Bishop Leo O’Reilly’s Homily
at the Golden Jubilee Mass for Fr Patrick Sullivan
St Osnat’s Church, Glencar, Co. Leitrim, 8th July 2011
We have something wonderful to celebrate today – 50 years of dedicated priestly ministry by a priest whose qualities are as exceptional as they are understated. Fr Paddy Sullivan was ordained a priest for the diocese of Kilmore in 1961. He was ordained at a time when the diocese was able to spare priests for the missions and he spent a year on mission in Birmingham before taking up his first diocesan appointment in Drumreilly Lower – Aughawillan. He spent ten years there before moving a short distance south, to Drumreilly Upper, in the parish of Carrigallen. After eight years there he had his first taste of ministry in Co Cavan – a spell of four years in Bruskey in the parish of Ballintemple.
Then it was back to Co Leitrim again, this time as curate in Ballinamore. He became parish priest of Corlough-Drumreilly Lower in 1990 so after nearly 30 years he was more or less back where he started. He became parish priest of Knockbride in 1999 and in 2003 he decided to lay aside the burdens of administration and became curate in Glencar, where happily he is still serving his people with the same quiet dedication and good humour that he brought to all his appointments over his fifty years.
The second reading today speaks about Jesus, the Priest and the model of all priesthood. It says: ‘Every high priest is taken from among the people and is appointed to act for people in their relations with God’. I think that sums up Fr Paddy’s ministry in a few words. He was taken from among the people – the people of Dennbawn near Cavan. His family gave a second son to the priesthood as well, his brother Michael who served in the diocese of Motherwell in Scotland until his untimely death in 1977. I think the secret of Fr Paddy’s great priestly ministry in every parish he has served in is that he has never stopped being a man of the people. He delights in being among ordinary people. He is always interested in what is going on in people’s lives. He has time to talk and even more time to listen. He is a people’s priest.
The number of people here tonight from this area, but also from Ballinamore, Drumreilly Uppper and Lower, Bruskey and Knockbride, is testament to the impact that he made in a very quiet way both here in Glencar and in every place he served before coming here. Fr Paddy never raises his voice, but his quiet word commands attention and it is always worth listening to. There is wisdom in his most casual comments and I know many priests who can quote good advice that he gave them twenty years ago. He has a wonderful sense of humour and like everything else about him, it is quiet, but all the more enjoyable for that. He is patient and kind, generous and humble. And all those qualities enabled him to live peacefully as a curate with the idiosyncrasies of many different parish priests, and as a parish priest with the idiosyncrasies of his curates!
Fr Paddy chose the Gospel of the miraculous catch of fish for the Mass of his Jubilee. He chose it well. We, as priests, are fishers casting out the net of God’s Word and trying to draw people to Christ. The Gospel tells us that the apostles worked all night and caught nothing. Our work as priests can often feel fruitless, frustrating, unproductive, not making a lot of difference. Especially nowadays, it’s easy for a priest to get discouraged when there are fewer people in church, fewer young people in the pews, fewer people being ordained as priests. We haven’t had an ordination for seven years. That affects all of us. What today’s gospel reminds us of is that we are not in this alone. Christ is with us. It is not our power which draws people to Christ, it is Christ’s. And all we have to do is follow his instructions, his guidance, and trust him. Cast out your nets for a catch. And they netted a huge catch of fish.
Christ is with us through his Spirit to help us in our privileged task. In the words of the first reading: “He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to bind up hearts that are broken; to proclaim liberty to captives, freedom to those in prison; to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.” What a vocation! What a challenge! To help, to heal, to bring freedom and hope to people who need them. And to spend your whole life doing that. We are grateful to you Fr Paddy for answering that call all those years ago. We thank you for taking up that challenge of bringing good news to the poor and healing to the sick and helping those who need it. We thank you that fifty years on you are still carrying on that noble work. We hope and we pray tonight that your wonderful example will inspire some of the younger people here to take up the baton, to offer themselves to carry on this wonderful work as priests or as religious today so that future generations will find healing and hope and experience the freedom of the children of God.
Congratulations, Fr Paddy, on your fifty years of devoted service as a priest in the diocese of Kilmore. Thank you for your dedication and fidelity. God bless you for your generosity. May he give you many more years to serve in his vineyard and may he reward you richly for being a priest after the heart of Christ his Son.
