Category: Fr Eamonn’s Blog

“Let me sing to my friend
Let me sing to my friend the song of his love
Let me sing to my friend the song of his love for his vineyard” (Isaiah 5:1)

Michael scared the life out of me the first time we met! He was so angry and aggressive with bitterness carved into the shape of his mouth. Eyes on fire! I was repelled inside but I stood my ground because he was hungry and he had come to our house for food. So I got something together and gave it to him. He scowled. I left him alone.

Oddly enough we became friends over time; we grew to love each other. And we often laughed together.

He started to tell me the story of his life and I listened. It completely changes your perspective when you hear what the other has been through, even though it also leaves you helpless because there is nothing you can do to change what another person has experienced, can’t change what life has done to them. But we can be present to a certain extent and we can listen. Listen without judgement!

Michael had had a very brutal childhood during which he was severely beaten on a regular basis and it left him seriously damaged. Relationships didn’t work out, jobs didn’t last and he ended up homeless. The only comfort he got was when he drank but that’s a comfort that only lasts a while and when it fades it leaves a man desolate and desperate. He died young and it was probably a happy release for him but I missed him when he was gone.

It’s Michael I think about when I read the lovely and lonely song of the vineyard at Mass today, the 27^th Sunday.

The vineyard of the Lord, in Old Testament times, is the House of Israel! Today it is us, God’s own people whom He dearly loves. It is the individual person, especially the one who ends up desolate and rejected for whatever reason.

Vineyards bearing fruit are beautiful to behold. We saw many of them on the Camino – rich grapes full of juice, full of promise, powerful symbol of life. They can only be beautiful when tended carefully, diligently, by hard work.

To let a vineyard go is to surrender it to the wild, untamed ways of nature. I see it in my own back garden. Not a vineyard but a garden, a very nice garden in my mother’s time. It’s still not bad but the end of it has gone wild because I can’t look after it. Amazing the speed and persistence of briars! They take over everything.

There are briars that take over the mind and heart and soul of a person, to such an extent that they give up on themselves and most others give up on them too. They become the rejected.

When Jesus talks about the vineyard in the gospel He reminds us that He too is the rejected one – the stone that the builders rejected – and He takes the part of all those whom society rejects, all those whom we reject, the Michaels of this world.

In the ways of God it is those who are rejects who become the key to salvation; it is through them that we are introduced to the most authentic experience of God, the most profound of spiritual experiences.

It requires a change of mind, a conversion of our way of thinking, learning to think in the way that Christ thinks on all levels of life, as St. Paul said last week, “In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2) Most of the time we don’t want to go there because it actually challenges our deep-seated attitudes that we are unwilling to let go of.

But if we take the way of positive, God-like thinking, the way that leads to peace then we will come to see everything and especially every person in a different light.

“Fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise…Then the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:6-9)

When our minds are so filled in this way, then we have the enlightenment to see the rejects of society as God sees them and, hopefully respond to them as God does, in love rather than in fear.

This quote from John Chrysostom, which I saw on Facebook yesterday, is very apt, “If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find him in the chalice.”

Please take a look at Snowflake Nightshelter website:
http://www.snowflake-nightshelter.org.uk/

– Father Eamonn Monson SAC (https://eamonnmonson.blogspot.co.uk/)

I’m wearing vestments that were made for my predecessor Fr. Seamus who was a much, much bigger man than me by a long shot, so there’s no way I can fill them as he did. There is no way that I can fill the space occupied by him when he was Parish Priest. But all the same the vestments fit me in a different kind of way. Something of Seamus remains here but things are not the same. His death brought an unexpected change and I have become part of that change. When I was his novice master I never dreamed that he would die before me, never thought that I would succeed him.

On the front and back of my chausible is the Pallottine seal with the motto “Caritas Christi Urget Nos” (The Love of Christ Urges us on). This seal is testament to our communal calling, the mission given to each of us personally and together as community.

The emotion of his passing is still strong! He is very much missed and was greatly loved here in Hastings. He touched people’s lives for the better. People tell me all the time, though I don’t think they expect me to do things as he did and I’m not putting myself under pressure to be like him. At 62 you realize that you can’t be what you’re not. I know my limitations, my unworthiness. I know that at some levels of my life I am not fit for this. But I also know the gifts that God has given me. Shankill has shown them to me, taught me how to use them.

Deacon Duncan knows I don’t care for the glory of the big occasion and in the lead-up to my induction as Parish Priest I was fairly apprehensive. I would have preferred if it could have been done in the privacy of the Bishop’s office. But Bishop Richard likes to do it in public with the parish present and Duncan is delighted because he too knows that it’s needed.

They are right of course. Becoming Parish Priest is not a private matter between the Bishop and myself. I belong to the People; we belong to each other in this ministry.

The priests of the Deanery are present as well as Fr. Luke from the Anglican Communion. Canon Tom in neighbouring St. Leonards has been a true friend to me since I came here and I felt we would be companions but it is not to be! He is being moved to a part of the diocese that is about 3 hours away from here. So, on that front God seems to be saying, “do not cling!” Only in God!

Before Mass I was asked if other Pallottines would be present or any of my family. They are not – not because they would not come, it just didn’t happen. And I conclude that in this moment the People of Hastings are both my community and my family. That is not to deny either my family or community. It’s somehow necessary that I do not cling to them, depend on them. I must stand up straight in Jesus in this community. He is the centre around whom we gather.

When I was on the Pallottine retreat for a couple of days while meditating on the woman taken in adultery from John 8, I felt myself being drawn into the person of Jesus and twice it is said of him that “He stood up straight” and I see in this the call for me to stand up straight in Jesus.

And as we come near to the time of beginning, I find myself at peace. A fine crowd has turned out and the procession enters the church to the beautiful sound of the hymn “Servant King” which I heard for the first time here in Hastings a few weeks ago:

“From heaven you came helpless babe
Entered our world, your glory veiled
Not to be served but to serve
And give Your life that we might live
This is our God, The Servant King
He calls us now to follow Him
To bring our lives as a daily offering
Of worship to The Servant King”

It’s not only the choir who sing it beautifully but the whole congregation. I also asked to have the hymn, “For You Are My God” (based on Psalm 16) as the Responsorial Psalm which the choir had to learn it caught on, like an anointing. We also had some very uplifting classical Latin Hymns.

We kept the readings of the day – the first being about the rebuilding of the Temple and the gospel was the short piece where Herod is wondering who Jesus really is. There is reference to the beheading of John the Baptist which felt a little bit challenging! But the last sentence is what mattered, “He was anxious to see Jesus!”

Bishop Richard Moth confessed to his love for Canon Law and you can see the Canon Lawyer in him. He likes things done properly. But he was also very kind and fatherly towards me in the midst of the solemnity of the induction itself. And it is very solemn, awe inspiring, daunting! I’m left in no doubt as to the sacred responsibility entrusted to me, a responsibility to which I make a public commitment.

It’s almost like being ordained all over again. Anointed is what I feel. Not power, not position but an anointing like the anointing of Jesus Himself. And in the midst of this I thought of my parents and Maura looking down from heaven as witnesses.

What I feel from the People is the warmest of welcomes, a sense of true delight in them. The experience is for me like a bookend. The leaving of Shankill was like a bookend on the shelf of my life and this induction into Hastings is a bookend on that same shelf and my life is somehow held between the two. Two extraordinary blessings.

After Mass we went to the hall for food. Those who prepared it did a fabulous job and worked so hard and the atmosphere was full of joy!

When I got back to my room so filled with grace I sat for a long time and even when I went to bed I couldn’t sleep. And at one point in the midst of my wakefulness I realised that we took no photos at all! Me of all people not to have photos of such a moment in my life! The only image remaining, the only image that matters is the one imprinted in our minds, hearts and souls.

P.S One of the singers in the gallery took this one photo! Thank you!

– Father Eamonn Monson SAC (https://eamonnmonson.blogspot.co.uk/)

It happened to me a few times in Tanzania that I got stranded when my car broke down miles away from anywhere. Fortunately I always had someone with me who could go for help while I waited with the car.

Waiting in the hot sun for hours on end is very challenging – the intense heat, the thirst, the tiredness, the not knowing when help would come. And I remember on one occasion getting back to the Mission house where there was watermelon on the table. I went for it with all the might of my thirst, devoured it and the relief it brought is something I will never forget. It was sheer grace upon the dryness of my parched throat! And when I think about the effect of God’s grace in my life, I think of watermelon, the effect of watermelon on my thirst.

So when I read today’s gospel about the men waiting to be hired (Matthew 20:1-16), my sympathy automatically goes to the men who waited or worked in the heat all day long. But especially I feel for the ones who waited – not knowing if they would get work at all and then not knowing how they would be able to feed their wife and children because they haven’t got the money to buy food. It’s the kind of pressure that many in our society face every day.

The not knowing, the uncertainty, the anxiety, the fear! And maybe even the shame of not being able! We all know these feelings at some time or other in life, at some level of life.

It may not have to do with providing on a material level – it can be spiritual, emotional, mental or moral uncertainty. It can be anxiety over your child’s education, health and future. It may be the not knowing of the sick who wait for a hospital appointment, the feeling of being left out, of not being chosen that the young sometimes experience among their peers; the sense of being forgotten that comes to older people; the uselessness experienced by the homeless.

Jesus is telling us that God feels for us in such situations. He feels the distress. He understands the heat of the day, in whatever way it comes upon us. He is always close to us in our struggles and it is through our distress that we are driven to understand our need of Him, to know that we cannot get through any of this life on our own. Our experiences of uncertainty, anxiety and fear in some ways drive us to seek God more earnestly, to thirst for Him and allow him to quench that thirst, to bring relief to our anxieties and our fears.

And so we seek the Lord now in whatever it is we are experiencing, when we think there is no way through a situation –  to understand that He always has a way, that His ways are different to our, different and infinitely better. He offers us the soothing grace of Jesus, a grace that relieves, refreshes and restores. It is what is offered when we gather together to pray at Mass or wherever two or three gather in His name. It is offered in the solitude of personal prayer! And it is never a once-off experience – we need to return to it every day.

No matter how dry or meaningless our lives appear to be, there is always hope in Jesus as Pope Francis reminds us:

“Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs, or anything else—God is in this person’s life. You can, you must try to seek God in every human life. Although the life of a person is a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God.”

– Father Eamonn Monson SAC (https://eamonnmonson.blogspot.co.uk/)

St. Catherine of Sienna had a mystical experience in which she was taken to heaven where she experienced true joy in the presence of the Lord. It is said that Jesus came to her after some time and told her it was time to return to the world and she begged Him not to send her back. “But I need you to go and Love” He told her. “I am not able to love” she replied. Then Jesus took her heart from her, went away and came back a few days later with a shining human heart. He opened her side and put the heart within her saying: “Dearest daughter, as I took your heart away from you the other day, now, you see, I am giving you mine, so that you can go on living with it for ever”

I’m not sure how accurate this telling of her experience is but the latter part is taken from Pope Benedict XVI’s General Audience November 24, 2010.

The important thing is that she was given the heart of Jesus himself, to live and love with His heart.

Her experience came to mind when I was reflecting on the readings for the 23rd Sunday and the very clear calling that we have to confront others with their sin when it’s necessary. The prophet is warned with his life to correct the person who is on the wrong path, the path of sin. (Ezekiel 33:7-9) In the gospel Jesus speaks without the same harshness on the same subject. (Matthew 18:15-20) Both readings present us with something very uncomfortable. If the correction is not given or not received then there is loss of life, salvation and exclusion. It would be easier to avoid these teachings but since they are the Word of God, they cannot be dismissed.

Why St. Catherine came to mind in this context is that whatever correcting of others we do, it should be done as Christ would do it, it should emanate from His own loving heart. Correction should always be an expression of love – tough love it may be – and it is always aimed at the salvation of the other.

St. Catherine’s experience is with me again as I reflect on the readings for today, September 17 – the call to forgive and keep on forgiving the one who has hurt me; to forgive as God repeatedly forgives me my sins. Christian forgiveness is given, not just seven times but seventy seven times – and in some translations it’s seventy times seven. So it’s meant to be unlimited.

Most of the time we’re able to offer this kind of forgiveness with the internal resources that God ordinarily gives us but there are times when the hurt done to us makes it very difficult – seemingly impossible – to recover and so even more difficult to offer the kind of forgiveness by which we let go completely. I’m talking about the kind of hurt that is inflicted by an abusive person, an abuse that damages, maybe even destroys the core of who we are.

Nobody has the right to do this to another so, when Jesus talks about forgiveness He is not in any way condoning the hurt inflicted. He is not saying to the wounded, “get over it” as many people do.

What He does in the experience of His Passion is to identify himself with us in our wounded state and He remains with us through the whole experience. His intention is to bring us through to new life. When I feel mentally or emotionally hurt by another, when I am traumatized by the hurt, then I find myself with Jesus at the crowning of thorns, in that moment of His silence when they mock and spit on Him and beat Him. I can enter into the grace of His silence, knowing as He does that “my cause is with the Lord” (Isaiah 50).

When Jesus asks me to forgive in this context I find myself saying with St. Catherine, “I am not able!” Of course as a Christian I forgive with my will, with my head I choose to forgive but emotional forgiveness is another thing altogether.

Jesus doesn’t give me the same mystical experience as Catherine but He does give me the reality of His own heart in the Eucharist, the reality of himself and this becomes the power beyond myself by which I will fully forgive and be healed in the process of forgiving. “I can do all things with the help of Him who gives me strength!” (Philippians 4:13)

The prophecy becomes a reality in Jesus, particularly in the Eucharist – “I will take out of your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh instead…a new heart I will give you and put a new spirit within you.” (Ezekiel 36)

My role is to let it be done by the grace of God, to want it to be done, to hand over the hurt, let it go and no longer nurse it. And to enter into the prayer of Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus praying within, “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing!” (Luke 23:34) Even if I cannot say that prayer myself, I let Jesus say it on my behalf until it becomes my own. Then I will be truly free as God intends me to be, so it’s important to persevere and not to give up when nothing seems to be happening.

– Father Eamonn Monson SAC (https://eamonnmonson.blogspot.co.uk/)