On Trinity Sunday evening, Bishop Michael celebrated the closing Mass of Thanksgiving for an extraordinary Month of May Devotions at the Shrine of Our Lady of Clonfert.
He spoke of the sacred specialness evident in the devotion to Our Lady of Clonfert. He welcomed those who had completed the camino pilgrimage to the Shrine and thanked all those who had made such a wonderful festival of faith a possibility.
“Her life, above all lives is a life shaped and carved into something beautiful by the love of God. In her very self she became something beautiful and loving for those around her. She is still beautiful and still loving for us, who in our own particular need, gather around her this evening.”
– Bishop Michael
Tom farmed the family farm. Sally worked in the local solicitor’s office. Both had a wide circle of friends. It was a chance meeting in a pub that brought them together. Now, it wasn’t exactly love at first sight but there was an interest there. An interest that led to a phone call and a few days later an invite for a meal out the following week. By all accounts – the meal went well. They had a lot in common. In no time, things got serious.
Although they did not tell anyone, their friends suspected that something was going on. Tom was no longer as available for this or that pursuit with the boys. Sally had a pep in her step that those she worked with soon diagnosed as love induced. As the months passed, they began to spend more and more time together and less and less time with others. Within a year, Tom and his friends no longer met up. Sally had not gone to her girl’s book club for months. Both of them seemed to find it difficult to find time even for family. They were busy in each other’s company, making their own plans and arranging life around themselves. They had become self-sufficient in their own love and had forgotten about everyone that used to be part of their lives. Gradually, old friends and family began to feel unwelcome as if they were intruding. Over time they got fed up with the two of them.
Since the time of Jesus, Christians have always held that the most important thing you can say about God is that “God is Love!”. The May Devotions, here in Clonfert, conclude today on the feast of the Holy Trinity. A feast that focuses entirely on the mystery of God. A feast which tries to tease out for us that ancient held Christian belief that “God is Love!”
With the added assistance of the knowledge Jesus gave us – Christians can see deeper into the profound mystery of God. For Christians, God is not some impersonal power but rather a loving community of three divine persons. “God the Father” who created the world and all that is; “God the Son”, who came among us to tell us that life is better when lived with God; And “God the Holy Spirit” who reaches into the depths of our human lives to draw us into this loving divine community. God shares the divine life with us, and we are welcomed to share our lives with God. Just like the air that surrounds us and that with every breath we inhale and exhale: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit– surround us, they envelope us, they enter into us. They develop a relationship with us and transform us into the best that we can possibly be as human beings.
It would be reasonable to think that “God the Father”, “God the Son” and “God the Holy Spirit” might have remained closed in on themselves –each one fascinated by the other in a celestial mutual admiration society. However, Christianity holds that God’s love is not such a self-centred, self-enclosed, mean type of love. It is rather an open, welcoming love that makes room within itself for humanity –even if our humanity is often bruised and broken and in dire need of such a divine loving life-giving embrace. It is this type of open love that we as Christians are called to imitate in our lives. A love that is open to others rather than closed to them; A love that strives to include rather than to exclude; A love that welcomes everyone as fellow pilgrims on the journey of life.
As individuals, like Tom and Sally we can fall into the trap of that unchristian selfish type of loving that becomes so obsessed with ourselves and that begins to exclude others. Such love is the complete opposite of the love of God. Instead of bringing life and growth in its wake, it brings with it a stunted stagnation that can easily turn toxic.
This can be true not only of individuals but also of communities and institutions. We tend to consciously and unconsciously circle the wagons – mind ourselves – keep the others out. This can be true also of the church. I am often saddened by the fact that not only in the past but also in the present we, of all people, have at times failed to imitate that divine community of love we celebrate today. We believers have often taken the moral high ground and tended to exclude – especially those who are different, those who have failed on life’s journey, those who are bruised by what has befallen them, those who live on life’s margins, those who do not share our views of how things are or how they should be.
Today’s feast reminds us that we as individual Christians and the Church as the Christian Community are to be on our guard against becoming closed in on ourselves like Tom and Sally. For we are called to imitate that love of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit that is ever open – ever welcoming and because it is such a love, it is also ever life giving and always fulfilling.
Of all human beings, Mary was the one who from the very moment of her conception experienced the loving embrace of God. In welcoming the Holy Spirit, she was transformed. As a consequence, she bore Jesus for us. In and through her own life she turned humanity towards God the Father. Her life, above all lives is a life shaped and carved into something beautiful by the love of God. In her very self she became something beautiful and loving for those around her. She is still beautiful and still loving for us, who in our own particular need, gather around her this evening.
Our Lady of Clonfert – Help us to be more loving! Help us to be more like God – Father, Son and Spirit. Amen.