MASS FOR THE DEDICATION OF THE MISSIONARY CROSS
AT THE SITE OF THE HOLY ROSARY CONVENT, KILLESHANDRA

9 JUNE 2013

Next year will be the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary in Killeshandra by Bishop Joseph Shanahan. The Bishop of Kilmore at the time was Patrick Finnegan, who was bishop for 27 years and died in 1937. The memory of him was still vivid in older priests in the 1970s as a somewhat fearsome figure of authority. The story is told of a newly ordained, post Vatican I I priest who attended the diocesan retreat in the early 70s. At the time every priest came dressed in his soutane but this man was in casual dress. An elderly canon asked him why he wasn’t wearing his soutane. He said he didn’t have one. The old man shook his head ruefully and said: ‘It wouldn’t happen in Finnegan’s time’. His bewilderment turned to dismay when the young man asked, who is Finnegan? It appears Bishop Shanahan found Bishop Finnegan less formidable, in fact very hospitable and open to the idea of founding a missionary society in the diocese.

There are now 325 Sisters from 9 countries working on mission in Brazil, Ethopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Mexico,Cameroon, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Zambia, U.S.A., Liberia, England, Guinea, Ireland and Ghana. 208 Missionary Sisters have died: most are buried in Ireland and England. Many are buried in Nigeria, South African, Sierra Leone, USA, Cameroon and Kenya.

I was delighted to hear recently that some of the young people in Cavan who are doing the Pope John Paul II award have been interviewing some of the retired Sisters in Killeshandra House, near the Cathedral, and learning something about their stories, where they come from, how they spent their lives on the missions, and what they are doing now. I suspect that many young people and many not so young, seeing the retired Sisters around the town, going to Mass, or going for a walk, would not have the remotest idea of the kind of things you spent your lives at. They might even think you spent your entire lives doing crotchet and playing scrabble!

I’m sure it’s an eye opener for them to discover what the work of bringing the Good News of Christ’s love and liberation to people around the world involved in practice for the Holy Rosary Sisters. That it is about a whole range of things, like:
· ‘Working with people in parishes
· Building schools and teaching in them
· Setting up training colleges for teachers and nurses
· Caring for people affected by AIDS
· Building hospitals and clinics in cities and in the country
· Working as nurses, doctors, surgeons and midwives in hospitals and clinics
· Digging wells, tree planting, putting in place agricultural schemes for rural employment
· Resettling landless people
· Using radio, news journals and mass media to communicate the message
· Providing employment skills for refugees
· Offering trauma counselling to women refugees who suffered rape and seeing family members killed.

And it’s all rooted in a deep spiritual life and the inspiring vision of Bishop Shanahan that the missionary was to be the instrument of God in bringing men, women and children to share in God’s own life. It’s a far cry from crotchet and scrabble!
Today is a day of mixed emotions. For those members who began their religious lives here and spent years as novices or as members of the formation team in the original convent, there is no doubt great sadness that Drumully house and the convent buildings are no more. It is a very definite end to this chapter of the story. It is a parting, a death, and it is very natural to grieve the loss. But the mission cross that marks this site is a reminder that for followers of Christ, death and resurrection always belong together. In St John’s Gospel the raising of Jesus on the cross becomes his ascent to glory. The Son of Man is glorified through his death on the cross because in his death he reveals the Glory of God and enters the life of God.
The raising of the widow’s son from death at the prayer of Elijah and the widow’s son of Nain by Jesus in today’s readings are powerful signs of Christ’s victory over death. They point to the new life that Christ has brought to us through Baptism. They assure us that every death carries with it the seeds of new life. And this death is no different. We see the seeds of new life in the missionary Sisters all around us here from Nigeria to South Africa, from Zambia to Brazil.

Buildings are important. They are necessary. Memory and associations create attachments as houses become homes. But buildings exist to serve the mission and when the mission moves on to other places, new houses become new homes and the painful process of separation and detachment has to happen in order to facilitate new life and new growth. “Unless the grain of wheat falls in the ground and dies, it remains a single grain. But if it dies it bears much fruit”(John 12:24).
So while there’s sadness today for those for whom this place was so precious, so rich in memories and associations, yet there is the joy of a call to new life and the challenge of new beginnings. The missionary vocation is a gift of God and no-where is this clearer than in the call of St Paul as he describes it in the second reading: “Then God, who had specially chosen me while I was still in my mother’s womb, called me through his grace and chose to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach the Good News about him to the pagans”(Gal 1:15-16).

This mission cross is a permanent reminder of that call. It is a permanent invitation to respond to God’s gift and God’s choice. It is a permanent sign of God’s love revealed in Jesus which is the Good News. It is a permanent challenge to obey the command of Christ: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). It’s a permanent memorial of the great vision of Bishop Shanahan for a missionary order to carry on the commission of Jesus to his Apostles to make disciples of all nations, and all the generous sisters who have devoted their lives to this noble vocation.