Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A: 21.06.26
Mass @ 12noon – Holy Family Church, Askea
Golden Jubilee of the Church
Introduction:
It’s the longest day of the year, the summer solstice. The sun rose this morning at two minutes after 5am and is due to set at four minutes ahead of 10pm! That’s 16 hours and 54 minutes of daylight, of sunlight. We thank God for blessing us on this Golden Jubilee day with such splendid weather.
Holy Family Church here in Askea is one of only two churches in the diocese dedicated to the Holy Family. The other is Holy Family Church in Kilshanroe in Carbury parish in the northern end of the diocese. Kilshanroe was built just a year ahead of Askea.
Our year is 1976. And todays celebration marks the Golden Jubilee – 50 years of Holy Family Church, Askea. What happens later outside the church with our parish picnic and all the other activities is nourished by what happens inside here as we celebrate these sacred mysteries. And there has been fifty years of such nourishment that brings us all here today.
Matthew’s gospel carries the instruction to the twelve, opening with the reassurance: “Do not be afraid”[1]. Fear can be very discommoding. Sometimes we can’t put our finger on the fear, but we know it’s there and it’s very real.
On this Day for Life we realise every human life has dignity because every human life is created by God, loved by God, held by God and forgiven by God and so on this Golden Jubilee day we pray …
- Is tusa Tobar na Trócaire – you are the wellspring of mercy:
A Thiarna, déan trócaire
- Is tusa Slí na Fírinne – you are the way of Truth:
A Chríost, déan trócaire
- Bí linn i gcónaí, ós ár gcomhair amach – be with us always, showing us the way.
A Thiarna, déan Trócaire
Homily:
Today is June 21st. The longest day of the year. Our year is turning. Nothing stands still. The poet Jadine Lydia reminds us:
“as the world spins
into her longest, lightest day
we celebrate the laughter
and the joy along the way”[2]
Jubilee moments allow us momentarily to stand still as the world spins into her longest, lightest day. The Nationalist and Leinster Times of May 4th, 1973 carried a front page photograph of Bishop Patrick Lennon digging the first sod for the site of the new church, we know today as Holy Family or simply Askea. Bishop Lennon, surrounded by scouts and guides, said then “it’s not just a building or a church, it is for the people”[3]; even in its infancy it was destined to be a place where families felt welcomed, where young people felt at home.
In the planning and those early days of construction it was called the Church of St. Joseph the Worker. Before that sod was ever turned it attracted no small amount of controversy in the letters section of the Nationalist, as a debate ensued on what Carlow town needed most. It would eventually be called Holy Family Church. Such was the curiosity around the design of the church that even the Irish Times[4] carried a photograph of the then novel elliptical frame that was the roof, a roof which would be problematic in time and indeed replaced as Fr. Tom Little and those around him well know at a later date.
In ‘The Churches of Kildare & Leighlin 2000AD’, John McEvoy writes that this“church is of unique architectural style, inspired by the Old Testament moving tent, which contained the Ark of the Covenant, during the period after the Exodus”[5]. Everyone has their own favourite feature in the church, perhaps it’s the baptism motif on the wall at the baptistry or maybe the fact that there are no obstructing pillars blocking views of the sanctuary or it could be the Stations of the Cross painted directly onto the brickwork. We might even have our favourite seat or the shrine where the lit candle never lets us down.
Every church is a Teach an Phobail, ‘The House of the People’, as Bishop Lennon reminded us on that sod turning day that the people were centre, not the building. And they have remained so, since the first Mass here on April 4th 1976, as the church heaved with people. I love celebrating Mass here and do so regularly. If the church walls could speak, what stories would they tell? It could be about the thousands of people who have come through the church doors over the past fifty years for Sunday or weekday Masses, baptisms, first communions, confirmations, weddings and requiems, or simply to light a candle or say a prayer.
Matthew on this Twelfth in Ordinary Time allows us to eavesdrop into an intimate teaching moment of Jesus with his disciples. He was hardening them for mission, for witnessing to Him in the public square. He knew their road ahead was tough as ours is tough, declaring for Christ in a world that might prefer we kept silent or at least quiet, out of the way. They and we are told “Do not be afraid”[6]. A phrase repeated 365 times in the bible. Fear is something we find it hard to cope with. Unlike other emotions, there is no release valve for fear. More often, there is nothing we can do to lighten or release it. The more someone tries to reassure us that “it will be all right and you’ll be fine”, the greater the paralysis fear becomes, robbing us of our strength to overcome it.
The image of buying two sparrows for a penny, is taken up a few verses later with the reassurance that “you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows”[7]. Scripture commentaries remind us the sparrow was the cheapest bird to be sold in the market, as food for the poor. Denis McBride suggests “two for a penny and five for two pennies. The fifth was thrown in for nothing”[8]. Basically they had no value, they were of no worth. And here Jesus tells the disciples they are worth something, they are valued, they are appreciated.
What a beautiful simple message on this ‘Day for Life’! Your real worth before God is a more powerful force than any fear that might grip you. All of us are valued. On this Day for Life all life is valued, all life is of worth. In this age of huge uncertainty with wars on so many fronts and truces and accords lasting no longer than a day, fear can take hold. Into this fear, Jesus speaks. Every human life has immeasurable worth from the life of the most defenceless unborn child to the accompaniment of those seriously ill, from the dignity of those living with disability to the place of the elderly in society. Every human life matters. Every human life deserves and is worthy of protection. The true measure of a country is not the power of the strong, but the protection of the weak – the unborn, the elderly, the less-abled, those close to death. The next six months as we assume the Presidency of the European Union allows us a space to forge this very narrative, to take the lead in this very discourse.
So what challenge might we take on ourselves for the next fifty years? Collaborating with others it would be great to see a ministry to families emerging from Askea. The parish prides itself in offering early childcare and supporting senior citizens. The fear that can grip families who fall between the stools of not having childcare concerns and not being classed as a senior citizen, who fall neatly into neither category, can at times can be paralysing. Teenagers need people to work with them; parents need support structures; marriages need accompaniment in the early years. What kind of family ministry might emerge, only time will tell, but what I do know is it is badly needed today and might be our way of turning a new sod fifty years on, after all Holy Family, Askea is about the people not just about the building.
On this Jubilee Day we acknowledge and thank the priests who were here during construction and at the opening of the Church, Fr’s Tom Brophy, Jack O’Leary, Frank MacNamara, John Fingleton, Willie O’Byrne and the forever young Tommy Dillon. Great that Fr. Frank and Fr. Willie are back this day, as indeed are other men who served here, all most welcome. I commend people like Michael Shannon, who in the footsteps of his dad served as sacristan here for many years. I commend the late and much missed Norah Holohan. I commend people like Clare Cashin who has been leading music ministry here since the day the church opened. I commend Sr. Joan Pierse who followed Sr. Anne Codd. I commend the many more involved in the life and heart of this church and parish too numerous to mention, particularly Fr. Tom and Fr. Tommy. I thank the Golden Jubilee Committee who organised all aspects of this celebration.
[1] Mt.10:26
[2] Lydia, Jadine ‘Summer Beckons’
[3] The Nationalist and Leinster Times, Friday, May 4, 1973, Vol. 90, pg. 1.
[4] The Irish Times, December 3, 1974, pg. 1.
[5] McEvoy, John: ‘The Churches of Kildare & Leighlin 2000AD’, pg. 14.
[6] Mt.10:26
[7] Jn. 10:31
[8] McBride, Denis C.SS.R.: ‘Seasons of the Word’, Redemptorist Publications, 1991, pg. 239.
