Author: Justin

Fr Luke Macnamara OSB

Five years ago I visited a 19 years old prisoner facing a life sentence. He was in the most secure part of a maximum security prison. I passed through so many locked doors that I was unsure I would ever get out. Reflecting back on that day, I wonder about what others prisons I have encountered in my life and the lives of others. There are many forces at work in the world that can imprison us and cut us off. Social media can so engross us that it ends up isolating us from those physically around us. Gambling and pornography can consume us leaving us with no energy to engage with others. Sometimes things beyond our control can imprison us such as physical illnesses or depression. Finally, there is one force that imprisons us all and that is death.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter and John in Jerusalem and Paul in Philippi are released from a series of high security prisons, usually with the assistance of an angel. When Jesus stands before the tomb of Lazarus and faces the definitive prison of death, he prays to God: “Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer. I knew indeed that you always hear me, but I speak for the sake of all these who stand round me, so that they may believe it was you who sent me.” It is only after praying to the Father and only after giving the Father thanks that Jesus
calls Lazarus out from the tomb. The restoring to life of Lazarus is the work of the Father and the Son and the result of prayer. Jesus reveals the power of God, Father and Son, to break the bonds of death. So if Jesus through prayer has broken the bonds of death for Lazarus, might we not also imitate him and through prayer ask that he liberate us from our various prisons and our beloved death from theirs, that they may enjoy eternal life. The name Lazarus signifies “one who is helped by God”. We can all be Lazaruses by invoking God’s help that we may have fullness of life wherever we may be.

Fr Columba McCann OSB

My sister worked for most of her life as a psychotherapist. I always had the sense that, in addition to her professional training, she had an innate gift in this area. She could walk into a room and see the
dynamics at work between people in the way they related to one another. She could see things no one else could see. It was unnerving at times, because she seemed to have x-ray eyes! It goes to show that seeing is more than just the colours and shapes that your eyes pick up. It’s about what you perceive. It’s about being in touch with reality.
We have just heard the story of the prophet Samul who is sent by God to find a new king for Israel among the sons of Jesse. When Jesse parades his sons before him, one finer and stronger than the
next, Samuel is not satisfied. Initially he was taken in by superficial appearances, but the Lord helped him to see. God looks at the heart, he is told; we tend to look only at appearances. It was the little guy who hadn’t even been included in the beauty pageant who got the crown, David the shepherd boy, a little nobody in his family. God saw in him the future king of Israel who would shepherd his people. No-one else saw it. They were blind.

All over the world right now there are thousands of people who are preparing to be baptised as adult Christians this Easter. Following an ancient tradition, today’s gospel is chosen specially for them. During these weeks they are coming to see ever more clearly who Jesus really is, and so the story of the healing of the blind man is ideal for them. But it’s also read for us who are already baptised.

When most people looked at the blind man they were thinking about sin: was he blind because he was a sinner or because his parents had sinned? Jesus sees him in a completely different way: this blind man will reveal God’s glory. Jesus puts mud on his eyes and tells him to wash in the pool of Siloam, the name of which means ‘the one sent’. But Jesus himself is the one sent from the Father. People preparing for baptism are being given a hint that in the waters of the baptismal pool, they are going to be plunged into Jesus himself.

The blind man begins to see with his eyes. But a deeper vision begins to dawn slowly on him. When questioned by the authorities he refers initially to ‘the man Jesus’. Later, under the pressure of argument, he says that Jesus is a prophet. Net he is able to see that Jesus must be from God. Finally, when he meets Jesus again, Jesus reveals himself as the Son of Man – a person wielding great authority given by God. But a deeper intuition, not even spoken by Jesus, takes him even further: he calls Jesus ‘Lord. This can simply mean ‘master’ but here it is also the respectful name ‘Lord’ given by Jews to God himself. We know this because when he calls Jesus ‘Lord he worships him. He has really begun to see!

Sadly the authorities are becoming more and more blind to Jesus because of their religious certainty. Their thoughts are boxed in by a narrow view of what God allows on the Sabbath day. We might say, ‘That’s well and good for people who are about to be baptised; they come to new insight about Jesus. But what about us? We are already baptised!’ This reminds me of a medical fact when it comes to ophthalmic surgery. Sometimes people who have been blind for a long time undergo a successful eye operation where everything functions
perfectly. The eye is now working exactly as it should, but they still cannot see. This is because it takes their brain some time to adjust to the new information it is receiving from the optic nerve. I think it may be like that for many of us and our baptism. We have received the Holy Spirit, we have been given the vision and insight, the light of Christ shone into our depths in baptism. But we still can’t see it, we seem unable to access it. Lent is a time for post-operative therapy, not
physiotherapy but therapy of the spirit.

Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are the traditional therapies to awaken our spiritual sight. Prayer puts us into close contact with Jesus, just like the blind. Jesus might as well be touching us. In fact he is even closer than that. Acts of kindness – almsgiving- activate the love that has been poured into us in Baptism so that it becomes an active energy in our lives, releasing joy and light. The search for immediate comfort and convenience often blinds us to the things that really matter, the things that give us life, and so some restraint in following all our attractions tunes up our spiritual awareness – fasting from food, from drink, from the internet, from gossip, or whatever it is that diverts us from bathing in the joyful light of Christ.

You don’t need to be a psychotherapist to have x-ray eyes. Our baptism has given us the capacity for a way of seeing that can keep growing from now into eternity. Lent is the time to open our eyes.
Awake, O sleeper!
Rise from the dead,
And Christ will shine upon you!

Fr Patrick Hederman OSB

Patrick: My dear Sisters and Brothers, we really need to update our sometimes pathetic notions about Saint Patrick. Nowadays, for instance, we could think about Patrick who was trafficked to Ireland as a slave; or Patrick the immigrant, shunned by many; or Patrick who said he was rescued by God like a stone pulled out of the mud. He was a man with a chequered past who relied on God’s kindness and preached it to others.

Spokesperson: Okay, Patrick, we get all that, but tell us about this Trinity thing. But remember that we’re simple people without your fancy education and books and learning and things, and we’re hearing all this for the first time. Try to keep it simple, okay Patrick?

Patrick: Very well, here goes: There are three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but only one God.

1 st S: We’re not pickin’ up what you’re saying here, Patrick, could you make it more simple? Could you give us an illustration?

Patrick: Sure, sure, well let’s say that God is like water: God can appear in three forms: liquid, ice, vapour.

1 st S: Ah come on Patrick, is that not modalism . . .

Patrick: What?

1 st S:Modalism – an ancient heresy taught by such people as Noetus and Sabellius, which holds that God is not three distinct persons but that he reveals himself in three different forms. This heresy was clearly condemned in Canon One of the First Council of Constantinople in 381 AD and anyone confessing it cannot possibly claim to be a Christian. Come on Patrick!

Patrick: Okay, then, the Trinity is like the sun in the sky, where you have a star radiating both light and heat.

1 st S: Come on, Patrick, that’s Arianism!

Patrick: Arianism?

1 st S: Yes, Arianism, a heresy claiming that Christ and the Holy Spirit are created by the Father and are not one in nature with him, like how light and heat are not one with the star but merely creations of the star.

Patrick: Alright so, sorry about that. Well, you’ll have to love this one:
God is like this three leafed shamrock . . .

1 st S: I’m going to stop you right there, Patrick, that’s too corny for words. We need to move beyond the Patrick of the shamrocks and the snakes. And as well as that it’s what we call ‘partialism’ Patrick
Patrick: Partialism?

1 st S: Yes, a heresy which asserts that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not distinct persons in the Godhead but are different parts of God, each forming one third of the divinity.

Patrick: Okay, fine, you smart alec bosthoon. The Trinity is a mystery which cannot be understood by human reason but can only be confessed by faith and which has been best expressed in the words of
the Athanasian Creed which says that we worship one God in trinity, and trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance. We are compelled by the Christian truth to confess that each distinct person is God and Lord and that the deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is one: equal in Glory and co-equal in majesty. Have you got it?

1 st S: Well, why didn’t you just say that in the first place, Patrick ? You’re always beating around the bush – you must stop beating round the bush, Patrick.

Patrick: Fine. That’s enough to go on with for now; so: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

Fr John O’Callaghan OSB

Today’s gospel of the Samaritan woman at the well is presented to us in this season of Lent because it is an example of conversion to faith in Christ, something we are all supposed to be doing or deepening.
It is midday at the well of Jacob and Jesus is resting there. The woman comes along at an hour when the sun burns hottest – doubtless to avoid meeting anyone, because she was sensitive about her ill-repute. She sees someone sitting there but she takes little notice because he is a Jew, and Jews disdain Samaritans, and vice versa, since they fell out with each other centuries earlier over idol worship and defilement. A not altogether friendly question and answer session follows on Jesus’ request for a drink, with the Samaritan woman not understanding the deeper meaning of Jesus’ words “anyone who drinks the water I shall give will never be thirsty again.” Her reply is merely that he needs a bucket! But what is this ‘living water’? It is not eternal life itself but something that leads to it, namely the teaching of Jesus. The OT often used the symbolism of water for God’s wisdom; ‘the teaching of the wise is a life-giving fountain’ (Prov 13:14). But the Samaritan woman was not understanding.

She then twists the repartee in the direction of places of worship, Jerusalem or Mt Gezerim, where her break-away Jewish movement worships. We see that she is beginning to think spiritually although she misses out on the fullness of what Jesus is really saying – that he himself replaces religious institutions like the Temple. For Jesus real worship does not involve ritual purity or attending at one or other temple; our way to God is through him. The conversation moves on
two different plains: one material and practical whilst Jesus’ questionning and replying is always at a deeper, metaphysical, level.
The Samaritan woman’s defense is finally breached when reference is made to her ‘five husbands’. Jesus knows that her life has been marked by sadness and rejection. So he gently suggests, ‘Go and call your husband’. This gives her the opportunity to open out the story of her fragile heart just a little, and within a few sentences the whole truth is out. He, for his part, reveals himself to her when she mentions the Messiah: ‘I who am speaking to you, I am he.’ No words of rejection from him! Mutual self-revelation. Now the Samaritan woman indeed thirsts for living water, and tells her townspeople about ‘the man who
has told me everything I have ever done’, What we have witnessed is the drama of a person struggling as she rises from the things of this world to belief in Jesus. This challenges us too, puts the questions to each one of us, of ‘Who is Christ? Who is God? Who am I? Youth
in particular asks these questions as it is a time par excellence for self-
reflection, for big dreams and idealism. One option is to try to forget God. It is quite easy these days; to live out a banal, mediocre life-plan and think no further. But that can turn to disaster, especially in times of stress. The option given us of faith in Christ, is “to come to know God – the true God – [and this] means to receive hope”. And that hope draws the future into the present and giving us the possibility of living the present well no matter what the circumstances. The fact that a great future exists changes the present; the present is changed by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future.

The people in the desert, in the first reading, were terrorised by the possibility of having no physical water, of thirsting to death. So too is our need for meaning in our lives, and for love, so as to persevere without loosing direction and drive. Christ is the rock gushing forth in such life-giving water. Faith in him shows us the way to God who alone guarantees us the possibility of a great life, of fullness of life!

You’re invited to journey through Holy Week with the monks of Glenstal Abbey at our Easter Retreat 2023, between 6th – 9th April.

The ceremonies of the Easter Triduum – the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, Celebration of the Lord’s Passion and the Easter Vigil – will be accompanied by a series of talks and times for prayer, reflection and table fellowship.

Speakers include Dympna Mallon (Director of the Margaret Aylward Center for Faith and Dialogue) with Columba McCann OSB, Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB and Patrick Hederman OSB.

Residential participants will be lodged in rooms and dormitories at Glenstal Abbey School, with meals and refreshments provided. Please contact us for more information and for booking at: events@glenstal.com or call 061 621005.