First ReadingA READING FROM THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH

(Isaiah 52: 7-10)

How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices.  Together they sing for joy;
for in plain sight they see
the return of the Lord to Zion.

Break forth together into singing
you ruins of Jerusalem;
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.

The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.

THE WORD OF THE LORD

_____________________

Second ReadingA READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

(Ephesians 6:10-20)

(The Whole Armor of God)10 … Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. 15 As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. 16 With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.18 Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.

THE WORD OF THE LORD

GOSPELMatthew 5: 5: 1-12

Blessed are the peace-makers; they shall be called children of God

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD

LESSONS FROM THE STREETS: Homily at the Requiem Mass to celebrate the life ofFr. Alec Reid CSsRChurch of the Most Holy Redeemer, ClonardWednesday, November 27th, 2013

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace.  We’re here in the shadow of Black Mountain – Divis.  Cave Hill isn’t so far away.  We’re here to celebrate Fr. Alec Reid, a messenger of Christ who announced peace.  He had beautiful feet by the way – thanks to Eileen and Ana Maria you massaged them so often!  With diabetes and poor circulation that massaging kept Fr. Alec on his feet until the end.  Those beautiful feet walked these streets for 40 years.  Fr. Alec loved the people and the streets around here.  He loved the people of Belfast.  He said that whatever he learned about peace-making, he learned on these streets between 1968 and 1998.  For the last number of years, he wanted to share what he called his “Lessons from the Streets”. 

There were usually seven of them: four primary Lessons and three secondary Lessons building on the first four.  I’d like to share them with you today, emphasising the first four in a special way.  We hope to publish Fr. Alec’s Lessons and others of his writings next year.

The First Lesson – Without the Lord we can do nothing

For Fr. Alec, this truth was revealed by the Lord Himself at the Last Supper.  Jesus was explaining why, from then on, each of the Apostles would have to live close to Him if, in face of the evils of this world and the troubles they would bring them, they were to be able for the mission He was giving them.  He then told them that if they were to live apart from him, they would not be able for it.  “Without me, you can do nothing” Jesus said (Jn. 15.4).

For Fr. Alec these words of Jesus contain not one but two messages.  Yes, without the Lord, we can do nothing.  But the second message is enshrined in the first because, if it is true that we can do nothing without the Lord, it is equally true that, with Him, we can do “all things” since He is the Lord to whom “all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).  For Fr. Alec, the peacemaker who takes this message to heart is enabled to say with the faith and conviction of St. Paul – “I can do all things through him who gives me strength” (Phil. 4.13).

Once, when the Basque-Spanish peace process was facing a serious and worrying difficulty, Fr. Alec said to a leader of the Basque “left wing patriots” that they would overcome it with the help of the Grace of God.  When this comment was translated for him by an interpreter (he was speaking in Basque) the reply was translated for Fr. Alec as follows – “He said to tell you to get as much of that as you can”.

Fr. Alec smiled at this remark not least because it reminded him of the motto of the Redemptorists – “With Him there is plentiful redemption” (Ps. 49); in other words, the supply of God’s Grace is so plentiful that there will always be more of it than anyone could ever need.

For Fr. Alec the Golden Rule was:  “Never lose your courage, never give up; do your best and leave the rest to the Holy Spirit”. You may not realise this, but for Fr. Alec, the Holy Spirit was a great hurler!   

Though Fr. Alec was born in Dublin, the young Reids grew up in Nenagh, in Co. Tipperary, where they know a little bit about hurling!  From an early age, Fr. Alec played hurling.  He said later:“Hurling taught you how to win and how to lose.  You learned failure and how to handle it.  You learned how to deal with people, how to work with people, your team-mates; and how to respect the opposite side.  Much later in life, if things were going badly with any of the negotiations between the various parties in the North, I would say ‘Well, we will have to put the Holy Spirit in goal’ and if things were going well, the Holy Spirit was a centre forward.”

The Second Lesson – Dignity of the Human Person

Fr. Alec’s second lesson from the streets was that the dignity of the human person is the supreme moral value in all human affairs.  Respect for the dignity of the human person is the first of the moral virtues in the sense that all the other values that characterise human morality flow from it.

For Fr. Alec, as a result of the Lord’s salvation, each and every person can now become a son or a daughter of God.

The fact that every human right is rooted in the dignity of the human person means that that dignity is the foundation of justice in every human society.  This in turn means that, to be real and permanent, peace, within and between every human society, has to be based at all times on the practice of due respect for human dignity.

Fr. Alec always had a thing about people’s names and made a point of using a person’s name when talking with him or her.  In this simple but important gesture he acknowledged and respected the dignity of that person. 

He also said thank you.  I think that Fr. Alec’s last words to me were “thank you.”  He always said to me “thank you for your visit.”  To show appreciation is to give dignity to another person. 

The Third Lesson – Dialogue

The third lesson of the Irish peace process follows naturally from the second because it tells us that dialogue is the most powerful and, at the end of the day, the only effective dynamic of peaceful and democratic conflict resolution.

For Fr. Alec, Dialogue involved face to face communication between people who are in conflict with each other for reasons that have to do with historical, political or cultural differences that are causing death and destruction on the streets.  Dialogue was a search for the common ground that would form the basis of an agreement between them.

Listening was the first and the most important activity of dialogue; listening not only with the head but also and indeed more so with the heart to the other parties as they explain their own positions on the conflict at issue.  The purpose of this listening is to uncover the common ground that will enable the parties concerned to build the kind of agreement that will resolve their conflict.

Dialogue may also be described as a journey into the world of another; a pilgrimage into the world of another in order to develop an appreciation of the truth and goodness that characterise or that, with the Lord’s help, could characterise his or her personality. 

Dialogue can bring unexpected challenges.  One of the earliest meetings between Mr. Adams and Mr. Hume was in the Convent beside St. Clement’s Retreat Centre on the Antrim Road, in Belfast.  Sr. Eileen was preparing the room for Fr. Alec, Mr. Hume and Mr. Adams.  She splashed Holy Water copiously on the chairs and put miraculous medals under the cushions … I’m not sure if any of the three men noticed the dampness or the medals … but Sr. Eileen’s prayers and the prayers of many others were eventually answered. 

The Fourth Lesson – The Male/Female Dynamic

Here with us today we have Fr. Alec’s sister Maura and her family.  We also have Alec’s sister Margaret and her family.  Fr. Alec’s Aunt Ita, is also with us this morning; she was like Fr. Alec’s “big sister” over many years.  Fr. Alec had a great many women-friends in his life.  Peggy and the ladies he went with to Knock every year; Mary, who will speak later; and Anne … Anne you are the model of a great friend!

For Fr. Alec, the female and male principles, while separate, are, at the same time, complementary to each other.  Each has a natural capacity to combine with the other in a way that creates a third entity that is neither male nor female but a synergetic blending of the spiritual, intellectual and emotional characteristics of both.  The attributes of mind, heart and spirit that characterise the nature of the female principle complement or, if you like, are “the other half” of the attributes of mind, heart and spirit that characterise the nature of the male principle.

Fr. Alec’s friend Mary McAleese invited Fr. Alec to meet with Queen Elizabeth.  He gave the thumbs up to Her Majesty – I’m not sure that anybody had ever done that to Her Majesty before.  It’s a picture I’ll remember of Fr. Alec.

The Fifth Lesson – The Rights of a Community

The fifth lesson of the Irish peace process has to do with the rights of a community that can truly claim an historical, political or cultural identity of its own.  It tells us that these rights are based on the dignity of the human person and the respect that is due in justice to that dignity.

The Sixth Lesson – The Individual Christian

The sixth Lesson focuses on the relationship between the individual as a Christian person and the Catholic Church as a Christian organisation.  Its message is based on the principles of the second lesson which, as we have seen, relate to the dignity of the individual as a human person and as a son or daughter of God.

The Seventh Lesson – A new structural vision for the Church

For Fr. Alec the Church will never be able to function as the Lord himself wishes and intends it to function, until structures of dialogue are put in place; structures that listen to the Holy Spirit working in God’s people; structures that respect the male female dynamic.

LIZ

I’d like to tell you about Liz.  The last time Fr. Alec spoke in public was at a Conferring Ceremony, where he received one of his many honorary doctorates.  He spoke of Liz. Fr. Alec lived on “the peace-line,”  For those of you not from here, that’s the high wall, not a hundred meters away from here, that still divides the Nationalist people of the Falls from the Unionist people of the Shankill.

Fr. Alec normally worked among the Nationalist and Catholic community.  But he did venture to the other side of the peace-line.  His visit to Liz was his first visit to a house belonging to “the people on the other side“ …

His first visit to Liz’s house was made after a violent confrontation along the peace-line.  Although reconciliation was the purpose of his visit, Fr. Alec was expecting an angry reception.  When he knocked on the door it was opened by a middle-aged woman who looked startled.  She drew back in tense surprise when she realised that he was a priest.  He thought she might close the door in his face, even before he could explain the friendly purpose of his visit.  Instead, she listened to what he had to say and then she graciously invited him in.

As he crossed the threshold of what was then to him an alien, even a hostile world, the first thing he saw was the message which, then, and ever since, made him feel that, when he was among “them ‘uns” – “the people on the other side” he was at home among friends.  Printed in white letters on the red background of a simple wall-hanging, it was placed over the door.  This door led to the kitchen, which, in turn, opened on to the wall of the peace-line.  The message was:  “Love One Another”.

Suddenly there was a bridge, instead of a gulf, between the people of that house and himself.  It was a bridge of common ideals where he could meet in friendship and love.  As he sat down, on that occasion, to chat, he knew that his mission of peace would be successful.  This feeling was confirmed when on looking around the little sitting-room, he saw more emblems of faith and trust in God.  One near the stairs, told him: “God answers prayers”.  Another said: “The Lord is my Shepherd”. 

On the TV there were three monkeys saying: “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” and another picture of flowers with the message: “Take time to smell the roses.” 

Fr. Alec relaxed in that house many times over a cup of tea, looking at the same message of faith, trust and love greeting me from the walls of that room where they were chatting.  He learned that those messages, were not only proclaimed but also lived in that household.  He learned over the years that they are lived, too, in countless, similar Catholic and Protestant households around the Shankill and the Falls.

I’m sure Fr. Alec would like me to offer you an invitation today.  An invitation to become peacemakers here in the shadow of Divis and Cave Hill and beyond …  An invitation to go from here having put on the armour of God.  An invitation to take up the shield of faith, the sword of the Holy Spirit.   Be peacemakers.  Know that Without the Lord we can do nothing.  Recognise the Dignity of the Human Person.  Be committed to Dialogue and to the importance of the Male/Female Dynamic in all human life.

Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be called children of God. 

Let me go back to Fr. Alec giving the thumbs up to Queen Elizabeth during the State Banquet in Dublin Castle.  A couple of months ago I was in Rome and I saw a postcard of Pope Francis giving the thumbs up.  I bought a copy for Fr. Alec and told him on my return that Pope Francis had given him the thumbs-up.  He got a hearty laugh out of that.  Over the past few years we have had some hearty laughs together.  The little postcard was in Fr. Alec’s bedroom in St. Vincent’s when he died and the undertakers put it in the coffin with his remains.  I saw it there and smiled.  I pray and am confident that Jesus, the Redeemer, the Supreme Peacemaker, the Word made Flesh, will have given Fr. Alec the thumbs up last Friday as he arrived in Heaven. 

Alec was a good companion; he was a fond friend and had good friends.  We will miss our Redemptorist colleague and friend.  We will miss his courage, his vision and his remarkable modesty.  And we will be proud of him always.

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.  Amen.    

Michael Kelleher CSsR