On Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st, pilgrims from all over Europe, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland travelled to Bangor and Armagh respectively to take part in the 1400th celebrations for St. Columbanus.
Saturday morning began with a service in the Church of Ireland Bangor Abbey, with Canon Nesbitt, Fr Gunn, Bishop Treanor and Bishop Miller.
Afterwards a group was taken on a guided historical tour of Bangor, followed by the opportunity of attending a lecture by Columban Father, Fr. Sean McDonagh or viewing a documentary of the life of St. Columbanus.
A number of clergy from Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and pilgrims from Europe were brought to Bangor Castle to be presented by the Deputy Lord Mayor of Ards and North Down Borough Council, Cllr Carl McClean, with an image of St. Columbanus.
The day finished with Con-Celebrated Mass in St. Comgall’s Church, Bangor – Below is a copy of the Homily delivered by Bishop Treanor.
SOLEMN EUCHARIST IN COMMEMORATION OF ST COLUMBANUS, PILGRIM FOR CHRIST
ST COMGALL’S CHURCH, BANGOR
HOMILY by BISHOP NOEL TREANOR
SATURDAY, 20 JUNE 2015
I The Word of God links us to St Columbanus
Have you ever taken a minute to wonder at the fact that the Columbanus, “the best-known Irishman of the early Middle Ages” [1], who left this shore line of bangor in the closing decades of the sixth century, knew these passages of Holy Scripture which we have just read and listened to?
Divided from Columbanus by fourteen centuries, we are united in our traditions and confessions of Christianity with the source of his life’s work and mission as we listen to, live and implement the Word of God in the conditions of our time.
Inspired and shaped in our Christian faith by the Word of God and incorporated through baptism into the “new creation”, referred to by St Paul in the second reading (2 Cor 5. 17), “we are members of the same body, be we Gauls, Britons, inhabitants of Hibernia or of whatever other country”, as St Columbanus wrote in his letter to the Bishops of Gaul.
We are formed as the people of God, as a Christian community in our Churches, by the same Word of God that Columbanus prayed, studied, commented and proclaimed. Inspired by so many like him, as followers of Christ we live in the trans-temporal continuum of the communion of saints and in the historical continuum of Christian culture as each generation of Christians plays its part in the coming of the Kingdom of God.
II “Let Christ paint his image in you” (Sermon X1.5) : new creation
Considering these scriptural passages through the lens of the mission and written testimony of St Columbanus, one cannot but think of his preternatural sense of the power of nature and its cosmic forces as he sailed the Irish Sea and the Channel, made his by river and land on continental Europe or walked over those Alpine passes.
The resonance of those lines from Job which we have heard again this evening must have rendered his faith in Christ an almost continuous visceral choice. And more profoundly and personally his expulsion from Burgundy, his intense debates with the bishops of Gaul must often have left him feeling Job-like misunderstood and isolated. Columbanus however stood his ground, held steady and in so doing contributed monumentally and uniquely to the development of the Christian theological, pastoral and monastic tradition.
St Columbanus’ writings show time and again how Christ is the anchor and centre-point of this thought and mission. St Paul’s insight of the “new creation, captured in today’s second reading and echoed also in the drama and dialogue in the episode in Mark’s gospel to which we have just listened – the initiation of a new creation in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ – informs and shapes so much of St Columbanus thought, work and prayers. For him all things are made new in Christ – thus his plea in his Sermon XI – “let Christ paint his image in you” and his famous assertion written on the icon on the new iconstasis which is about to be blessed : “Christi simus, non nostril / Let us be Christ’s and not our own, for we are not our own ..” (Sermon XII,2)
III The new creation and care of the cosmos
As the liturgy of the Word also invites us this evening to contemplate the agitated re-awakening of faith on the part of Job on the one hand and of the disciples in the storm-stricken boat on the other, our thoughts are trained by the biblical imagery on the testing drama and betimes turbulent adventure of life lived in religious faith.
Job’s very sense of personal identity was pitched against the forces of nature and destiny; the disciples in the storm-stricken boat are awakened to the Risen Christ of the new creation in the very midst of existence-threatening circumstances.
Columbanus, at the very heart of his mission, encountered opposition and misunderstanding, not to speak of his perilous exposure to the unknown, the untamed wildernesses and the forces of nature. All the more intriguing then are the legends relating his convivial relationship with nature, birds and even with wild beasts.
To know God and the things of God, the import of the new creation in Christ, St Columbanus remarked in his sermon entitled “On the Faith” : “those who wish to know the great depth (of God), must first learn about creation”.
With this assertion we touch on the theme of the Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si, published on Thursday by Pope Francis. There Pope Francis reminds the human family that : “if we are truly concerned to develop an ecology capable of remedying the damage we have done, no branch of the sciences and no form of wisdom can be left out, and that includes religion and the language particular to it” (no. 63).
In the words of the editorial in The Financial Times, (Wednesday, 17 June 2015, p.12) Pope Francis “is seeking to redefine a secular topic – one that is generally pursued on the level of science – in terms of religion and faith” in order to open up “a deeper moral discussion about man’s relationship with the environment” (ibid).
In short Pope Francis is pointing to the fact that technical solutions alone will not and do not suffice to address the key issues facing humanity, including those of climate change and care of cosmos. “Our difficulty” in taking up this challenge seriously, he says, has much to do with the ethical and cultural decline which has accompanied the deterioration of the environment” (no.162). He refers to the postmodern risk of “rampant individualism and the many problems of society connected with today’s self-centred culture of instant gratification” (ibid).
In addressing the challenges facing us as carers of the cosmos, he reminds us Christians that “it is good for humanity and the world at large that we believers better recognize the ecological commitments which stem from our convictions” (no.64).
IV St Columbanus : inspiration for our time
In so many aspects of human experience and life – the search for God, the drama of personal faith, the monastic life, the link between faith and lifestyle, care of creation and custody of the earth, the art of writing and culture, or even the noble aspiration at the heart of the European project – Columbanus remains a towering inspiration for our time.
It is fitting then that we acknowledge and pay tribute to the many individuals, groups and civic authorities here and throughout the lands where Columbanus lived for their inventive efforts over recent years to revive the heritage of this great European Irishman. I should like to mention in particular :
- Pope Benedict XVI for his General Audience of 11 June 2008
- The Friends of St Columbanus in Italy, France and their European network
- The Columban Fathers and Sisters
- The Ards and North Down Borough Council and in particular Mr Alex Irvine for his creative initiatives and Councillor Carl McClean, Vice Mayor of Bangor, for his remarkable address at Bangor Castle this morning
- The North Down Museum, its Director and entire staff
- The academics at so many universities in Ireland, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the United States who have taken part in conferences and seminars and who have organised the three scientific conferences in Bangor, Luxeuil and Bobbio.
- Finally our local Churches, parishes and the Christian community here in Bangor with their faithful and clergy who have enabled us to celebrate and offer hospitality as a community to our guests from Italy
Let us all pray, my dear friends, that with this Year of St Columbanus we may all come to know Christ anew as we re-discover the historical, cultural and religious heritage of that world figure of the early Middle Ages, Columbanus of Bangor and Bobbio to whom we leave the final word of prayer :
Lord, grant me I pray thee in the name of Jesus Christ Thy Son and my God
that love which knows no fall
so that my lamp may feel your kindling touch
and know no quenching
may burn for me and for others may give light.
Give, O Lord, your light to my lamp
that it may shine continually in your Temple
May your Love pervade every fibre of our being
May it make us totally yours
May your Love fill all our senses
so that we may not love anything
but in you, who are eternal. (Sermon XII. 3)
[1] Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, 11 June 2008, no.1