Message of Abbot Paul - Saturday 10th December 2022
Abbot Paul • December 9, 2022
Today, at Kylemore, we will celebrate the Requiem Mass and Burial of Dame Mary Groves, who died just after midnight on 8th December not far short of her hundredth birthday. She was English and originally a nun of Oulton Abbey in Staffordshire. She is the nun I visited in a nursing home and prayed with on my arrival in Ireland on Monday. I must confess it is a great honour and privilege to be asked to preside at her funeral. Yesterday evening, just before Vespers we received her body into the church. With subzero temperatures, I wonder how gravediggers manage to do their job. Seeing how quickly the Irish get on with things, I wonder why we have to wait so long back in the UK. It’s often over a month.
Our Gospel passage today comes from Matthew, (Mt 17: 10-13), where, as yesterday, Jesus speaks with his disciples about himself and John the Baptist. The disciples ask him, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah has to come first?” In fact, in general Jews believed at the time of Jesus, that Elijah would return to prepare the way for the arrival of the Messiah. Jesus replies, “I tell you that Elijah has come already and they did not recognise him but treated him as they pleased.” Matthew tells us that, “the disciples understood then that he had been speaking of John the Baptist.” However, Jesus has more to say, “The Son of Man will suffer similarly at their hands.” And so it was to be. In Advent we await the birth of a Saviour, who will suffer and die for our salvation, a Saviour who invites us to share in his sufferings so as to share in his glory.
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Good Shepherd, Good Priest “I will seek the lost and bring back the strayed; I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.” Those words, spoken by the Lord God through the prophet Ezekiel, describe the heart of God, the Good Shepherd — but they also describe the life and ministry of a good monk and priest. They could well be written of Fr Stephen’s years of service as a pastor in Abergavenny, Swansea, Hereford, and Weobley. In each of those places, he shared in the Shepherd’s work: seeking out the lost, binding up the wounded, strengthening the weary, and leading God’s people with quiet faithfulness. And like Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who came close to his people, Fr Stephen did not serve from a distance. He knew his people; he was among them. He shared their sorrows and their joys, their hopes and their disappointments. He bore their burdens with prayer and patience he brought the joy of the Gospel and the grace of the Sacraments. His mission amongst us is complete. He has served God’s good purpose. So today we ask Christ the Good Shepherd to take Stephen on his sacred shoulders and carry him home to the house of the Father. Bind up his wounds, give him eternal rest and lead him at last to the green pastures and still waters of eternal life.
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