Comments on the Sunday Mass Readings for the Clogher Diocese 10.10.10

The Parable of the Unappreciated Healer who held onto Gratitude and Grace (Luke 17:11-19)

It's late to be commenting on the Sunday Mass but as I missed last weeks I thought I best. I've included last weeks leaflet plus the Bishops letter, it being our Church 'Day of Life', here in Ireland, which we celebrated ironically by contemplating death. We Irish do enjoy a fairly robust culture of death in large part due to the significance we give to funerals. A 'well got', local person - a barman or member of the local football team - could have over a thousand at their funeral, regardless of the weather. So death is really central to our lore. Does that translate into a culture of mortality which respects human frailty? In ways it does and in others not; maybe some are to keen to die. Our new Bishop (Monsignor Fr. Liam McDaid) gave last weeks homily and to tell you the truth what I really got from it was just how alike he was in character to his predecessor who he had been Chancellor to for decades. “Who was deferencing who the most”, I thought? In any event talk about a seamless transition, and for the good I suspect. But as that was a week ago and time is getting on I'm afraid I must reflect on Fr. Joe McEneaney's words of wisdom instead; and well worded wisdom it was too. So apologies to the newly installed Bishop.

Ok so the big theme was 'Gratitude', which is said to be the hall mark of sainthood; not that I've arrived or anything like it but there are 'those that knows', and insist on it being so. The Old Testament readings were from the book of Kings where Naaman (Not NAMA although on an institutional level there might be a strong comparison) the leper returns to thank Elisha the Prophet for curing him, in the Jordan River no less (Kings 5:14-17). So grateful is Naaman for the cure he offers gifts to Elisha who refuses and so Naaman requests that he be allowed to take as much earth as two mules can carry from the land of Israel, the home of this new God responsible for curing him, so that he might retain a share in the God of Israel and his people in turn. Funny how God keeps breaking out of Israel by one means or another. And how wise Elisha was to completely divest his ego from the cure by taking nothing in repayment leaving the man with only one recourse: to take away a piece of his God instead, which is of course what Elisha wanted. As for whether God was in the earth in the saddle bags; not likely; but he certainly was in the man that treasured it more than riches itself.

In St. Paul's letter to Timothy (Timothy 2:8-13) Paul's act of gratitude is the libation of his life; of all his years poured out upon the Ministry of the Word and done unstintingly with joyous disposition. I certainly haven't arrived yet by that comparison. And on to Jesus healing of the 'Ten Lepers', (Luke 17:11-19). A good days work by any standards and an example today's hospital consultants would do well to consider especially given the boon the pro-rata based pay increases had on their salaries over two decades of social partnership agreements. Could you imagine how miffed they'd be if only one in ten patients paid them? Jesus suffered that and felt the rebuke too still he was wiser than to weight the negative and was grateful for the one vote of thanks he got and hence my title – 'The Parable of the Unappreciated Healer'. Anyhoof at the risk of applying the medicine on to thick where our not so poor hospital consultants are concerned I should conclude by saying:. “Blessed be the scalpel and the hand that wields it”.

Now Fr. Joe's far to wise to be getting political or anything like that, so none of that came from his mouth, instead he mused on something far more spiritual and enriching by recalling the life and example of his Great Grand Uncle – I never knew there was such a thing. Packie McEneaney made a rich impression on his young nephew though the stoicism and grace with which he embraced his life of impoverished batchelor-hood. Packie had many sublime qualities: Graces; Blessings or 'Be-Attitudes', as Christ would call them. For Packie knew not only the art of being at ease in the world but more importantly the art of being grateful and of a joyous, humble and temperate disposition. And Fr. Joe remarked on how we ought reflect on the fact that in this fair and oft troubled land Packie's kind are not rare; certainly no rarer than foxes, hares or pheasants. We see them about and

oft enjoy a chat with their likes heading on home feeling refreshed as though we had sipped the pure drop form an old cold pure well. And that is worth celebrating especially when we find something of that in ourselves, something to be nurtured like the Mustard Seed in last weeks Gospel, and indeed not thrown in the sea as Christ suggested with the Mulberry Bush, for we are advised to be somewhat more cautious with the graces God has bestowed us. For although the Baptist did say God could raise a new Priesthood from the very stones themselves, if he chose, he did not say he could raise them from the stoned, so temperance is a virtue, as I've discovered myself, and one which like all the rest must be sought.

But all this set the young Joe McEneaney thinking way back in the sixties when the Mass Bulletins were first introduced and greatly appreciated by Packie who would hold onto them so as to re-read the readings at home, scooping deeper into the rich earth of Israel; a bit like Naaman unafraid to take as much as he could carry away with him. Indeed my own Father did the same.'And what on earth Sir would you be doing with two full mule loads of earth from a strange and distant place''? Unlike Mohammed, Packie not only went to the Mountain every Sunday he also had the wit to take a piece of it home with him not only for the sake of the readings but also for the sake of the Parish News on the reverse. Perhaps Fr. Joe is hinting to the Parishioners to take the leaflets home?

But what else did Packie teach Joe? That a mans life is not without meaning for the want of a woman and that there is a certain grace in solitude providing you have the sense to fill it with the right things. It's a very nice story indeed but it brings home to me the real significance of the Parish and of the Sacramental Church that is the Roman Catholic Church – bad and all as the error may have been here in Ireland. Lets at least have some sense to keep some of the blame to ourselves which reminds me of Packies last and most significant grace; the grace to know what to keep in and what to let out. Generally the negatives are for internalising and the graces for externalising. Again I preach in vain for my sense of political acumen is so impoverished that Packie would be happy to inhabit it.

But the big thought has to be that this is the aspect of our 'Faith Tradition', that we really need to focus on and develop. Jesus, rather than seeking to establish a personality cult based around himself, sought to establish a cult of personhood based around his sublime graces so that people could share in his sublime qualities without surrendering their individuality or life journey. And that is the richness of rural Ireland and of many of our urban communities and this is what we really need to celebrate. In fact it sounds like a good theme for a new TV series, maybe just titled 'Country-folk'. That's it the Parish as a kind of Monastic Community humming with grace life. Nice one Packie and well honoured Fr. Joe. You did your Great Grand Uncle proud.