Seamus Ahearne: ‘Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do. Accept the past as past. Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others.’ (Tuesdays With Morrie – Mitch Albom)

MEMENTO MORI:

We are frequent visitors to a Nursing Home (Ardmore, CareChoice) in Finglas. The Staff are ever so good. It is a difficult environment. We have Mass there every few weeks. The poor folk find something familiar in the Mass. The responses are good. The praying is multiple from a few. Most however are vacant. We bring Jack with us. Jack is a daily-Mass man, and loves to take part. He is now known as Fr Jack. He leads some of the Services back in the Church. However, in the Nursing Home, he comes into his own. He does all the singing. He sings the familiar hymns. The residents wake up. At the end of Mass, he launches into popular songs from the past. Recently it was Dickie Rock who inspired the singing. Many of the folk present, remembered Dickie and were stirred from the torpor of illness and age. It was great.

I am down South at present. My sister is in a Nursing Home in Dungarvan. (CareChoice). She is quite unwell. It is so sad to see her crying through the day without her understanding the why. To see this woman, who was so in control of her life, and is now totally dependent on others, is heart-breaking. I am staying in her house. Every press, every cupboard, every room – everything is in order, and meticulous, as she was. And I cannot but contrast her history with her present state. Many of us visit these Nursing Homes and are reminded of those words: ‘Memento Mori.’ Are all of us drifting in this direction? Towards death; we can grasp and accept this. Yes. But towards old age and infirmity? It isn’t an easy thought. The ‘Mori’ is one thing. A Nursing home is another frightener. (‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ sums it up: ‘Remember what I said about someday, somebody having to wipe my ass~~? I’m there.’~~).    

THE JOY OF NOT HAVING TO LEAD MASS: 

I attended Church and Mass on Saturday. It was the first weekend for seven months that I wasn’t ’leading.’ I was rather glad and it was very relaxing. Not having to talk! It was a country village Church. Only 11 people ventured into the front half of the church. I was in the second half! The priests (it so happened that there were two that evening) spoke very personably and warmly. The choir sang but not the congregation. The Mass was lovely. It is rather essential for us as priests to be down-church at times. It is a very different experience. I  was thinking too. It had been seven months since I had a day off. (A rather strange kind of a day off, this is.) I have never bothered with a day off throughout those 51 years of priesthood. It is not a virtuous practice on my behalf. I am very happy to fill up every day. It is never possible to complete what needs doing. Every day, I thank God that I have the energy to do what I do; to have the team around me that I have; to find each day a great gift and to bask in the warmth  of a community, which is such an inspiration. Our business of faith is an extraordinary privilege. We can have appearances of God throughout each day. Revelation is a daily occurrence. The Holy Ground and the Burning Bush are regular visitors into our daily lives. That ladder (Jacob) is always taking us upward. Not everyone has this experience, but those of us who do celebrate it humbly and with deep gratitude.

GOD IS MISSING AND NOT MISSED: 

Christmas is such a time of wonder. Some see it as a time of excess. But the lavishness of God incites us into such excitement and gift. There is something big and extraordinary going on. Why not celebrate? The Santa of these days too is a figure of generosity; of presents; of adventure; of mystery; of appearances from far away. If only we could lift ‘magic’ and ‘mystery’ from the children and see it as happening for all of us. However, my little mind does wander. I am thinking Church at this time, and those who come, or don’t. Those who come to Church catch the holiness of the night/day.

However, I have the thought, if people don’t find a reason to be in Church for Christmas; God has vanished from life for them. God has disappeared and is unnecessary. This isn’t an attempt to accuse anyone. It rather is an obvious statement. The birth of Christ; the presence of Christ; the values of Christ; the Gospel of Christ,  has been overtaken by other values and other issues, even the busyness of life. Christmas has been recaptured by the secular world. That is not a reason for moaning. This is a description. Religion appears to be a cultural phenomenon which is out of date. We have to accept a new reality. As Church people, we can get weary and begin to blame ourselves. We can list the many reasons why it is happening. Is it due to how we have presented Christ? Is it due to the failures of Church people? Is it due to society’s forgetfulness, in regard to the big questions of life?   

RELIGION IS NOT THE OPIUM OF THE PEOPLE  BUT ESSENTIAL MEDICINE:

It could be suggesting that we need to stop doing what we always have done and to begin addressing the deeper questions of life. The wonder of everyday. The gift of each other. The God who speaks in nature. The music and poetry of life. The little words of every day – kindness, care, humanity, humour, beauty, friendship. Love. How can anyone ever pass a day, without being astonished and astounded? The gift of appreciation and gratitude is at the heart of living. A child anywhere. Every child. Every home. Every little community. The small talk. My little words; wild, wicked and wonderful. Education has to be about those bigger values. And God will dance in the middle of real amazement. Only when ‘The Word’ becomes flesh in the ordinary. Only when the extraordinary is seen. Only when the music of life is attuned to a wakeful and watchful heart can that incarnation be caught, celebrated, and appreciated. Then we are graced. And priesthood is about being ministers of grace. 

Seamus Ahearne OSA    29th December 2024. 

PS. Those few days also gave me a chance to catch up and contact many people.