Reflections from Fr Kieran

Albert Camus was a French philosopher (and many other things). He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, being the second-youngest recipient in the history of the prize. He wrote, on friendship: “Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow, don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me, just be my friend.”

“Friend” and, “friendship” are words that we use freely. Facebook commoditised the word such that, now we can all now have hundreds (maybe even thousands!) of “friends” and not even know most of them!

Albert Camus understood friendship in a very different way to Mark Zuckerberg and implies an equality that is central to what it is to be a friend. Fr Kieran, in his reflection that has been inspired by the Gospel on Good Shepherd Sunday, looks at the vocation of friendship, the call to be a friend. It is more than knowing, it is something intimate in its depth. Indeed, Aristotle said: “What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” And Jesus told his disciples that, “No longer do I call you servants … but I have called you friends.“

In his earlier reflection, Kieran wrote of how there is a difference between what we are called to do and who we are called to be and it is in the latter that we find vocation. How true indeed, therefore, is it that friendship must be called a vocation?

During Covid-19, we were all warned about the dangers of touch. Those many moments of touch that never needed words but which, nonetheless, said all that needed to be said, were impossible! It could be as simple as a handshake, that touch of hand to hand or an embrace that expressed a warmth without ever needing to be verbalised and yet, what was unsaid was understood. It could be to express sympathy, or pleasure at meeting, or congratulations, but whatever it was, touch conveyed so much.

And only when it was gone, did we realise how much touch was important in our lives.

In his reflection, Fr Kieran reflects more deeply on the significance of touch – in the story of the woman with a haemorrhage who wished only to touch to cloak of Jesus to be healed, of the intimacy of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples with his own hands, of Jesus touching the leper and making him clean. We have much to think about!

In this part of the world, it is often the case that we can use terms or phrases in English which, to someone for whom English is not their native language, can be difficult to understand. Often, it is because they are difficult to translate and instead, we have to explain the concept behind the phrase and not just the words. There is many a non-English speaker who has looked perplexed when they put the phrase, “catching a bus” into Google translate!

Fr Kieran points to an example of this in his reflection when he explores the theme of time as recorded in the New Testament, especially in the Gospel reading and second reading for the Third Sunday in Ordinary time (there’s that word again!).

The Greek’s differentiated between ‘chronos’ time – that which is tracked by clocks and watches – and Kairos time, those moments when we are at a point of a critical decision, a make or break, on which so much that follows might depend.

Kieran links this Kairos time of the Gospel with the call to repent, a critical moment, not just to confess our sins but to quote from the final lines of Robert Frost’s famous poem, “The Road Not Taken,” to go in a different direction:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Kieran’s reflection this week centres on the Ordinary Time reading from the first book of Samuel and the story of Hannah, Samuel her son, and Eli. And it is all about listening.

An encounter of being listened to, and being heard, can be transformative. We only have to look across the water at the scandal playing out about the grave injustice done to sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses by the Britain’s Post Office. Although an injustice that has continued for twenty years, the effect of the ITV dramatisation on the public conscience has led many to say that “for the first time ever, we are being heard.”

God listens to us; and we need to listen to God. Like Hannah, we need to pray to God as, how else can he hear us? And when we do this, and God is always listening, the result can be transformative!

In his reflection for this week of Christmas, Fr Kieran takes the reading from the Acts of the Apostles on the feast of St Stephen, December 26, as his theme. In Acts, we read the account of the martyrdom of St Stephen. And what terrible thing did he do that led to his death? He spoke the truth, the truth given to him by the Holy Spirit. But some didn’t want to hear the truth!

In Kieran’s reflection, he points out that there are so many times and places where the truth of the Gospel is either not being heard, or perhaps, heard but not followed. St Stephen paid for this with his life and while the stakes might not be as high, we must always have the courage to be open to the truth, when we hear it spoken, and to speak the truth.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” These words, from “Through the Looking Glass” by Lewis Carroll, might seem an unusual way to introduce a reflection by Fr Kieran. However, read on!

When we read the Gospels, it can be easy to look past some of the smaller words, those that seem less important and almost throwaway. However, in his exploration of the Gospel of Tuesday (Lk 10:21-24), Kieran asks us to stop and look more closely, this time at the expression concerning, “mere” children. How could so innocuous a word carry such a deep meaning and a deep message?

As Kieran shows us, words can indeed, as in Alice’s observation, “mean so many different things” and Kieran’s analysis of the words of Tuesday’s Gospel shows us how the words of St Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 4:4) should be taken very much to heart – “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

In his reflection on the Gospel reading for the thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) (Mt 23:1-12), Fr Kieran focuses on verse three of that Gospel: “You must therefore do what they tell you and listen to what they say, but do not be guided by what they do: since they do not practise what they preach.”

The advice, to “practise what you preach” is one that is commonly and frequently given and heard. In his reflection, Kieran considers another sense, the positive sense, in which the word “practise” is used in everyday language and points to the musicians, artists, actors, and sportspeople who daily “practise” what they do, so as to improve.

Therefore to “practise” in this context, is to seek to remove the imperfections, to accept that one has work to do in order to get better.

Good advice for all of us!