'Their configuration to the Son of Man shines out brightly today in the whole Church.' Sunday Reflections, 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

SHEMA YISRAEL ADONAI ELOHEINU
ADONAI ECHAD [ U'SHEMO ECHAD ]
V'AHAVTA ET HASHEM ELOHEICHA
B'CHOL LEVAVCHA U'VCHOL NAFSHECHA
U'VCHOL MEODECHA

[YAIDA DAI YADA DAI YAIDADAI . . .]

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart (Deuteronomy 6:4-6).

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

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

Gospel Mark 12:28b-34 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)   

One of the scribes came near and asked Jesus, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 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.’ Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”; and “to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength”, and “to love one’s neighbour as oneself”,—this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that no one dared to ask him any question.

Shema Yisrael, Knesset Menorah, Jerusalem [Wikipedia]

The first reading today is one the most important in the whole Bible for people of the Jewish faith. There is only one God. Only the Hebrews in the ancient Mediterranean world believed that. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:4-6 in his response to the scribe. These words are at the heart of Jewish prayer and are prayed by or spoken to a Jew when he is dying, reminding him of the most important reality of all, that God is God. The Hebrew for Hear, O Israel is Shema Yisrael, שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל‎in Hebrew. Believing Jews pray or sing the Shema Yisrael, or Shema, just as Christians pray or sing the Our Father, the opening words giving their name to the whole prayer. Jews pray it twice a day and before sleeping

The setting of the Shema in the video above is modern and joyful. That in the video below is traditional, the singing a style that is very ancient, a style very similar to that used by Christians today in the Middle East and to that of Muslims. [The scenes in the video below are at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, also known as the Wailing Wall, where St John Paul II prayed on a visit to the Holy City.] Jesus would have prayed the Shema everyday and perhaps chanted it first as a child when St Joseph took him to the Temple and later when he went there as an adult.

And at the wedding in Cana Jesus would have danced with the other men in a style like that of the man in the video. The Shema is a profoundly joyful proclamation of faith in the one God.

The Western (Wailing) Wall, Jerusalem [Wikipedia]

I’ve often enough heard people creating a gap between the two great commandments, which are a summary of the Ten Commandments. There is no such gap. You shall love your neighbor as yourself is a consequence of you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart . . . just as in God’s plan being a father or mother is a consequence of being first of all a husband or wife.

In his homily at the opening of the Year of Faith on 11 October 2012 Pope Benedict said, Jesus is the centre of the Christian faith.The Christian believes in God whose face was revealed by Jesus Christ. He is the fulfilment of the Scriptures and their definitive interpreter. 

The testimony of the saints shows us men and women, young and old, even children, whose lives were focused on Jesus the Lord, God who became Man, and because of this gave themselves in the service of others. It is impossible to live the first great commandment without wanting to live the second. It is impossible to live the second without wanting to live the first.

On 21 October when he canonised seven new saints including St Pedro Calungsod, the young catechist-martyr from the central Philippines and St Kateri Tekakwitha, the first native North American saint, Pope Benedict underlined the mission of the saints: The tenacious profession of faith of these seven generous disciples of Christ, their configuration to the Son of Man shines out brightly today in the whole Church. He used a term that St John Paul used many times in his apostolic exhortation of 1992, Pastores Dabo vobis, configuration to the Son of Man.

St John Paul's document was about the ordained priesthood and he reminded priests in it a number of times that they were called to be configured to Christ. But here Pope Benedict is calling all of us to be such, that is to become, with God's grace, so like Jesus Christ that others will see him in us.

Jesus as he quotes the Shema in today's gospel is not calling us to be 'nice' to others, but to be configured to him. He is calling us to be able to say with St Paul, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true; and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice (Philippians 1:18).

Tree of Life Synagogue, Pittsburgh [Wikipedia]

On Saturday 27 October a gunman opened fire during a sabbath service in Tree of Life Synagogue, Pittsburgh, USA, killing eleven worshippers. Let us pray for their souls and for those who mourn them.

With Judaism therefore we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion. You are our dearly beloved brothers and, in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers. [From St John Paul II's discourse during his visit to the Rome Synagogue on 13 April 1986.]

The Holy Family, El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Four Jewish persons: Jesus, Mary, St Joseph and St Anne.

Our Shared Patrimony

Thanks to The Catholic Thing for the link to this address of St John Paul II at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, on 23 March 2000.

Jews and Christians share an immense spiritual patrimony, flowing from God’s self-revelation. Our religious teachings and our spiritual experience demand that we overcome evil with good. We remember, but not with any desire for vengeance or as an incentive to hatred. For us, to remember is to pray for peace and justice, and to commit ourselves to their cause. Only a world at peace, with justice for all, can avoid repeating the mistakes and terrible crimes of the past.

Continue here.

Columban Fr Robert O'Rourke RIP

Fr Robert I. O'Rourke

13 June 1932 - 3 October 2018

Fr Robert I. O’Rourke died on 3 October 2018 at St Elizabeth Manor, Bristol, Rhode Island, USA. Born on 13 June 1932 he was the son of the late Eugene Joseph O’Rourke and Mary Bridget (O'Connor) O’Rourke. He was the brother of the late Joseph, Timothy, Richard, Eugene, Br Terrance O’Rourke of Glenmary Home Missions, Margaret Baffoe and Loretta Coogan.  He is survived by many nieces and nephews. 

Chapel of St James

Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, Chicago [Wikipedia]

Young Bob attended St Ailbe's Grade School and Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, Chicago. He later attended St. Mary of the Lake Seminary and after spiritual year at St Columban's,, Silver Creek, New York,  he went to St Columban's Major Seminary in Milton, Massachusetts.  He was ordained on 20 December 20, 1958 in the Seminary Chapel by Bishop Eric MacKenzie, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston.

In the summer of 1959 Father Bob did a course in Social Science in Antigonish, Nova Scotia and in December 1959 he was appointed to Burma (now Myanmar).

St Columban's Cathedral, Myitkyina, Myanmar [Wikipedia]

In November 1962 he arrived in Myitkyina and began language study in Tingsing. The following November Father Bob was assistant in Makawkzup in the Myitkyina diocese and in October 1965 he opened up a new parish in Kamaing about 65 miles west of Myitkyina.  In September 1966 the Burmese government compelled Father Bob to leave Burma before the end of that year due to new visa restrictions.

After returning to the United States he was appointed to do vocation work in Los Angeles in March 1967. He was appointed superior of the Los Angeles house in 1969.

In 1975 Father Bob was assigned to Lima Peru. Starting in May 1977 he began serving in Tahuantinsuyo where there was a charismatic ministry, youth groups and a catechumenate.  In December 1983 he was assigned to Huasahuasi.

Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, Lima, Peru [Wikipedia]

Fr Bob O’Rourke and Fr Michael Donnelly were the first resident priests in the parish for some time. Until leaving there in December1989, they worked a pastoral programme catering to the varied needs of the widespread parish. The majority of the people were potato farmers. During those years Tarma and adjoining areas were the scene of escalating terrorist violence on the part of the Maoist- Leninist group Sendero Luminoso, 'The Shining Path'. Many towns were without police or other civil authority. Fathers Bob and Michael continued to carry out their pastoral work while the terrorists became more audacious and brutal, generating an atmosphere of fear and tension throughout the country, especially in isolated zones such as Huasahuasi. When the priests were told by a reliable person that they were on a death-list and that the terrorists were coming to the town at Christmas, Fathers Bob and Michael prudently decided to go to Lima and left within days for their respective countries where they recuperated from the stress.

In January 1990 Father Bob was assigned to US Region of the Columbans. He became associate editor of Columban Mission magazine and at Easter 1991 he became Editor of the Regional Newsletter.

In August 1992 Father Bob began work with the Spanish Apostolate at Immaculate Conception Church in Grand Prairie, Texas. The people there appreciated his homilies for their stories and brevity. In 1998 he returned to Omaha as house bursar and presided over the 47th and final Annual Columban Festival there.  The Festival was the last of a successful cycle that at its peak, in the early 1970s, drew over 20,000 people to St Columban’s on a summer weekend and raised over $80,000 for the Society.  Father Bob noted that the Festival was less about funding than connecting with the local community. In October 2001 he was elected as Chairman of the Regional Reconciliation Board.

Father Bob retired to St Columban's, Bristol, Rhode Island, in March, 2004 where he resided in retirement, participating actively in community life for the last 14 years.

Fr O'Rourke was buried in St Mary's Cemetery, Bristol, RI, after the funeral Mass in the chapel at St Columban's. May he rest in peace.

St Columban, Bristol, RI, USA

Fr Bob O'Rourke served in Peru from 1975 till 1989.

Columban Fr Gerard Dunn RIP

Fr Gerard Dunn

15 December 1937 - 24 September 2018

With the passing of Fr Gerard (Gerry) Dunn on 24 September 2018 the Region of Britain of the Columbans lost one of its most memorable characters.

Father Gerry was born on 15 December 1937 to a well-known Catholic family in Glasgow which had a mineral water business. He very much remained a Glaswegian at heart and in later years delighted in showing his fellow Columbans around his native city.

St Andrew's Cathedral, Glasgow [Wikipedia]

After his early education, Father Gerry followed his father into the medical profession.

Having qualified and practiced as a doctor in Glasgow for a relatively short time, he decided to embark on a different kind of healing ministry – as a Columban missionary priest.

He went to St Columban's, Dalgan Park, County Meath, Ireland, in 1962 and was ordained on 21 December 1967.  Because of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Britain that year, ordinations did not take place in Dalgan Park, which has a farm attached to it, because of strict Irish quarantine laws. So Father Gerry became the first and only Columban to be ordained on Scottish soil.

After ordination Father Gerry was assigned to Korea.

Within a few years he returned home in poor health and spent the remainder of his Columban life and ministry in Scotland, having ministered for a short time in a parish in Birmingham, England.

Legion of Mary altar [Wikipedia]

He engaged in mission awareness ministry, but gradually focused more and more on other ministries, such as promoting the Legion of Mary, leading pilgrimages to various shrines, and ministering to the small Chinese Catholic community in Glasgow. He learned enough Chinese to be able to celebrate Mass in that language.

St Patrick's Purgatory, Lough Derg, Ireland [Wikipedia]

Lough Derg is one of the places where Father Gerry regularly led pilgrimages from Glasgow.

When the Columban house in Glasgow closed in 2005 Father Gerry along with Fr Declan McNaughton, moved into the presbytery of St Gregory Barbarigo parish in Glasgow as the base for their continuing ministries.

The priests and people of the parish were very welcoming and supportive. Among the many ways Father Gerry endeared himself to the people in the parish was his preparation and distribution of large quantities of nutritious soup.

Father Gerry will be remembered as a lively conversationalist, witty storyteller and entertaining singer. He will also be remembered for his fearless promotion of the teaching of the Church as he understood it. Conversations with him tended to be blend of serious discussion on some controversial issue and frequent amusing anecdotes.

Father Gerry was a wounded healer who courageously coped with poor health for many years in a spirit of great faith.

In 2013 he retired to Nazareth House in Glasgow which is where he died. A large congregation attended his Funeral Mass in the Nursing Home Chapel on 28 September 2018.

Father Gerry’s nephew, Fr Stephen Dunn, was the principal concelebrant and was joined by more than twenty priests, including five Columbans. In his homily, Fr Dan Horgan, on behalf of the Columbans, thanked the Dunn family and others for the great care Father Gerry received and also spoke of his unique gifts and admirable faith.

Father Gerry was buried with his parents in St Peter's Cemetery, also known as Dalbeth Cemetery, Glasgow.

May he rest in peace.

Dalbeth Cemetery [Source]

A Personal Note

Father Gerry joined the Columbans a year after me but joined our class for theology in 1964. I lived with him for five months in Glasgow in 2002 while on a two-year assignment in Britain. I found to be true what the late Columban Fr Con Campion once said to me - he had lived with Father Gerry for some years in our Glasgow house - that there wasn't a kinder Columban. Before and after his funeral Mass I was chatting with persons who had known him and they all mentioned the great influence he had on their lives.

He had a great sense of humour and there was no one better to tell jokes about 'thrifty' Scotsmen. He was also a good singer. He had a number of songs in his repertoire but his favourite was A Scottish Soldier, written in 1960 by the late Andy Stewart who sings it here.

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country (Luke 1:39).

May our Blessed Mother, whom Father Gerry loved so dearly all his life, lead him to the hills of home.

Jesus asks, 'What do you want me to do for you?' Sunday Reflections, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Christ Healing the Blind (detail), Lucas van Leyden [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

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

Gospel Mark 10:46-52 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)

They came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stood still and said, ‘Call him here.’ And they called the blind man, saying to him, ‘Take heart; get up, he is calling you.’ So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man said to him, ‘My teacher, let me see again.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

Fr John Burger is an American Columban who served as a member of the Columban General Council from 2006 until 2012. He spent the early years of his priesthood in Japan and tells a wonderful story about a blind man who was a member of a prayer group in a parish where he served. Each week the group met to share on the following Sunday’s gospel and to pray. Father John was a little nervous when this Sunday’s gospel came up, wondering how his blind friend would respond.

He and the others were astonished when the man shared that this was one of his favourite passages in the gospels. Why? Because Jesus asked Bartimaeus, What do you want me to do for you? The blind parishioner went on to say that he was quite happy as he was. He had his own apartment and he knew his way around. But if the Lord were to ask him directly, What do you want me to do for you? He would tell him that there were parts of his life where he would like Jesus to shed his light, even though he would hesitate to ask him to do so.

Probably the blind Japanese man had experienced people, with every good intention, wanting to help him when he needed no help. On a pilgrimage to Lourdes in Easter Week 1991 with a group of persons with physical disabilities I shared a room with our leader, Joe, able-bodied, like myself, and Tony and Tom who weren’t. Both needed help in some very personal matters. However, I learned very quickly from Tom not to do something for him when he could do it himself. That was a very good lesson for me.

Jesus didn’t presume that Bartimaeus wanted his sight back. He asked him, What do you want me to do for you? The blind man, who had shouted Jesus, Son of David, a title indicating he was the Messiah, answered, My teacher, let me see again.

Do I allow Jesus to ask me, What do you want me to do for you? And if I allow him do I have the faith of Bartimaeus to tell him what I want him to do for me? Jesus responded to the faith of the blind man: Go; your faith has made you well. And the blind beggar’s response to this was a further expression of his faith: And immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.

Christ Healing the Blind, Nicolas Colombel [Web Gallery of Art]

On 11 October 2012 in hishomily at the Mass marking the opening of the Year of Faith and the 5oth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council Pope Benedict said, The Year of Faith which we launch today is linked harmoniously with the Church’s whole path over the last fifty years: from the Council, through the Magisterium of the Servant of God Paul VI, who proclaimed a Year of Faith in 1967, up to the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, with which Blessed John Paul II re-proposed to all humanity Jesus Christ as the one Saviour, yesterday, today and forever. Between these two Popes, Paul VI and John Paul II, there was a deep and profound convergence, precisely upon Christ as the centre of the cosmos and of history, and upon the apostolic eagerness to announce him to the world. Jesus is the centre of the Christian faith. The Christian believes in God whose face was revealed by Jesus Christ. He is the fulfilment of the Scriptures and their definitive interpreter. Jesus Christ is not only the object of the faith but, as it says in the Letter to the Hebrews, he is “the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith” (12:2).

Bartimaeus seemed to have grasped something of this, calling Jesus by a Messianic title, Son of David, putting his faith in him and following him on the way.

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Fr Cyril Axelrod CSsR is the only deaf-blind priest in the world. He was born profoundly deaf but became blind more than thirteen years ago from Usher Syndrome. He ministers to people who are deafblind and to people who are deaf. You can read about him here. In this video Father Cyril speaks to seminarians.

When I was in secondary school we studied some of the poetry of John Milton, most of which I disliked. But his sonnet On His Blindness was an exception.

When I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,

And that one talent which is death to hide

Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, lest he returning chide;

‘Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?’

I fondly ask. But Patience to prevent

That murmur, soon replies: ‘God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts; who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state

Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed

And post o'er land and ocean without rest:

They also serve who only stand and wait.’

Columban Fr Thomas J. Vaughan RIP

Fr Thomas J. Vaughan

20 February 1928 - 13 September 2018

Fr Thomas J. Vaughan died peacefully on 13 September 2018 at St. Elizabeth Manor, Bristol, Rhode Island, USA.

Cathedral of St Paul, Saint Paul, MN [Wikipedia]

Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, he was the son the late Patrick and Kathleen (Fuller) Vaughan. He is survived his sister Loretta Gallagher as well as many nieces, nephews, friends and brother priests. He was also the brother of the late Patrick Vaughan, Muriel Vaughan, Donna Marie Smith, Richard Vaughan, Jerome Vaughan, Mary Alice Vaughan,and Delores Gibbons.

Cretin-Derham High School, Saint Paul [Wikipedia]

[Cretin High School and Derham Hall amalgamated in 1987]

Fr Vaughan was a graduate of Cretin High School, Saint Paul, and then served in the US Army. He went on to graduate from the College of St Thomas before joining the Society of Saint Columban and was ordained in 1956. He served mainly in the Philippines but also in Belize, Chicago and Saint Paul.

National Shrine of Our Lady of Poon Bato, Botolan, Zambales, Philippines [Wikipedia]

May Father Tom rest in peace.

Cathedral of St Paul, Saint Paul, MN