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).
GospelMatthew 4:12-23 or 4:12-17(English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
When Jesus
heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving
Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun
and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
‘The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the
Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — the people dwelling in darkness have
seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.’ From that time Jesus began to preach, saying,
‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
[While walking by the Sea
of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his
brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to
them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Immediately they left
their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers,
James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their
father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat
and their father and followed him.
And he went throughout all
Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom
and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.]
Last Sunday in the Philippines was the Feast of the Santo Niño (Holy Child). The gospel was Matthew 18:1-5, 10 in which Jesus tells us,Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I saw his words come to life twelve years ago at the end of Mass in Holy Family Home for Girls in Bacolod City. I lived in that city from 2002 until 2017.
In January 2014 four new girls arrived at the home. One, whom I'll call 'Josie', was aged 14 and was profoundly deaf. Her main way of communicating was Sign Language. The Sisters, staff and some of the girls began to learn some Sign Language. The other three new girls included two aged ten and one aged six.
At the end of Mass I saw 'Josie' sitting and quietly crying. I wasn't quite sure why. One of the ten-year-old new girls, rather small for her age but very lively and whom I'll call 'Grace', went over to 'Josie' and put her arms around her to comfort her. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
The majority of the girls in Holy Family Home have had horrific experiences, in most cases within their own wider family circle. They truly know what it is to be dwelling in darkness.
['Josie' was able to go home in 2016. We discovered that she had some hearing and, with hearing aids, she has improved her speech and hearing considerably. The other three girls were still at Holy Family Home when I left the Philippines in June 2017].
In my latter years in Bacolod City I used to celebrate Mass in Holy Family Home on to mark the feast of St Agnes, 21 January. Each year we combined a celebration of St Agnes the Martyr (c.291 - c.304), patron saint of chastity, of young girls and of rape victims, and Blessed Laura Vicuña(1891 - 1904), a patron of abuse victims who offered her life for the conversion of her mother and whose feast day is 22 January. Their years of birth and death paralleled with 16 centuries between them.
Each year I told the girls that the life of Blessed Laura, whose father died when she was young, was so like their own and that she became a saint in the midst of and through her sufferings, especially the cruelty of her stepfather who wasn't married to her mother. Despite her young age she had the maturity, generosity and holiness to offer her life so that her mother would return to the Lord. She told this to her mother when she, Laura, was dying. It was the physical abuse of her stepfather that led to her death. Laura's prayers were answered.
Laura understood the stark reality of the words of Jesus in today's gospel: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. She also understood the power of God's mercy. In Holy Family Home I frequently made myself available for confession and many of the girls would come. Sometimes I girl would ask me to hear her confession.
Holy Family Home exists because of the sins of adults against girls, some only small children. It is a place where most of the girls have been among those dwelling dwelling in the region and shadow of death (Gospel),in a land of deep darkness (First Reading). I have brought many visitors to Holy Family Home and the one word they nearly all have used to sum up their experience is 'joy', a joy they find among the girls, though they aren't always aware of the suffering. Those who live there are a testimony to the truth of the words of Isaiah that we listen to in the First Reading, words we also listened to at the Mass During the Night at Christmas:
The second part of today's gospel - very likely the celebrant will omit this and use the shorter gospel reading - tells us of the call of the first disciples who were later called to be apostles, the brothers Simon Peter and Andrew, and the sons of Zebedee, James and John. Immediately they left their nets . . .Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. Yetwe know from the gospels that they continued to fish from time to time and to encounter stormy weather.
In the Philippines most fishermen are poor and go to sea in very small boats. In some countries larger boats go far from land and often encounter very dangerous weather. And a very large percentage of international seafarers are Filipinos.
In our prayers to day let us remember our fishermen, our seafarers and those involved in rescue work at sea. Let us also remember the members of a number of European navies who in recent years have saved countless refugees travelling in unsafe boats from north Africa to southern Europe. Tragically, many refugees never make it.
Home from the Sea
Written by Phil Coulter, sung by Liam Clancy
Traditional Latin Mass
Third Sunday After the Epiphany
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 01-25-2026 if necessary).
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)
GospelMark 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.
Home
from the Sea
Words
and music by Phil Coulter
Sung
by Liam Clancy
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).
So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5:23-24; Gospel).
