Redemptorist News
Death of Fr. Denis Cronin, Redemptorist, in Brazil, Dec. 12, 2012.
The death occurred on December 12th in Brazil, of Fr. Denis Cronin, Redemptorist.
Fr. Denis was born in Kiskeam in County Cork, in 1933. He had been part of the Irish Vice- Province of Fortaleza, in North East Brazil, since the early 1960′s, soon after the mission began there. Fr. Denis was greatly loved by every Redemptorist confrere who knew him, and by so many people among whom he ministered. Denis was one of God’s gentlemen.
The following tribute was paid to him by his nephew, Michael Moynihan, T.D.
Text of message received from Michael Moynihan T.D. (nephew of Fr. Denis), translated by Fr.Chris Hogg and read at the Mass. (To his family, he was always Fr. Den ).
When Father Den first went to Brazil in 1961, it was seven years before he came first came back. Communications were not what they are now. It took about a month for a letter to arrive, but he still maintained contact throughout, and often he knew more of what was happening here in Ireland than we knew ourselves.
His ministry was hugely successful both in Teresina and Fortaleza, and judging from reports from the funeral on Friday, there were huge crowds in attendance to testify to how popular and how loved he was.
We on this side of the Atlantic, to a man, woman and child, tried to convince Father Den to retire to Ireland, but his heart was in Brazil. It was ironic that it was on a holiday in Teresina, which was a parish that he loved so well, that he passed away.
His visits home every two years were as welcome as the flowers of May and the summers when he was around could not last long enough.
Almost immediately on his arrival in his birthplace of Dromscarra, he started tending to his lawns and hedges, and within days of his arrival his hand could be seen all over the place. There were always huge clean ups before he arrived and everybody was involved.
One of his most difficult trips across the Atlantic was when his twin died, and he didn’t know whether she was alive or dead.
Father Den came home for what he said would be the last time a year and a half ago so we doubt he had many regrets.
He fought the good fight, zealously kept the faith, and ultimately won the race.
His guiding hand was gently felt on all our shoulders over the years. May the soft soil of Fortaleza, where he now rests, lay gently on him, and may heaven be his bed.
Fr. Denis was on a short holiday of one week, back to the city of Teresina, to the Redemptorist parish there, where he had worked as Parish Priest back in the late 60′s, and was greatly loved. He spent his last week visiting old friends, not knowing that this was his farewell to them. While there, he took ill during the night, was brought to hospital by Fr. Tadhg (Tiago) Herbert, and while in hospital he got two heart attacks and died. He was 79 years of age.
There was a large funeral Mass for Fr. Denis in Teresina at 6am, and then the hearse left to travel the 700k to Fortaleza. The following are a couple of email describing the sequence of events.
Message from Teresina, in State of Piaui, N. E. Brazil.
This is to let you know that Fr. Denis Cronin died this morning in Teresina, Brazil. Denis’s community was in Fortaleza but he had gone to visit the confreres in Teresina. Last night he wasn’t feeling well and stayed up until 10.00pm, past his usual retiring time. About 3.00am he still didn’t feel well and came out and sat on a chair on the corridor. About 5.30am he awakened one of the confreres and at this time, as he had respiratory difficulties, Fr. Tadhg Herbert brought him to hospital. While in the hospital he had two heart attacks but efforts resuscitate him were not successful and he died.
This Wednesday evening they will have a Mass for the happy repose of his soul in Teresina and tomorrow his remains will be taken to Fortaleza where the Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Friday followed by burial in Fortaleza.
Teresina: Report sent by Tadhg Herbert, superior in Teresina
Yesterday at 6.00pm we received Denis remains in the parish church here in Teresina. At 7.00pm we had a Concelebrated Mass with confreres from Nazaria, Araioses and ourselves from Teresina.
The church was full as Denis had been parish priest here in Teresina for a number of years in the late 60′s and 70′s. During that time he did a lot of work on the social front, building community centres and organizing skills and training programmes for young people.
During the past week that he spent in Teresina he mentioned on a number of occasions that the happiest days of his life here in Brazil were spent in Teresina. During the past week he managed to visit a lot of his old friends. It does seem to all that he came back to Teresina these days to say his last farewell.
The people prayed and sang all night in the church and we celebrated Mass again this morning at 6.00am. The remains were then sent on the journey back to Fortaleza. Fr Carlos Augusto is accompanying the remains.
May our confrere rest in peace. Tadhg (Herbert).
Fortaleza: Greetings from Fortaleza.
The body of Fr. Denis, accompanied by Fr. Carlos Augusto, was then taken by road (700kms) to Fortaleza. The body arrived about 5.00pm at the church of St. Raymond Nonato (our parish here in Fortaleza) to a waiting crowd and the confreres. Mass was celebrated at 7.00pm with fifteen confreres. Afterwards there was another night vigil with morning prayer at 8.00am.
At 10.00am (Friday the 14th) Fr. Eridian the Vice Provincial presided with another twenty confreres, also theology students, and philosophy students. There was a large congregation present.
Some of the confreres present at the Mass also said a few words and a few people came forward and spoke briefly about how much Fr. Denis had been to them and especially during the years of the dictatorship in Brazil.
The ex-mayor of Fortaleza Maria Luiza spoke of Fr. Denis’s determination in the struggle for social rights for the people and his option for the poor.
The Mass concluded with Fr. Peter Mc Carthy giving the final absolution.
Two buses and a fleet of cars brought the confreres, friends to the Parque da Paz cemetery about thirty minutes drive. At the graveside hymns were sung and Fr. Albert McGettrick conducted the service. The coffin was lowered and cement slabs were placed over it. We all returned to lunch at the Central House.
Next Tuesday (18th) at 10.30am there will be a visit by the confreres to the cemetery, followed by lunch at the Central House and Mass at 6.00pm in the church of St. Raymond.
May God grant our confrere Denis happiness and peace in Heaven.
Abraços! Alan (Glynn).
Some photos from the Masses and the funeral:
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis!
Memorial Mass in Ireland: At 12.00 noon on Sunday (16th December) a Mass to celebrate the life of Fr. Denis was celebrated in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Kiskeam, Co. Cork. The celebrant was his fellow parishioner, Redemptorist confrere and fellow Brazilian missionary, Fr. Con Kenneally, now working in the Parish of the Assumption, in Ballyfermot, Dublin.
SOUL FOOD FOR HUNGRY ADULTS: 3RD SUNDAY OF ADVENT, DEC.16, 2012
SOUL FOOD FOR HUNGRY ADULTS: THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT, DEC.16, 2012.
‘Come dance with me!’was a famous 1959 album by Frank Sinatra.
'Come dancing!'
And we’re all familiar with ‘Strictly Come Dancing‘, the competition on BBC where amateurs and professionals link up, for dancing! And here today we have a prophet we scarcely ever hear of, called Zephaniah, telling us how God is ‘dancing with joy over us! Zephaniah lived about 640 BC, at a period when Judah had been under the heel of the great Assyrian Empire, and there was a lot of disorder and lots of false gods and corruption. There were beginning to be faint hopes of recovery and of religious reform. Sounds familiar, with our banks and Troika and the beginning of the Year of Faith? And here we have today this wonderful song from the end of Zeph’s book, about our God dancing with joy over us, and then Paul telling us to rejoice in the Lord always!
There’s a whiff of something,- or is it Some One?- in the air. Something is happening, Some One is coming, What must we do? What is being promised to us?
Can we hear these words of Zephaniah ringing like the Christmas bells in our ears and hearts? ‘Shout for joy… shout aloud… rejoice, exult with all your heart…The Lord is in your midst…have no fear… do not let your hands fall limp…He will exult with joy over you, he will renew you by his love; he will dance with shouts of joy for you…’ No wonder we can hear ‘Come, dance with me!’ from our God, this day, in December, 2012
And 
then Paul, to the small community of new disciples in the city that was left behind when the Roman army withdrew, and the stragglers and the hangers-on, and the poor were left behind in an abandoned city: ‘Rejoice!’ he says to them. ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say Rejoice!’ ‘I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord!’ In other words ‘Lift up your hearts! We have lifted them up to the Lord! Let us give thanks to the Lord our God! It is right and just!’
Why are we rejoicing? Why is God dancing with joy? Because ‘Someone is coming’! Someone whose sandals we would not even be worthy to untie. Someone who will come and steep us to our core with the Holy Spirit and the fire that was and is in his own heart,- a Spirit of joy and consolation and zest for living and for loving, someone who wants us to be on fire too.
‘What must we do?’ is asked three times, by different people in different walks of life. And John tells them to act justly, to live rightly, as they await the One Who is to Come,- Jesus, the Carpenter, from Nazareth. Examine our lives to see if we are ready to receive the Master, and to have in us the Master’s Spirit, the Spirit of the Father.
On this ‘Rejoice’ Sunday or, in Latin, ‘Gaudete‘ Sunday, (where we light the rose-
coloured candle on the Advent Wreathe) we are waiting for, and preparing to receive in a new way, the Risen Lord who is our very own flesh and blood and also Son of the Father,- the one who was born in a stable, grew up in a village, preached in the countryside, and was killed outside the walls of a great city; the One who is risen and lives in our streets.
And if we welcome him again, as if for the very first time, then ‘the Father will dance’, surely!
Come, Lord Jesus! Maranatha!
Have a great week! Nine days to go!
Seamus.
Comments to: seamus.devitt@redemptorists.ie
SOUL FOOD FOR YOUNG ADULTS: 3rd SUNDAY OF ADVENT, DECEMBER 16, 2012.
Third Sunday of Advent, December 16th, 2012. Soul Food for Young Adults.
LETTER TO SINEAD AND MARK, two young adults:
Dear Sinead and Mark,
Advent. Adventure! Adventurous! Go for it! Go for the adventure of following the
Where Jesus is Lord, everybody is somebody, and faith is an ADVENTure!
Master, wherever he leads you. Hang on for the journey of your life! Welcoming the Master, who was born in a tiny stable in Palestine, and now fills the world with his presence… that’s the ADVENTure! And today’s Gospel (St. Luke 3:10-18) is about that wonder-full promise by John the Baptiser, ‘He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire‘- nothing cool about that, nothing luke-warm,- following Jesus of Nazareth is hot stiff! And when you do, you will be steeped in the very Spirit of Jesus that filled his heart and set him ‘on fire’ with love for every human being.
The Master is coming!
The readings offered us today are full of joy, rejoicing, dancing, and full of expectation,- He’s coming! He’s coming! ‘What must we do?‘ (3 times!)
There’s a beautiful hymn, fairly recent, and it picks up on today’s first reading from someone we rarely hear of,- a prophet called Zephaniah, some several hundred years before Jesus. He is telling us to ‘shout for joy, shout aloud, rejoice, exult with all your heart…the Lord is in your midst, have no fear, do not let your hands fall limp…He will exult with joy over you, he will renew you by his love, he will dance with shouts of joy for you...‘ Wow.
And as if that wasn’t enough, Paul tells his new disciples in Philippi ‘I want
you to be happy, always happy in the Lord’ Another translation is: ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say Rejoice!’ And that’s why the Church calls this third Sunday of Advent ‘Rejoice Sunday’ or in Latin, ‘Gaudete Sunday’,- and instead of the dark purple candle on the Advent Wreathe, we have a light, rose-coloured candle, for this Rejoice Sunday.
Can I give you the words of that hymn, about your heavenly Father dancing with joy over you! Think about it. Your heavenly Father is crazy with love for you, and his feet are jumping up and down with delight. Enjoy the words, and then enjoy the love it sings about. You might find it on You Tube, and sing along with it.
God bless. Nine days to go! Nine days to prepare a home for Jesus, your own flesh and blood.
Seamus.
Comments to: seamus.devitt@redemptorists.ie
And the Father will dance over you in joy!
He will take delight in whom He loves.
Is that a choir I hear, singing the praises of God?
No, the Lord God Himself is exulting o’er you in song!
And He will joy over you in song;
And He will joy over you in song.
My soul will make its boast in God,
For He has answered all my cries,
His faithfulness in me
is as sure as the dawn
of a new day.
Awake my soul!
Awake, my soul, and sing!
Let my spirit rejoice,
Let my spirit rejoice,
Let my spirit rejoice in God!
Sing, O daugther of Zion, with all of your heart!
Cast away fear for you have been restored!
Put on the garment of praise
as on a festival day.
Join with the Father in glorious, jubilant song!
And He will joy over you in song;
And He will joy over you in song.
And the Father will dance over you in joy!
He will take delight in whom He loves.
Is that a choir I hear, singing the praises of God?
No, the Lord God Himself is exulting o’er you in song!
God rejoices over you,
God rejoices over you,
God rejoices over you in song!
SOUL FOOD for the Hungry Adult: 2nd Sunday of Advent, Dec.9th 2012.
SOUL FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY ADULT: SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT: DECEMBER 9TH, 2012.
Can I invite you to imagine you are reading the following in 35 years time, in 2047? ‘When Benedict XVI was in the seventh year of his Pontificate, when Mr. Enda Kenny was Taoiseach in Ireland for almost two years, David Cameron Prime Minister of the UK for nearly
three years, and Barack Obama was nearing the end of his first term as President of the United States, while Syria was at war with itself, while Eqypt was facing uprisings against President Morsi… that was the time when Kate and William announced that they were expecting their first child.’ How’s that for a start? It tells us the date pretty accurately as in late 2012.
Luke today in his Gospel (in Luke 3:1-6)- which he began writing about 35 years after the Resurrection- begins his narrative in similar and precise terms; after all, he had started his Gospel by saying (in verse 3) ‘After I myself had carefully gone over the whole story from the beginning…it seemed right for me to give you…an orderly account.” And so, in Chapter 3 (today’s Gospel reading) he begins in verse 1: - ‘In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign, when Pontius Pilate was Governor.. and Herod was Ruler of Galilee…, when Annas and Caiaphas were the High Priests at the time’, it was at that precise time that ‘the word of God came to John, Son of Zachariah, in the desert.’
In other words, in that particular year, when all of these people were in place, John came along. No vagueness about dates and times,- an historical moment is named for the actual events. The Christian message, after all, is not about philosophies or myths or theories, but about history and facts, about definite times and places.
In other words, John, and Jesus from Nazareth, and the other characters in the story all fitted into a precise moment in human history. They were REAL people! The events occurred in REAL time, in a REAL particular place on the planet, called Palestine.
And the REAL person, John the Baptizer in the Gospel today was giving and is still giving
to this generation a REAL message: ‘Prepare a way for the Lord!’.
Advent is as simple as that. ‘Prepare a way for the Lord!’ Make a clear highway for your God who wants to come to you and to the world. The Opening Prayer for this 2nd Sunday of Advent has this: ‘Open our hearts in welcome, remove the things that hinder us from receiving Christ with joy.’ Instead of crooked roads, and bad bends, could we prepare a ‘motorway’ so that God can come more quickly into our homes and hearts?
In these days just after a harsh budget in Ireland, and with the abortion debate going on in our land, can we still hear the invitation to Joy? ‘Prepare a way for the Lord’, -why? because the LORD is coming to us, even in our time, this Christmas. ‘Take off your dress of sorrow and distress, put on the beauty of the glory of God…so that we can walk in safety under the glory of God.’
Times may be tough, but they were often much worse for other generations. It’s a time for 
walking together, with hope and with music still in our hearts.
Christmas is about a great Light in the middle of great darkness.
It is about hope, about joy, in the middle of burdens. We’re in this, together.
EMMANUEL means just that, ‘GOD WITH US’.
Q. How can I ‘prepare a way for the LORD’ this coming week, with only 16 days left to Christmas? That question is my soul-food for this week!
God bless you, mightily! Have a great week!
Fr. Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
Comment by reply to seamus.devittcssr@gmail.com
Soul Food for Young Adults: Second Sunday of Advent, December 9th, 2012.
2nd SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR C: DECEMBER 9TH, 2012.
Letter to Sinead and Mark: (Sinead and Mark are two Young Adults):
Dear Sinead and Mark,
Are you following the Kate and William story? Great joy! A child is expected, early days yet, everyone hoping all will go well. The papers are already full of the good news.
And our own special day, for our own Special Child, the son of Mary, our own
brother – it’s getting closer! Sixteen days to Christmas. Plenty of preparation to be done, and not just in the house or in the kitchen, in the shopping for presents. Maybe the real preparation is in clearing out the rubbish, emptying the bin of the heart, making sure there is a special place made ready when ‘He who is to come’ will come. What better present could we prepare for him than to have a heart and family that is ready and eager to welcome him, the Risen Lord who came among us as a helpless baby for a start.
The readings this weekend are full of joy.
Reading 1 is from a minor Prophet called Baruch: chapter 5, verses 1-9:
‘Take off your dress of sorrow and distress, put on the beauty of the glory of God for ever…see your sons re-assembled from west and east…jubilant that God has remembered them….God brings them back to you like royal princes 
carried back in glory.’…and then follows the promise of a great Motorway building programme, levelling the hills, filling the valleys, so that a safe way will be ready for God’s people…’for God will guide Israel in joy by the light of his glory…’ Isn’t it great to hear such words of joy, promise, and glory for every person among us?
And if you can, have a wee look at St. Paul today (Letter to the Philippians, Chapter 1, verses 3-6, 8-11). Paul’s not always easy to read, to say the least, but today he is full of warmth: ‘’God knows how much I miss you all, loving you as Christ Jesus loves you.” His prayer then for us is that “your love for each other may increase more and more, and may it never stop improving your knowledge and deepening your perception so that you can always recognise what is best.”.. Paul is oozing with blessings for his dear friends in the new and tiny Christian community in Philippi,- the city left behind when the Roman army moved on. (It’s in Macedonia, – and we’ve played them in football!).
And then, Luke (in Luke Chapter 3: verses 1-6) begins off by giving us day and date practically,- who was in charge where and when, what Government was in place
in Palestine when the word of God came to John who then headed off into the desert, preaching and calling people to repentance: ‘Prepare a way for the Lord!’ And then again, we have the same motorway-building programme,- making high places level, filling in valleys, straightening all the bad bends, making rough roads smooth… all of this so that the people would eventually see God coming to them.
The motorway is us! It’s you and me, preparing to welcome God with Us, Emmanuel, Jesus the son of Mary from Nazareth in Galilee. He’s on the way! He’ll be here any day soon.
A great way, that Catholics now and over many centuries up to our own have used to prepare for Christmas, is to go and celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation,- to examine our lives and hearts, to confess our sins, and to receive complete absolution with great joy and relief. It’s one special way where we welcome Christ and Christ welcomes us, and we embrace each other with great love and joy.
Try it! You’ll like it!
Sinead, Mark, God bless you both. Can I make my own the words of Paul that I quoted above, -‘’God knows how much I miss you all, loving you as Christ Jesus loves you” ?
(And if any or all of this speaks to you, don’t keep the joy to yourself! Tweet a friend or friends!)
Fr. Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
Soul Food for Hungry Adults, December 2, 2012. First Sunday of Advent.
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR C (THE YEAR OF LUKE): DECEMBER 2, 2012.
Soul Food for Hungry Adults:
‘MARANATHA! COME, LORD JESUS!,
The Budget is coming and the days are cold, – but the lights are being lit up,
Newgrange- Waiting for the Light
there’s a growing excitement in the air. The shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice, is nineteen days away, and then….
And then, the days will be longer,- a tiny bit at first – ‘the length of a cock’s step on a midden heap’,- ‘ar nós coiscéim choilligh ar charn aoiligh’, as we say it in Irish. But then, even four days later, we know – as civilisations in the Northern Hemisphere have known for millennia- that the Light is increasing. ‘Festivals of Light’ were celebrated from Scandinavia to Rome, long before Christ, to celebrate the Turn of the Year and the Lengthening of the Days. Christians took the ancient and popular feast and ‘baptised’ it as the Feast of the Birth of the Christ, the Light of the World.
And so, we begin, this weekend, the new year of the Church, the First Sunday of
A people preparing to receive the Light
Advent. We prepare to welcome, not just the infant king in the manger, but the adult Saviour, Jesus the Christ, into our hearts and homes and society, once more.
The words we associate with Advent (which means ‘the Coming’), are: hope, longing, preparing a welcome, cleaning the heart, and having the light in the window to welcome the Holy Family into our home. The Lord is coming! But have we the space or the vessel prepared to receive him?
In a time when we face a very harsh Budget, when we live with emigration of our young, with unemployment, with hardship, with discouragement and fear, we need also to find reasons for hope, for solidarity, for compassion and community, for togetherness in family and society. The lighted candle has more right to exist than all the darkness. We need light. We need to be reminded, yet again, of our human dignity, touched by the divine. The Christ child came into a world of wars, of violence, of degradation of peoples, of great poverty and hardships by whole peoples. We need again the message of the Prince of Peace in our pained world.
Every
making the journey in our generation
generation in its turn is invited to make the journey, as if for the first time, to the manger of Bethlehem, later to the Upper Room, then to Calvary’s hill, then to the Empty Tomb, and then often, to the Breaking of the Bread. We, in our generation, journey this road together in 2012 and 2013. We are the people who are now invited to prepare a way for the Lord to come among us and to us again in our generation. We are the people who begin, this First Sunday of Advent, to hunger again, to long again, to prepare again for the birth of OUR Saviour to us in this moment of history.
Our Sunday Gospel this weekend (Luke 21:25-28, and 34-36) is full of foreboding and of fear of wars and disasters. We have our own forebodings and fears and realities of wars: but we are encouraged to hold our heads high, to stand erect, to stand with confidence before Jesus.
Our prayer, through this time of preparation for his Coming, is:
An Adult Christ at Christmas
‘MARANATHA! COME, LORD JESUS!,- the very last words of the Bible.
Enjoy the gift of your Advent Season!
Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
e-mail seamus.devittcssr@gmail.com
Soul Food for Young Adults: Letter to Sinead and Mark, Dec. 2nd, 2102
Soul Food for Young Adults: A Letter to Sinead and Mark, December 2nd , 2012.
First Sunday of Advent, December 2nd, 2012. Beginning ‘The Year of Luke’, when the readings on Sundays are mostly from St. Luke’s Gospel.
Sinead and Mark are two young adults.
DEAR SINEAD AND MARK,
Happy New Year to you both! Am I a bit early? Let me explain.
The Passage at Newgrange, - Sunrise on December 21st.
The ‘turn of the year’ is almost with us. We are only 20 days from the shortest day of the year, December 21st, the day of the longest darkness: then nature rejoices with the turn of the year, when the days get longer and there’s more light in the world. My own heart gives a leap of joy when we reach that lowest point, and I am filled with hope and joy again.
And Christians, for many centuries, have linked the birth of the Saviour in Bethlehem with that ‘turn of the year’, with the coming of hope and of light into the world. For centuries long before Christ was born, civilisations in the Northern Hemisphere celebrated in late December after the Winter Solstice of December 21st had come and gone. We have our own Newgrange as one of the great examples of this, thousands of years ago.
ready and waiting....
And in the Christian Churches, Advent (meaning the Coming) has been the start of the new cycle of the Church’s year, when we start to prepare for the coming of Jesus, the Light of the World. We have four weeks to prepare our hearts and homes, to make a space in ourselves when Jesus can be born again into our lives and society, where we will pull back the curtains and let his light come in, once more. Advent is the time when we prepare, as it were, an empty vessel to receive him.
Our prayer in Advent is simple: ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’; they are the last words of the Bible, and the first words on our lips.
So, Happy New Year, as you begin to welcome the Master, once again, this First Sunday of Advent in 2012. Enjoy the journey!
Fr. Seamus Devitt, C.Ss.R.
e-mail: seamus.devitcssr@gmail.com
Soul Food for Young Adults: Feast of Christ the King. November 25th, 2012.
SOUL FOOD FOR YOUNG ADULTS. Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King. Nov.25th, 2012. Gospel Reading – St. John, Chapter 18:33-37.
Dear Sinead and Mark,
Back again! This weekend is the very last Sunday in Ordinary Time, in the Church’s Year,- and it’s the Feast or Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King. It’s the last Sunday before Advent begins next week. Just one month to Christmas!
Today can I give you two pictures and a YouTube? Have a look 
at the two pictures, because they are of Christ the King. He said “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself!’ (John 12:32) That’s the kind of king he is! The first picture is, I think, by an artist from Wexford, but I don’t know who it is. Would love to. The second is one of my own, on what the good thief
'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!'
saw when he turned to Jesus and said “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” It’s in line with an ancient tradition in art of portraying Jesus as a clown, crowned.
(A Note: did you know that I.N.R.I., which you see on the top of any crucifix, are the Latin initials for “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”,- Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudeorum.’ It was Pilate who had these words put there in three languages, Latin, Greek and Aramaic.)
Finally, the YouTube site for ‘You say it best when you say nothing at all’, by Alison Krauss www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jYfpkI5VuA. Or see it sung by Ronan Keating. (Jesus ‘says it best’ when he says almost nothing at all, on the cross,- but says everything!)
Thanks a mill! God bless. Have a great week.
Fr. Seamus Devitt, C.Ss.R.
email to seamus.devittcssr@gmail.com
Soul Food for the Hungry Adult: Feast of Christ the King, November 15, 2012.
Feast of Christ the King: November 25th, 2012.
Reading 1: Revelations 1:5-8, Gospel John 18:33-37. See Mass Readings on HomePage.
‘YES, I AM A KING!’
‘He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood.’ (notice the present tense, ‘he loves us’) (First Reading, Revelations 1:5)
‘Yes, I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.’ (John 12:37)
‘YES, I AM A KING!’ – There’s that I AM again! It’s all over St. John’s Gospel, because it’s a foundational Jewish phrase, heard when Moses asked God to tell him Who sent him: “Tell them ‘I AM’ sent you! “
Jesus used it so often- I AM the light of the world, I AM the living bread come down from heaven, I AM the Good Shepherd, I AM the way, the truth, and the life; Before Abraham was, I AM. And now, in front of the Roman Governor who has power of life and death over him, who asks Jesus ‘Are you a king?’, the reply is ‘Yes, I am a king!’, “Yes, I AM a king!’ – and the only territory I rule is human hearts who welcome me as the truth. ‘I was born for this, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.’ In St. John’s Gospel, why did Jesus use this I AM so often? Because he is from God and is God,- ‘the Word was with God and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh and set up his tent among us.’ (John 1)
I found an envelope these past few days with a phrase written on it that I heard from a Redemptorist brother, Brother Michael, in some conversation in the past year: ‘ Yes, we receive Christ: but does Christ receive us?’ That’s all,- and there’s eating and drinking in the question. I leave it with you. Does he receive you, does he receive me?
In our church that is in so much turmoil and pain, from within and without, it’s good to have a feast day for the whole church that recognises and proclaims that Jesus Christ is King and Lord of us all, together, in his one body.
The King we honour is the one who was found in a manger in a stable, the one who wept over the death of his friend Lazarus, the one who hung nailed to a cross with the ironic words of Pilate above his head in three languages ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’, ( I.N.R.I.), and the one who is mocked and ridiculed by so many, still, today.
Click on www.emptifulvessels.com/Jesus is Lord/ for a reflection ‘Jesus is Lord’: it picks up on that question above. Jesus is King, but is He,- in my life?
Fr. Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. November 18th, 2012.
‘Soul Food for the Hungry Adult’.
Gospel Reading for this Thirty Third Sunday is Mark 13:24-32. See Mass Readings on Home Page.
‘All will be revealed!’ When? In God’s own time. That’s at the heart of today’s reading, from the last chapter just before his Passion begins. It’s worth reading this chapter in full, to see where our reading fits in.
It’s always good to take a moment to note where a particular reading comes from, and what it is next to. Here, Jesus has left Jerusalem, on the Tuesday of his final
Week. He won’t be back there until he is brought under arrest. His suffering is about to begin. And so, he sits on the hill across from the city, with Peter, James, John and Andrew. He looks at the beauty of the city, and then tells them of the sufferings to come,- not his own, but that of his future disciples.
Again, it’s good to remember when St. Mark wrote all this down, and for whom. It was about 30-35 years after the death of the Christ, and already many were suffering grievously even to death, for their faith. Peter was one such, and so was Paul about the same time. ‘The sufferings to come’ had already arrived! And in our own generation, the mocking of the Christian faith, of people who profess to follow Jesus, continues unabated, sometimes in subtle and sometimes in not-so-subtle ways.
And Jesus is telling them/us: ‘All will be revealed!’. Jesus himself will eventually be revealed for all to see. And that revelation will be awesome, will fill people with awe and 
amazement, and will fill many with joy. Disciples in every generation have to hang on to who Jesus really is,- the Word of God made flesh, the Son of God and Son of Mary in one, God-with-us. Remember the Transfiguration, when a very ‘ordinary’ Jesus was revealed in all his glory for just a few moments to three close disciples. His clothes were dazzlingly white. It was an awesome moment, and they were frightened. Then, when the looked up, there was only Jesus.
And when we come to encounter Jesus on a personal level, in our own lives, in whatever way we meet him, that too is an ‘Aha!’ Moment,- a wonder moment to be treasured for life. He reveals himself to whoever opens the door to his knock and invites him in. (See Revelations chapter 3).
All will be revealed,- in God’s time, not ours.
Thanks.
Fr. Seamus
email address: seamus.devittcssr@gmail.com
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