Jim Cogley – Reflections: Tues 2  July – Mon 8 July 2024

Please note: Daily services are available at ourladysisland.ie 

The weekday Masses are at 10am and Sunday at 11am. This Wednesday the first of month at 3pm there is a Healing Mass and blessing with holy oils.

jimcogley.ie is my website address where information is available.

Tue 2^nd July – Has Covid gone away?

The answer to the above question is probably, ‘We would certainly like to think that it has’. However, evidence would suggest a spike of cases happening at present with a fair degree of absenteeism from work citing Covid as the reason. In relation to seminars where people have pre-booked there is always a few who cancel at the last minute because of the virus. It certainly hasn’t gone away for the many who still suffer from long-Covid. This is particularly debilitating with symptoms much like ME, with a complete wipe-out of energy. A medic described it along the following lines: every cell in our bodies has a component that is akin to the battery in a car. The virus has attacked and depleted the fluid level of the battery so that its function is impaired. It is a very long slow process for this battery to repair itself that may take several years. Meanwhile, the energy being produced is limited and fluctuates day by day. All the sufferer can do is adopt their lifestyle according to the energy available at any given time. So, a few hours moderate activity may have to be followed by an entire day’s rest.

Wed 3^rd July – Covid – A Grief Legacy

There are many other ways that Covid has certainly not gone away in terms of its long-term psychological effects and in years to come it’s likely that treatises and doctorates will be written on its devastating effects. The resolution of grief, by its very nature, is a very complex process. For so many who were bereaved during the Covid period this process was further complicated by so many other factors. The inability to spend time with a loved one and say the things that needed to be said; agreeing for a loved one to go to hospital for something non-Covid related and then for that person to die of the disease. For many there was the added guilt factor of being the carrier who passed on what that family member died of? The manner in which funeral rituals had to be conducted, with so few present, meant that the usual comfort blanket that a community provides at a time of loss was completely absent. It seems very likely that in society there is a lot of unresolved grief that is the legacy of Covid with sufferers knowing that something is wrong but unable to put their finger on what it actually is.

Thurs 4^th July – Covid – Developmental Issues

For those children in the latter stages of Primary School who missed out their formal schooling because of Covid, the transition into Second Level has for many been particularly difficult. The Primary School system in Ireland is probably one of the best in the world and provides a strong container for developmental learning to take place that goes far beyond giving a child a good basic education. This is an essential element that can so easily be overlooked when parents opt for home learning. Like a child who grows up on his or her own, there are certain social skills that can only be learned in a social context, and this needs to happen at some point. It seems inevitable that a legacy of Covid has to be a delayed development of such skills on a widespread level. What this may mean for many who are now in Second Level is that their emotional, relational and social development lags far behind where they may be at academically.

Fri 5^th July – Covid – Relational Issues

As a young person growing up in the late sixties and early seventies there was an abundance of places to go to for fun and frolics. Coming near the end of the showband era it might be Big Tom singing on a Wednesday night, The Indians on a Friday and Brendan Shine on Sunday. Youth clubs were plentiful and discos were common. All of these interactions, especially with the opposite sex, led to a very healthy psycho-sexual emotional development. Even during seminary days, and contrary to the spiritual advice of the time to avoid ‘temptation’, I continued as before and enjoyed as much temptation as was possible within the norms of the time! Having been very comfortable in female company I can attribute to having fully lived out that part of my life. Unfortunately, later generations of young people were denied that kind of social activity, and having places to go, became so narrow and largely restricted to pub culture. It was the Covid pandemic that put the final nail in that particular coffin. As a result, there are so many fine, normal attractive young adults who feel socially inadequate and have never enjoyed a date or known what it is like to have had a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Sat 6^th July – Covid – Eruptions

It seems to be a common belief that Covid has affected us, and continues to affect us, in so many ways that we still don’t fully understand. We hear remarks along such lines as ‘People seem more anxious and restless’, ‘Society in general hasn’t yet settled,’ People have become more isolated and fearful of each other,’ ‘Having had a taste of freedom no one wants to work long hours anymore.’ Just to give a context to our collective experience a lady went on a three-month Buddhist meditation retreat and three years later was still recovering! This was not a judgment on the retreat but a tribute to its efficacy. Having taken time out for quiet and reflection, so much unconscious material began to surface that for some time she felt overwhelmed and needed quite a lot of guidance in order to integrate so much painful emotion and memories of a troubled childhood that she had repressed for all of her earlier life. Having experienced nearly two years of enforced contemplation where there was no place to run to, and very few distractions, is it any wonder that lifetimes of emotional repressed material will have surfaced and still be seeking integration.

Sun 7^th July – Thorns in the Flesh

When it comes to weekend homilies I usually choose not to deviate too much from the Gospel of the day. Today is an exception where something from the life of St Paul caught my eye as being worthy of attention. It was his ‘thorn in the flesh’ that no matter how much he prayed for healing it still remained. He doesn’t say what it was but it certainly kept him from getting too proud and made him very aware of his own weaknesses. Often there is something in all our lives over which we have no control and which stubbornly refuses to shift. We tend to see it like a big stumbling block, while from another perspective it could be a great stepping-stone. I know many people who may not go to church but who are very attuned spiritually. Usually something very painful has awakened them to deeper realities.

The human soul doesn’t need to be saved as much as it needs to be awakened from its sleep. Spiritual awakening usually doesn’t happen without considerable pain and suffering. Like all birthings it is a messy business and always throws us out of our comfort zone. In the world of nature so many birds, like the eagle, will first build a secure and comfortable nest for their chicks but as soon as the fledglings are ready to fly, they will destroy the nest thereby forcing the young to make the leap of faith and fly for themselves. Our secure comfortable world may need to be turned upside down before in terms of faith it will be right side up and we are prepared to begin our journey of faith into the unknown.

What I’m saying is that we might be going through hell on earth and only years later recognise it as having been our most valuable time of spiritual awakening.

The following stories are true but to preserve anonymity some details have been changed. Sorsha was a woman who had it all. Talented and glamorous she had married the love of her life who went on to become a top brain surgeon. With three lovely children, all with lucrative careers, she enjoyed wealth, prestige and exotic holidays. As president of the local Golf Society she was popular, and had a wide social circle. Out of the blue, her world fell apart when her husband left her for another woman. Two years of absolute hell followed that entailed a lot of counselling, a volcano of anger, and some serious soul searching. So great was her mental anguish and loneliness that she wondered at times if she would survive. Close to three years later she rose like the Phoenix from the ashes of hurt and betrayal. She was heard remark to friends that if she had a choice whether to go back to her old superficial life, or hold onto to what she now had it, would be no contest. What she had discovered within, even with being on her own, far outweighed what she had known without. A part of her had come alive that until them she had never known to even exist. She was glimpsing the Kingdom within.

Similarly with John who was MD of a very successful company. His tolerance for alcohol had increased with the years and it was obvious to everyone except himself that he had a problem. Whether it was success or failure it was an excuse for drinking and both at home and at work he had become irritable and intolerant. Everyone was wrong, except himself. Eventually he lost his job and within a year his wife could take no more and decided to leave him. With each body blow he descended even deeper into the despair of addiction. Some concerned friends got together and realising that if he were to reach rock bottom he might never come up so they decided to raise the bottom. They confronted him collectively and broke through his denial with truth of his addiction. The support they offered worked, and he was introduced to AA with its twelve steps recovery programme. There he acknowledged his powerlessness over alcohol and surrendered his life to a higher power in the belief that this alone could restore his sanity. Through this he found sobriety, reunited with his family, and resumed his career, but all as a different person. He was now a humbled, broken man but alive in spirit. His addiction, while it had brought him to his knees had also brought him to his God. Alcoholism remains the thorn in his side and will be for the rest of his life.

In so many of our lives there is something that has the potential to bring about spiritual awakening. In scriptural terms it is the stone rejected by us the builder that can become the corner stone. It is always something that we don’t want but can’t get rid of. Childhood trauma, sexual abuse or growing up with violence in the home can never be got rid of but they can be transformed. This process of redeeming our past takes courage and patience but it can also take us to depths in ourselves where we discover vast reserves of untapped resources. Now we begin to draw from the well of spirit and there may come a time when we look back with gratitude to those years when we knew nothing but misfortune. This is the point of knowing that in the Divine economy nothing is wasted and everything is grist for the mill of spiritual awakening.

Mon 8^th July – Covid – Lockdown

The vase shown was made during lockdown, as a symbol of what I perceived to be happened during that time. Lockdown was happening in most lives long before Covid. Painful emotions and memories were being locked in the cellars that in psychological terms we call the unconscious. A lid was firmly put in place, and so we lived more in our heads than our hearts. The common belief was, ‘out of sight out of mind, and leave the past where it belongs, in the past’. Yet emotional issues never belong to the past but are very much alive in the present. They, as in the vase, often appeared like fault lines that held together until subjected to some extra pressure. So, it has been the experience of so many that long repressed emotions were bursting to come out and initially expressed themselves as irritability and anger. For others the sudden change brought upon us by Covid awakened times when painful changes were forced upon us. For many being confined together for so long replicated our childhood and perhaps feeling trapped in family dynamics that were far from pleasant. Once the sleeping giant of the unconscious is awakened it will not go back to sleep until its contents are acknowledged and integrated. Is it any wonder that society in general is still suffering to a large extent from a form of Long-Covid!