Dublin: Fr Seamus Aherne reflects on 'fifty years a priest'

Augustinian Fr Seamus Aherne, who serves at St Canice parish, Finglas, Dublin, writes:

In two weeks, I will be fifty years a priest. I can't believe how it is possible for these years to have gone by so rapidly. I remember the ordination in New Ross. My poor mother was very worried. I had appeared in a green suit! That now amuses me. It must have been a daring thing to do and probably upset a few people. It also set me on my way and wasn't a bad standard to aim at and to continue. It was after all, the aftermath of the Council.

The Sixties were dancing times everywhere and in Church life. We may have sobered up since then sadly! I remember one little Seminar time at the Greg in Rome in 1971/72. We had John Navone SJ who brightened up our theological lives with Thorton Wilder (Our Town); Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire; The Glass Menagerie); Arthur Miller (The Crucible; Death of a Salesman). That was Rome at its best. This was a living God in the midst of universal themes, clamouring for understanding. Even a haphazard recall of the past causes that Seminar to jump to the front of my mind. It was good and was revelatory of the future direction of my ministry. It smashed open my mind into possibility. Religion wasn't an island with its own language and own culture separated from everything else and everyone else.

SIGNIFICANT PLACES:

Places come to mind too, such as the following: Hoxton. The East End of London revealed another world and a very different version of life and even a lurking God in the chaos of an area falling apart. Limerick. Drogheda (Jim Kiely). Dundee. Edinburgh. Carlisle where I had a wandering brief as Provincial. And then Finglas for the past 26 years which was supposedly a Sabbatical!

SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE:

I think of those people who have died in the Order. Their names are on the gravestones for the Augustinians in Glasnevin. They were so young. And now I am older than many of them. But they deserve to be remembered. I followed on from them. They are my ancestors in companionship and in faith. They handed on something precious to me. They called me to take up the baton in the relay race of life and faith. I couldn't drop the baton.

EARLY DAYS:

I had ten years of student life in the Augustinians: I began on the 26th August 1964. With Novitiate, then Philosophy, followed by UCD, eventually reaching Rome at the Gregorian and concluding at Heythrop, London. Those ten years led to 50 years of priesthood, which is happening in the coming weeks. The length of study was too much and the years were too many but there was a strange kind of learning going on. The real education happened when I escaped student life. It does amuse me how my forte in earlier days led me to UCD and Commerce, business and accountancy. However, in later time I broke free from the tidiness of such a speciality. Life isn't neat like that and so the poetry of faith and life and God became my guiding force. I abhor the time I have and had to spend with financial matters. Or accounting. We can never tie up God matters in formulaic structures or fixed language.

THE CHALLENGE:

An Immersion into the lives of people was, and is for me, an everyday reality. The hospitality of people, as I was and am, invited into the core intimacy of the family stories, is privileged access, and humbling. The sharing of the story and the trust is astonishing, surprising and transcendent. Every Funeral is like the opening of a book called THIS IS YOUR LIFE and is handed to me for minding and celebrating. That is holy and sacred.

SO MUCH TALKING:

Priesthood calls for Speaking. Every day. Every weekend. Every occasion. Every funeral. Every Baptism, Communion, Confirmation. The demands. Finding words to say that aren't totally a cliché is demanding and stressful. Do these (mine) words mean anything or does it have anything to do with the lives of those who are listening? There is a holy trembling and stress at all times and it tears at the inner rhythm of the mind and body.

THE DAILY ADVENTURE:

Every day is new. Every person is new. Trauma spills into all lives. Addiction. Break up. Tragedy. Death. Someone, to be there. It is never ending. The doors. The homes. The mobile. The email. There is no end to any day ever. However, much time is filled with laughter and fun too. It is a wonderful life and so varied. How could any life be better for me than the one I had the opportunity to live? I stand before God and ask - 'Why am I so blessed?' Puny little me. Why? Each day is a miracle. I have enjoyed the journey whether I have done anything useful or grace-filled or Godly is for others to judge.

THE BURDEN OF THE PAST:

Many see the weariness and the difficulty of priesthood and blame the weight of the past. Often as a Church, we apologise. I don't and won't. I have seen too much good and too many incredible people. Every day calls out more in us and from us. I recognise all the problems that are dumped on Church and Church people but they don't restrict me or send me into embarrassed silence. Flawed humanity is everywhere. We carry the 'beyond' and aren't always if ever up to the carrying. I do see my own limitations rather than the historical lethargy of the institution. Nothing has ever stopped me doing anything. Nobody has got in my way. I am the obstacle not anyone else.

OFFICIAL FOOLISHNESS:

I agree totally that the nonsense of the approach to sexuality (in official Church statement) has been ridiculous. We have contaminated Confession too. The issue of celibacy is nonsensical. The reality of home-life and its mess is a sine-qua-non of grasping the Word Made Flesh in the ordinary. We are deprived as celibates. Not deprived of sex. Or deprived of a loving contact. But rather we miss out on the mess, which is rather important in the reality of life.

FROZEN LITURGY:

The parade of Liturgy that is the official programme is very wrong. Overladen with words. Over passive in our culture. It disrespects the wonder of God in every person. The demarcation lines of who can do what and how. Such as 'Extraordinary Eucharistic Minister' is sad. The designation of who can read the Gospel or who can preach is foolish. The lumpy nature of many prayers is 'disgraceful.' But all of this can be overcome if we see Liturgy as about the people present and their lives and not a Religious Performance in a 'one man show.' But God is out there. God is shouting. God is calling. God will not be contained or restricted or tidied up or hidden away.

BREAKING BREAD:

The Word has to be broken and shared. The Scripture has to be heard and addressed to the mess of our lives. Sacrament too is the whisper of God. We can't freeze it into Ritual. Augustine says that there are hundreds of Sacraments. Of course it is true. People of prose can't ever grasp the Word or the Sacrament. It is story. It is poetry. It goads the guts. It taunts the muscles of the mind. It demands a response from the imagination. This is our task as ministers. It has to happen for us before we can called ministers or let loose in ministry. The formal, rigid, doctrinaire version of priesthood or of faith is unacceptable. There cannot be just a situation of being spoken at, and spoken to. We can't do this. It is anti-faith and anti-God. The Synodal way meets the real business of evangelisation and a living faith. Respect. Listen. Discern.

PREPARATION FOR PRIESTHOOD:

So the preparation for the priesthood has been defective in some ways but we can learn: The ordinary education in early schooling and secondary and even university didn't impress me. The formation in theology wasn't very helpful in Rome either. But some of the characters along the way provoked us to think. That is real education. As that can be applied generally; it is essential in the work of faith. Every day and every situation cries out for fresh attitude and fresh minds. Rigidity is anathema. Fixed ideas are totally dismissive of God. Certainty is an obscenity. I don't have great regard for much of the teaching or much of the programme. But then learning and living and education is about our own application and imagination. Our imagination has to be stirred. Gabriel Daly gave us a very different view of the life of faith and theology (as students in Ballyboden); A theology that was real. Thinking was essential. The Greg - wasn't convincing. Except for John Navone on American Literature. I rather enjoyed Heythrop. Kevin Donovan SJ talked of Liturgy as buzzing with God and enfleshed in our experiences. It woke me up.

A RAMBLE THROUGH THE YEARS:

Jim Kiely in his wild way in Drogheda - showed me how God lives in the pubs and in the clubs and in the music of the day. 14 music groups decorated the weekend in Shop Street with the music of the day interwoven into Mass. That was inspirational. It was raucous but very real. Dundee was alive with teeming young people and wonderful old people who had worked in the jute mills. Edinburgh was only for a short time but Keith Patrick O Brien (as archbishop) had a lively fun in him and a very real personal touch with people. (I know what happened afterwards…… but his way of being a bishop could be copied by many). When I became Provincial - it meant rambling up and down Scotland and England and meeting people everywhere. It was a gift (and frightening that I was entrusted with this role) but I wasn't a natural. It made for the most difficult of days. I wanted back into the ordinary. However, getting to Nigeria, Korea, Japan, Brazil and experiencing the richness of varieties in people and place and culture and expressions of faith, was.

PARISHES:

I was blessed in being in parishes all my life except for the two years in Drogheda. Even whilst Provincial; I worked in St Augustine's Carlisle. That kept me alive. And now after 26 years in Finglas - where people are not too interested in formal religion where the attendance is 2-3 per cent but God is out there in the homes; in the honesty; in the banter; in the humanity of life - I am blessed.

Sprinkled across all those years, I have scribbled. It is only a hobby. The keyboard likes my fingers. I don't have to think. The fingers do the work. Words are for throwing around. There is no great importance in most of them. It doesn't matter. I see little value in any piece I have written because I don't give them time or discipline. It is fun. People often ask me if I take time off - I don't need time off. This is my time off. And I do have the heron and fresh air of every day.

Louis Armstrong - I see trees of green; red roses too:

What a wonderful world. The people of every place have been inspirational. My colleagues in the Augustinians have given me support, camaraderie, encouragement and fun. They believed in me much more than I ever believed in myself. Augustine himself has shouted down the centuries and told me what I needed to do. What more could I ever ask for from all these heroes? The Parish team; the Pastoral Council; the 'Workers' here and everywhere. The 'faithFUL.' Homes. The half-doors everywhere open. Friends galore have kept me going. The Brigidines and the Salesians are just wonderful and carry me. I am grateful. And now here in this new dispensation and the bigger Parish of the Greater Finglas area; the local team are quite inspirational and so caring. Priests work together in a way that I have seldom seen before. Thanks be to God. Shalom Seamus Ahearne osa 23rd August 2023.

LINKS

St Canice parish, Finglas, Dublin: http://stcanicesfinglas.com/

RTE interview: www.rte.ie/news/primetime/2022/0524/1300981-they-all-die-young-says-priest-of-finglas-feud/