Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B: 14.07.24
2.00pm Tinnecarrig Rock
Introduction:
“Take nothing for the journey”[1] … on this fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary this message speaks very much into our time, our world, our lives. The sending out of the twelve, their working in pairs, their ministry of presence are superbly addressed by Mark. They could be in no doubt as to what was expected of them. Every phrase is nuanced and parsed: “take nothing for the journey”[2].
I welcome all of you warmly here this afternoon onto a hill, to the site of a Marian Year Cross, to a place of pilgrimage where God’s time and ours intersect. This is a sacred place.
We stand on holy ground and so we pause, unworthy as we are and call to mind our sins …
- Is tusa Tobar na Trócaire – You are the wellspring of mercy: A Thiarna, déan trócaire.
- Is tusa Slí na Fírinne – You are the way of Truth: A Chríost, déan trócaire.
- Bí linn i gconaí, ós ár gcomhair amach – Be with us always, showing us the way. A Thiarna, déan trócaire.
Homily:
There is very little written on the history of Tinnecarrig. I celebrated the last Mass here on the rock on August 11th 2019, five years ago; I still recall the jaunt courtesy of Thomas Doyle’s donkey and cart! Mass was also celebrated here on August 24th 2014 with Masses celebrated for the Millennium Year 2000 and again in 2008 and 2009.
The steel Cross erected here in 1976, has formed the backdrop for all these celebrations. And this Cross replaced an earlier one erected in 1951, commemorating the Marian Year 1954. This steel one was made in Quigleys yard at Glynn, the work of Andy Nolan and Noel Quigley.
These events, even if there is little in print about them, are important parish and community events. I also realise the refreshments later in Michael and Kathryn Moloney’s clubhouse are an equally important moment in the coming together and look forward to meeting all of you then.
I think it’s critical we don’t lose these local customs and traditions. Next week I look forward to leading the Pattern in St. Mullins down the road. The following week I will be taking part in a St. Brigid’s walk across the Curragh. A few weeks back I was present at the Embrace Farm Ecumenical liturgy for victims of farm accidents in Abbeyleix. Some of these liturgies emerge out of a very deep tradition that is rooted in local folklore and custom; others are much more recent events that speak to a felt need in people.
Traditionally this would normally be the end of the Ordination Season. I know that because I phone priests on or around their jubilees – the vast majority at least in Kildare & Leighlin fall in the month of June into early July. On June 15th last Borris native, Fr. Seamus Whelan, celebrated his Golden Jubilee as a Pallottine priest. We remember Seamus as he returned very recently to continue his excellent missionary work in Argentina. Tomorrow Fr. Michael Noonan, a native of Inistioge, the oldest priest in our diocese celebrates his 95th birthday; Fr. Michael was 70 years ordained on June 20th last.
Only last Sunday I was in Ballon for the celebration of the First Mass of Fr. Blazej Bialek, a Polish young man, who grew up in Ballon, indeed he was a past pupil of St. Marys Academy CBS in Carlow, across the road from me. Fr. Blazej was ordained to serve as a Dominican. Our first reading this Sunday afternoon from the prophet Amos brings me back to the celebration of my own First Mass thirty-six years ago. I chose then the call of Amos so vividly descriptive “I was a shepherd and looked after sycamores: but it was the Lord who took me from herding the flock”[3]. For Amos it was that compulsion to make the difficult journey into the northern kingdom of Israel to preach the word of God there.
Like Amos, often the journey we set out on is not always of our own choosing. It is however of God’s choosing. It brings us to different places, to meet different people, to have different experiences, because it’s following God’s call, not our own; it is hearing His voice, not our own. If it becomes about us, we lose the essential message.
Some priests today find the going out in pairs a bit challenging, there are far fewer priests to team up with, it’s so often much more convenient to do things alone and to plough a solitary furrow in a field. Mark seems to saying to us in the gospel text “if you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district”[4]. He is asking us in our vocation call, to be present, to be as we said at the school roll call in every class all those years back – to be Anseo rather than As Lathair!
The greatest gift a priest is to a parish is to be present with his people. I want to publicly thank Fr. Rory for his presence among you, I know he has had some health challenges, but you are hugely supporting him through those challenges. I also want to acknowledge Fr. Shem who while working in Muinebheag, lives among you and is always that back up to Rory, as is Fr. Mark in Graignamanagh and Fr. Eddie in St. Mullins. Working as a cluster, as a group, as a family of parishes, we can call it whatever we like, it’s the same concept, working more closely together in a sense of harmony, of cooperation. Maybe that is today our going out in pairs?
And it’s a call, that is not by any means exclusively for priests, it’s for all of us. Mission is one of the key words on the synodal journey that Pope Francis has invited all of us to take. We are all called to be present to and for one another. The Cross which is lit up at Easter and Christmas here on Tinnecarrig Rock is a poignant reminder for us all that following the Lord often brings with it pain.
The Cross is the backdrop to the Masses we celebrate here, to those we remember here, to those gone before us; the Cross is also the backdrop to our lives. While the light might dim on the Cross from time to time, the hope that our faith brings, nourishes us now and always.
[1] Mk.6:8
[2] ibid
[3] Am.7:14-15
[4] Mk.6:10
