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).
GospelJohn 4:5-42 (English Standard Version Anglicised: India)
[For the shorter form (4:3-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42,
omit the text in brackets.]
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near
the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was
there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside
the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said
to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the
city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a
Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings
with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God,
and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink’, you would have asked
him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to
him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do
you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He
gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus
said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever
drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty
again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of
water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give
me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw
water.”
[Jesus said to
her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered
him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I
have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have
is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ]The woman said
to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.Our
fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem
is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman,
believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not
know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the
hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such
people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must
worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know
that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he
will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am
he.”
[Just
then his disciples came back. They marvelled that he was talking with a
woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So
the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come,
see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They
went out of the town and were coming to him.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him,
saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat
that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one
another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to
them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to
accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then
comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the
fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving
wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower
and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds
true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent
you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have
laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”]
Many Samaritans from that town believed in
him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever
did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with
them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of
his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you
said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that
this is indeed the Saviour of the world.”
Alfie Lambe was born in Tullamore, Ireland, joined the Irish Christian Brothers but was advised to leave because of his poor health. He joined the Legion of Mary where he showed outstanding qualities and was appointed to South America as a Legion envoy, with the mission of helping the Legion grow there. With Seamus Grace, another Irish legionary, he left for Bogota, Columbia on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel 16th July 1953. He was only 21.Until his early death in Buenos Aires, he was to serve in Columbia, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay and Brazil. He acquired the Spanish nickname El Corderito, 'the little lamb'. The Archdiocese of Buenos Aires initiated the cause for his beatification in 1978.
Noel Lynch, who went to South America as a Legion envoy around the time of Alfie's death, wrote about Alfie. One story he tells parallels today's gospel.
One of the ideas of the Legion
Handbook is that a legionary most always be on duty. Alfie taught by example.
One dayAlfie met a young man in a railway
station. With a smile he asked him would he like to do something for Our Lady.The young man answered that he would but that
he did not go frequently to Sunday Mass. Alfie replied; 'I did not askyou
about Mass but would you be willing to work for Our Lady?' That same week he
attended his first Legion meeting.Within a few weeks he was an officer
of that Praesidium and soon after became officer of his Curia. Within a few
yearshe went for the priesthood and today is rector of the diocesan
seminary.
The Praesidium is the basic unit of the Legion of Mary and meets weekly while the Curia consists of the officers of a group of praesidia in a particular area and meets monthly.
In today's gospel Jesus asks for help: Give me a drink. He asks a stranger, a Samaritan woman, which astonished his disciples. Alfie approached a stranger while waiting for a train and asked him if he would like to do something for Our Lady.
The question of Jesus to the Samaritan woman led her to become a missionary that very day to the people in her own town. Alfie's question to the young man in the railway station led him to become a missionary in his own diocese as a priest.
Jesus was aware of the background of the woman. Alfie didn't know anything about the young man he approached but wasn't put off when the latter indicated that he didn't attend Sunday Mass regularly. Alfie replied, I did not ask you about Sunday
Mass but would you be willing to work for Our Lady?
The gospel has these striking words: Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, 'He told me all that I ever did.' Clearly the woman was not filled with fear or shame like someone whose sins have been publicly revealed. She wanted to share the good news that she had found the Messiah.
Her words echo those of Psalm 139 (138): O Lord, you search me and you know me . . . you discern my purpose from afar . . . For it was you who created my being, knit me together in my mother's womb. I thank you for the wonder of my being . . . O search me, God, and know my heart. O test me and know my thoughts. See that I follow not the wrong path and lead me in the path of life eternal.
The woman at the well experienced the truth of the words : O Lord, you search me and you know me . . . you discern my purpose from afar. Jesus called her to be her real self, to be the person God wanted her to me. The young man approached by Alfie Lambe discovered who God wanted him to be through the gentle invitation to work for Our Lady.
Because of the Samaritan woman's missionary work among her own people they came out to meet Jesus and many more believed because of his word. And the final words of the gospel tell us that a missionary's work is to bring people to meet Jesus: It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.
That too was the whole purpose of Alfie Lambe's work in South America: accompanying Our Lady knowing that her mission is to bring us all to know her son.
That too is the mission of the Legion of Mary: The object of the Legion of
Mary is the glory of God through the holiness of its members developed by
prayer and active co-operation, under ecclesiastical guidance, in Mary’s and
the Church’s work of crushing the head of the serpent and advancing the reign
of Christ (Handbook, page 11).
Ave Regina Caelorum
This ancient Latin hymn to Our Lady is traditionally sung or recited at the end of Compline (Night Prayer) from the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, 2 February, through Wednesday of Holy Week.
Hail, Queen of heaven; hail, Mistress of the Angels; hail, root of Jesse; hail, the gate through which the Light rose over the earth.
Rejoice , Virgin most renowned and of unsurpassed beauty. Farewell, Lady most comely. Prevail upon Christ to pity us.
Daffodils emerging, St Columban's Dalgan Park
10 March 2023
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation (Psalm 139 [138]).
Traditional Latin Mass
Third Sunday in Lent
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 03-12-2023 if necessary).
GospelLuke 12:32-48 (English Standard Version
Anglicised: India). Shorter form, Luke 12:35-40. Omit [text in square brackets].
Jesus said to his disciples:
[“Fear not, little flock, for it is your
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.Sell your possessions, and give to the
needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old,
with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief
approaches and no moth destroys.For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.]
“Stay dressed for action and keep
your lamps burning,and be like men who are waiting for
their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the
door to him at once when he comes and knocks.Blessed are those servants whom the
master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress
himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and
serve them.If he
comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are
those servants!But
know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the
thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.You also must be ready, for the Son
of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
[Peter said, “Lord, are you
telling this parable for us or for all?”And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his
master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the
proper time?Blessed
is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.Truly, I say to you, he will set him
over all his possessions.But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is
delayed in coming’, and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat
and drink and get drunk,the master of that servant will come on a day when he
does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in
pieces and put him with the unfaithful.And that servant who knew his master's will but did
not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe
beating.But the one
who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light
beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required,
and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.]
A stamp with Liam Whelan's photo issued in 2008 by An Post, the Irish Postal Service, for the 50th anniversary
of the Munich Disaster. The clock is in Old Trafford, the Manchester United
stadium, showing the time and date of the crash.
You also must be
ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
I've posted a number of times before about the death of Irish footballer Liam Whelanin a plane crash in Munich in 1958. His life and death for me show the meaning of the words of Jesus in the gospel today: You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
I remember the moment I heard of the plane crash in Munich that killed so many young sportsmen in their prime. It was late afternoon and already dark and a man whom I knew as a street-singer, someone I had perceived, wrongly perhaps, to be a beggar, was running around, almost frantically, telling everyone the tragic news. I was 14 and it was my first experience of what some call 'a public private moment'.
If this is the end, then I'm ready for it.
These were the last words of Liam Whelan who died more than 64 years ago and who is buried near my parents. Fifteen or sixteen years ago I learned that when they were both around 14 Liam rescued a close friend of mine who had got into difficulties in a swimming pool. [Brendan, my friend, celebrates his 86th birthday this Sunday. I have baptised two of his grandchildren].
The average age of Manchester United's players was only 22. One who was only 21, Duncan Edwards, from the English Midlands, was considered by many to have the potential to become perhaps the greatest footballer ever. He died 15 days after the crash.
These young men who filled stadiums were being paid only a little more than a tradesman could earn at the time, though very few played beyond the age of 35. Endorsements could bring in a little more income for a few talented players. Their counterparts today are often spoiled millionaires.
Those who knew him described Liam Whelan as 'a devout Catholic'. I know that he sent his mother some money for her to go to Lourdes. 11 February 1958 was the centennial of the first apparition of our Blessed Mother to St Bernadette. Mrs Whelan, a widow since 1943 when Liam was 8, used the money instead towards a beautiful statue of Our Lady of Lourdes over the grave of her son (photo below). I pass it each time I visit my parents’ grave.
Clearly young Liam Whelan had his life focused on what was most important. He was ready to meet death. I have often spoken about him at Mass and on retreats. Today's gospel invites us to focus on the essentials, God’s love for us sinners, the hope that the life and death of Jesus offer us, the necessity of acknowledging our sinfulness to enable God’s love to break through and the importance of being always prepared for death.
But the deaths of so many talented young men still leaves a deep sadness among those who saw them play and followed their fortunes. I feel that sadness when I recall the Munich crash. The February 2008 issue of The Word, a magazine that sadly no longer exists and that was published by the Divine Word Missionaries in Ireland and Britain, had an article, A Sporting Tragedy, in which John Scally spoke for me : Their funerals were like no other. Most funerals are a burial of someone or something already gone. These young deaths pointed in exactly the opposite direction and were therefore the more poignant. Normally we bury the past but in burying Liam Whelan and his colleagues, in some deep and gnawing way we buried the future.
I remember the evening that Liam Whelan's remains were brought to his parish church, Christ the King, Cabra, Dublin, very near to where our family lived. There were thousands outside the church. My brother Paddy went with our Dad. Just recently he told me that it was the only time he ever saw Dad cry.
I remember reading about Liam Whelan's last words in a newspaper a few days after the tragedy. I've heard Harry Gregg, the Manchester United goalkeeper who survived the crash and who died in 2020, speaking about them. They still move me and challenge me to be ready whenever death may come. Jesus isn't trying to frighten us in today's gospel but to keep us focused on the supremely important realities ofThe Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. (That article by Monsignor Charles Pope is well worth reading).
Jesus tells us that when we are honestly trying to follow him in doing the Father's will we are blessed: Blessed are those servant whom the master finds awake when he comes.
You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Liam Whelan's grave, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin
Pope Benedict XVI opens his encyclical Spe Salvi with these words: 'SPE SALVI facti sumus'—in hope we were saved, says Saint Paul to the Romans, and likewise to us (Rom 8:24). He has a beautiful passage about praying for the dead in No 48 of the encyclical, a passage I have often used at funerals. In it he quotes from John Donne's poem No Man is an Island (quotationhighlighted below).
The belief that love can reach
into the afterlife, that reciprocal giving and receiving is possible, in which
our affection for one another continues beyond the limits of death—this has
been a fundamental conviction of Christianity throughout the ages and it
remains a source of comfort today. Who would not feel the need to convey to
their departed loved ones a sign of kindness, a gesture of gratitude or even a
request for pardon?
. . . We should recall that no
man is an island, entire of itself. Our lives are involved with one another . .
. The lives of others continually spill over into mine: in what I think, say,
do and achieve. And conversely, my life spills over into that of others: for
better and for worse. So my prayer for another is not something extraneous to
that person, something external, not even after death. In the
interconnectedness of Being, my gratitude to the other—my prayer for him—can
play a small part in his purification. And for that there is no need to convert
earthly time into God's time: in the communion of souls simple terrestrial time
is superseded. It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it
ever in vain. In this way we further clarify an important element of the
Christian concept of hope. Our hope is always essentially also hope for others;
only thus is it truly hope for me too.
Jesus entered the temple and
began to drive out those who sold, saying to them,
“It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a
den of robbers” (Luke 19:45-46; today's Gospel).
