The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Opening Mass of Season
Lough Derg
31 May 2014
Introduction
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Welcome to Lough Derg. I am very pleased to be able to join you for this evening’s Mass. There is a freshness in the experience of being part of the first group this year to test the stones. Each of you has his own special reason for being here, and I have no doubt that the Lord is very much aware of your wishes and your needs. You have picked a challenging journey through which to share his company and this will not go unnoticed or unrewarded. Lough Derg has the benefit of centuries of human effort in finding a way of communing with God. Oftentimes it is the unexpected and unusual which brings something special, and Lough Derg is a unique place. I’m glad that you have been favoured with fine weather for your journey and I hope you will be showered with many other blessings.
Our Mass this evening is appropriately that of a feast of Mary – her visit to Elizabeth. Mary brought Jesus into the world and in doing so opened the way for us to find our way to God. To prepare ourselves to be nourished for our journey by the Eucharist, let us confess and ask pardon for our sins.
The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Opening Mass of Season
Lough Derg
31 May 2014
Homily
My dear friends,
Can I ask you how you are feeling just now? What is your usual disposition? Would you say you are one of them or one of us? There is quite a contrast between people. Some waken and greet the day with a smile, some with a scowl. Some people have a sense of their worth which can enable them to face life with confidence. Others have varying degrees of a sense of inferiority and sadly tend to run themselves and others down. Some see challenges and are energised; others see only chores which depress them. There are people who get a great kick out of life, others experience little but grief. The obvious questions jump out at us – where do you stand? Where do I stand? And what makes the difference?
Mary is the central figure in today’s feast and in the readings of today’s Mass. If we look at her life-story is it not a continual garden of roses. She was, in her own words, a person of humble origin. Unexpectedly, she was asked to take on a major responsibility. At the time, she can have had little understanding of what it would entail. Once she heard that God was the person asking, there could only be one answer in her way of thinking and that was to accept. The rest of the story is in broad outline fairly familiar to us, and if there were days like this, there were certainly days like that.
There were complications for her in her pregnancy. Questions would be asked. Wagging tongues would be busy and, as usual, would do a lot of harm. For the safety of the child she would be forced to live for a number of years in a foreign country. She would have to take a back seat when her son began the work entrusted to him by the father. There were many days of stress and pain in this period of her life. If she read the lines of the prophet Zephaniah which we listened to in the first reading, – ‘The Lord, the King of Israel, is in your midst; you have no more evil to fear’ – who could blame her for wondering? She had more than a hand in bringing him into our midst and she had plenty of evil to fear. The end period of her son’s life on earth must have been the kind of nightmare that some good people have to cope with when tragedy and multiple tragedy threatens to destroy their lives and forever wipe a smile from their face.
Today’s gospel reading recounts the visit of Mary to Elizabeth after she received the message of Gabriel. The Gospel also gives us Mary’s reaction to all that has happened. It is recounted in the form of a prayer to which we give the title Magnificat. It is a hymn of praise to God who has done and given to mankind such wonderful things. He has been particularly caring of the poor, the lowly and the hungry and shown great mercy to his people. Those who received least from him were the proud of heart and the rich and powerful.
Can I ask you again, how do you feel now? Any better, any worse? I can recall, as a young priest, standing on the steps outside the basilica on an unusually calm Lough Derg evening. At that time I was on the teaching staff in St. Macartan’s College, and used to help out on the island for a month or so during the pilgrimage season. A woman of about 35 years old came up to me. She said she had done the pilgrimage the previous year. She said she spoke with me then about some difficulties she was having in her marriage. She said I suggested to her that she was behaving in a bitchy manner towards her husband. She said she had thought it over and decided to change approach. She said it had made all the difference. I have a happy marriage again and I came back to say thanks to God and to you. I stood there speechless, lost for words. I could not believe that I had said that to her. But it brought home to me something I have come to believe in strongly – not everyone who claps you on the back is your greatest friend, and not everyone who gives you a kick on the shins is your worst enemy.
Did you listen carefully to the second reading? St. Paul, speaking to the Romans, said – love each other as brothers should; have a profound respect for each other; if you have hope that will make you cheerful; make hospitality your special care, bless those who persecute you; treat everyone with equal kindness and make real friends with the poor. Could you give me a better recipe to live by if you wished to go to bed content in the evening and greet the morning sky with a smile, whatever the circumstances in which you find yourself? Instead of blaming everyone but ourselves for our woes and our pain, would we be better to simply say – when all is said and done the answer is in my own hands. I do the choosing and I am responsible for how I feel and for whatever disposition I present to the world outside of me. Jesus Christ has shown me the way, and he also gave me a model to guide me in his mother Mary.
She built her own house. If we follow her example it will have as its foundation trust and faith in God. It will have as its anchor love of God complemented by an attitude of loving and forgiving others. It will be brightened and warmed by as many other virtues as we can take on board – hospitality, good humour, respect, kindness, wisdom, patience and all the other relatives. If we have our own house in order that is the beginning of a happy and contented life. We receive by and large what we give. Through Mary God has given us all we need. The rest is in our hands; we make the choice and if we make the right choices we will not lack for company which will enrich our lives further.
+Liam S. MacDaid
31 May 2014
