Author: Justin

Fr Christopher Dillon OSB

Everything that we have heard in these readings is calling us to make ready, to make preparations; but for what? All around the world, people are preparing for Christmas, whether they are Christian or not, because it is a time for mid-winter festivity. But this is different; this involves an encounter with someone and preparation for that encounter. Last week, we were urged to be awake and alert for it; now we are being urged to prepare for it; and all the time against the backdrop of those cautionary words of the Letter of St Peter that,
where God is involved, a day can mean a thousand years and a thousand years a day. Because it is God that we are speaking about, God whose decision and desire, we have discovered, is to be with us and to bring us, ultimately, to be with him for all eternity.

This plan, we are led to believe, has been on the go from the beginning of time and each of us deals with it, in our own time, as best we can, not knowing what point of which thousand years is ours in all the waiting and expectation of the past and future centuries. The one thing we do know, as far as our Christian faith teaches us, this being with, this connexion with God is the heart and goal of our existence as human beings; so our preparing for it is the most important activity of our lives.

John the Baptist is the figure whom God appointed two thousand years ago to alert us all to this great truth, so his words are important for us to hear and to understand. His recommendation to us is repentance and the confession of our sins. By that is meant that we need to adjust our way of thinking and so reset our values and priorities from the ways of the everyday world to the ways and values of God, as we have learned them from Jesus Christ, and that we behave accordingly. It is a regular event, like house cleaning; stuff happens, stuff piles up and we have to deal with it in any walk of life. Christmas presents, the Christmas tree, Christmas dinner are all very well, but they are
second to this.

The really important matter in all this preparation is quite simply our
behaviour. Again, our Christian faith tells us that God has come to us, in the person of Jesus Christ, to teach us how to behave as sons and daughters of God. That is what Advent, the Coming, means. “Learn from me”, Jesus is quoted as saying, “for I am gentle and humble of heart”(Mt.11,29). “Gentle” is fairly obvious, involving being kind and polite; but “humble” is more subtle. It means being down to earth honest and truthful about oneself and everything else. Any one of us could do worse than bringing them as our Christmas gift to those around us. Either way, this is the kind of preparation that we are being
called on to make for the Coming of God into our world, into our lives. So it is up to you and to me; no one can do this for us; perhaps a little less screen time and more attention to what is going on around us.

The monks of Glenstal Abbey wish you a blessed solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us!

Fr Columba McCann OSB

A few weeks ago I was with the school choir in London, and as we walked up to the gates of Buckingham palace, the flag was flying. This indicated, I think, that King Charles was in residence. But there was no chance we were going to get near him. The gates were locked and he was well protected from the likes of us. The king we celebrate today is quite different. He died and rose again so that he would be with us always In today’s gospel Jesus describes what it will be like when he sits on his throne of glory, and twice he speaks of himself as King. Yet this king seems to operate more like a shepherd, separating sheep and goats.

This would not have been a huge surprise to Jesus own listeners; in those days kings were often seen as shepherds of their people. The great king David was a young shepherd when he was chosen and set apart to shepherd God’s people. When Jesus himself was born in
Bethlehem the place of David’s origins, it was to shepherds that his birth was first revealed. He is a shepherd king. He knows each of his flock by name and calls them individually. He goes to great lengths to
rescue any of the flock that have gone astray, even one by one. In the end, he gives his life for his flock.

This shepherd king identifies completely with each one of his flock. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, now a canonised saint, was well known for the extraordinary way in which she reached out to the most deprived and the most wounded in here society. She was happy to immerse herself in tragic situations from which most people would run a mile. One day she was asked, ‘What is it that motivates you to go to such extraordinary lengths in your work?’ Her answer was simple. She said that you could it put it down to a few words that you can count on the fingers of one hand: you did it to me.

Christ the shepherd king identifies totally with his flock. And this is not just some clever play of rhetoric in order to get us moving. We see the same visceral connection in a totally different context: We know the story of the conversion of Saul, later St Paul, on the road to Damascus. He had been persecuting Christians. He meets Christ on the road. Christ doesn’t say, ‘Why are you persecuting my brothers and sisters?’ He says, ‘Why are you persecuting me?’

In his monastic rule, St Benedict says that when a monk welcomes a guest, it is Christ whom he welcomes. When a monk looks after a sick brother, it is Christ whom he serves. It is very sobering also not notice that those who are separated from the flock off to the left, like goats, are not murderers, rioters, those who attack children, or perpetrators of fraud. The crime for which they are eternally set aside is simple neglect: neglect of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner. None of us need took too far to see this kind of neediness in our own family, our community, our neighbourhood, our country. The tragic needs of some many people around the world are so great that it can be overwhelming to think of it, and we can end up deciding that it’s all too big for us to handle. But perhaps a first step is to ask for eyes to see what is close at hand. Eyes to see what it is that I can do for the needs of people as they present themselves to me. In what way can I
serve Christ the King as he presents himself in the people around me?

The famous Benedictine author Sr Maria Boulding once famously asked: “what is the point of Christ’s coming, if Christ does not come to me?”

Advent is an opportune time to welcome Christ into one’s life and to be transformed. It is ‘A Season of Opportunities’, as the title of our Advent 2023 series of talks suggests, to prepare for the central gift at Christmas: the coming of Jesus Christ.

+ Fr Columba McCann begins the series with his talk ‘Stay Awake, Stay Alive!’ on Sunday 3rd December.

+ Fr John O’Callaghan will urge us to ‘Prepare the Way for the Lord!’ on Sunday 10th December.

+ Fr Simon Sleeman will conclude the series with his reflection ‘Advent: The ‘Call Room’ for Christmas’ on Sunday 17th December.

Talks take place at 4.30pm in the Monastery Library, followed by refreshments and Vespers at 6pm. Donation: €20. Talks will be available as recordings online soon afterwards at: www.youtube.com/GlenstalAbbeyMonks

For more information and enquiries please contact events@glenstal.com or call 061 621005.

Fr Patrick Hederman OSB

About three weeks ago, I was walking by the terrace in the school when I saw nine students dressed in all their finery waiting for a bus. They were heading for the first round of the UCC Philosophy Society Schools Debate, and, boy, were they bursting with talent. Five won through to the second round and the other four have the opportunity to join them later. As I stood there admiring them, another student, presumably on his way to the rugby pitches, stood near me, also looking up at them. Suddenly he roared at the top of his voice right into their faces: ‘bunch a nerds! Bunch a nerds’ and he ran off.
I thought to myself: ‘Talent is not always recognized or applauded; in fact, some people can be despised for their talents. If you are Jonny Sexton, Katie Taylor, Rory McIlroy or Leona Maguire, you can hold your head high, walk tall, you’re on top of the pile, but as the first reading says: ‘Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting.’ At some point you have to retire.

It is very often the case that what makes you popular and talented at school doesn’t necessarily make you successful in later life. Watch out for the wimps and weaklings when they are young, they’re often the ones who pass you out and make it right to the top. Ugly ducklings do often become swans.

Sometimes, if you’re at school and you’re too clever by half, you need to keep your head down and shine a little less brightly. Otherwise you can be called a geek, a swot, a drip, a square: whatever the fashionable put-down word is for those we envy. Bob Hope, as M.C. for the Oscar awards in Hollywood, for the umpteenth time, looked round the assembly of stunning glitterati and said: ‘Dear friends, the one sentiment that unites us all here together today is sheer jealousy!’

When we speak of talent we generally mean a natural aptitude that someone is born with, such as singing, painting, drawing or athletic abilities. People often have to work to refine these talents, but they’re generally innate and genetic rather than acquired. So, the first two people in this morning’s gospel are not really the point at issue. Whether they double what they got, or multiply it exponentially, they are dealing with gifts they received for which they can’t claim too much credit.

The main point of the parable is the person who got one talent and buried it in the ground. Whether you are a gifted out-half, or a mathematical genius, a beautiful singer or a star on the debating team is not really your doing: it is a gift, or a series of gifts, that you received at birth, and you can improve it depending on how hard you work or how things work out for you in your career. The person, on the other hand, who received only one talent is the model here this morning for each one of us. There are 10 billion people on the planet as we speak, and each one of these ten billion is unique, unique as their finger print. You are unique. Never before in the history of the world has there ever been a person like you. You are the first, and potentially the best ‘you’ that ever existed. So, what are you going to do about it: sit down and complain that everybody else got a better deal? This morning’s parable is encouraging us to get up and get organized. Each one of us has a special talent that we alone can bring to fruition. What matters is to stand up and say, with genuine pride and delight: ‘I am me!’ That is when the Lord and Master who created us in the first place will be able
to say: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been trustworthy in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’ God’s joy, God’s glory, is you, as you really are, as you were meant to be, fully alive. So, let’s move ourselves in that direction. Amen.

Fr Cuthbert Brennan OSB

Lord, lord open to us
And he answered ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you?’
Does this really have something to do with judgment and salvation? And the answer is yes, these words do. The foolish bridesmaids were not recognised when they came to the wedding banquet because even though they dressed the part and initially carried the right equipment, they indeed had never been bridesmaids at all. We need to begin to recognise how our church and we its members have sometimes been like those foolish bridesmaids. This morning we are invited to stay awake to the Lord, to our calling as Christians, awake to the way of life in Christ. Our response to His person and work determines our
standing on the final day.

So the parable this morning proposes unexpected and even uncomfortable truths.
A superficial reading of today’s parable could give the impression that God’s reign is binary;
That there are only wise and foolish
Saints and sinners
Christians and non-Christians
Glenstallions and those who want to be
One good, the other highly questionable.
We are wired for this problematic kind of thinking.

Mark Twain proposed; “There are basically two types of people: those who accomplish things and those who claim to have accomplished things.” Concluding: “The first group is less crowded”

Robert Benchley summarises: “There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don’t.”

Jesus is clearly in the second category, for he did not divide people into
redeemable and irredeemable, worthy and unworthy, lovable and despicable. Rather his ministry was like an extended parable that continuously scrambled traditional thinking, upended well established norms and redefined the reign of God. Such disruption is evident in this morning’s parable and it raises more questions than it answers.

Our initial instinct is to side with the wise bridesmaids who must have read up on emergency preparations for wedding feasts but the problem with being a cheerleader for the wise bridesmaids is that they appear to be greedy. To be wise, it would seem, is to refuse to come to the aid of another in need. The wise bridesmaids have enough oil but their vision is limited. If they were so wise why couldn’t the five of them combine their collective wisdom and find a solution. All ten could have walked through the door together. Imagine the celebration that could have been!

One of the central commodities in the parable is oil. Oil has been very much in the news these last years. It is a coveted and weaponised resource. The oil in this parable is not the unreplenishable oil from fossils or fracking or deep sea drilling but rather the oil of the foolish and wise came from fish oil, animal fat but especially from olives. From eminently replenishable animals and trees.

The wisdom of this replenishable oil is a sign of the inexhaustible Christ, the anointed One whose vision is a peaceable kingdom where wisdom is shared, resources support the common good and the lavish graces of an eternal God never run dry.

In baptism we are anointed not with oil extracted from miles down in the earth’s crust but from oil extracted from groves of olives. We are anointed into Christ to collaborate in building a holy kingdom of new wisdom, devoid of rivalry, greed and exclusion especially of the marginalised, rejected and lost.

In baptism we were infused with wisdom from the eternally anointed One, sealed with the oil of healing, the oil of acceptance, the oil of gladness. This is our baptismal birthright and mission and when we accept such an invitation there is simultaneously an expectation placed upon us concerning who we are and what we will do. Will we be open to receiving the gift of wisdom from the margins of our church and society just as Jesus who was wisdom personified, also received wisdom from lepers and the lame, from interactions with the adulterous and tax collectors.

Jesus’ final command to stay awake is not to be taken literally. All the
bridesmaids slept. We are called to be actively engaged in the present which shapes our future. There is no mistake. The parable is a description of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is coming and it does not just unify, and synthesise and include. It divides the goats from the sheep, the wise from the foolish. It comes with joy and a demand for conversion of life. And let us beware, lest we, running frantically behind hear the words “too late, too late, I do not know you”.