Category: abbeynews

Fr Lino Moreira OSB

In his dialogue with Nicodemus, a Pharisee who came to see him during the night, Jesus spoke about the light of faith, and at one point he said: ‘As Moses has lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life’ (Jn 3:14-15). Jesus was referring to chapter 21 of the Book of Numbers, where fiery serpents are said to have been sent among the Israelites in the desert to punish them for speaking against God. Moses interceded for the people, and then God told him what he had to do to save them. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole – reports the sacred author. – And if a serpent bit anyone, they would
look at the bronze serpent and live (Nm 21:9).

Nicodemus was very familiar with this story, and Jesus told him that the bronze serpent was an image of himself, and that whoever looked at him with faith would be rescued from the power of Satan and live forever. But what exactly did Jesus mean by saying that the Son of Man must be lifted up? As is often the case in Saint John’s gospel, the assertion has a double meaning. Jesus was not simply predicting that he would be crucified in Jerusalem, he was explaining that his death on the cross would be the moment of his exaltation, the occasion when – having accomplished the task entrusted to him by his Father – he would be glorified with the glory that was his from the beginning
(cf. Jn 17:4-5; 19:30).

Seen in this light, the crucifixion of Jesus was not a humiliation, but
rather a revelation to the world that the Son of Man was also the Son of God, and that the one into whose hands the Father had placed all things (cf. Jn 13:3) was enthroned on the cross as supreme king over the whole creation. That is why Jesus said to Pontius Pilate: ‘You are right in saying that I am a king. For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me’ (Jn 18:37).

As king of all creation Jesus was commissioned by God the Father to
judge the world on his behalf. And again according to Saint John’s gospel, judgement is an on-going event, not just something that will take place at the end of time. As we have heard today, Jesus gives a verdict for the here and now when he says that whoever believes in him is not condemned (cf. Jn 3:18). And then he explains that a genuine believer is someone who does what is true (cf. 3:21) – an idiom which means the exact opposite of doing evil (cf. 3:20). So we should ask ourselves constantly, as we go about our daily life, whether we are doing what is true – that is to say, whether we are living by the
truth and our deeds are good. Conscious of the many times we have fallen short, we may be inclined to think that the standards set by Jesus are simply too high for an ordinary human being – a fact which seems to find confirmation in Saint Paul’s sobering words: I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want (Rm 7:19). However, perfection is our goal, not our point of departure. Jesus calls all God’s children, saints and sinners alike, to come to him with full confidence, so that through his divine power they may overcome the darkness of evil and experience the joy of a new life. Let us, then, never lose hope, mindful of what our Redeemer said to some Pharisees who were less sympathetic than Nicodemus: ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’ (Jn 8:12).

All are invited to join the monks of Glenstal Abbey in celebrating the Easter Triduum: the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday and the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday. The Liturgy of the Hours – Morning, Midday, Evening and Night Prayer – will be celebrated as appropriate each day also. 

Participants in our annual retreat will be able to deepen and enrich their experience of these holy days through a number of talks and and personal time. Talks include:

• ‘Exploring the Silence: Jesus’ Answer to Pilate’s Taunts’ with Emmaus O’Herlihy OSB.
• ‘Food for the Journey: the Eucharist in the Irish Tradition’ with Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB.
• ‘Life in the Tomb’ with Columba McCann OSB.
• ‘Looking for the Living: Hope for a New World?’ with Nóirín Lynch, director of An Teach Spioradálta in County Clare.

This year’s annual retreat takes place from Thursday 28th March Sunday 31st March with residential (full bed and board), non-residential (meals included) and student options available.

To book please email events@glenstal.com or call 061 621005.

Fr William Fennelly OSB

There is surprisingly little in common between St John’s Gospel and the other three. Apart, of course, from the bare facts of Jesus’s life, notably his crucifixion, there are very few stories from his biography that all four agree on. But today’s tale of the ‘cleansing of the temple’ is such a one, and all four Gospels see this incident as closely related to Jesus’s death. This is not simply because Jesus was only making himself a nuisance and causing a fuss – even a potentially explosive fuss at the
biggest event in the Jewish year – but because by his actions Jesus was seen to be making a claim about himself, one that was absolutely unacceptable to the religious authorities of Jerusalem.

This is very obvious in the account that we read today. ‘What sign do you have to show us for doing this?’, he is asked. In other words, ‘Who do you think you are?, and why should we believe you?’ Now Jesus gives an answer, but it’s a cryptic one, which is naturally enough misunderstood, at least until the resurrection, when the sign is fulfilled. But in fact what he has done is itself the sign that justifies his action, if
we recognise the point of his saying about making the temple a ‘house of trade’.

Naturally we take this to mean that Jesus is against selling things and changing money in the temple. We may ask ourselves whether he would express equal displeasure at copies of Catholic newspapers and related products for sale in the back of so many Churches. But this misses the point. Without the sellers of animals for sacrifice, animals that were guaranteed to be acceptable according to the Law of Moses, there could be no sacrifices. Without the money changers, taking the
unacceptable Roman coins and converting them into the acceptable which was shekels, no-one could offer money to the treasury or pay the temple tax that every Jew took pride in paying. In other words, Jesus is not just trying to get rid of a few corrupt practices that have crept in to stain something he basically approves of; no, he is trying to put a stop to the whole thing.

And this is because Jesus brings, in his own person, the fulfilment of the prophecy of Zechariah – in fact the very last verse of his prophesying, which says that ‘there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord on that day’. On what day? On the day of the Lord, when the Lord shows himself to be King over all the earth, when all the nations of the earth will be gathered into one, and when ‘living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem’. On the day of the Lord, the temple is no longer needed, because the whole world is sanctified by the presence of the Lord.

Jesus claims to be the one who brings in this day of the Lord. Indeed, when he is nailed to the cross, Pilate will truly (though he does not mean to be truthful) proclaim that here is the Lord enthroned as King. From that Crucified King living waters will indeed flow out from Jerusalem to bring life to the whole world, on the day when zeal
for God’s house does indeed consume him.

What is this zeal? On the one hand, it is the misplaced zeal of those trying to protect the status quo, the present arrangements which are working out very nicely. Thank you very much, for the temple authorities, and they’ll not encourage anyone who threatens their fragile authority. Or perhaps they are not so cynical: after all, the temple was a great institution, it was after all the place where God had chosen to make his dwelling among humanity and invite his chosen people to celebrate his mercy by participating in the sacrifices established by Moses. All of that, important though it was, was but a sign pointing towards its fulfilment, the astonishing fulfilment that came in the person of Christ. Perhaps we are all guilty, from time to time, of loving the outward signs more than the inward reality.

But more importantly, the ‘zeal for your house’ that consumed Jesus is also Christ’s love for God’s true house, which is the whole world, and which is every human heart that welcomes his Spirit of truth and love.
On the Cross Jesus died for love of us, as zeal for our hearts consumed him. The challenge is very radical for us. Today, will we decide to accept that life-giving love, and if we do, are we willing to accept the sometimes very inconvenient consequences of such a profound change? This renewed religious consciousness does not just arise out of our own selves; it is simultaneously the call of God addressed to us. And it is the working, the operation, of God welling up from the bottomless depths of our soul. Only if God is alive in us, will he be alive in the church.

Br Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB will speak at a one-day symposium on the history of nuns and female monasticism to mark last year’s launch of Brides of Christ: Women and Monasticism in Medieval and Early Modern Ireland whose editors included Glenstal Abbey’s Br Colmán and Fr Martin Browne OSB.

This free event takes place on Wednesday 6th March at Kylemore Abbey in County Mayo. For full details and booking please visit this page or for further information please contact development@kylemoreabbey.ie

Copies of the Brides of Christ book can be purchased from Glenstal Abbey here.

Fr Denis Hooper OSB

LAST WEEK WE HAD ONE OF THE SHORTEST GOSPELS OF THE YEAR. THIS WEEK WE HAVE ONE OF THE LONGEST PASSAGES. TODAY’S GOSPEL IS ABOUT THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. TO BE TRANSFIGURED IS
TO BE TRANSFORMED INTO SOMETHING MORE BEAUTIFUL.

JESUS’ TRANSFIGURATION SHOWS SOMETHING INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL AND IT IS A MANIFESTATION OF HIS GLORY. IT IS A PROMISE OF THE GLORY TO COME
IT IS AN AFFIRMATION THAT HE IS INDEED THE SON OF GOD AND THERE IS AN INSTRUCTION FROM GOD TO LISTEN TO GOD’S SON

JUST BEFORE THE TRANSFIGURATION IN MARK’S GOSPEL, JESUS TOLD HIS DESCIPLES THAT HE WILL SUFFER GREATLY. HE TOLD THEM THAT HE WOULD BE PUT TO DEATH THIS MUST HAVE THROWN HIS FRIENDS INTO CRISIS:

• THEIR HOPES FOR A STRONG MESSIAH WERE DASHED
• THEIR DREAMS WERE SHATTERED
• THEY WERE ASHAMED THAT JESUS THEIR LORD WOULD BE PUT TO DEATH LIKE A COMMON CRIMINAL

IT’S NO WONDER THEN THAT PETER WANTS TO MAKE THIS MOMENT OF TRANSFIGURATION LAST LONGER, TO DWELL ON THIS WONDERFUL SIGHT OF JESUS TALKING WITH MOSES AND ELIJAH THE DANGER FOR THE DESCIPLES AND INDEED FOR US IS THAT WE WANT THE MOMENT OF GLORY AND WE DON’T WANT THE CROSS – TO WHICH WE ARE JOURNING TO IN THESE WEEKS OF LENT WE ALL PREFER MOMENTS OF TRANSFIGURATION IN OUR LIVES. WE WANT TO ESCAPE TO THE PEACE OF THE MOUNTAIN AND AWAY FROM THE PAIN OF THE WORLD BELOW. AND WHO WOULD BLAME US?

SOME OF US ESCAPE THE PAIN OF THE WORLD THROUGH A MYRIAD OF DRUGS, AND ALCOHOL AND OTHER EXCESSIVE OBSESSIONS. SOME OF US JUST CAN’T FACE THE HARSH REALITIES OF THIS WORLD BUT AS BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN SAYS, “YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE”

PSALM 139 PUTS IT IN SIMILAR WORDS:
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

IMMEDIATELY AFTER HIS TRANSFIGURATION JESUS WILL COME DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN AND SET OUT FOR JERUSALEM AND HIS CERTAIN DEATH JESUS’ OBEDIENCE TO THIS REALITY IS FORESHADOWED IN TODAY’S FIRST READING, WITH ABRAHAM PREPARED TO SACRIFICE HIS ONLY SON WHOM HE LOVED IN THE END, THE SACRIFICE WAS NOT NECESSARY AS ABRAHAM WAS FOUND TO FEAR
GOD.

ABRAHAM’S OBEDIENCE WAS REWARDED WITH BLESSINGS ON HIM AND HIS DESCENDANTS
SAINT PAUL IN THE SECOND READING REMINDS US THAT GOD DID NOT SPARE HIS SON, BUT RATHER GAVE HIM UP TO BENEFIT US ALL – WITH THE REWARD FOR CHRIST’S
OBEDIENCE BEING OUR SALVATION AS WE STAND IN THE GLORY OF THE TRANSFIGURED CHRIST TODAY, WE ARE AWARE OF THE NEED OF TRANSFORMATION IN OUR LIVES AND IN OUR WORLD TODAY THE LENTEN SEASON IS GIVEN TO US AS A TIME FOR PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION WHERE WE SEEK TO REMOVE WHATEVER COMES BETWEEN US AND A DEEPER
RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AT THE SAME TIME, OUR WORLD IS IN DESPERATE NEED OF TRANSFORMATION
ACCORDING TO GOD’S PLAN IF EVER THERE WAS A TIME FOR TRANSFORMATION IT IS SURELY NOW:

• A LONG-RUNNING WAR IN UKRAINE – TWO YEARS YESTERDAY AND NO SIGN OF IT
  STOPPING
• WHILST TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE – MANY OF THEM INNOCENTS – HAVE
  BEEN KILLED OR INJURED IN THE HOLY LAND WHERE THE MAJORITY OF HOMES
  HAVE BEEN DESTROYED AND ACCESS TO FOOD, WATER AND HUMANITARIAN AID
  IS SCARCE
• AND IN ALL THIS INTERNATIONAL LAW SEEMS TO BE CONVENIENTLY FORGOTTEN

OUR EXPERIENCE OF THE MOUNTAIN TOP CALLS US TO SAFEGUARD THE LIGHT OF CHRIST AND TO SHARE IT IN THE HOPE OF TRANSFORMING OURSELVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US JUST AS JESUS COMES DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP TO MEET THE PAIN AND SUFFERING FOUND IN THE VALLEY BELOW, WE ALSO MUST GO DOWN WITH HIM AND

MAKE HIS LIGHT SHINE EVERYWHERE, ESPECIALLY IN THE DARKEST PLACES OF OUR WORLD WHERE CHAOS AND SUFFERING IS ALL AROUND AS WE WALK THROUGH LENT, WE OUGHT TO REMEMBER THAT THE GLORY OF THE TRANSFIGURATION POINTS TO THE GLORY OF THE CROSS ALTHOUGH THE JOURNEY ENDS AT CALVARY – THE DEATH OF JESUS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY. IT IS A NEW BEGINNING JESUS’ RESURRECTION IS GOOD NEWS FOR THE WORLD WE LIVE IN. THE TRANSFIGURED
CHRIST WILL CONQUER AND TRANSFORM THE WORLD’S SUFFERING, SIN AND DEATH.

AND SO, LET US BE ENLIGHTENED BY THE TRANSFIGURED CHRIST AND TAKE HOPE FROM WHAT WE HAVE HEARD IN TODAY’S GOSPEL, CONFIDENT THAT CHRIST COMES TO TRANSFIGURE US AND THE WORLD AROUND US.
AMEN.

Third-level students are invited to tap into the power of prayer during a day with the monks of Glenstal Abbey. Taking place on Saturday 2nd March, the day’s programme is as follows:

• 10 am – 10.30 am: Registration and refreshments.
• 10.40 am: ‘Listening in the Silence – tuning into the heart and its desires’ with Pádraig McIntyre OSB.
• 11 am: ‘Attende Domine – experiencing the texture, rhythm, and melody of the Lenten Gregorian chants’ with Senan Furlong OSB.
• 12.10 pm: Mass with the monks of Glenstal Abbey.
• 12.45 pm: ‘Organ Improvisation of Lenten Chants – hearing the Lenten chants in a new key’ with Columba McCann OSB.
• 1.15 pm – Lunch.
• 1.45 pm – 2.40 pm: Free time to visit the Icon Chapel, Abbey Church, Monastery Reception, and grounds (walking shoes recommended).
• 2.40 pm: ‘Praying with Text and Icon – the anointing of Jesus by Mary (Jn 12:1-11) as depicted by Sr Marie-Paul Farran OSB’ with Luke Macnamara OSB.
• 3.30 pm: ‘A Spiritual Toolkit – sampling ways to connect and pray in the midst of a busy life’ with Columba McCann OSB.
• 4.15pm – 4.45pm: Refreshments and farewell.

To book please email events@glenstal.com or call 061 621005.