Feast Of St Ciaran, Clonmacnois

Sunday 9^th September 2007

Pattern Day Celebrations

Mass and Stations

Homily

John Cullen P.P. Kiltoom

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 10:1-9

The harvest is rich but the labourers are few.

The Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself was to visit. He said to them ‘The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest. Start off now, but remember, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Carry no purse, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road. Whatever house you go into, let your first words be, “Peace to this house!” And if a man of peace lives there, your peace will go and rest on him; if not, it will come back to you. Stay in the same house, taking what food and drink they have to offer, for the labourer deserves his wages; do not move from house to house. Whenever you go into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is set before you. Cure those in it who are sick, and say “The kingdom of God is very near to you”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

As we gather here in Clonmacnois, in the place of the seven Churches, we follow the Pattern of St. Ciaran, who is known as one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. My hope is that all of us here, will be able to bring our own words and thoughts, our own few loaves and fishes of insight, to the prayer of this special day! Each persons presence here prays, proclaims and preaches a fresco meanings, of Gods loving actions in our lives.

Clonmacnois – pulsates with prayer and throbs with faith, as a mosaic of pilgrim people, etch the spirit of St. Ciaran, whose gospel – ‘patterned’ life, continues to inspire and motivate.

Clonmacnois – embraces memories, prayers and secrets that will forever pre-date our own experiences and recollections.

Clonmacnois – echo’s the sound of silence and whispers in “the deep hearts core” a Gospel call… which St. Ciaran responded to… with an undivided heart.

Clonmacnois – whose quarried High Crosses carve for us, the image of Christ and proclaim todays Gospel message. “Let your first words be ‘peace to this house’ (Lk, 10:5)

Clonmacnois - Medieval - yet modern

- Monastic - yet Missionary

- Isolated – yet International

- Prayerful – yet Prophetic

- Solitary – yet Social

- Ancient – but ever new

Today on Pattern Day, the feast day of St. Ciaran, we have an opportunity – not just to let our eyes wander and skim over the waters surface but to dip below that shimmering surface… launch out into the deep and have a thirst for the living waters of the Gospel in our world of 24/7.

Think of this… most people in the midlands region – where the three counties meet, Longford, Westmeath and Roscommon, were baptised with the waters from the font that is the river Shannon and like St. Ciaran – we are called to immerse ourselves with faith and trust into the full current of Gods purpose for us – even when the reservoirs of our hearts, (jer 2:13) is temped the despair, that the abundant, living waters (jn 7:37) of Gods love will become scarce. Here in Clonmacnois we step into the stream of faith that has flowed down from ancient times into our modern Irish society.

Clonmacnois is a good metaphor for Ireland and the Irish Church today. It is a place that has struggled through bitter times of invasion, agitation and conspiracy and whose only consolation was the celebration and power of the Eucharist. It is the celebration of the Eucharist that flows like a stream through the history of this place and links us directly to St. Ciaran and his monastic community, who came here in the middle of the fifth century. Today – Clonamcnois and the Cenacle – the Upper Room, The Hill of Calvary and the empty tomb are linked together, as we celebrate the presence of the Risen Christ – who is our Saviour and Hope. Today – from this sacred site – “let the message and the presence of Christ, find a home” in every one of our hearts.

* This message is for the troubled, the fearful and the drug addict whose life is trapped by addiction and the harsh brutality and greed of the faceless drug dealer;

* For the bereaved at a loss in search of an answer to the mystery of death….sadly for too many people in Ireland today…death is a violent act, leaving a shattered legacy of revenge and bitter memories

* For the immigrant, the asylum seeker and the refugee who struggle for words to find accommodation and work in the Ireland of the welcomes. “whenever you go into a town where they make you welcome” (Today’s Gospel). Is this their experience among the Irish?

* for all who have to face the crucial dilemma of a “crisis of meaning” which has serious and practical consequences for some people, their families and communities – we think of the vulnerable, the weak, the deeply troubled and in particular to those, whose lives are torn to pieces and who desperately give up on life, through self harm, self destruction and suicide. “peace to the house” of every heart that feels alienated, abandoned and aggressive.

Suicide in Ireland is an urgent issue of serious public and political concern, which deserves and demands, the same effort and resources from the government, health care and pastoral organisations, as other life care issues, such as reducing road deaths. We need to appreciate as a people that every life has value, purpose and meaning. No one’s life is senseless or meaningless.

* for our own church where our defects are fractured publicly and cause us to take a longer look at the face of the church. Many people today are asking: why remain in the church? What can we say to the drug addict? The bereaved? The broken family?

* All need to hear first and last of the nature of god the father, son and spirit

* all need to hear that the supreme attribute of God is mercy and that in Christ, God’s desire is to heal, forgive, love and liberate us, once and for all, from the burden of guilt, the fear of death and the reality of our sins.

*All need to hear of the dignity of our own nature as human beings, men, women and children, made in god’s image and likeness and re-made in Christ.

* All need to here that when, in our own day, the face of evil shows itself nakedly before our eyes, the grace of Christ, will more and more be given to us.

* All need to hear, that even in the darkest hours, when hope fails to rise like a spring of water, it may well be percolating secretly underground, as experienced by celtic churches in Clonmacnoise, Glendalough, Durrow, Killeedy, Clonard, Kells, Downpatrick, Gougane Bara, Clonfert, Kildare Iona and Lismore.

* All need to hear that we are called to share in christ’s own passionate determination to care for the weak and “stay in their same house” curing those who are sick and saying to them “the kingdom of god is near to you” (today’s Gospel)

* All need to hear that the “Kingdom” is being built by many hands – our immigrants, the stranger the prisoner and our own.

Today we offer the work of our hands and hearts to the service of our church – wherever we live “all the town and places that Christ visits” (todays Gospel)

* All need to hear that the purpose, mission and message of the church – its saving and only purpose is to make Christ, our risen lord, present to each person’s life this risen presence encircles our broken world

* all need to hear the reasons as to why it makes sense – why it is the “cause of our joy” to stand together as a community, Sunday after Sunday, for the creed and to declare not only that I believe in God but that “I believe in the Holy Catholic Church” Start off now

*Despite our many failures, let us realise that we belong to a church that

*For all it represses there is the spirit of freedom

*For all that is despised there is a community of love

*For all that is feared there is a redemption

*For all the sins there is absolute forgiveness,

*in an age so inhuman we touch the tears of compassion

*in a world so grim and humourless, we share a rich joy and laughter “a joy no one can take from us”

*in the midst of death we hear in our church and especially in Clonmacnoise whose ancient stones whisper an incomparable message of life and eternal life.

For the apparent absence of god when this thriving monastic site was reduced to ruin the destruction never banished the real presence of Christ that we pattern in our time. As believers now we are pilgrims of the future. Clonmacnois is our treasured inheritance. We thinkers, artists, craftsmen, numerous witnesses and all those hidden, anonymous saints whose sheer goodness blessed our lives who have left us a compelling legacy of vision, faith and hope. We have to ask: have we thrown out on our many landfill sites the best of the old for the worst of the new?

On this pattern day:

Ask the Lord of the harvest for the grace to remind ourselves and our fractured world of the reality of God.

Though the labourers are few… let us thank God for the rich harvest of faith and good works that shape our lives.

We are sent amoung wolves by the Good Shepard to recover Irelands soul and to embody a sense of the sacred, a respect for creation and an awareness of the importance of community and family.

Peace to this house of Ireland… at last where there is no more death or weeping due to the decades of violence that scarred so many people and communities.

Peace to this house of Clonmacnois – whose roof is the sky and the heavens!!! May peace rest in this house of each ones heart as we move from home to home and in Gods own time move nearer to His kingdom… (todays Gospel)

John Cullen, P.P. Kiltoom.