20 January 2021

Giving thanks for four years
years of priestly ministry in the
Rathkeale Group of Parishes

The introduction to the Rathkeale Group of Parishes four years ago, on 20 January 2017, with Archbishop John Neill, Bishop Kenneth Kearon and local dignitaries

Patrick Comerford

20 January 2021

Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, Co Limerick

10 am: The Eucharist


Readings: Hebrews 7: 1-3, 15-17; Psalm 110: 1-4; Mark 3: 1-6

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

I am what they call a ‘news junkie.’ So, I imagine that, like many people, I am going to spend much of today watching the news from Washington and the inauguration that marks the beginning of four years of presidency for Joe Biden and the end of the four years of the Trump presidency.

But, before those momentous moments unfold, I am celebrating the Eucharist, celebrating my four years as priest-in-charge of this group of parishes in west Limerick and north Kerry (Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin).

Bishop Kenneth Kearon introduced me to this parish in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, on Friday 20 January 2017, and Archbishop John Neill preached that evening.

These have been four years that have been interesting, challenging, delightful and fulfilling – all at once.

If you had asked me the year before that, I would not have expected to be here. But then, I imagine the parishioners did not know what to expect either. And none of us could have expected a year like the past year.

After a career that included 15 years lecturing in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute (four part-time and eleven full-time) and almost 30 years as a journalist, I was looking forward to a few years experiencing normal parish life, in a normal parish, with normal people; the weekly round of Sunday services, school assemblies and home visits; the round of baptisms, confirmations, weddings and funerals; the cycle of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost … and, of course, what we call in the Church ‘Ordinary Time.’

Little could any of us have foreseen a year that would go without public celebrations of those key events of Christmas, Good Friday and Easter.

As the years roll over, the Lectionary readings for weekdays often throw-up surprises. If we don’t read them day-by-day, realising they are reflections on the previous Sunday’s readings, or preparing for the following Sunday’s readings, then the selection of the weekday readings can appear to be whimsical, of a random nature.

Yet, in this morning’s readings, both the Psalm and the Epistle reading include the words: ‘You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek’ (Psalm 110: 4; Hebrews 7: 17).

It is a reminder to me and to all other priests that our priesthood is not for ourselves; instead, we share in Christ’s priesthood; our priesthood is not something we hold by right, as if we had inherited it by right; instead, we are to share in Christ’s suffering servanthood, serving his people, his church, his kingdom.

Later this year, I hope to celebrate 20 years of ordination as a priest.

There are priests I know who boast of their successes in their parishes: how they have built bigger and built higher; how they have increased their Sunday attendances; how they have increased giving in their parishes.

But I did not come here for that. I came here because I was asked, not because I asked to. And I came not to boast about growing numbers or figures, but instead that we might grow more and more deeply in love … in love of God and love of others.

I have no sermons other than we should love God and love others.

And, yet, in these four years, Barbara and I have received more than we have given. The generosity, friendship, care and hospitality offered by parishioners over the past four years hves been abundant and a blessing. And we hope we are learning to return these in some small measure.

Thank you.

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Hebrews 7: 1-3, 15-17 (NRSVA):

1 This ‘King Melchizedek of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham as he was returning from defeating the kings and blessed him’; 2 and to him Abraham apportioned ‘one-tenth of everything’. His name, in the first place, means ‘king of righteousness’; next he is also king of Salem, that is, ‘king of peace’. 3 Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest for ever.

15 It is even more obvious when another priest arises, resembling Melchizedek, 16 one who has become a priest, not through a legal requirement concerning physical descent, but through the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is attested of him,

‘You are a priest for ever,
according to the order of Melchizedek.’

Psalm 110: 1-4 (NRSVA):

1 The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, ●
until I make your enemies your footstool.’
2 May the Lord stretch forth the sceptre of your power; ●
rule from Zion in the midst of your enemies.
3 ‘Noble are you on this day of your birth; ●
on the holy mountain, from the womb of the dawn
the dew of your new birth is upon you.’
4 The Lord has sworn and will not retract: ●
‘You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.’

Mark 3: 1-6 (NRSVA):

3 Again [Jesus] entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3 And he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come forward.’ 4 Then he said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. 5 He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6 The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

The Collect (Ministry):

Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church
is governed and sanctified:
Hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

Preface:

Within the royal priesthood of your Church
you ordain ministers to proclaim your word,
to care for your people,
and to celebrate the sacraments of the new covenant:

Post-Communion Prayer (Ministry):

Heavenly Father,
whose ascended Son gave gifts of leadership
and service to the Church:
Strengthen us who have received this holy food
to be good stewards of your manifold grace;
through him who came not to be served but to serve,
and give his life as a ransom for many,
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen

‘You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek’ (Psalm 110: 4; Hebrews 7: 17) … an icon of Christ the Great High Priest in the parish church in Tsesmes, near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)



Prayers that reflect
the values of a new era
of promise in the US

Joe Biden kneeling at Bethel AME Church … the image that was distorted and twisted in three racist Trump ads

Patrick Comerford

Today should be a day of prayer for President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris as they take office, a day of prayer for the United States as it still stands so close to the abyss, and a day of prayer giving thanks that Donald Trump’s term of office has come to an end.

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Michael Curry, has suggested this prayer at this time:

With malice toward none, with charity toward all. With firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right. Let us strive to finish the work, the work that we are in. To bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan. To do all which may achieve and cherish, a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Joe Biden is only the second Catholic to become US president, following John F Kennedy’s election in 1960. But in recent years, he has also been criticised by fellow Catholics for his voting on abortion legislation.

Some prominent Catholics have suggested that he ought to be barred from receiving Holy Communion at Mass, and some have even denied him Communion. However, Joe Biden remains a devout Catholic. In his speeches, he has quoted from Saint Francis of Assisi to the hymn ‘On Eagle’s Wings. He received a congratulatory call from Pope Francis after his election, and his invocation of his faith throughout his campaign suggests his Catholicism will be an important part of not just his inauguration ceremony today, but also his presidency.

The choice of clergy to pray at his presidential inauguration today is seen as a statement by the incoming president, telling the nation of the values he hopes inform his administration. Father Leo J O’Donovan, a Jesuit priest and theologian, will pray the invocation at the start of today’s service, and the Revd Silvester Beaman, a friend and confidant, will give the concluding benediction. Their participation in today’s inauguration places them in a long line of clergy who have prayed at inauguration events, stretching back to the second inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an Episcopalian, in 1937.

Joe Biden and Leo O’Donovan have crossed paths many times over the decades. Father O’Donovan, from New York, was the president of Georgetown University from 1989 to 2001. A Vatican court ordered him in 1992 to defund a campus abortion rights advocacy organisation. That year too, while Biden’s son Hunter was a student at Georgetown, O’Donovan invited then-Senator Biden to give a lecture on how his faith informed his public service.

Father O’Donovan has since returned to teaching as a visiting professor at institutions including Fordham University, General Theological Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary. He has also served on the board of the Walt Disney Company.

He preached at the funeral of Biden’s son Beau, the former attorney general of Delaware, who died at 46 with brain cancer in 2015.

Leo O’Donovan became director of mission at the Jesuit Refugee Service USA in 2016 and has since sharply criticised Trump’s immigration policies. Joe Biden wrote the foreword to Leo O’Donovan’s book Blessed Are the Refugees: Beatitudes of Immigrant Children in 2018.

Father O’Donovan’s prayer today will be seen as a statement of the new president’s continued connection to his Christian roots and values. President Biden has often spoken of his faith as a solace in a time of tragedy and sorrow at the death of his own family members. And that seems especially important for a president taking office in a time marked by suffering and grief for many Americans.

In his benediction, the Revd Silvester Beaman will invoke a blessing for those assembled. He is from Niagara Falls, New York, and a graduate of Wilberforce University. He is the pastor in Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a predominantly Black church in Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden and Beaman have been friends since 1993, when Beaman moved to Bethel. He too took part in Beau Biden’s funeral service.

During the unrest and protests against racism and police violence following the death of George Floyd, Joe Biden met 15 Black community leaders at Bethel Church on 1 June 2020. There he promised to address institutional racism and set up a police oversight body during his first 100 days in office.

That meeting in Beaman’s church became fodder for three misleading and racist Trump campaign ads that used footage of Biden kneeling in the church in front of Beaman and other Black leaders. In one ad, the video was superimposed over images of violent protests, with the church context blurred out and a narrator saying, ‘Antifa destroys our communities. Rioting. Looting. Yet Joe Biden kneels down.’

In the second as, the footage was digitally altered to make it appear that Biden was alone and was cowering in fear and defeated, having all but given up campaigning.

The footage appeared a third time, this time in slow motion and with the Black leaders visible. The words ‘Stop Joe Biden and his rioters’ followed the footage, with audio of Mike Pence saying, ‘You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.’

Silvester Beaman described the ad as ‘overtly racist’ and an ‘attack on the African American Church.’ He and other AME leaders signed a letter that denounced the ad and called on federal law enforcement to investigate it, as it ‘might incite violence, and encourage racial tensions that lead to placing people of colour in harm’s way.’

Silvester Beaman is aware of the location of today’s ceremony. ‘I will be standing in front of a building that slaves built and I will be standing at a podium that a mob desecrated,’ he told NBC News. ‘The last word that day will be the voice of God. I’m asking God to use me to channel his final grace upon the occasion and speak to the moment. And it’s an honour to do so.’

Meanwhile, attention has also turned to Sister Susan Francois, logs onto Twitter every day and shoots off a short prayer for Trump, tagging the @POTUS account rather than Trump’s now-suspended personal account.

America, the Jesuit review, reported last weekend that she began her public prayers three days after Trump’s inauguration in 2017, tweeting that she was praying for the President and the US and urging Trump to fulfil a campaign promise to release his tax returns. As America noted with tongue in cheek, ‘Some prayers, seemingly, go unanswered.’

She has told The New York Times that her commitment publicly to pray for Trump each day which is ‘the hardest spiritual practice I’ve ever committed to.’

Sister Francois entered the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Peace in 2005. Today, she serves on her congregation’s leadership team.

Her prayers have become more assertive following the violent storming of the Capitol by the president’s supporters two weeks ago.

‘It has been a crazy four years,’ she says. ‘And the way it’s ending is, perhaps, crazier though. Really, it’s just lifted the veil of what has been underneath everything.’