Homily delivered by Bishop Leo O’Reilly
at the Ordination of Fr Seán Kelly OFM. Cap,
St Patrick’s Church, Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim
6th December 2009
This ordination takes place very close to mid-winter. The days are dark, the weather unpleasant and in two weeks time we will have reached the shortest day of the year. The time of year matches the mood of the Church in the wake of the Murphy Report. It is truly a dark, winter time for the Church.
But there is hope. They say the darkest part of the night is just before dawn. So even this dreary time of year offers hope. In a few weeks time we will begin to notice the days grow longer and the light will return. The celebration of Christmas will remind us that Christ the true light is always with us. And this celebration today is a wonderful beacon of hope in a bleak landscape. Just looking around the town, seeing the decorations and listening to people talking you can feel to buzz of excitement and happiness. The whole community is rejoicing with the Kelly family and with Sean on his ordination to the priesthood in the Capuchin Order. It is great to see that our Church of Ireland community is also celebrating with us.
We are rejoicing for several reasons. We have seen very few ordinations in recent years so this one offers hope of better things to come. We admire your courage and faith, Sean, in offering yourself for the priesthood at a time when there is so much negative news about priests and bishops and about the Church generally. And we rejoice, above all, that you have answered God’s call to devote your life to the noble tasks of preaching the Gospel, celebrating the sacraments, and serving and building up the people of God. We rejoice that, while the harvest is great and the labourers are few, there is one more staunch labourer joining the great meitheal of the priesthood and the Capuchins to continue to mission and ministry of Christ in the world today.
In a few moments we will lay hands on Sean Kelly, invoke the Holy Spirit to come down upon him and anoint him with the oil of chrism. By the mysterious power of that Spirit he will be changed, transformed, empowered, and he will be ordained a priest of God. He will be empowered, but not with power in the sense we normally understand it. So often power is used, and sadly has been used in the past in the Church, to dominate, to control others, to assert authority, and to satisfy the selfish ego. The power Christ gives to his priests is not that kind of power. It is the power to serve – to serve the Gospel, to serve God and to serve God’s people. Christ is the model for every priest, Christ who came, not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for all. We pray for you today, Sean, that you will always be a priest after the heart and the example of Christ.
The address to the candidate for ordination that may be used on this occasion in place of the homily, says: “Let the example of your life attract the followers of Christ, so that by word and example you may build up the house which is God’s church.” I find a number of echoes of St Francis in that exhortation.
First of all is the emphasis on example. Example means the power of our actions and lifestyle to communicate the Gospel message and to attract followers to Christ. St Francis famously said: “Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary use words.” He knew that witness is more important that words. He understood St John’s warning: “My children, our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active.”
We preach much more powerfully by what we do that by what we say. Words that are not backed up by actions consistent with them are empty and even counter-productive. Your commitment to simplicity of life, Sean, your vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, even the habit your wear, are all powerful messages. They are gestures that challenge the world and remind it and us of the values of the Gospel. One of the greatest gifts of St Francis to the Church and the world was, I believe, that his life, and the lives of his followers, were living reminders of the life of Christ and of his presence among us today.
The second part of that exhortation is “to build up the house which is God’s church.” This recalls the words to St Francis from the crucifix of San Damiano after his conversion, “Francis, go rebuild my Church, which you see is falling into ruins.” Francis took it literally at first and set about rebuilding San Damiano, but of course his real mission was to rebuild, to reform the Church community of the time. It was badly in need of reform and the movement he started played no small part in bringing about a great renewal in the Church.
We sometimes look back at the Church of earlier years and think how far it have fallen from grace today. How much better things were then than they are now. We do live in difficult times for the Church. Our Church certainly needs reform. But I believe that reform has already begun. The time when the Church was supreme in Irish society and churches were full and everyone tipped their cap to the priest and bent the knee to the bishop were not the best of times. It may have been a comfortable time to be a priest or a bishop in the Church, but not necessarily a good time. It is clear now that terrible things were happening that were hushed up and kept secret. Or people were unwilling or afraid to talk about them. Thank God we have moved to a new place. It is a more painful place, and we have a long road to travel, but there has to be pain before there is gain. There is no healing without some hurting. The task ahead is to once again “build up the house which is God’s Church”.
We thank God today for a man of faith and commitment who has the courage to give his life to this task. Thank God for the Kelly family which nourished that faith in his youth, the parents who handed it on, and the sister and brother who share it and support him in it. We thank God for this faith community where he grew up and which supported him by its prayers and friendship and faith. Finally, we thank God for the light of hope that your ordination to the priesthood brings to the darkness of our winter days and we pray that your ordination may be a sign of a better future and a better Church.
May God bless you abundantly in your new family, the Capuchins. May He bless your ministry and make it fruitful now and in eternity.
