Month: April 2023

Sr. Francis is an Irish nun I had the good fortune to know many years ago back in Dublin. She was the director of a small “nursery school” but a school with a difference. Many of the children there had been referred for care by the children’s courts, children’s welfare officers or the Gardai (Irish Police). To describe her as bossy, pushy, tyrannical even, would be an understatement, she was a force of nature and a nun to be reckoned with. Some might say, like me, she was a true dragon of a nun. However, I have never come across a more devoted or truer advocate for children and their parents. With the put-upon, the beaten, the outcast, the hurt child, the broken soul, she was as gentle as a lamb. With the negligent, the abuser, the violent, when it came to protecting children and mothers, she was a lion. Sr. Francis was one of the best shepherds I have ever had the privilege of knowing.

There are lots of different sorts of shepherds and Jesus chose this image, above all others, to describe Himself. He also offered it as the preeminent image for those He placed in leadership over the Church; pope, bishops, priests in particular, but not only them. These were to be men willing to die, if necessary, to care for God’s sheep. And yet, the most important shepherd’s in our lives and the lives of our children are not the pope, the bishops, or the priests. The most important shepherds in our lives and the lives of our children are parents. Protecting, feeding, guiding, healing, and even searching for the lost, is all part of the life of the shepherd, and the parent.

Obviously, Sr. Francis didn’t have any children of her own. That didn’t matter, she was a shepherd of other people’s children, as if they were her own, and she was a shepherd to other people. This is the same for us also. Jesus calls us all to be good shepherds, and the good shepherd takes care of all the sheep, not just his/her own. Being a shepherd is a way of life not a job. We are called to be shepherds, in fact, God sends us into the world to be shepherds. A shepherd must be as fiery as a dragon, as strong as a lion, and as gentle as a lamb. Not just for his/her own but for the sake of all the sheep. What a great way to live a life.

The good shepherd is not concerned about him/herself first. The good shepherd is concerned first for the welfare of the sheep. And this is the point – when God sent us into the world, He sent us on a mission, first, to love God and second, to love others. We should not to be the center of our lives or our concerns. Only one who lives generously will find fulfillment in life. A life centered on ourselves is too small a way to live. A life focused on God and others – now that’s a big life and a life worth living. As Jesus said, “give and you will receive.”

Jesus, in a moment of sadness and empathy, said to His apostles: “I look around and I see the people and they are like sheep without a shepherd.” He invites us to be their shepherds, good shepherds, for His, and our, sheep.

A number of years ago there was a phenomenon in Ireland of “moving statues.” It started in 1985 in a place called Ballinspittle, County Cork. However, it was not confined to that place as simultaneously stories of moving statues were reported throughout the country. Some were Marian “apparitions” while others included saints and other Divine figures. Thousand flocked to the different sites but particularly the County Cork site where it was estimated that up to 100,000 visitors came to view and pray. The press, and some bishops, were not only skeptical but mocking in their “reporting” of the phenomenon and the “simple” faith of the crowds. One “expert,” the anthropologist Peter Mulholland wrote , “that the continuing role of Marian apparitions in Irish popular culture is a reflection of psychological insecurity stemming largely from adverse childhood experiences and a concatenation of historical, cultural, political, religious and sociological factors.” (Mulholland, Peter. (2008) ‘Moving Statues and Concrete Thinking’, Quaderns de l’Institut Català d’Antropologia: sèrie monogràfics 23). To quote the even more eminent commentator on the human condition, Buggs Bunny, “What a maroon!”

Such large crowds drawn to the site of miracles, or reports of the miraculous, are not unusual. Interestingly, large crowds gathered wherever Jesus was because of the “signs” he worked. It is estimated that a crowd of 100,000 gathered in expectation of the miracle at Fatima on 13 October 1917, which was prophesied by the three shepherd children. People are drawn to the miraculous and the holy but very often, many, for the phenomenon itself rather than the message it conveys. How many go to visit the Shroud of Turin, or the Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, because they are interested in the item, not because they have faith? They leave and return to their ordinary lives because they failed to grasp the reality behind the miraculous, or the holy, they fail to recognize the work of God. They failed to see or experience God, and so, their lives remained as they were – searching but never finding, looking but never seeing. Many heard Jesus and saw what he did but they walked away because it was too much to accept. This is particularly true when it came to His teaching about the Eucharist, when he said: “My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.”

On the road to Emmaus the two disciples recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread! Why? Was it not Jesus Himself who told us why? Jesus said: “This is my body, this is my blood” and “My flesh is real food, my blood is real drink.” At the Last Supper He said to His apostles: When you do this (breaking of the bread) I will be made present. 

People go all over in search of the miracle, the miraculous, the spectacular, and yet, every day, in every Mass, a miracle takes place that we all can be a part of and experience. Bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. And, even more, God then invited us to come forward and receive the Body and Blood of His Son into our bodies and into our lives. The Lord invites us to sit at table with Him and recognize Him in the breaking of bread. 

Now that is a miracle worth seeing and that is a meal worth having. 

“Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?” Ezekiel 33:10

When I was in college, I read an article in a psychology journal in which the author said that research showed Catholics were generally more psychologically well balanced than the general population. Generally, Catholics, the article stated, were less likely to seek or to need psychotherapy or counselling. The author went on to say that because of our sacramental system, in particular, our consistent and normative confession of sins and faults Catholics had a tendency to face their demons and receive guidance on a regular basis. The fact that confession required reflection, self-examination, acknowledgement of fault, a firm intention to try to do better and change our behavior, led to dealing with our interior issues. Dealing with our interior issues, naturally, led to changing our behavior. The frequent use of the sacrament of reconciliation, with a deep self-reflection, a recognition of sins and admission of faults, an examination of our intentions and actions, with an intention to live a better life, meant that Catholics were more inclined to live reflective lives, and adjust interior and exterior behavior for the better. This sacramental system guided our human nature, gave us purpose, and formed our way of life leading to a more reflective, purpose directed, and constantly evaluated way of living. Catholics purged their souls, hearts, and minds and had a greater sense of being freed from the festering bonds of sin. Confession moved us from the mediocrity of settling to the purposeful life which was worth living. Consequently, a more well-adjusted psychologically healthy person resulted. 

I’m pretty sure that as Catholics have fallen away from the frequent use of confession the number seeking counselling and psychotherapy has increased. Sad really, when God said through the Prophet Isaiah: Why pay for what is freely available, come to the water and drink (Is 55: 1-2). 

All of this is no surprise to us as we believe that we are not simply a physical being but a spiritual-material being made up of body, soul and spirit. The body and the soul are created to live in harmony with each other and the soul “informs,” or directs, the body, heart, and mind. In the Garden of Eden this harmony between body and soul was perfect but after the Fall that harmony was upset. What was once easy and natural, became difficult. Sin, the turning away from God and therefore turning away from God’s love, grace, light, and our very purpose in life and destiny, weights us down and crushes us benight its terrible weight. Sin never seems heavy when we are being tempted to commit it, but it certainly drags us down when it festers in our hearts and souls after we have given into it.

The human soul, the human heart, is made to be loved by God and to love God. Without this love, cut off from this love, it can never find its completion, it can only fester and waste away. It becomes resentful, bitter, moody, anxious, demoralized, and lost. This is not what God wants for us and so God, a merciful Father, reaches out from heaven and touched our lives so that we might live again as He intended. God does this through His Divine Son, who is God’s Divine Mercy. One of the sacraments of God’s mercy is Confession which restores what is lost and crushed by sin – God’s life of love and grace. In confession God reaches out from heaven and restores us to life. He does this freely – that is mercy – the free compassion and gift from God.

In his book “Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week” the late Pope Benedict XVI, God rest his gentle soul, puts confession within the context of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples. From the earliest times the Church understood that before we entered the Eucharist, we needed to confess our faults/sin. In the sacrament of baptism, we are washed clean and are made righteous (restored to God). But we fail to maintain this righteousness so that occasionally we need to be cleansed, but not completely, only our feet. We did not need to be baptized again but we did need to be made righteous, to be made whole. Pope Benedict state: “The point is this: guilt must not be allowed to fester in the silence of the soul, poisoning it from within. It needs to be confessed. Through confession we bring it to the light, we place it within Christ’s purifying love. In confession the Lord washes our soiled feet and over again prepares us for the table of His fellowship” (p. 74). In fact, confession allows us to live again free of the poison and crushing weight of sin pressing us down.

Mercy is a gift of compassion, forgiveness, and reconciliation – it is not deserved but freely given and freely taken. In the Merchant of Venice Shakespeare called it “dew from heaven” when Portia said: “The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: It is an attribute of God Himself (Merchant of Venice Act IV, Scene I).

Mercy is a gift from God to us. It is a sign of a great soul when you see a person being merciful to others. Mercy is a “dew from heaven” that we can share with others.