The Notebook
Fr Vincent Sherlock
I listened recently to Playback on RTE RADIO 1. It’s an enjoyable show that gives snippets from the previous week’s programmes. Of course, Player and Podcasts have, in many ways, rendered it a less than vital piece of radio time but there’s still something engaging about it.
I heard a piece about a woman from Patrick Kavanagh’s Inniskeen, who had been a childminder for Jacqueline Kennedy. She spoke of when she went to interview for the job. She was shown into a room and told Mrs Kennedy would be with her shortly. Too nervous to sit, she stood and waited.
A few minutes later a small boy entered with his dog. “I’m John,” he said, “what’s your name?” She said her name was Kathy and he asked if she’d like to see his dog do a trick. She said “yes” and he hid a bone under a cushion and said, “Shannon, fetch”. The dog rushed to the couch, rooted under the cushions and returned with the bone. “Do you want to see another?” he asked. “Yes,” she said, “that was very good” so the boy got his dog to roll over.
Then Mrs Kennedy walked into the room; “I am Mrs Kennedy,” she said, “and you are Kathy. When can you start?”
Shocked, Kathy said she had another job and didn’t want to say anything to her current employer until after the interview. Jackie Kennedy assured her the interview was over! The job was hers – when she could start? She had been standing in the hallway and noticed the exchange between Kathy and her young son: that was the interview.
I thought it a lovely story and my mind wandered to that evening’s Mass and the Gospel that would be read throughout the world – the story of the vineyard owner sending his servants to the vineyard. They were mistreated and killed, as were all who followed them. Eventually he sent his son, thinking, “They will respect my son”. Alas, this was not so and he too was thrown out of the vineyard and killed.
I thought of the young Monaghan woman getting the job of her dreams without ever answering a question: a mother had seen how she engaged with her son and that was interview enough. “They will respect my son.” What a difference that respect makes.
Vineyard
You can see where the vineyard owner is coming from. There’s something about respect for Christ. We would like to think most people have it but reality suggests otherwise. Maybe we should think about this, and how we can bring him into our daily conversations – not just when we hit our thumb with a hammer!
A pause for a prayer when the Angelus Bell rings. A sign of the Cross when passing a church or cemetery. “God bless you” when somebody sneezes. “With the help of God” tagged on to “See you tomorrow” or “We will do that next week”. Countless ways of involving God in our lives and each one a sign of respect for Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Nothing new in this, I know, but if only we could show more respect for His Son, there’s a difference to be made.
OPHELIA
She left me unscathed but caused heartbreak to at least three families and immeasurable damage to property and infrastructure across our land. There was no shortage of warnings and people seemed to take them seriously. By now the winds have gone, Ophelia will drift from our minds again, becoming once more the Shakespeare character many may never read of, or have forgotten. It’s only if we are personally affected that the memory and heartbreak of Ophelia will stay with us. There’s something about life going on here. Not sure how to name it or write about it but it seems to be about acknowledging storms that are more powerful than ourselves, preparing for them and doing our best to stay safe.
The risk is we forget all this until the next storm comes…
A ROSARY IS TOLD
It’s a powerful explanation of the Rosary. Did Dick Farrelly intend it as such when he included in the ‘Isle of Innisfree’ the recollections of an emigrant child seeing in his mind’s eye, his home and his family by the fireside where “on bended knee, a Rosary is told”? He doesn’t say “prayed”, “recited”, “given out”. The word is “told” – for the Rosary is at its very core, the telling of a story. The sacred story of the Lord’s journey into and through our world. It remains a story to be told and the Rosary gives it Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious shape.