FUNERAL MASS FR PATRICK SULLIVAN
“The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring Good News to the poor.” These words from the prophet Isaiah in the first reading give us the key to Fr Paddy Sullivan’s life, as a man, a follower of Christ and as a priest.
The Spirit of the Lord was first given to Fr Paddy Sullivan when he was baptised in his native parish of Denn, Co Cavan in 1933. That Spirit was confirmed in him some years later when he received the Sacrament of Confirmation. On this day 52 years ago, 4th June 1961, he was once more anointed with the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Holy Orders. He was ordained a priest and sent to bring the Good News to the poor as a priest of the diocese of Kilmore.
Like many of his generation, his first assignment was to the Archdiocese of Birmingham in England. It was a short stay, and in 1962 he was appointed curate in Lower Drumreilly. He moved to the other side of Ballinamore, to Upper Drumreilly ten years later and after four years in Bruskey he came back to Ballinamore in 1984. He was just 6 years in Ballinamore when he became parish priest of the now amalgamated parish of Corlough-Drumreilly Lower. He became parish priest of Knockbride in 1999 and after four years there he stepped down to become curate in Glencar in 2003 where he spent the last ten years of his life and where he continued to minister until last Saturday, the day he died.
Father Paddy was a man of faith. It was not a showy faith. He was anointed with the Holy Spirit, but you would never describe Fr Paddy as a Charismatic – in the sense of the Charismatic Prayer movement. But Fr Paddy’s faith was deep and strong and his life was rich with the fruits of the Spirit. In my Confirmation rounds recently I spoke about how we are commissioned by Christ as his followers and friends to “go out and bear fruit”. We are to show the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives. That is the real evidence of our faith and that God’s Spirit lives in us. And Fr Paddy’s life had abundant evidence of those fruits of love and joy, of peace and patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, trustfulness and self-control.
The outstanding characteristic of his priestly ministry was his love for people. In every one of the many parishes where he served he got to know his people. He had time to meet people and talk to them. He was never in a hurry, never seemed to be pressed for time. He was a great listener and a great confidant. You knew that what you told him stayed with him. He had a lovely sense of humour and could see the funny side of most situations. There was a quiet joy and peacefulness about him that spread itself around to those he met. He was full of wisdom and understanding, of good counsel and right judgment. He was patient and kind and he was gentle, more fruits of the Spirit. I suppose gentleness is the fruit of the Spirit was stood out the most in him. He was gentle with everybody and could relate to everybody – to the children in the school as well as to the sick and the old on the First Friday calls, and to everybody in between.
The second reading today is the one we used for Fr Paddy’s Golden Jubilee celebration here two years ago. It 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’. That sums up Fr Paddy’s ministry in a few words. He was taken from among the people – the people of Dennbawn near Cavan. He came from a family where the faith was deep and strong. 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. Fr Paddy never lost touch with ordinary people. He was aware of their concerns and attentive to their needs. He could, as the reading says, sympathise with those who were weak because he himself lived in the limitations of weakness. He was very faithful to his ministry of acting for people in their relations with God. He prayed the prayer of the Church and offered the Mass every day. He was with people at all the important moments of their lives, baptisms, marriages, in sickness and in death. But he was there at the ordinary events too. He was a priest after the example of Christ the Priest.
Fr Paddy was happy in every parish he was in, but he was particularly happy in his final years here in Glencar. He was fortunate in having a beautiful location for his last assignment, but even more fortunate in having wonderful neighbours and friends around him who made him feel welcome and at home. I must pay tribute and say sincere thanks in particular to Padraig Kelly and his family for the extraordinary devotion and care they showed him, especially during his sickness in recent years. When I called to see Fr Paddy here a couple of weeks ago he spent most of the time telling me about how grateful he was to have such wonderful people around him and how much they were doing for him. He was frail, but still able to manage a smoke. He was content. He had no fears and no regrets. He was a man at peace. And he slipped away peacefully and quietly on Saturday – as he would have wished, without any fuss.
I offer my deepest sympathy to his loving sister Teresa who has come from New York, to all his relatives and to his parishioners and friends here in Glencar and in all the other parishes where he served so faithfully. Your hope and our hope is in the words of Jesus in the Gospel: “Your brother will rise again… I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, he will live. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” We pray that Fr Paddy lives now in the fullness of life and enjoys the reward of his labours. May his gentle soul rest in peace. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dílis.
