Archbishop Demot Farrell, Archbishop of Dublin (Catholic Communications Office archive)
- Mass to celebrate the Feast of Saint Kevin, Patron Saint of Dublin
Archbishop Farrell: “proclaiming peace is an urgent task … war is avoidable”
Homily
To celebrate Saint Kevin is to remember that while we are gathered in this place at this time, we belong to a community of faith that extends across time and space. Kevin’s quest to encounter the Lord is still our quest. Kevin’s mission to form disciples is echoed in our own day, just as it was in the life and mission of Saint Laurence O’Toole, the co-patron of our diocese whose 800th anniversary we recently celebrated at his shrine in Normandy. Reflecting on Laurence with the faithful of diocese of Rouen, and the ecumenical pilgrimage group that had travelled from Dublin brought home to me how for two centuries, the mission reflex of the Church in the developed world has been a missio ad extra, a giving of Good News to others.
Today’s mission must also be missio ad intra, a mission to ourselves who are baptised, towards a renewed reception of a way of living out the gifts that have been given to us in Christ. This not possible without our own journey inwards, a journey in service and in prayer nourished by Word and Sacrament, as the Second Vatican Council taught (see Dei Verbum, no 26).
Reflecting on Kevin of Glendalough, we see once again how the invitation to know and follow Jesus is the work of the Spirit: we are called to open ourselves to the Spirit, so that our lives and our ministry may express that invitation to encounter the Lord. It is appropriate, then – indeed it is necessary – that we pray that the Spirit enlighten our minds and renew our hearts. The Novena to the Holy Spirit which today is in its third day, is not an exercise in the diocesan calendar; it is a profound recognition that we can only respond to what the Lord asks of his Church in Dublin through earnest prayer and conversion of heart, such as we see in the life of Kevin and Laurence, our patrons.
Turning aside to invoke the Holy Spirit is not turning away from our responsibility to examine, to reflect, to plan and to implement the pastoral renewal which we discern to be an appropriate response to the challenges of our time. Pastoral renewal requires all of our faculties of analysis, judgement and imagination. It requires planning and structures, formation and supervision, evaluation and learning. These indeed are the hallmarks of the journey of pastoral renewal which we have been undertaking under the title of Building Hope. In this process we have moved forward collaboratively in grouping parishes in partnership for mission; in seeking to introduce new forms of lay ministry and new and expanded programmes of training and formation; we have proposed a framework within which communities of faith at parish level can act with fresh energy to give life to the gospel and the promise and consolation of the encounter with Jesus.
The Building Hope initiative began before the Universal Synod on Synodality, but it has been immeasurably enhanced by this great movement of renewal at the heart of the Church. In particular, we have come to realise the power of Conversation in the Spirit as a way of listening respectfully and prayerfully to each other, so that what the Spirit is doing among us – the people of our diocese, of the Church in Dublin, can be heard more clearly.
To hear the gospel is to hear Christ’s call to follow his way of offering peace to a troubled, unjust, and at times, very violent, world. Proclaiming peace is an urgent task in our world which desperately needs to hear that peace is possible, that war is avoidable and that there is an alternative to the cycle of violence and destruction which mars the face of our planet.
Recent weeks have seen the death of Pope Francis, a pastor of surprises, one might say, and the election of Pope Leo, a pastor who has signalled his ministry as one dedicated to the pursuit of peace and unity. Both popes and their predecessors, have reminded us – in the words of Pope Leo, that there are ‘many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure.” It is then no surprise that “believers are … opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied.” (Pope Leo XIV, Holy Mass Pro Ecclesia celebrated by the Roman Pontiff with the Cardinals, 9 May 2025).
We in Dublin can hear Pope Leo’s words with particular force. We are a society which has witnessed dramatic change and in so many areas great progress: economic, technological and cultural. And yet there are so many challenges to harmony and peace. Many struggle to find meaning in their lives; many fear rather than embrace the future in the absence of a sense of hope regarding the making of a home or even the future of our planet.
We cannot be blind to the fact that despite the word of hope and healing which we proclaim, the experience of the Church which so many people carry in their hearts either through direct experience or through images embedded in the culture, is one which repels rather than attracts.
The call to mission which we have received in continuity with that of Saint Kevin requires us to face the reality of the context in which we minister. It is precisely because we carry good news which so many urgently need to hear that we must renew our commitment to mission. The Church in Dublin is changing; some dimensions of that change are clear and well mapped; others cause uncertainty and even distress. However, all of us who serve the mission of the Church in Dublin – ordained and lay – are called to renew our commitment as we ask the intercession of our patron Saint Kevin, and join in our journey of conversion day-in-day out, as a Church, ‘experiencing together our fidelity to the Lord and bringing the good news to all’ (Pope Leo XIV, Holy Mass Pro Ecclesia celebrated by the Roman Pontiff with the Cardinals, 9 May 2025)
Last Sunday, as he took possession of the Chair of the Bishop of Rome, in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, the Cathedral of Rome, Pope Leo said this of his own diocese: ‘I think … of the challenging process of listening that the Diocese of Rome has undertaken in these years, a process carried out at various levels: listening to the world around us to respond to its challenges, and listening within our communities to understand needs and to propose sage and prophetic initiatives of evangelization and charity. This has been a challenging, ongoing journey meant to embrace a very rich and complex reality. Yet it is worthy of the history of this local Church, which has shown, time and again, that it is able to …confront new and challenging scenarios’ (Pope Leo XIV, Homily at the Papal Mass for the Possession of the Chair of the Bishop of Rome, 25 May 2025)
Dublin is not Rome, and the Church in Dublin has a very different history to the Church in Rome, and yet there are strong parallels: we too are learning to listen anew, we too are discovering that listening is a process, listening to each other, and listening to the world, is a way of being church, not just a prelude some action, but part of who and how disciples are. A listening Church is a Christ-like Church: it mirrors the questions of Christ, he who asks, ‘what do you want me to do for you?’ ‘do you see this woman?’ ‘Will you too go away?’ A listening Church is a Church that meets people where they are, and how they are, and that seeks the Lord where he is to be found.
As we celebrate the Feast of Saint Kevin, let us put flesh on our hope, let build hope by our journey in compassion and solidarity with our sisters and brothers, and by our journey to and with the one who wells up in our hearts, crying “Abba, Father.”
Come, Holy Spirit, revive and renew us
Come Holy Spirit, inspire and enthuse us
Come Holy Spirit, unbind and release us.
Saint Kevin, pray for us.
Saint Laurence O’Toole, pray for us.
ENDS
- Archbishop Dermot Farrell is Archbishop of Dublin. This homily was delivered today, 3 June, at 10.30am Mass, in Saint Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, to celebrate the Feast of Saint Kevin.