Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
June is the month of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus
And a great
windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the
boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the
cushion (Mark 4:37-38; Gospel).
Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)
Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)
Gospel Mark 4:35-41 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)
On that day, when evening had come, he said to
them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the
boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the
waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the
cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we
are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the
sea, “Peace! Be still!” And
the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and
said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the
sea obey him?”
Fr James Wilson was born in Cobh (KOHV), then known as Queenstown, on the south coast of Ireland in 1890. For many years it was the main port from which liners left for the USA. It was the last port from which Titanic left on 11 February 1912 on its fatal maiden voyage, bound for New York City. On 7 May 1915 a German U-boat torpedoed Lusitania as it was on a voyage from New York and was quite near Queenstown. Most of the 1,197 dead and the 763 survivors were taken to that port.
Father Wilson was ordained in June that year for the Diocese of Cloyne of which St Colman's is the cathedral. He joined the Columbans in 1920 and spent most of the rest of his life teaching Columban seminarians in Ireland and in the USA. I was in our seminary from 1961 to 1968 in the building where I am now living, St Columban's, Dalgan Park. However, we were nearly 200 seminarians then, and now we are about 60 retired missionary priests and no seminarians.
Fr Wilson was retired here during my student days and had become rather 'forgetful'. This venerable priest had a dignity that his mental decline could not hide and he had a great love for Cobh. Every time he met a student on the corridor he would talk about St Colman's Cathedral and would finish with the last two lines of a poem that I think he wrote himself: When St Colman's bell rings its last farewell and we're laid beneath the sod, / We'll raise the harbour at sunset and anchor at peace with God.
What called Fr Wilson and the last lines of his poem to my mind was this Sunday's First Reading, Responsorial Psalm and Gospel. In the First Reading the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and asked him, who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb . . . and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed'?
The Responsorial Psalm, 106 [107], echoes this, as is its purpose: For [God] spoke, he summoned the gale, tossing the waves of the sea up to heaven and back into the deep. And God responded to those who were terrified: Then they cried to the Lord in their need and he rescued them from their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper: all the waves of the sea were hushed. They rejoiced because of the calm and he led them to the haven they desired. Let them thank the Lord for his love, the wonders he does for men.
Rembrandt, in his only seascape, captures the terror of the Apostles in the Gospel. And we can barely see Jesus in the dark, sleeping in the stern of the boat. That is so often where he seems to us to be. But the Apostles are awestruck when they see the power of Jesus: And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?'
Right now we are going through a very stormy period in the life of the world and of the Church. There are a number of regional wars that could develop into something much bigger. There are great divisions in the Catholic Church and the rejection of some of its teachings by some bishops and priests, especially in the area of human relationships and of family, a non-acceptance of the biological reality that each of us is either male or female from the moment of conception. And, as the Book of Genesis teaches, each of us is made in the image of God.
Yet history teaches us that in the midst of the greatest darkness and evil, God has raised up people of extraordinary love and heroism. In so many ways God touches us gently when we sin and leads us to conversion and to accept his forgiveness, especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Penance, Confession). And Rembrandt's painting shows a break in the black clouds, for me an expression of the hope we are called to place in Jesus our Risen Lord.
For all of this, as the response to the Responsorial Psalm says, O give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures for ever.
+++
When Fr JamesWilson died on 9 January 1970 in a hospital in Dublin, his grave was dug here in Dalgan Park - before his will was read. In that he asked that he be buried in his beloved Cobh. So he had a funeral Mass here, and another in Cobh in St Colman's Cathedral.
When St Colman's bell rings its last farewell and we're laid beneath the sod, We'll raise the harbour at sunset and anchor at peace with God. When our lives come to an end may all of us raise the harbour at sunset and anchor at peace with God.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) was founded 200 years ago. It has stations on the coasts of Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands and is staffed by volunteers who have saved countless lives. And more than 600 volunteers have died in rescuing others.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).
Traditional Latin Mass
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 06-23-2024 if necessary).
Epistle: 1 Peter 3:8-15. Gospel: Matthew 5:20-24.
Dearest Father Seán,
ReplyDeleteThinking about shippers that perished on the wild sea in a storm, I have to go back to the South of Chile where both of us got married by friend priest Padre Juan. He later took us to his many parishes and one was on the coast where Padre Juan buried one fisherman after the other. The treacherous waters threw them with their little boats on the cliffs... Such a sad idea!
Hugs,
Mariette