Notebook
I’m a year older! This week I turned 58. When I was ordained, a priest in his fifties seemed a lifetime away from me. Now I’m nearer 60 than 50 and I wonder where the years have gone. The big difference, and I’m sad to say this, is that there are no 24-year-old priests in our diocese looking at Sherlock and thinking “he’s getting up there – wonder what I’ll be like when I’m as old as him?” The upside, and I am searching for upsides, is that I am still regarded as one of the younger priests in the diocese. Imagine that, at 58 to be regarded as young!
Ordination
I was ordained in 1987, part of an ordination class of 42 – 36 of us for Irish dioceses and six for religious and missionary orders. Six years earlier, 75 of us entered Maynooth College in the belief that we had been called to priesthood. Along the years some left, took time out or maybe moved to other seminaries but on that September day in 1981, all had somewhere within them the desire to serve God and the church as priests. It was an exciting place to be, beginning a new chapter of life, uncertain and nervous for sure, but a good feeling too – that something rooted deep in you, was taking shape.
Forty years later – in 2021, I’m happy to be here – to have the chance to be a priest in a parish in Co. Mayo and to still feel an excitement around that. The years have had their say – I like to tell a story of meeting a woman one time when I was saying Mass in another parish – filling in for the local priest – she asked me who I was and when I told her, she looked at me from head to toe, shook her head and said: “Fr Sherlock, I’d never know I laid an eye on you”, to which I replied “Yes, the years have not been very kind!” Another head-to-toe scan brought the killer blow: “Well they have not!”
In many ways, the years have been kind. People, in the main, are so encouraging and appreciative of any effort that is made in the name of ministry and this has been especially to the fore in the past year of Covid uncertainty. The online world, that many of us are living in and seeking to minister from, allows for feedback and contact that maybe the verbal did not facilitate. Thumbs ups! Praying hands, thank you messages and contact from people saying how much they feel connected are undoubtedly helpful. There’s the occasional angry face too – the first one threw me! I wondered what I could have done to annoy someone whilst celebrating Sunday Mass. I clicked on the angry face to see the name of a 92-year-old parishioner whose family bought him a smartphone so that he could tune into Mass. If I knew anything for certain, I knew the angry face was a mistake. He is decent to the core, faith-filled to the brim and a man who does not do anger in the real world, never mind the virtual.
Beginning
Birthdays bring us back to the beginning, a remembrance for those who made life possible for us and a lasting gratitude. Another year is a gift and, though the past year has been difficult for us all and especially difficult for those who lost loved ones through Covid-19, we still search for moments of gift, kindness and grace that were part of the year too.
Am I wiser? In some ways, it is fair to say “yes” – wiser insofar as I realise even more how fragile we all are. Wiser in realising that my world – our world – has become smaller and that we do well not to take people, places or freedom for granted. Wiser in knowing that I do not have to be running here, there and everywhere to make sense of my life. Wiser in knowing more the need for gratitude in my life. There is, of course, scope for upping the wisdom level but, for now, I am hoping to give it a go, in the words of the old song – “one day at a time… ”
Let the year – let us, be kind!
Getting older
She sat in a doctor’s waiting room and noticed the name on the brass plate. She knew a boy the same name when they were in school. She wondered might it be him. He was so good looking, one of the brightest in the class and she could easily imagine him becoming a doctor. When called in, she was shocked to see an old man, balding and grey, a bit overweight and smiled to herself as she thought: “My God, that’s not him, look how old he is, thank God, I’ve kept myself better than that”. Later, in their conversation, it emerged he had been in her school and she said she had been there during a certain timespan. He said he had been there too, at the same time. And she said, “Do you know, I think you were in my class”. He looked at her and asked: “What did you teach?”