'Do This in Memory of Me'.

The Fisherman's Master by Patrick Pye

In Lectio Divina' mode, let's consider that first little word in this command of Our Lord's, do. It is a different kettle of fish entirely to watching, listening to or 'getting' Mass. In order to do something, as in eating, making or breaking bread, or making love, the first necessity is physical presence. One simply has to be there in order to do anything. 

     I will admit that one may allow for a certain degree of participation in a deed from afar, as if by way of imagination, but this must fade as one's proximity to the protagonists fades. Why? Let us consider what, in the case of the Mass, we actually do. Some people have been known to speak of cannibalism, mumbo-jumbo, etc. Without going to such extremes, it is amazing how few understand what is going on!

     So what was going on when Jesus was moved to utter the words Do this in memory of me? He was about to die, of course, condemned by the chief priests to death by cruel torture, at the hands of the secular authority, Pontius Pilate, even as this man washed his hands of the matter and renounced responsibility. Why did they do that? 'For the good of the people', of course, or so they claimed. Evidently they felt threatened by the man who was depriving them of their favourite weapon, fear, but went about doing good, healing and reconciling people to themselves, to each other and to God. At the Last Supper, his claims to offer some kind of new and eternal life. in his very own flesh and blood, reached their climax, before their consummation the next day upon the Cross. 

      St John reports in chapter 6 of his gospel how Jesus had said 'I am the living bread which has come down from Heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the  life of the world.' The evangelist describes  how those very followers present at Capernaum found this talk 'intolerable', and they left him. Yet at each objection, Jesus only doubled down on his words, commenting, 'what if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before. It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer.'  How can we begin to get around this ancient conumdron, in the 21st century?

     Presumably this flesh of his that Jesus declares essential to salvation is a different thing to the flesh that has nothing to offer! It seems Jesus was clearly aware of a transformation that the human body is capable of, which he had an inkling of himself when he walked upon the sea and experienced in his transfiguration on Mount Tabor, and anticipated when he foretold his own resurrection. Is this after all such an outlandish notion? Do we not see how a crysalis turns into a butterfly, an egg into a bird, an embryo into a human person? Genetic science is yielding further insights into this continuity, while quantum physics is transforming our understanding of matter itself,- which perhaps we would do better to think of as a dynamic spectrum of energy fields rather than in static Newtonian terms. Is there any other evidence that may yield more insight into the kind of body Jesus had in mind?

     Perhaps there is a clue to be found in St Paul's teaching that the Church is the body of Christ, similar to Jesus' own teaching, for instance, that 'I am the vine, you are the branches'! Such doctrine reminds us that we do not go to Heaven on our own; if we are to sing God's praise for ever, we would surely get mighty tired of the sound of our own voice! No, the only possible way to do so is to be caught up in the heavenly chorus of all the saints and angels, where time and change no longer apply. I say 'caught up', not submerged! In that chorus, we shall at last find our full individual voice.

     Human beings are in fact always trying to be 'caught up' in something,- this reflects a fundamental characteristic of our nature. Most of the time we make a hames of it, giving ourselves to causes that betray us, intoxications of every kind, relationships that let us down. It is in fact uniquely in relationship to Jesus that we can allow ourselves to give ourselves up totally and unconditionally, without loss of integrity, in the full confidence that in losing ourselves we shall truly find ourselves. The wonderful fact is that his life then flows back into all those other relationships, marriage, family, community, country,- for they too can become aspects of the body of Christ, mansions in the great building that has him as its corner stone.     

     So as the grain of wheat, ground to dust, becomes part of the loaf of bread, and the grape is crushed to make the wine, we give ourselves at Mass, united with Jesus' sacrifice of himself on the Cross, and take our place in his immortal body. We thereby unite ourselves  with our forebears and all who have not deliberately rejected Christ's love, with the saints ancient, modern and still to come and all the angelic host. We hear the deep chords reverberating through the universe, the Big Bang as on a radio-telescope, the final end of all our earthly strivings, the alpha and the omega.

     We thereby point to and anticipate a truly satisfactory human solidarity, as watchmen await the dawn, and indeed even as I like to dream, in a small way on these dark winter days in Sherkin, of that brighter land across the stormy sea to the south. Politicians, pundits and even we plain people do well to reflect that it is such human solidarity alone that in the end can resolve all our little passing problems, pandemics, wars, environmental breakdown. No effective solidarity or solution will come about just because we happen to think it a good idea. It has to have deep roots in our imaginations and meet our deepest needs. If we can imagine no such thing, well it's too bad for us; we shall just have to keep on quacking along with all those who prefer to stick with mere delusions than to face reality!

     We may recall those Gaelic saints of old, priests cruelly martyred for saying Mass, impoverished Irish folk clustered around Mass rocks; perhaps if we are from Co Clare, we may think of people at Kilbaha having their priest say Mass in a cart below the tide line, to get around the ruling law at the time. We speak of a reality passed unerring on from one generation to the next as a particular kind of energy, handed on by ministers themselves enabled by the laying on of hands, standing the tests of time like nothing else, all the way back to the historical Jesus, which continues to reverberate in every language, race and nation,- and gives the likes of me a thrill whenever I get to Mass as I sail the Gannetsway. 

     Whether we like it or not, the judgement of God is upon us now. We have to decide if we really want to live, - to be or not to be, that is the question! Perhaps we have to make a start by asking ourselves, - do we really want to receive the body and blood of Jesus in this coming new year? If so, what are we going to do about it? 

Call for Lifting of Ban on Public Worship

A Letter to the Taoiseach.

On this morning of the the fourth of November, 2020, it looks as if the world is in for an agonising wait to see if The Ducky can be ejected from the White House at last. How anyone could vote for such a blatent, serial liar, narcissist, denier of reality and bully is a puzzle indeed,- but, in the hope that Joe Biden will prevail, I nonetheless feel impelled to sound a note that will very likely be perceived as coming from 'the other side'.

     While schools and universities are open, I cannot fathom the argument that churches and places of worship should invariably remain closed. It seems to me a simple matter of priorities. It may be difficult for some to understand, but the fact is that it is faith in God and the hope of eternal life that gives meaning to our lives, and thus inspires us to live life to the full. This is not merely an individual matter, but calls for communal and physical expression. 

     As believers, our instincts are generally law-abiding, except when laws transgress such fundamental obligations, and indeed reason and justice themselves. The fact is that properly organised ceremonies in airy buildings are much less likely to spread infection than, for instance, visits to a super-market or children in over-crowded little class-rooms.

     Particularly as an elderly person, suffering from cancer, the Mass is essential to my well-being and mental health. Within the wider social and political context, it is partly kick-back against secularist and materialistic pressure that has fuelled such disastrous aberrations as the elevation of Trump and Johnson.

    By the way, the discourtesy and lack of sensitivity to Moslems that they have displayed is, interestingly, shared by the champion of those cartoons in the Elysée Palace, which is not, of course, to condone those savage acts that purport to be a response. There is an arrogance and a fault in our Western civilisation here, which is emphatically not coming from the Man who urged us to take the plank from our own eye before we tried to take the mote from our neighbour's, though His followers may often be guilty of it!

     I am going to protest the ban on public worship with a call for a campaign of civil disobedience; if by the first Sunday in Advent, the 29th of this month of November and the beginning of the liturgical New Year, the Irish Government has not seen fit to lift this ban, despite the representations of their leaders, I would urge Catholics to defy it. Accordingly I am writing the following letter to An Taoiseach, our Prime Minister, and copying it to our local TDs, Bishop and Parish Priest, not to mention by way of social media.

Dear Taoiseach,

It is not apparent to me, and many others, why despite the appeals of church leaders, public worship is treated by your Government as more dangerous and less important than, for instance, keeping supermarkets, schools and universities open. The churches have nonetheless made every effort to comply with your regulations.

However, freedom of religion is guaranteed by our Constitution, and the worship of God, besides being our first duty, is in my view essential to mental health.

One cannot but suspect that there is an agenda at work here other than a truly scientific assessment of the risks. Accordingly, I give you notice that I am urging my Bishop and Parish Priest to defy such regulations, if the Government has not modified them by 29th of this month, the first Sunday of Advent.

Mise le meas,