BEFORE BELFAST HAD A CHAPEL

38 BELFAST IS UNIQUE AMONG THE LARGER TOWNS OR CITIES OF IRELAND IN HAVING VERY LITTLE OF A CATHOLIC HISTORY. IT IS ESSENTIALLY A TOWN OF THE ULSTER PLANTATION. ITS CATHOLIC ROOTS MIGHT BE TANGLED BUT THEY ARE NOT WITHOUT INTEREST.

BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

It is a well-known story that the opening in May 1784 of St Mary’s Church in what is now Chapel Lane in Belfast was a highly ecumenical event. The largely Presbyterian Irish Volunteers turned out in full uniform as a guard of honour for the celebrant and subscriptions to the building were made by members of all the Protestant Churches in the town. That sense of goodwill endured for many years. The Church of Ireland congregation of what is now St George’s in High Street donated the wooden pulpit which still graces the church. It would be another 30 years before a second Catholic church was built in Belfast, St Patrick’s in Donegal St. In the course of the 19th century, the Catholic population of Belfast continued to grow as did the number of churches.

Belfast was very much a new town of the Ulster plantation. Founded by Arthur Chichester who had been given a land grant in 1609, its largely Scots and English inhabitants numbered 15,000 by 1780: but of these only 365 were Catholics, or less than 3.5 per cent of the population. through Belfast city centre. No trace of the little chapel has survived, but it probably stood close to what is now St George’s in High Street, the corporation church of 18 th -century Belfast. The largest church in the area was the Church of St Patrick of the White Ford. Better known by is popular name of ‘the Old Church’ (Sean Chill or Shankill) whose successor today stands at the top of the Shankill Road, it may have dated back to Patrician times. It is mentioned in the Papal Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV (1288-1292) as having six daughter churches – one of which was probably the chapel near the sandbank. The pope was raising money for the crusades and decided that the burden should be shared around.

Another of the churches dependent on Shankill was one called Kilwee. The name survives today for part of Dunmurry Lane. It is mentioned in a ledger dated 1613 where it is called the Capella de Kilemna. Killwee probably comes from the Irish Cill Uaighe which means ‘the church of the burial ground'. In his history of the Diocese of Down and Connor compiled in the last century, Fr James O’Laverty records that the ancient Church of Kilwee "stood in the field opposite the five-mile stone from Belfast. The site is now a mill pond…according to local tradition, the last interment took place about 120 years ago. The Holy Water font is still preserved by Mr Mc Cance of Suffolk." McCance was a wealthy linen merchant who gave his name to 'McCance’s Glen' in Suffolk,

CATHOLIC ROOTS Before the Reformation, the greater Belfast area had a number of Catholic churches. Béal Feirste, or ‘the mouth of the sandbank’, had one small chapel situated at the mouth of the Farset River which was a tributary to the Lagan and formed a sandbank which made it possible to cross the river. The Farset still flows underground

now better known as Colin Glen. The font was placed in the new church of Our Lady Queen of Peace, close to the church where it originally stood.

The new suburb of Newtownabbey was created in North Belfast in 1958 by merging a number of villages into a single administrative unit. As the name suggests, it had monastic roots in the name of one of the villages, Whiteabbey, originally the site of a monastery of the Premonstratensian order, or 'White Canons". No trace of it survives but the Premonstratensian order was particularly strong in Ulster where they made their first foundation in Carrickfergus, a few miles further up Belfast Lough, in 1183.

THE FRIAR’S BUSH Despite being such a small minority in the town and with few resources, the Catholics of Belfast remained faithful to the Mass. The oldest cemetery in Belfast is known as Friar’s

Bush. It is next door to the Ulster Museum. According to legend, St Patrick is reputed to have built a church and blessed a well on the site. The cemetery takes its name from an old hawthorn tree in the centre of the cemetery known as 'the friar’s bush' – although exactly who the friar was is unclear! During the penal times of the 18th century, Catholics gathered in the graveyard to celebrate Mass near the bush. One of the friars who celebrated the Mass is said to have been hanged on the site in the 1720s but nothing certain is known. In 1828, the year before Catholic Emancipation, the Marquis of Donegall, the leading landlord of Belfast, provided land to extend the cemetery. It was also enclosed with a high wall at this time, probably to deter body-snatchers who sold newly-buried bodies to anatomists for profit.

The cemetery contains the mass graves of hundreds of people who lost their lives during the cholera epidemic of the 1830s

and the famine of the 1840s. They were buried under a mound, known as ‘Plaguey Hill’. located just inside the site's main gates. The cemetery had become crowded by the end of the 19th century. No longer available as a burial ground, it remains an important witness to the history of Catholic Belfast. Among those buried in it is the famous baker Barney Hughes who had flour mills and bakeries in West Belfast and is regarded as the inventor of the famous 'Belfast Bap'.

39 CONFESSOR OF THE FAITH Fr Phelimy O’Hamill was registered in 1704 as the parish priest of Belfast, Derriaghy and Drumbeg (only 14 years after the Battle of the Boyne, so at the height of the Penal Laws). This is an extensive area that stretches six miles from the town to Derriaghy near Lisburn and Drumbeg on the Lagan. Under the Penal Laws, he was obliged to declare himself to the nearest magistrate. George Macartney, the Sovereign (mayor) of Belfast tricked him into visiting him. He had him arrested and he remained in prison until his death. He was probably buried with his family in Lambeg.

Fr O’Hamill was about 60 years of age and believed to have been ordained to the priesthood by St Oliver Plunkett. Macartney, writing to his superiors for guidance on what to do with the priest, said “His behaviour has been such amongst us since, and was, upon the late Revolution so kind to the Protestants, by saving several of their goods in those times, that I had offered me the best Bail the Protestants of this country affords. However, the Proclamation being positive, and no discretionary power left in us, I would not bail him. Thank God, we are not under any great fears here; for upon this occasion I have made the Constables return me a list of all the inhabitants within this town, and we have not amongst us within the town

40 above seven Papists; and by the return made by the High Constable there is not above 150 Papists in the whole barony.”

The clergy of Down and Connor were few and ageing. Fr O’Hamill was succeeded by a Fr Magee until 1733, and he in turn by Fr John O’Mullan who was parish priest until his death at 80 years of age in 1772. In 1768, a younger priest was appointed as curate to Father O’Mullan. His name was Fr Hugh O’Donnell, the energetic pastor of St Mary’s and the harbinger of better days for the Catholics of Belfast. A BRAVE PRESBYTERIAN WOMAN A road runs through the Catholic area of Poleglass in West Belfast. Few of those who travel on it daily probably realise that it is called after a brave Presbyterian woman who lived in a cottage in Poleglass in the 18th century and who protected the Catholic community as they met for their Sunday worship. Although the Catholic population of these areas – Deriaghy, Glenavy and Hannastown – was relatively large, there were still no Catholic chapels in the area. The few simple ones that had been quietly erected were destroyed by a group calling themselves ‘the wreckers’ in the aftermath of the 1798 rising. In good weather, Mass was usually celebrated in the open on a A road in Poleglass commemorates Belle Steele, a Presbyterian defender of her Catholic neighbours

Holy water font from old church of Cill Uaigh (Killwee) now in Our Lady Queen of Peace in Dunmurry Lane

Mass rock. When the weather was bad, they took refuge in a barn.

Belle Steele kept a wooden chest in her house containing the priest’s vestments and the sacred vessels needed for the Mass. On Sundays she had them ready for the members of the congregation who came to prepare for the Mass. She also kept an eye out for trouble and held in readiness either a cow’s horn or a little brass bugle on which she sounded the alarm should intruders arrive to disrupt the celebration.

One of the churches in the area still carries the memory of those days. St Peter’s Church, Stoneyford is better known as ‘the Rock Chapel’ as the first church built on the site in 1785 was intended to be the end of the Mass rock days. It was built by Fr Hugh O’Donnell who had built St Mary’s in Belfast the previous year. It did not last too long, as it was destroyed by the wreckers of 1798 and it was more than 30 years before it could be replaced. The same priest built the church in Hannahstown on land provided by the Protestant John McCance. Catholic Belfast was beginning to grow!

A PRIEST IN THE FAMILY

THIS IS A SHORT ACCOUNT OF A CONTRIBUTION FR STAN MELLETT MADE TO A MEETING OF IRISH PRIESTS AND LAY PEOPLE. FR STAN WAS ACTUALLY ORDAINED IN INDIA, FAR FROM HIS IMMEDIATE FAMILY.

The same subject one more time! The ordination of women! Most at the meeting were in favour. One woman wondered if it happened would it simply produce more clerics, only this time with long hair. At this point I recalled what theologian Anne Thurston said at a talk on the feast of St Catherine of Sienna more than 30 years ago. The exact words I cannot now quote but the substance of her statement went like this: "A day will come when believers gather together for the Eucharist, then the marital status or the gender of the one who presides will not be an issue." Mulling that sentiment over in my mind, I mused that I could favour neither the ordination of women nor the ordination of men as formed over the last few centuries.

Is the current training fit for purpose today? Has it outlived whatever virtue it might have had! I have nostalgia and heart glow when I recall seminary days and the day of ordination. The aura of that day, the first blessings, the great pride of parents and siblings to have a priest in the family! Hands consecrated with holy oil and the awesome power to say Mass and make present, mysteriously but really, the Body and Blood of Jesus in his Death and Resurrection. High dignity and high status was given at ordination!

But yesterday and he was one of us Sharing in the tumult of our boyish ways And now his is a priest through all this days.

His late-anointed hands Are wet with sacrifice His whispered breath Can summon Christ to mystic death He is a priest forever.

Let not this glory dim, O Lord this fervour fade. Always remember him whom Thou hast made your own anointed.

Keep his heart from all the dust of earth apart And in Thy teeming comfort Ever be strength to his frailty. (John D Sheridan) A saying of the French priest Jean Baptiste Lacordaire was a bookmark in the breviary, a framed picture in sacristy and presbytery – a profound influence in the formation and ministry of priests for a few hundred years.

To live in the midst of the world without wishing its pleasures: To be a member of each family yet belonging to none To share all suffering To penetrate all secrets To heal all wounds To go from men to God and offer Him their prayers To return from God to men and bring pardon and hope. To have heart on fire for charity and a heart of bronze for chastity To teach and to pardon console and bless always. My God, what a life! and it is yours O priest of Jesus Christ! There is a nostalgia for that kind of priest and priesthood, and it lingers. But will it stand up to the tough realistic call to serve the People of God in 2020? The point of departure used to be the sacrament of holy orders; above that, you could be a bishop or higher; below that, you were one of the laity. Today theologians, church documents and liturgy instructions insist that the point of departure is the sacrament of baptism. Everyone is priest, prophet and king; each one with different roles and gifts serves the whole People of God – like Jesus who came not to be served but to serve and give his life for many.

The ordained minister for today and tomorrow will have a mindset and attitudes whereby he/she is like the rest of men and women – not a person apart! Deeply prayerful with ‘the Bible in one hand and the daily paper in the other’ at the service of

41 all life and all creation! I wonder what happened in the early church. After Jesus from the cross committed Mary to his safe-keeping, John took her to his own home. Did the others gather there with "Mary the mother of Jesus’" to tell the stories of Jesus and break bread in his memory! Who presided and who decided? As time passed what kind of governance emerged? The professional scripture scholar and historian will provide the most accurate detail available. Meantime we do well to start at the beginning to ask what is the non-negotiable core and what are the additions conditioned by history? Already small groups of believers, mostly women, come together and tell the stories and break the bread. Are they ploughing a new furrow?

The past is another country. Nevertheless I salute the thousands of deeply spiritual, committed, hardworking priests at home and abroad who served the Kingdom of God as priests formed in the vision of John D Sheridan and Père Lacordaire! Theirs is a proud legacy. A hard act to follow for any kind of ordained minister in the future!

Fr Stan Mellett CSsR is a native of County Clare. He did part of his priestly studies in India where he was ordained and was for many years a member of the Redemptorist Parish Mission Team.

CATHOLIC AGENCY’S FUNDRAISING DRIVE IN FULL SWING

Angela Murillo Bardales from Honduras with three of her children. Angela features on this year’s Trócaire Box. Photo: Simon Burch

42 ON ASH WEDNE SDAY TRÓ CAIRE LAUNCHES ITS ANNUAL LENTEN APPEAL. AS PART OF THE APPEAL HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF TRÓCAIRE BOXES WILL BE DELIVERED TO HOMES, SCHOOLS AND PARISHES NATIONWIDE.

BY DAVID O'HARE

This year’s Trócaire Box features Madris and Angela – two mothers from two very different parts of the world who are the face of Trócaire’s appeal this year.

ANGELA’S STORY Angela is a 39-year-old mother of five living in northern Honduras. She is a farmer with a small plot of land. She and her husband built their home on ancestral land that has been in their family and their community for generations. They were living a quiet life working hard to put their children through school. Then a few years ago, a logging company and a mining company moved into the area. Angela’s children began to develop a rash from the pollution in the river and now the local river is beginning to dry up.

These companies are moving in on Angela’s community and they want the families to leave. Angela has stood up for her community and for this she has been beaten and tear-gassed and told she will be killed. She is struggling to keep her children safe and protect them from intimidation and violence.

Angela simply wants her children to be healthy and to stay in school. Without a home or land Angela knows this will be impossible. Angela is risking her life to protect her family’s future but she can’t do it alone.

MADRIS’ STORY On the other side of the world, Madris is a mother in eastern Kenya who is also struggling to keep her children healthy and in school. Like Angela, Madris is a farmer and the family relies on their land for food and income.

But the impacts of climate change are a harsh daily reality for Madris and she often struggles to feed her children. In the space of a generation the weather and environment have changed so much that a farm which used to produce 70kgs of beans can now only produce 5kgs (which is only a month’s supply).

Madris told Trócaire, “When I was small there used to be plenty of rain and we used to have a good harvest but now you can’t even tell if the rains are coming or not. It’s a big difference. I feel it is not fair… in other countries people are living well and here we

are struggling without rain. I feel very bad when my children don’t eat because they cry a lot from the hunger.”

Madris must also walk a three-hour round trip to gather water every day for her family on top of the farm work. She keeps going against the odds to protect her children from the difficult life she has known. Madris said, “It is very important that I’m strong, because that’s how I can take good care of my family."

LENT, YOU AND TROCAIRE Madris in Kenya and Angela in Honduras are fighting hard every day for their children and the support they receive through your donations to Trócaire provides relief and protection. These two women are a perfect example of why Trócaire was established in 1973 as the overseas development agency of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

The pastoral letter establishing Trócaire stated: “The aim of Trócaire will be two-fold. Abroad, it will give whatever help lies within its resources to the areas of greatest need among the developing counties. At home, it will try to make us all more aware of the needs of these countries and of our duties towards them. These duties are no longer a matter of charity but of simple justice.”

These words have resonance as much today as when they were written. Trócaire supports the most vulnerable people in the developing world. This support is grounded in the values, ethos and teachings of Catholic Social Teaching and is at all times fully compliant with the policies of the Catholic Church. For example, Trócaire does not fund, support or promote the use of abortion.

As Bishop William Crean, chair of the organisation, recently noted: "Trócaire is firm and faithful in its commitment to the values and teaching of the Church. As an agency working on the frontlines to deliver support to the world's most vulnerable people, Trócaire is the embodiment of our Church's mission." Trócaire’s support is provided based on need to people of all faiths. The organisation works without prejudice to express the support of the Catholic Church in Ireland for the rights of the poorest and most vulnerable people. This work is supported by parishes all over Ireland and the support of the Catholic community here at home is vital for the successful delivery of Trócaire’s work overseas.

Last year, the support of parishes across Ireland enabled Trócaire to deliver support and aid to 2.9 million people in over 20 countries, from war-torn South Sudan to drought-stricken Malawi. Donations to Trócaire during Lent are what drives this work throughout the year.

The generosity of people here is something to be proud of and Trócaire has no doubt that this will manifest itself again during this Lenten season.

For more information about the Lenten Appeal visit www.trocaire.org/lent

Available from Redemptorist Communications

Denis McBride’s STATIONS of the CROSS

then and now

The way of the cross is not confined to a lonely road in Jerusalem two thousand years ago: it is a busy highway winding through every village, town and city in our modern world. Fr Denis McBride C.Ss.R. reflectively guides us along the way of the cross. He contrasts the beauty and solemn simplicity of the more traditional Stations by artist Curd Lessig with modern images that challenge us to link Jesus’ story to the struggle of our everyday life. Through its rich array of scripture passages, paintings, poetry, prayers, photographs and reflections, Stations of the Cross – then and now becomes a companion not only on our Lenten journey but throughout the year: suffering is not limited to one liturgical season. Whether we walk in solitude or with others, this book translates the passion of Jesus into our own life and times.

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FOR HIS CONTEMPORARIES, JESUS WAS AN UNLIKELY MESSIAH. HE LIVED AMONG THE POOR OF ISRAEL AND WELCOMED SINNERS. POPE FRANCIS ALSO PUTS THE POOR AT THE CENTRE OF THE CHURCH’S MISSION, BUT LIKE JESUS HE FACES OPPOSITION FROM SOME WITHIN THE CHURCH.

44 Jesus was a practising Jew. The apostles were all practising Jews. Mary was a practising Jew. Too often, we think our Christian faith has little to do with Judaism, or even has replaced it, making Judaism irrelevant to us Christians. But we cannot properly understand the message of Jesus unless we understand the Jewish roots from which Christianity emerged.

Jesus came claiming to be the Messiah that Jews had been awaiting for centuries. Since God had promised to lead them into the kingdom where they would live in peace for ever, with God as their protector, they were expecting a mighty king who would conquer their enemies, who kept invading Israel and ransacking Jerusalem. Then along comes Jesus, born into a poor family, of humble origin, without any power or connections. How could this possibly be the mighty king they were expecting? And instead of wanting to destroy their enemies, Jesus wanted Israel to “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who persecute you". No, Jesus could not possibly be the Messiah whom they were awaiting.

Furthermore, God’s promise of the Messiah was conditional on the Jewish people keeping the law that God had given them. When they were invaded by foreign armies, they believed that this was due to the fact that some were not observing the law of God perfectly enough. So the Messiah, when he

came, would obviously expel those sinners amongst them.

But Jesus, himself, broke the law! He healed people on the Sabbath. And worse again, instead of expelling the sinners, he “ate with tax collectors and sinners". No, far from being the Messiah whom they were anxiously awaiting, Jesus was obviously an imposter, indeed a dangerous imposter. By breaking the law and welcoming sinners, Jesus’ actions were actually delaying the coming of the real Messiah. Jesus would have to be got rid of.

Jesus told Israel that the problem, as God saw it, was not with the foreign enemies surrounding them. No, the problem lay within them. Some in Israel lived an extremely wealthy lifestyle, while ignoring the poverty and destitution of those around them. Furthermore, many were made to feel unwanted, rejected, pushed to the margins of their own society, such as the sick, the blind,

the lame, the deaf, the dumb, and the lepers, although they too were part of God’s chosen people. This was not the way God had intended Israel to live, when they were chosen to be God’s own people. God could not possibly reign over them while they lived like this. The change that God wanted would have to happen within the Jewish people, not those outside.

Today, if Jesus came, what would he say to us Christians? The same inequality exists within the Christian churches, as Jesus found in Israel, extreme wealth existing side-byside with extreme poverty. Some people, too, many of them fellow Christians, experience rejection and marginalisation, such as homeless people, Travellers, drug-users. Others are made to feel unwanted, such as people who need social housing. Jesus wanted Israel then, and now the Christian community today, to show that they cared for each other by sharing what they did not need with those in want and to welcome those who felt unwanted and rejected.

Jesus picked twelve apostles to show Israel, and the world, how we should live together, as God desires. They lived amongst the poor of Israel, and showed that they cared for each other by sharing what little they had. They welcomed sinners, calling them to repentance, recognising that they, themselves, were sinners called to repentance. Today, Pope Francis is calling the Catholic Church to put the poor at the centre of the Church’s mission and to reach out to those who feel rejected. But he faces opposition from some within the Church who believe that the observance of law is more important and that those who break the law should not be tolerated within the Church. Jesus did not fit the Jewish authorities’ understanding of what the Messiah would do and was rejected by some. Pope Francis does not fit some people’s understanding of what a pope should do and is being rejected by some. Thankfully, God’s patience is infinite!

For more information or to support the Peter McVerry Trust: www.pmvtrust.ie info@pmvtrust.ie +353 (0)1 823 0776

MARCH 01 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT FASTED AND FAMISHED 40 is a familiar measuring unit in the Bible that suggests some considerable duration: the rains that caused the great flood fell for 40 days and nights, Israel wandered for 40 years in the desert, Elijah the prophet walked for 40 days to meet God at Mount Horeb. The account of Jesus’ fast evokes all those other 40-day periods. A 40-day fast would severely weaken the body.

The earliest Gospel, Mark, told us relatively little about the temptations. Matthew and Luke agree that there were three but treat them somewhat differently. The first temptation takes place in the desert itself. Matthew uses three different terms that mean substantially the same for the tempter – the devil, tempter (‘tester’) and Satan. Food is one of the most basic human needs and the temptation to satisfy his hunger is combined with a temptation to prove he is God’s Son by changing

MARCH 08 SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT A DAZZLING WHITE Today we do not meet a Jesus who is hungry from a long fast and vulnerable to temptations, but one through whom the light of God’s glory shines for a brief moment as he is revealed as the beloved Son of God.

The Gospel begins with the phrase "six days later". Just before this, Matthew told how Peter recognised Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Jesus went on to make the first of a series of predictions of the kind of death that awaited him in Jerusalem, how he would “undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Mt 16:21). Today’s Gospel looks beyond the cross for a brief moment, as the disciples are granted a glimpse of what Jesus will be like when he is raised from the dead. It also looks backwards to the baptism of Jesus when the same heavenly voice declared that he was the Son of God. stones into bread by a word. Jesus replies to the temptation by quoting a word from scripture. It is taken from Moses’ farewell to the people of Israel. He reminds them during the 40 years in the desert, God “humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut 8:3). It reminds us that the human heart has hungers deeper than that for bread and that God wills to satisfy all the hungers of the heart as well as those of the body. The second temptation shifts to Jerusalem. Matthew probably considered this as a journey in the imagination rather than in a physical sense. The devil now quotes a verse from Psalm 91, telling how those who live in the shelter of God’s protecting power have nothing to fear because God has committed them to his angels as guardians and protectors and challenges Jesus to throw himself from the parapet and display his power. Jesus cites another verse from Moses’ farewell in Deuteronomy: “do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah” (Deut 6:16).

The final temptation is conducted on a "very high mountain". The mountain is symbolic of how people can be seduced by delusions of power or wealth. The devil claims ownership of them and offers them to Jesus in return for his submission. It is not easy to find the precise text Jesus quotes in reply to Satan. The evangelist may be citing from memory or simply combining two texts – the first of the Ten Commandments and the second, Israel’s creed, "Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one" which is part of the regular morning and evening prayer of Judaism.

Today’s Readings

Gen 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Ps 50; Rom 5:12-19; Mt 4:1-11

This scene is known as the Transfiguration. That word means simply that the appearance of Jesus was changed so that his face shone like the sun and his clothing became as white as the light. Something similar happened to Moses when he met God on Sinai to receive the Law. According to the Book of Exodus, as he came down the mountain carrying the two tablets of the covenant, he did not realise that “the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God” (Ex 34:29). For Matthew, Jesus is a second Moses. Just as Moses taught Israel the Law, Jesus has interpreted the Law with a new authority, superior to that of Moses. That is why Moses appears in the transfiguring vision. He is accompanied by Elijah the prophet. At a time of crisis, Elijah made a long trek to Mount Sinai, where he heard God speaking to him, not in thunder, storm or earthquake but in "the sound of sheer silence" (1 Kgs 19:12).

The vision lasted only a short time. When it is finished, the disciples look up and see "only Jesus". As they descend the mountain, he orders them to keep the vision a secret "until the Son of Man has risen from the dead". Today’s reading is intended to give us a moment to pause and reflect. Our Lenten journey will bring us through the darkness of Holy Week. What is revealed to us on the bright mountain of Transfiguration and on the dark hill of Calvary is "only Jesus".

Today’s Readings

46 MARCH 15 THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT THE GIFT OF LIVING WATER Lent was originally the last stage in the catechesis of prospective members of the Church. The last three Sundays of Lent were highpoints in the preparation for baptism. All the Gospels of these Sundays were taken from the Gospel according to John.

More than any other Gospel, John emphasises the importance of personal encounters with Jesus. For Jews in the time of Jesus, Samaria was a kind of ‘no man’s land’ between the two main regions of Galilee and Judea. Once the capital of the independent Jewish Kingdom of Israel, it was captured by the Assyrians more than 700 years before the birth of Christ and ‘planted’ with non-Jews who intermarried with remnants of the local Jewish population. Other Jews considered them as outsiders. The Samaritans returned the compliment and often harassed Jewish pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. It was territory best

MARCH 22 FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT I ONCE WAS BLIND, BUT NOW I SEE The story of the cure of the blind man is the third of the great baptismal stories of Lent. The actual cure of the blind man is told briefly in a mere seven verses. More than five times that amount is devoted to what follows – a dispute involving the blind man, the Jewish critics of Jesus and finally Jesus himself. Like most people of their time, the disciples shared a fatalistic view of the world: if bad things happened to a person, it was a punishment for some sin, perhaps even one they were unaware of or maybe one committed in a previous generation, or as punishment to meet some future evil that God had foreseen the person might commit in the future. Jesus takes a radically different view: God is not vindictive, but when bad things happen to good people, they can sometimes create a space for God’s light to shine through the complex human condition.

avoided. The Samaritans were proud of their ancient Jewish roots however, including the well of the patriarch Jacob that is the scene of today’s Gospel.

A well was one of the main meeting places in a middle eastern village. Each day’s routine included one or more trips to the well and there one learned the latest village gossip. Since travellers would stop at a well, it was a meeting place for strangers. John skilfully focuses his attention on the meeting between Jesus and the woman by sending the disciples to town on a shopping expedition. Jesus’ innocent request for a drink of water sparks a conversation that is soon going in several directions at once – why don’t Jews and Samaritans use the same dishes, what is living water, where is the true temple?

‘Living water’ meant fresh spring water. Palestine was a hot dry country. During the summer, water was often drawn from cisterns – underground pits with plastered wall where water went stale or worse. Spring water pouring out of a rock was cool, mysterious and life-giving. It is the symbol of everything the woman longs for in life – love, security, happiness and above all, eternal life.

The woman has what looks like a series of disastrous relationships behind her – five husbands and a live-in partner. Her chequered matrimonial history suggests that she is a representative of her people, the northern kingdom of Israel who split from Judah. The prophet Hosea described Israel as an unfaithful wife whose husband wanted only to bring her on a second honeymoon in the desert where he could "speak to her heart"(Hosea 2:14). The choice of this Gospel for the first of the Lenten scrutiny liturgies was probably intended to make the catechumens confront their own deepest desires: why are they looking for baptism? What are the things in life for which they are truly thirsting? What kind of living water can assuage that kind of thirst? They are questions we too can reflect on.

Today’s Readings

Ex 17:3-7; Ps 94; Rom 5:1-2, 5-8; Jn 4:5-42

John shows Jesus here using very human resources like a mud pack in the man’s eyes and a wash in fresh water to restore the man’s sight. The pool of Siloam was the main water supply in Jerusalem. It was fed by an underground spring, and a tunnel had been built to connect the pool and the spring back in the time of the prophet Isaiah. Siloam comes from the source’s ancient name – Shiloah whose ‘waters flow gently', but John tells us that it comes from a similarsounding root word meaning ‘sent’. St Augustine, preaching on this text, used this information as a key to story as a symbol for baptism. “This blind man stands for the whole human race,” he tells us, “if his blindness is infidelity, then his restoration to the light is faith. By washing in the pool called ‘one who has been sent', he is baptised into Christ.”

This story is unique among Gospel stories: Jesus is not present ‘on stage’ while most of the actions take place. The blind man is on trial for saying that Jesus healed him. The scene bears an uncanny resemblance to the trial of Jesus before Pilate. His opponents want to prove that he is either a fraudster for claiming to be cured, or a supporter of a dangerous prophet who claims to be the son of God. Witnesses are called, including the star witnesses, his parents, who have been so intimidated that they refuse to say anything and throw the responsibility back on the man himself: "He is of age." A Jewish boy came of age at twelve, so the way in which the once-blind man conducts himself suggests he is relatively young with a sharp mind. By his defence of Jesus, he proves himself a devoted disciple.

The candidates preparing for baptism and undergoing the second scrutiny today are given the example of the blind man. Baptism gives us a new kind of sight. It enables us to see many things in life differently. Baptism confronts us with our blind spots. It is also a commitment to be ready to stand trial for the sake of Jesus.

Today’s Readings

MARCH 29 FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT UNBIND HIM, AND LET HIM GO FREE! The raising of Lazarus is the third of the great Lenten Catechumenal Gospels. It is also the longest and most dramatic of the series. The story is quite straightforward: Lazarus, a disciple of Jesus, has fallen ill. His family calls on Jesus to heal him, but he dies before Jesus arrives. When Jesus does come, Lazarus had already been buried for four days. Jesus orders the stone to be removed from the tomb and calls to Lazarus who comes out wrapped in the burial clothes in which he had been buried.

While the outline of the story is quite simple, John adds to its complexity and suspense by using a number of delaying techniques. One of these is called the ‘technique of misunderstanding’. Jesus tells his disciples that Lazarus’ sickness is "not unto death" – meaning that it will not lead to death. The disciples presume that Jesus means merely mortal life. John (and Jesus) mean something else. John calls it "eternal life". Just as only the living water which Jesus gives will be able to quench the thirst of the woman at the well or restore sight to the damaged eyes of the beggar, so ‘eternal life’ is the only life that is worth having as it is the life of God. John also uses conversation and dialogue as a way of slowing down the action of the story. There is a long debate with the disciples about whether or not it is safe to go back to the Jerusalem area or whether they are simply going to ‘wake’ Lazarus from sleep. John also turns short dialogues with other characters into a kind of delaying technique – the discussion with Mary about whether there is such a thing as resurrection.

As part of the baptismal preparation liturgy, the Lazarus story is a vivid reminder of what baptism is. It is through baptism that we are plunged into the life of God so that it takes us over or rather, eternal life, God’s own life, becomes our birth right. The raising of Lazarus looks forward to the Resurrection of Jesus at Easter. When the disciples come to the tomb, they will find the stone removed: a stone blocks the door of the tomb of Lazarus. In the empty tomb, they will find the shroud and bandages wrapped neatly and laid aside: Lazarus hobbles to the door of the tomb still bound by the grave clothes so that Jesus has to order the bystanders to "unbind him and let him go free".

Today’s Readings

SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No.10 ACROSS: Across: 1. Pulpit, 5. Stuart, 10. Slipper, 11 Hogwash, 12. Oboe, 13. Signs, 15. Bier, 17. Pax, 19. Tenant, 21. Bunyan, 22. Vatican, 23. Samson, 25. Nimrod, 28. Pea, 30. Lyre, 31. Keens, 32. John, 35. Michael, 36. Rosetta, 37. Leaned, 38. Waders. DOWN: 2. Unicorn, 3. Pope, 4. Turnip, 5. Sphinx, 6. Urge, 7. Reality, 8. Escort, 9. Charon, 14. Galilee, 16. Envoy, 18. Tunic, 20. Tan, 21. Ban, 23. Salome, 24. Miracle, 26. Rooster, 27. Dental, 28. Pealed, 29. Andrew, 33. Cain, 34. Used.

Winner of Crossword No.10 John Doran, Chapelizod, Dublin 20

ACROSS 1. Having or showing deep religious commitment. (6) 5. Made amends or reparations. (6) 10. A ghost, not real. (7) 11. A day of religious observance and abstinence from work. (7) 12. A religious or other solemn ceremony or act. (4) 13. 'The Banner County.' (5) 15. An indication of something to come. (4) 17. The furthest part of something. (3) 19. Great enthusiasm or passion. (6) 21. Animals, particularly large and dangerous ones. (6) 22. Archangel of medical workers, the blind and happy meetings. (7) 23. A person who has come to feel helpless and passive in the face of misfortune. (6) 25. Of the greatest age. (6) 28. A wildebeest by another name. (3) 30. Spend time in idleness with a shaped mass of bread. (4) 31. This Duke John converted to Christianity on his deathbed. (5) 32. A stand on which a coffin is placed. (4) 35. Distinctive clothing remaining the same in all cases and at all times. (7) 36. Refused to take notice of. (7) 37. Sea between Greece and Turkey. (6) 38. Fold down the corner of a book to mark a place. (3-3)

DOWN 2. Held in high regard; in a state of extreme happiness. (7) 3. A solemn promise, often invoking a divine witness. (4) 4. A building devoted to the worship of a god or gods. (6) 5. Wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate. (6) 6. Globes, spherical bodies. (4) 7. EU programme, named after a Dutch philosopher, allows students to spend a year studying abroad. (7) 8. Warrior society of ancient Greece. (6) 9. Songs attributed to Gregorians. (6) 14. The patron saint of lost things. (7) 16. The administrative institutions of the Holy See. (5) 18. TCD decorated Bible came from this Co. Meath town. (5) 20. An adult male sheep. (3) 21. Winged insect with a queen. (3) 23. Fine parchment made originally from the skin of a calf. (6) 24. The Eucharistic cup. (7) 26. African country with only one President and no elections since independence in 1993. (7) 27. A long, angry speech of criticism or accusation. (6) 28. Ham which has been cured or smoked like bacon. (6) 29. Relax after a period of work or tension. (6) 33. The Bishop of Rome as head of the Roman Catholic Church. (4) 34. Close-fitting; warm and cosy. (4)

Name: Entry Form for Crossword No.2, March 2020

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