this sculpture: The allegorical figure of the Good Shepherd was originally based on the pagan representation of a man bringing his offering to the altar but, by the 3rd century, had also come to represent the 'ram bearer' with its connotations of philanthropy and loving care. The latter image accorded well with the Christians’ understanding of a divine Shepherd who would lay down his life for his flock. In a period of persecution, such images had the advantage of directly addressing the adherents of the Christian faith while not drawing attention to them, since the images were already popular with

non-Christians [emphasis added].

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

Readings, (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel, John 10:27-39 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)  

Jesus said:

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Fr William Doyle SJ

1 March 1873 - 16 August 1917

This Sunday is known as 'Good Shepherd Sunday'. One great example of a Good Shepherd who I learned about in kindergarten more than 70 years ago is Fr Willie Doyle SJ. A great source about him is the website of the Father Willie Doyle Association, edited and maintained by Dr Patrick Kenny

Pat Kenny is also the compiler and editor of To Raise the Fallen, published by Veritas, where he writes on page 38: The precise details surrounding Fr Doyle's death are unclear. But at some time in the late afternoon of 16 August 1917, a group of soldiers led by 2nd Lieutenants Marlow and Green got into trouble beyond the front line, and Fr Doyle ran to assist them. It seems that Fr Doyle and the two officers were about to take shelter when they were hit by a German shell and killed. His body was never recovered.

In pages 65 - 68 Fr Doyle tells one of many stories he wrote in letters to his father from the front, this one dated 13 January 1917. Here are some extracts from it.

'Two men badly wounded in the firing line, Sir'. I was fast asleep . . . 'You will need to be quick, Father, to find them alive.'  By this time I had grasped that someone was calling me, that some poor dying man needed help, that perhaps a soul was in danger. In a few seconds I had pulled on my big boots, I know I should want them in the mud and wet, jumped into my waterproof and darted down the trench.

It was just two a.m., bitterly cold and snowing hard . . . God help and strengthen the victims of this war, the wounded soldier with his torn and bleeding body lying out in this awful biting cold, praying for the help that seems so slow in coming . . .

Away on my left as I ran I could hear in the stilness of the night the grinding 'Rat-tat-tat' of the machine gun, for all the world as if a hundred German carpenters were driving nails into my coffin, while overhead 'crack, crack, crack, whiz' went the bullets tearing one after another for fear they would be two late . . .

The first man was in extremis when I reached him. I did all I could for him, commended his sould to the merciful God as he had only a few minutes to live, and hurried on to find the other wounded boy . . . [Note: Fr Doyle frequently referred to the soldiers as his 'boys'  or 'lads'. The vast majority were in their late teens and early 20s.]

I found the dying lad, he was not much more, so tightly jammed into a corner of the trench it was almost impossible to get him out. Both legs were smashed, one in two or three places, so his chances of life were small as there were other major injuries as well. What a harrowing picture that scene would have made. A splendid young soldier, married only a month they told me, lying there pale and motionless in the mud and water with the life crushed out of him by a cruel shell. The stretcher bearers hard at work binding him up as well as they may his broken limbs; round about a group of silent Tommies ['Tommy' was the nickname for the enlisted men in the British army] looking on and wondering when their turn would come. 

Peace for a moment seems to have taken possession of the battlefield, not a sound save the deep boom of some far-off gun and the stifled moans of the dying boy, while as if anxious to hide the scene, nature drops her soft mantle of snow on the living and dead alike. Then while every head is bared come the solemn words of absolution, 'Ego te absolvo,' I absolve thee from thy sins. Depart Christian soul and may the Lord Jesus Christ receive thee with a smiling and benign countenance. Amen.

Oh! surely the gentle Saviour did receive with open arms the brave lad . . . and as I turned away I felt happy in the thought that his soul was already safe in the land where 'God will wipe away all sorrow from our eyes, for weeping and mourning shall be no more'.

Passchendaele, The Third Battle of Ypres (Ieper), 1917

This is the battle where Fr Willie Doyle died.

What a beautiful image of the Good Shepherd that Father Willie conveys in that last sentence of the letter to his father: Depart Christian soul and may the Lord Jesus Christ receive thee with a smiling and benign countenance. Amen.

Antiphona ad communionem  Communion Antiphon 

Surréxit Pastor bonus, 

The Good Shepherd has risen, 

qui ánimam suam pósuit pro óvibus suis, 

who laid down his life for his sheep 

et pro grege suo mori dignátus est, alléluia.

and willingly died for his flock, alleluia.

Orlando di Lasso (c.1530 - 1594), who composed this Latin setting of the Communion Antiphon, was Flemish. Vox Angelorum is a Catholic choir from Jakarta, Indonesia, singing here in St Paul's Within the Walls Episcopal Church, the first Protestant church built in Rome.

Traditional Latin Mass

Third Sunday after Easter

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-08-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Peter 2:11-19. Gospel: John 16: 16-22.

Saint Peter

El Greco [Wikipedia]

'Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May'

Garland of Flowers with Madonna and Child

Christiaen Luyck [Web Gallery of Art]

Bring Flowers of the Rarest

This hymn, very popular in Ireland particularly in May, was written by Mary E. Walsh in the late 1800s. The words are here. It was sung by the late Irish tenor Frank Patterson at the Faith of Our Fathers concert in Dublin in 1997. Frank was a deeply committed Catholic and died in 2000 at the age of 61. May he rest in peace.

The Virgin and Child in a Garland of Flowers

Rubens [Web Gallery of Art]

Missa IX, Cum Jubilo

This Gregorian chant setting of the Mass is sung on Solemnities and Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is sung here by the Schola Gregoriana Mediolanensis, Milan.

 

Virgin and Child in a Stone Niche, Surrounded by Garland of Flowers

Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen the Elder [Web Gallery of Art]

'Do you love me? Follow me'. Sunday Reflections, 3rd Sunday of Easter, Year C

 

The Crucifixion of St Peter

Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art]

Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. (John 21:18, today's Gospel).

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

Readings, (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel, John 21:1-19 [1-14] (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)  

After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

^[When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”  (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”]

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The Gospel of John (2003) 

Director: Philip Saville; Narrator: Christopher Plummer 

[Today's Gospel ends at 5:00]

Fr Keith Gorman

(21 January 1920 - 19 December 2016)

Fr Keith Gorman was a Columban priest from Australia who worked for many years in Japan. I met him a number of times and was always struck by his delightful sense of humour and how he grew old gracefully. In one of the articles he wrote for Columban magazines he stated that his idea of heaven was having breakfast with Jesus on the shores of eternity. He clearly had today's gospel in mind. 

This is a gospel I often return to. Imagine being served breakfast by Jesus himself, as the seven apostles were on that blessed morning! And the second part, which will surely and unfortunately be omitted by many priests who will choose the shorter gospel, is for me one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible. Jesus is calling us into a deep intimacy with him. He addresses his question Do you love me? not only to St Peter but to each one of us today.

It is in that context that he tells Peter Feed my lambs . . . Tend my sheep . . . Feed my sheep. Jesus emphasises the relationship of intimacy with him as being fundamental, not the mission on which he sends us. Being sent on mission is a consequence of being invited into a deep, personal and intimate relationship with him.

For me as a priest today's gospel tells me that I must put prayer at the very centre of my life, not only the official prayer of the Church - the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Breviary, the Sacraments - but personal prayer.  The same applies to all who are called by God to the single life as priests, as religious, as lay persons.

Today's gospel is a call to married persons to put their spousal relationship at the centre of their lives. Through the Sacrament of Matrimony Jesus himself is the foundation of that relationship. And it is the bride and groom who confer that sacrament on each other, not the priest. He is a witness on behalf of the Church to their exchange of vows.

The first question Jesus puts to Peter is, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these? I understand this to mean 'Do you love me more than the others love me?' Husbands and wives are called by God to love each other more than anyone else loves them - including their children and their parents. And I take it to mean also that God calls them to love each other more than they love their children and their parents.

This does not mean loving anyone less, but rather drawing their children, especially, into their love for each other, a love that is based on God's love for them as a couple.

I truly believe that when their children become more important for spouses than they do for each other their marriage is heading for trouble. The same applies, I believe, to priests and religious who place their work, no matter how important and good in itself it may be, above their personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.

I once heard a boy of around 11 in the Philippines say, What I love most about my parents is that they are always together. He felt drawn into their love for each other, the same love that led to his being born. 

A teenage girl in the Philippines who had been abused told me how she was drawn to Jesus by a very poor black-and-white copy of Rembrandt's painting below.

Young Jew as Christ 

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

My young friend said to me, He looks so human. She was basically expressing a desire to be close to Jesus, which is the desire Jesus has for her and for each of us.

For married couples, if God grants them children, Feed my lambs means primarily taking care of their children until they are ready to take on the responsibility of being adults. My mother often reminded me that when I'd be 21 - the then legal age of majority in Ireland, now 18 - I would be responsible for myself. I never took this to be an admonishment but rather as her giving me something valuable to aspire to. This, along with how I saw her and my father carrying out their responsibilities, was also a way in which they carried out the words of Jesus, Feed my lambs. 

Countless single individuals, never married or widowed, with a deep sense of the love of Jesus for them have 'fed the lambs and sheep' because of that relationship. Many of us have been strengthened in our faith or have grown in our awareness of God's love for us through such persons. Often enough I have written here about Blessed Piergiorgio Frassati. St John Paul II, who beatified him, said of him, I, too, in my youth, felt the beneficial influence of his example and, as a student, I was impressed by the force of his Christian testimony.

The First Reading expresses in a different way the centrality of our invitation from Jesus to enter into an intimate relationship with him: But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men'. In other words, as Christians we are meant to live the values of Our Lord Jesus Christ in every aspect of our lives.

As it happens, there are elections in Northern Ireland on Thursday 5 May and in the Philippines on Monday 9 May. Will those involved in these elections allow the values of the gospel to determine how they vote? How we vote is also a way to Feed my lambs . . . Tend my sheep . . . Feed my sheep. How we vote is meant to be a consequence of the intimate relationship into which Jesus calls us within the Church. And when it comes to legislators making laws that are contrary to God's will, as some laws are, we must make the words of St Peter our own: We must obey God rather than men.

How do we do this? By accepting the invitation of Jesus: Follow me.

Worthy is the Lamb

from Messiah by Handel

Performed by Academy of Ancient Music with Voces8

Conducted by Barnaby Smith

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever (from Apocalypse/Revelation 5:12-13, today’s Second Reading).

[Handel used the King James translation, slightly adapted.]

Traditional Latin Mass

St Joseph the Worker

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-01-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: Colossians. 3:14-15, 17, 23-24. Gospel: Matthew 13:54-58.

The Childhood of Christ

Gerrit van Honthorst [Web Gallery of Art]

There is an essay on this painting and on the feast on the website of Magnificat here.

Death of Columban Fr Patrick Clarke

 

Fr Patrick Clarke

22 March 1931 - 26 April 2022

Remember in your prayers the soul of Columban Fr Patrick 'Paddy' Clarke who died peacefully in the early hours of Tuesday 26 April.

Father Paddy worked for thirty years in Japan and when he came back to Ireland spent eleven years in St Jude's Parish, Templeogue, Dublin, not far from where he grew up. He was much loved there  for his gentleness and kindness and many of the parishioners attended his funeral here in St Columban's, Dalgan Park, this morning.

A unique experience for me at Father Paddy's funeral Mass was that he had written the homily himself, based on Deuteronomy 6:4-7, the First Reading, and Mark 12:28-34, the Gospel, both of which he had chosen for his funeral Mass. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.

Father Paddy's obituary is on the website of the Columbans in Ireland here. May he rest in peace.

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

Composed by JS Bach, transcribed for piano by Myra Hess

played by Daniil Trifonov

Father Paddy loved classical music, piano music in particular.

St Columban's Cemetery, Dalgan Park, Ireland

'So that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ . . .' Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)

 

The Incredulity of St Thomas

Rembrandt [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 20:19-31 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)  

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

John 20:19-31 from The Gospel of John (2003) 

Directed by Philip Saville; Narrator: Christopher Plummer

In 2007, during a visit to Canada I was asked to give a talk to a prayer group. Afterwards, over coffee, I was chatting with one of the members, an elderly immigrant from Germany, who told me how she had become a Catholic. She had been raised as a Lutheran and had been on the verge of joining the Catholic Church for a long time but could not take the final step.

One weekday afternoon, feeling somewhat down because of this she went for a walk. She was perhaps somewhat like St Thomas when he said, Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. She happened to pass by a Catholic church and decided to go in. While she was there a group of teenage boys came in, went up to the front of the church, genuflected before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle, knelt down for a couple of minutes, stood up, genuflected again and went on their way.

These boys were expressing what the Church has always taught: Do not, then, regard the eucharistic elements as ordinary bread and wine: they are in fact the body and blood of the Lord, as he himself has declared. Whatever your senses may tell you, be strong in faith.

You have been taught and you are firmly convinced that what looks and tastes like bread and wine is not bread and wine but the body and the blood of Christ. You know also how David referred to this long ago when he sang: Bread gives strength to man’s heart and makes his face shine with the oil of gladness. Strengthen your heart, then, by receiving this bread as spiritual bread, and bring joy to the face of your soul. (From The Jerusalem Catecheses, used in the Office of Readings for Saturday within the Octave of Easter.) 

This is the reason that Fr Jean-Marc Fournier, chaplain to the Paris Fire Brigade, rescued the Blessed Sacrament from the burning Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral in Holy Week of 2019.

The visit of those Canadian teenage boys to the Blessed Sacrament was the German woman's My Lord and my God! moment. She became a Catholic shortly afterwards. Those boys had no idea of how their simple expression of their faith had so profoundly touched the life of a person whom they may not have even noticed.

The moment that St Thomas said My Lord and my God! was truly an 'eternal' moment. It led to his martyrdom and to his living with God for all eternity. 

My German-Canadian friend's moment is 'eternal' in the same way. It led her into a deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus and with all the members of the Church and pointing towards an eternity with God himself.

Every such moment in our lives is meant to be eternal, a moment when we experience the presence of God's love so clearly, a moment that we continue to carry with us, sometimes consciously but perhaps more often not being aware of it, a moment that leads us to eternal life.

I think that we may legitimately think of those many moments in the way St John in his gospel writes of the many other signs [miracles] that Jesus did, which are not written in this book. These moments are graces given by God so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

The Mar Thoma Sliva or Saint Thomas Cross, the symbol of the Syro-Malabar Church [Wikipedia]

As of December 2018 nearly nine per cent of nurses in the Republic of Ireland were from India. Most of these nurses are Catholics from Kerala who belong to the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church that traces its origins back to St Thomas the Apostle. These, as well as the Syro-Malankara Catholics in Kerala, are in full communion with Rome. 

I have met many Keralite Catholics here in Ireland and also in Britain and know how fervent they are in living their faith.There are Masses in the Syro-Malabar Rite every Sunday in the Archdiocese of Dublin and in some other places, including the parish of Johnstown-Walterstown, which includes St Columban's, Dalgan Park, where I live.

May St Thomas the Apostle, whose My Lord and my God! is the most explicit expression of faith in Jesus Christ in the whole of the New Testament, continue to watch over them. 

Syro-Malabar Hallelujah

Traditional Latin Mass

Low Sunday

The Octave Day of Easter

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 04-24-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 John 5:4-10.  Gospel: John 20:19-31.

St Thomas the Apostle 

Jusepe Martínez [Web Gallery of Art]

My Lord and my God!

Death of Columban Fr Noel Doyle

 

Fr Noel Doyle

24 September 1935 - 15 April 2022

Please remember in your prayers the soul of Columban Father Noel Doyle who died peacefully in the early hours of Good Friday and was buried here in St Columban's Cemetery, Dalgan Park, Ireland, yesterday, Easter Monday.

Father Noel spent most of his life as a missionary priest in Japan. His obituary is here.

Hamabe no Uta - Song of the Seashore

Composer: Tamezō Narita

[The instrument in the middle is an erhu]

St Columban's Cemetery, Dalgan Park, Ireland