The Presbytery, Abbeydorney. (066 7135146)
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, 14.1.2018
Dear Parishioner,
When you hear words like ‘migrants, asylum seekers, refugees’, what kind of thoughts go through you mind. Are you inclined to say, ‘When will we hear the end of this business of people getting drowned while trying to escape from their own country and to live in another country, where they feel they will be safe? I have used the word ‘business’ in two senses. We often use the word business in the sense of an event or a happening (somewhat as we use the word ‘thing’). The second sense refers to that happening where money is exchanged for a service. We know from the many reports about people who have succeeded in escaping from a situation in their home country, where they felt their life was in danger, that they paid a sizeable amount of money to boat operators who were willing to take huge risks, when they got good amounts of money for facing a very uncertain journey. In ‘The Deep End’ in this Dear Parishioner, Triona O’Doherty has written about this year’s ‘World Day of Migrants and Refugees’.
During the Priests’ Assembly that took place in Killarney at the start of this week, Sr. Joan Roddy spoke to us about the issue of Asylum Seekers, Refugees etc. in relation to Ireland. She explained to us that ‘Asylum Seekers’ are people from another country, who arrive in Ireland with the hope of being allowed stay here. In international law, they have a right to enter the country and put their request for permission to stay. Not all those who seek to stay in Ireland succeed and they may be sent back to their home country. Up to now, asylum seekers are kept in centres, where they get a small amount of money per week and food is prepared for them. (People from different countries are not allowed to cook their own food.) This system is called Direct Provision and has been heavily criticised in recent years, because of its ‘prison-like’ approach to dealing with people, who want to stay in Ireland. During this time waiting, they are not allowed to take up paid employment.
Asylum Seekers, who get permission to stay in Ireland, are called Refugees and they move out of the ‘Direct Provision’ and are allowed rent accommodation and are also allowed to take paid employment.
(Fr. Denis O’Mahony)
Praying With The Rosary (..continued from last week)
In this series Fr. George Wadding invites us to take an imaginative look at some familiar Gospel stories, imagining how the characters might have told their story if they were alive today. Using the imagination can be a powerful way of entering into reflective contemplative prayer. Find a quiet corner, read the article slowly a few times, think about it and pray as the spirit leads you.
Third Joyful Mystery – The Nativity
In this meditation, we are invited to listen as Mary and Joseph describe their experience of the birth of Jesus. Keep your Bible open at Luke 2 and conclude by praying the Rosary prayers.
Strange Visitors
More excitement was to come in the weeks that followed. Some Magi visited us from Eastern lands. We had heard of such learned scholars of philosophy and medicine who were also renowned as soothsayers and astrologers. Their research led them to our hut where we had not as much as an easy seat for them to rest their exhausted bones. They presented us with token gifts which expressed their own discernment of the event they had come to explore: a few gold coins - gold was for a king; frankincense – a gift for a priest; myrrh – for embalming the dead. So far, these Gentile Magi had discerned our child’s destiny very well. But Isaiah never mentioned myrrh. What terrible secrets were the Magi hinting at? Was it the other chilling statement of Isaiah that the Messiah ‘would bear the sins of the people and be brought like a lamb to the slaughter’? (53:7). For a fleeting moment, a dark cloud cast a shadow over the serene joy in our poor stall. I shivered.
Our Wise Men from the East were not so wise after all. On their way to our stable they had sought directions about where they might find the ‘new king of the Jews.’ King Herod got to hear of it through his spies. Now, Herod was a ruthless, vindictive tyrant. The Magi’s enquiry rang alarm bells for him. At the hint of a rival king, his anger exploded. He quickly summoned together a group of priests and lawyers to enquire of them where this Messiah, the ‘usurper’ would be born. “In Bethlehem” they told him. Herod would take no chances. Feigning piety, he gave orders that if these foreigners actually found the new-born king they should let him know so that he could come and worship as well.
Fortunately, for all of us, an angel appeared to the Magi and told them to go home by a different route. We were about to leave for Galilee ourselves, when the angel returned in a dream to warn me to get out of Herod’s jurisdiction completely. “Don’t delay” he said. ‘Leave immediately’. And so we found ourselves in a convoy heading for Egypt with little more than a few tools and the clothes we stood up in. Months later we heard what King Herod did in Bethlehem. Realizing that the Magi had tricked him, and not sure precisely where or when the Messiah baby was born, he allowed himself a safe margin of error and ordered the slaughter of all male babies of two years or under in and around Bethlehem. We were distraught. Our tears mingled with the tears of Bethlehem’s mothers. Being exiled ourselves, we remembered Rachel, the figurative mother of Israel’s northern tribes. These tribes were being carried into exile by the Assyrians. With the prophet Jeremiah (31:15), we pictured her crying for the exiles at Ramah, a staging point of deportation:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more"
My lovely wife, Miriam, is a ponderer. One evening in Egypt, Jesus was fast asleep in the little cot I made for him. Miriam and I sat in the cool of the evening looking up at the myriad stars in the dark sky. ‘Joseph’ she said, ‘I’ve been thinking’ ‘Nothing new there’, I said, ‘tell me more’
‘I have been thinking of the visitors to our hut in Bethlehem.’ ‘And….?
‘It occurs to me that all the people of the world came to worship our child in those two visits.’ “How do you figure that out?” I asked. “Well” she said ‘the shepherds represented the Jews, the poor and the uneducated, the Magi represented the Gentiles, the rich and the educated classes. And that about covers everybody…what do you think?
‘Miriam’ I said, ‘you’re special and I love you dearly. When Jesus is grown up, though, will all these diverse people listen to his message and follow him?’ “We must trust, Joseph – all things are possible with God”
“Christ is the Morning Star, who, when the night of this world is past, gives to his saints the promise of the light of life, and opens everlasting day.”
Article above and quotation at the end taken from Reality Mag. Jan. 2018.
Seeing Your Life Through The Lens Of The Gospels John 1:35-42
1. John pointed the disciples towards Jesus as the one they should follow. Remember the people in your life who have pointed you in a new and life-giving direction? Perhaps in some cases this may have involved directing you away from your link with them – leaving home, changing jobs, etc.
2. Jesus invited the disciples to come and see how he lived. How have you come to learn how Jesus lived, and what he was looking for in life? How has this attracted you to follow him?
3. What is your experience of gathering in small groups to learn to live like Jesus by listening to the gospel together? Where two or three are gathered in his name, Jesus is there in the midst of them.
4. Andrew did not keep the good news to himself but invited his brother to join him in following Jesus. What is your experience of receiving, or giving, an invitation to join in some worthwhile venture?
(John Byrne osa in Intercom December 2017/January 2018)
THE DEEP END: Come and See
Today is the 4th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, and this year’s theme is ‘Welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating migrants and refugees’. In his message to mark the day, Pope Francis spoke of our responsibility, as individuals, communities and Church, to welcome everyone, particularly those who have been forced to leave their home in search of a better future.
‘Every stranger who knocks at our door is an opportunity for an encounter with Jesus Christ, who identifies with the welcomed and rejected strangers of every age……This is a great responsibility, which the Church intends to share with all believers and men and women of good will, who are called to respond to the many challenges of contemporary migration with generosity, promptness, wisdom and foresight, each according to their own abilities.’
Pope Francis has spoken often of our ‘brotherly responsibility’ towards our fellow human beings, and how our welcome ought to be a response to the Lord’s supreme commandment to love the other, the stranger, as ourselves. We all have opportunities to do this in our communities.
In today’s gospel Jesus invites the disciples to ‘come and see’ where he lives. He welcomes them into his home and they stay with him for the rest of the day. The example of Jesus encourages us to be welcoming, to extend a warm invitation, and to spend time with others in friendship.
(Triona O’Doherty in Intercom December 2017/January 2018)