HOMILY AT BISHOP ETON DIAMOND JUBILEE MASS
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THIS celebration is not just about priesthood, but about Redemptorist Priesthood. And the gospel just read says clearly what that is. Quoting Isiah, Jesus says, "The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for He has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the Good News to the poor." All of us here, filled or fuelled, by God's Holy Spirit are surely called to be heralds of the Gspel, but we Redemptorists feel so privileged and thankful to have been led by the Lord to follow Him and dedicate our lives more specifically to the task of bringing his Good News to the poor. This is what we want to celebrate.
About thirty or thirty-five years ago, I remember conducting a kind of seminar on vocations to the priesthood at the Franciscan Study Centre at Canterbury where our students were studying along with students from different religious congregations. I asked the students what drew them to join their particular order or congregation. To a man the Franciscans said they had heard of, or read about St. Francis, their holy founder and about his great love of il poverello, the poor Jesus.
As for our students, when asked the same question, one after another, they said quite simply: "I met a Redemptorist." They had never heard of our Holy Founder, St. Alphonsus. But they had met a Redemptorist who had been sent on mission to preach the Good News to the poor. And with enthusiasm and sincerity and good humour, he was doing that. I should say they were doing that because in those days they hunted in packs. In brief, that was my first experience of the Redemptorists and it led to the decision that if ever I were to become a priest it would be with the C.Ss.R.
What I have said so far is a very incomplete picture of our Redemptorist vocation. We are all us, be we priests or brothers, first and foremost members of a religious congregation with vows of poverty, chastity and Obedience, with an order of the day that provides a setting for times of prayer - prayer together and alone - so that we can, with God's grace, progress from getting to know a Redemptorist or two to getting to know the Redeemer — to know his will and to walk in His ways and to speak in words that could credibly come from Him.
The power behind the success of our missions was and is and always will be prayer: the hidden daily prayer of each community, greatly enhanced by the sometimes tortured prayer of its old and infirm members. Especially in this regard we acknowledge the prayers and sacrifices of our Redemptorist Brothers whose contribution to the success of the mission has always been regarded as invaluable. Eloquence alone has no power to save God's people from sin and death.
Just the mention of the word "eloquence" reminds me that I must give honourable mention to our other jubilarians. Apart from Jim McManus and myself who are celebrating a mere sixty years of priestly ordination, there are here celebrating with us today two other Redemptorists, Fr. Tom Molloy and Fr. Michael McGreevy, who will have completed sixty-five years of priesthood on the 12th July.
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Fr. Tom is the archetypal Redemptorist missioner, who having preached the Good News to the poor the length and breadth of this country, did the same in Canada and even in New Zealand. I'm sure he'd love to tell you about it, but if he does, you'd better take sandwiches. Fr. Michael, identifiable by his seismic sneezing during Mass, is a revered theologian, who may have given the odd mission or two, but is better known, believe it or not, for having taught theology to Frs. Tim and Andrew of this community.
Fr. Jim McManus is well known throughout the country for his preaching and teaching and for his many published works on the spiritual life. And although, I'm sure he has given many missions up and down the country, he would still probably come in second to Fr. Tom Molloy in the archetypal Redemptorist stakes. As for me, missionwise, I never got past the staffing post. Despite my admiration for that particular apostolate, never did I give a Redemptorist Mission. Instead I did what I was asked to do, with no regrets. And I did, in diverse ways, participate in the mission.
We are all of us very proud to be Redemptorists and of how successfully our confreres preach the Word of God to the poor throughout the world. Some years ago, while working in Rome, I received a telephone call from a certain Bishop Francis Loduno of Ghana, He wanted to speak to the Fr. General of the Redemptorists. I said he couldn't because the Fr. General was in Latin America. He then said he'd like to speak to me. I asked him what he wanted. He told me what he wanted, and I told him I couldn't help. But still, he came to see me. He wanted the Redemptorists to make a foundation in Ghana. He spoke to me about vocations in that country and how they had so many students that they were building another seminary. I stopped him and said. If things are going to well, why are you looking for priests? He looked at me as if I were stupid. I'm not looking for priests said Bishop Loduno. I'm looking for preachers! What a complement! What confirmation of all that we do or stand for.
