Jim Cogley: Reflections Tues 22 April – Mon 28 April 2025

Note: Three Wood You Believe evening seminars entitled Getting the Past out of the Present involving Personal and Ancestral Healing are scheduled to be held in the Edmund Rice Healing Centre in Callan, Co Kilkenny on Thursday May 1^st, 8^th and 15^th from7pm to 9.30pm. The cost will be €20 per night and €50 for all three. Bookings by phone or text to Jim Maher on 086-1276649. Also, highly recommended is a full Saturday from 10am to 4pm with Donal Spring on Healing the Inner Child on May 10^th . This is a beautiful venue that is quickly becoming established as a centre of Healing.

Also: A seminar entitled Personal and Ancestral Healing will be held in Lady’s Island Community Centre on Saturday31^st May from 10am to 4pm. Cost €40 with refreshments included. Facilitators – Jim Cogley & Luba Rodzhuk. Bookings by phone or text to 087-7640407. Early booking is advisable.

Tue 22^nd April – Where have we come from?

Some time ago I wrote a series of reflections entitled Where are we going as Church? and this week the topic is where have we come from? The piece shown is of bog oak, around 5000 years old. Beneath is a little Celtic cross almost completely overshadowed. The Christian message remains completely intact and as wonderful as ever, in spite of so many layers and centuries of historical accretions and aberrations. While the focus may be initially on the darkness, it is the light that draws our attention. Today we are urgently in need of coming back to basics and rediscovering the essential truths of Christianity. As part of our journey, it is useful to have an understanding of where we have come from, particularly in Ireland, and with a particular focus on the past 150 years that created our unique brand of religion that perhaps could be more aptly called ‘religiosity.’

Wed 23^rd April – First Cardinal

After the decimation caused by the Famine years in the 1840’s the country was on its knees and in a deplorable condition. The people in general had tried to hold onto something of their old Catholic beliefs even at a time when God seemed to have deserted them. Their faith seemed to have had druidic, folk and Celtic elements with an underlying layer of superstition. The clergy too were in disarray and undisciplined, so the Church stood badly in need of reform. Paul Cullen (1803–1871) was a priest from Kildare, an intelligent man, who had trained in Rome and been rector of the Irish College. He was appointed to Ireland in 1848 as its first cardinal with the mandate of restoring law and order to a church in disarray. He immediately set about replacing the church that he found upon his arrival with a Romanized brand of Catholicism.

Thurs 23^rd April – Cullenization

What Cardinal Cullen began could be termed the Cullenization of the Irish church and the ripple effects were so devastating as to be with us to this day. From his time in Rome he was already well known to most of the Irish bishops and so could wield huge influence from the beginning. His only opponent was Archbishop John MacHale from Tuam. Two years after his appointment he ordered all the bishops to attend a synod in Thurles where far reaching decrees were enacted. While they may have appeared necessary at the time, with the benefit of hindsight had disastrous consequences for the future of the Irish Church and how it became so anti-almost everything that was normal and human. While our forefathers largely bought into these reforms with unquestioning acceptance a new generation now views them with questioning non-acceptance.

Thurs 24^th April – Religiosity – A Church-Centred Religion

Prior to 1850 the Irish Church stood on its Celtic foundations where the first incarnation was deeply honoured; God was seen to be in everything and above everything. There was no distinction between the sacred and the secular. For everything that happened during the day there was a prayer, from the lighting of the fire in the morning to smooning it at night. The Spirit was all pervasive. Cullen’s influence was to ensure that the faith became church-centred with the parish priest as the centre of gravity. There was now strict division between secular and sacred and those with a smile had to wipe it off their faces at the holy water font as they entered the church. Religion had become serious business and associated with long faces and a perpetual sense of guilt and unworthiness. All laughter, joy and fun became outlawed in a faith environment that was now almost entirely associated with Church.

Fri 25^th April – God in a Box

Prior to the Synod of Thurles in 1850 priests were addressed as Mister while from there on they had to be called Father. They were obliged to wear clerical dress with Roman collars and to set themselves apart and aloof from the people. In contrast to Pope Francis’ teaching, they were not to have any ‘smell of the sheep’ on their clothing. The Sanctuary became the Holy of Holies and was to be entirely their domain, with few exceptions. Unlike St Patrick who embraced what he found and lifted it to a new level; Cullen knocked the ancient traditions. He banned ancient pilgrimages, patterns, prayer gatherings at holy wells and wake practices. Going out with someone was classed as company keeping and since it was an occasion of sin, had to be told in confession. In place of the traditional practices, he introduced a raft of continental devotions that were foreign to the Irish psyche, like novenas, confraternities and solidarities. Jesus was now firmly locked away in the Tabernacle and no longer walking in and among his sheep.

Sat 26^th April – The spread of the ‘Dry Rot’

The seminary in Maynooth was founded in 1795 and by the Synod of Thurles in 1850 had become the largest seminary in the world. With around 90 priests a year being ordained the Pontifical University became the obvious place for the decrees of Thurles to be implemented throughout the entire country. Not only that, but many of the more highly intelligent ones would go on to become bishops, so what better way to ensure the Romanisation – Cullenization/control of the Irish church into the far distant future. Letters from these bishops, usually in pompous language, were read out regularly at Masses condemning dance halls as ‘occasions of sin’ and extolling the faithful to renounce the devil the world and the flesh. These were largely being addressed to a people who had little or none of them and who had fallen victim to a controlling, repressive and authoritarian regime.

Sun 27^th April – Easter 2025

The setting of the Gospel of today is that first Easter Sunday evening with the Apostles gathered in an upper room with the doors locked. It was a room that was haunted by absence and full of bittersweet memories for all of them. The absence of Jesus is a constant reminder to them all. It was here that the master had washed their feet and it was here that he had celebrated the Last Supper with them. It was here too that they had sworn their loyalty to him, which wasn’t even to last to the following morning.

All of the apostles were wounded individually – wounded by fear, doubt, guilt and despair. They were wounded collectively because their unity was broken, two of their number were absent – one was dead, namely Judas, while another Thomas, was going through a crisis of faith. Like all people in pain those early apostles had erected a protective barrier around themselves. One of the effects of suffering is that it can isolate people who previously were very close. One of the survivors of the Hiroshima bomb said that when it exploded, in an instant, we all became isolated, alienated human beings shivering inside the shell of our own unbearable hurt. At a lesser level so many families who were close up to a time of tragedy know only too well how easy it is to become isolated and drift apart especially when something is not spoken about and dealt with properly.

In one bold move Jesus breaks through that barrier and stands among them. While they are most fearful, guilt ridden and aware of their cowardice and betrayal, he meets them exactly where they are at and how he does so is most interesting. If ever an individual had the perfect reason to say, ‘I told you so,’ it was he at that time. But such words while they might be true would also be cruel. In fact, whenever we use them it’s like rubbing salt into a wound and we should think twice. No. Jesus didn’t blame or scold them for failing him. He carried no blame or recrimination. He knew how they were feeling and he brought something they desperately needed. He said, ‘Peace be with you’. He said it not once but twice to make sure it sank in. In receiving his peace they were also receiving the forgiveness they so desperately needed.

Just then the greatness and wonder of all that had happened must have struck them, that this Jesus who had gone beyond the veil of death had returned victorious, death was not the end of the story. It was as if they were witnessing the answer to the age-old question, ‘What lies beyond the grave?’ The presence of Jesus there with them was the assurance that good had triumphed, love had conquered and life was stronger than death. The humble Jesus had triumphed over all the forces of evil that had arrayed against him. A fresh start was possible and joy welled up in their hearts.

One of the things we notice about the risen Lord that has always fascinated me is that when he returned from the dead he still bore the wounds of crucifixion. We would almost expect the risen body of Jesus to be whole and without blemish. In fact, it’s by his wounds, caused by humiliation and torture, that his disciples recognize him. The wounds, if you like, were the greatest proof of his love and when he invited them to view those wounds he was really reminding both them and us of the greatness of his love.

It may well be that at the end of the day that it’s not what we have achieved that will be important but much more what we have overcome and that the wounds and scars that we have incurred along the way could become our proudest possessions.

Mon 28^th April – Clerical Non-sense

Entering Maynooth in 1972 vestiges of that rigid old Thurles model of Church were still firmly in place. The bishops came there for their regular meetings and were treated like princes. The policy of priests keeping their distance from people had long extended into clerical life. Close friendships were still viewed with suspicion whereas a few years before they had been completely banned altogether. Professors still looked down their noses at students and if you were of average intelligence, it was possible to glide gracefully through the sacred halls for seven years without ever being shown any interest on a personal level by the majority in charge. It was still the time when, if you kept the rules the rules would keep you, and you would be ordained. We were strongly advised to wear a black suit while on holidays and to avoid all contact with the fair sex. After decades of insularism there was an influx of lay students into the seminary halls and while this was a matter of delight for most seminarians it was still viewed with distain by many older professors. While there were many factors as to why students left, in true clerical fashion, it was generally the ‘factoresses’ who got the blame!