"I am the living bread which has come down from heaven" (Jn. 6:51)

As the great Jumbo jet, ' St. Patrick', passed over the vast concourse of people gathered in Phoenix Park twenty five years ago today, little did I realise what an expression of faith and love was awaiting the Vicar of Christ, Pope John Paul II, as he set foot on Irish soil. History was being made that day and history was being recalled. Some forty-seven years previously Phoenix Park had hosted, in 1932, the International Eucharistic Congress and now, on the very same spot, the Vicar of Christ would celebrate the Eucharist in thanksgiving for the centuries of fidelity to the Eucharist which have marked the faith of the Irish. It is good to listen again to the very words the Pope used on that occasion:

"As I stand here, in the company of so many hundreds of thousands of Irish men and women", - in fact there were some one and a quarter million people present. "I am thinking of how many times, across how many centuries, the Eucharist has been celebrated in this land. How many and how varied the places where Mass has been offered - in stately medieval and in splendid modern cathedrals; in early monastic and in modern churches; at Mass Rocks in the glens and forests by 'hunted priests' and in poor thatch-covered chapels, for a people poor in worldly goods but rich in the things of the spirit; in 'wake-houses' or 'station houses; or at great open-air hostings of the faithful - on the top of Croagh Patrick and at Lough Derg. Small matter where the Mass was offered. For the Irish, it was always the Mass that mattered".

Twenty five years on since those words were pronounced in Phoenix Park, as we gather this evening to render thanks to God for the grace that was given to Ireland by the visit of Pope John Paul II, can we still say ' it is the Mass that matters'? In the intervening years, when Ireland has taken her rightful place among the Nations of the New Europe and is experiencing an unprecedented wellbeing from an economic and material point of view, are we losing those values and that respect for the spiritual which our forefathers in difficult and penal times cherished and preserved? Is the fact that we, as a Nation, were incapable of or reticent in ensuring that due recognition of the Christian Heritage of Europe be recognised in its new Constitution, a sign of our losing appreciation for the deep Christian Heritage which has marked us out as a truly Christian Nation? Is what the Vicar of Christ indicated to the people of Ireland in Phoenix Park becoming a reality in our age of so-called 'enlightenment and affluence'? The Holy Father said:

"Prosperity and affluence… tend to make people assume that they have a right to all that prosperity can bring, and thus they can become more selfish in their demands. Everybody wants a full freedom in all the areas of human behaviour and new models of morality are being proposed in the name of would-be freedom. When the moral fibre of a nation is weakened, when the sense of personal responsibility is diminished, then the door is open for the justification of injustice, for violence in all its forms, and for the manipulation of the many by the few. The challenge that is already with us is the temptation to accept as true freedom what in reality is only a new form of slavery".

Were those prophetic words? Only our present generation can answer that question. As we celebrate this evening and recall with gratitude the events of that weekend, twenty-five years ago, may we ponder on the challenges that visit posed us. May the devotion to the Mass, referred to frequently by the Holy Father as being typical of the Irish faithful, be the grace we receive from this Eucharistic celebration. May our Sunday liturgies be truly occasions of "the festive celebration of our salvation" by the whole people of God, celebrations in which everyone is involved both in preparation and participation. The Holy Father said on that first day of his visit to Ireland:

"As successor of Peter and Vicar of Christ, I assure you that the Mass is indeed the sourceand summit of our Christian life".

May every parish in this diocese of Cloyne, and indeed in the whole of Ireland, take seriously the challenge facing our times to make of our Eucharistic celebrations occasions where the people of God are truly nourished in faith, occasions which become the highlight of our Christian lives each week. For this to happen we need commitment and dedication; we need the involvement of all age groups; we need a proper catechesis on the Mass so that all who participate in it may be truly refreshed and uplifted. The words again of the Holy Father challenge us:

"Our full participation in the Eucharist is the real source of the Christian spirit that we wish to see in our personallives and in all aspects of society. Whether we serve in politics, in the economic, cultural, social or scientific fields - no matter what our occupation is - the Eucharistis a challenge to our daily lives".

Pope John Paul, conscious of the immense opportunity given him during his visit to Ireland to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, endeavoured to cover the whole ambit of Christian teaching for the good of the People of Ireland. So on that occasion in Phoenix Park when he concentrated on the Mass and Eucharistic devotion, as being the source of the grace and strength for our daily living, he underlined the fact that "the Eucharist is also a great call to conversion". After the celebration in the Park he was due to go to Drogheda and to make his plea for reconciliation and peace to all those engaged in violence. His words there on that occasion were poignant;

"I appeal to you, in language of passionate pleading. On my knees I beg you to turn away from the paths of violence and to return to the ways of peace".

Conscious of the fact that reconciliation and peace can only come about through personal conversion, the Holy Father, towards the end of his homily in Phoenix Park, reminded the people of Ireland of the need to personally encounter the all-forgiving, all merciful Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. He said:

"This encounter with Jesus is so very important thatI wrote in my first encyclical letter these words:'In faithfully observing the centuries-old practiceof the sacrament of penance - the practice of individual
confession with a personal act of sorrow and the intention to amend and make satisfaction - the Church is therefore defending the human soul's individual right; man's right to a more personal encounter with the crucified forgiving Christ, with Christ saying, through the minister of the Sacrament of reconciliation: 'Your sins are forgiven, go, and do not sin again'.

We can only grow spiritually, my dear friends, we can only find our way through the morass of present-day challenges to our Christian way of life, by remaining close to Jesus and by cherishing our personal encounters with Him in the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist. May the occasion of this celebration, and the subsequent celebrations, which will take place in every parish on Friday next in thanksgiving for the grace of the visit of the Vicar of Christ to our Nation twenty-five years ago, be a rallying call to return to a more fervent and coherent practice of our faith. May we truly experience within ourselves the freedom of the children of God, a freedom to profess and to confess, a freedom to witness and to proclaim, a freedom to rejoice and to celebrate without being encumbered or inhibited by the peer pressure of the society in which we live. Let 'fidelity' be our earnest endeavour and 'freedom' be the very oxygen by which we live to the full our Christian calling.

As I conclude, may I invite you all, my dear people, to offer this Holy Mass and all our prayers during these days of celebration for the person of the Vicar of Christ, Pope John Paul II. Despite his weakened strength and advanced years may the Lord ever sustain him and grant him the grace to continue in his ministry of proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel throughout the whole world.

May I conclude with the final words of the Holy Father as he left our shores:

"In the name of the Lord I exhort you to preserve the great treasure of your fidelity to Jesus Christ and to his Church. Like the early Christian Community, described in the Acts of the Apostles, Ireland is called to be 'faithful to the teaching of the Apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers' (Acts 2:42).

Ireland: semper fidelis, always faithful!
Ireland: always faithful!
Moladh go deo le Dia!

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