In his homily for Pentecost Sunday, Fr Kieran explored the role of the Paraclete, going beyond that of comforter or counsellor but to the core of its original Greek meaning, viz. that of the Advocate. As the Gospel of John says, Jesus told His disciples that He was sending another Advocate, meaning that Jesus Himself was the first! And this Advocate is our powerful friend, whom we can call on to stand by us when we call. Could we have been left a better gift?
Fr Kieran takes a look at last Sunday’s Gospel (Third Sunday of Easter – Lk 24:13-35) telling a story of an amazing encounter with which we are all so familiar, viz. the disciples meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Our immediate reaction could well be, “How come they didn’t recognise Jesus?” and so Kieran goes further, to look at the different levels or senses of recognition. There can be a lot more than just recognising a face, and when we find ourselves deepening our relationship with another, then it requires another level of recognition, which is revelation. And it is from revelation that comes recognition. Recognition brings with it appreciation, loving the reality of what we recognise and which is revealed us to! God reveals Himself to us completely and so our response can only be that of the two disciples when they recognise him – joy!
In Fr Kieran’s homily for Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter, he reflects on the central call of Jesus for unity. In the Acts of the Apostles that we read each day during Mass in these days of the Easter Season, we read of the unity that there was among the believers, the sharing of goods and property so that not one of the members was in want. But this sense of unity is not something from of old, the call to unity is just as alive today as in those days following the resurrection of Jesus and the early Church. Kieran concludes his homily by saying: “If you are looking for a sure sign of the Spirit of God in our world today, you need go no further than your local church when Mass is celebrated. But it doesn’t end there! The Spirit is sending us out to our society to be instruments of unity, to blow away all those obstacles to the expression of our equal dignity as members of God’s family.”
In Fr Kieran’s homily for the Second Sunday of Easter, he explores the unfathomable mercy and forgiveness of Jesus, first, when he appears to Thomas after he doubted the stories of resurrection, and later, to Peter, the man who denied Jesus three times, and yet, so complete is the forgiveness that it is Peter who is asked to be head of the Church.
Fr Kieran reflects on the reassurance of the resurrections and points out too, that the message of Easter is not that we can relax and wait for the Lord to evacuate us to heaven, but that we must roll up our sleeves and get to work preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth, drawing on the supernatural power of Christ’s cross and resurrection.
In Fr Kieran’s Good Friday homily, he reflects on the two Passion accounts, viz., that of the suffering servant from the prophet Isaiah and the main focus of the Good Friday liturgy, the Passion of Jesus and the theme that joins both of these accounts. Fr Kieran explores these two accounts as calling on us, to find a unity in our whole life span between the active stage and the stage of passion. Often our world identifies those lesser ones with the inactive, the passive, but Jesus identifies these same ones as the most important in the heart of God. He has come to make us all one and what a price he pays to get that message across.
On the fifth Sunday of Year A, Kieran connects last Sunday’s Gospel, the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:1-12), with this week’s Gospel (Mt 5:13-16), which opens with Jesus telling his disciples that they, “are the salt of the earth.” As Kieran points out, Jesus did not say that they “must become” but that they are! What an amazing message to hear – a compliment for sure, and in his homily, Kieran points out that this is “the natural state of the baptised person.” Affirming and all as this is, and as we read the words of Jesus more deeply, isn’t it really about how we are, or are meant to be, as a community? We aren’t meant to act alone; one example is that The Franciscans base their apostolate on life in fraternity. They go out as brothers to the world, not as loners! So maybe Kieran is challenging us to truly live up to that affirmation that we are the salt of the earth, light to the world.
In Fr Kieran’s homily for the fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, he looks at the Sermon on the Mount, the eight beatitudes or blessings. We might benefit from a short introduction to the Catholic tradition of reflection on what it means to live a good life as a follower of Jesus. In other words, a peek at moral theology down through the years!
Fr Kieran reflects on the Gospel from the Mass of the thirty-second Sunday (Lk 20:27-38) when Jesus is confronted by the Sadducees with a question designed to catch him out.
Irish people are proud of their traditional image of being an hospitable, welcoming nation. Céad Míle Fáilte, a hundred thousand welcomes, is a familiar greeting for our foreign visitors! I imagine that this reputation, handed down from generation to generation, was...