Feast of St Mungo - Paul MC Sherry Photography

Feast of Saint Mungo,Evening Service at Glasgow Cathedral.

Cardinal O'Brien with Archbishop Conti and Church Leaders.

SUNDAY 11TH JANUARY 2009

HOMILY PREACHED BY CARDINAL KEITH PATRICK O’BRIEN

INTRODUCTION:

It is indeed a very great privilege for me to be here with you all in Glasgow Cathedral as we celebrate the Feast of St Mungo at this St Mungo Service.

I know of four cathedrals in this ancient city – this is only the second that I have preached in with, with the first being, of course, that of Archbishop Mario, happily with us this evening, St Andrew’s Cathedral along the Clyde. The other two Cathedrals are, of course, St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral and St Luke’s Orthodox Cathedral.

Preaching here takes me back to the roots of the faith of the peoples of Glasgow, of the Christian faith of this our country – as it also does when being in other ancient Cathedrals such as that of the ruined St Andrews in my own Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh.

PERSONAL MEMORIES OF GLASGOW:

It may be of interest to you to know something of my own personal memories of the City of Glasgow. I was a primary schoolboy of just eleven years of age when my family arrived from the North of Ireland at the Broomielaw shortly after the Second World War. My father had served for some 22 years in the Royal Navy and following on his own service during the Second World War he was looking for work – managing to achieve a Forces entry into the Civil Service with his first appointment being to Glasgow.

We arrived in Glasgow as a small family of mother and father and two boys with myself being the elder. One might say that there were three tasks awaiting us:

We had to understand the language and we had to make ourselves understood!

The Glasgow people were open, warm and loving. But I am sure you realise that they must have some difficulty with the strong Northern Ireland accent which I then had and which I still have after some seventy years. Our education in the language took simple forms: We listened to the radio especially the McFlannels on a Saturday evening! We enjoyed reading those “little stories from the Glasgow Police Courts” in the then Glasgow Weekly News! And we loved Oor Willie and the Broons in the Sunday Post.

The next task – to make Glasgow our home!

We soon realised that Glasgow was to be our home when we moved from Norse Road from within St Paul’s Parish Whiteinch to a but and ben in Clydebank that little bit further from the centre of Glasgow.

This was really our first family home ever together – and we loved and cherished not only that home but the wonderful neighbours who made us feel so very, very welcome.

Scottish traditions were rather different then than now when television has its ever persuasive hold over us. One of our first memories of our fist Christmas in Scotland was the coalman delivering coal on Christmas Day itself.

However our home was established and that home found its extensions in our local Catholic schools as well as in St Stephen’s Parish in Dalmuir.

Following on from St Paul’s School Whiteinch my brother and I attended St Stephen’s in Dalmuir and then our Catholic secondary of St Patrick’s in Dumbarton.

School and church were like other homes for us with the same faith being lived and handed on. Church services which we were expected to attend were much more regular than they are now but it was with an unquestioning obedience that we would follow the great cycle of the Church’s year from Advent through Christmas; then Lent leading us to the great feast of Easter; and then continuing throughout the church’s year with our regular devotions of one form or another on very many week nights.

The third task which I face – what to do about service:

It was while in Glasgow that I first sensed that God might be calling me to serve in the Priesthood. At that time we had our National Junior Seminary at Blairs in Aberdeen and having discussed the matter with my parents as best I could I spoke to the priests of the parish and was soon prepared for an interview with the then archbishop, Archbishop Campbell.

However I was turned down as an applicant at Blairs College for health reasons at that time – and I have never regretted continuing on to secondary school for over four very happy years at St Patrick’s. Our family then moved to Edinburgh, with my father having secured promotion in the Civil Service. Secondary school continued and at the end of secondary school, I approached the then Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Cardinal Gray, to discuss my vocation and to apply for that Archdiocese as a student for the priesthood. Again, I was turned down by the Cardinal as an applicant with those thought- provoking words: “Go to university first, Keith – and if you survive university, you might survive seminary!”. I did survive seminary and also teacher training before eventually being released to the world as a qualified teacher who was also a priest.

I learned very many lessons in those days both of the value to family life; the continuity of family life in school and parish; and the necessity of continuing to serve as one followed God’s will realising that things would all work out in the end. In some ways I was learning the teaching of that mediaeval mystic Julian of Norwich who wrote: “All will be well; all will be well; all manner of things will be well!”

MEMORIES OF ST MUNGO:

However, I am not here just to share some reminiscenses with you all of my own early life! I must speak about Mungo himself – also known by the name of Kentigern. The latter name means “chief prince”; while the more common name of Mungo simply means “dear one”.

One of the reasons why I have not said much about the early life of St Mungo is quite simply that much is lost in legend.

We are told that the mother of Mungo Thenaw was the daughter of the King who ruled in the Haddington Region of what is now Scotland; she became pregnant and her furious father had her thrown from the heights of Traprain Law. Surviving, she was then abandoned in a coracle in which she drifted across the river Forth to Culross in Fife – and there Mungo was born.

Consequently, like myself Mungo did not have his birthplace in Glasgow – but we are told that having been brought up by St Serf who was ministering to the Picts in that area of Scotland that Mungo began his missionary labours on the Clyde, on the site of modern Glasgow. Christianity had been introduced to the region by St Ninian and his followers welcomed the saint and procured the consecration of Mungo by an Irish bishop. He built his church at the confluence of the Clyde and the Molendinar Burn where the present medieval cathedral now stands.

We are told that he continued to labour in this district living a most austere life in a small cell and madeg many converts by his holy example and his preaching.

Following on other missionary endeavours including a pilgrimage to Rome Mungo eventually returned to Glasgow where a large community grew up around him becoming known as “Clas – gu”, meaning the “dear family”.

Consequently it was in Glasgow that Mungo like so very many others made his home! It was within Glasgow that he fulfilled his apostolate of serving God and of serving others! And it is from Glasgow that the example of Mungo still shines out!

Mungo’s four religious miracles in Glasgow (concerning a bird, a tree, a bell, and a fish) are represented in the City’s Coat of Arms. And Glasgow’s motto: “Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of his word and the praising of his name” is inspired by Mungo’s original call: “Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word”.

CONCLUSION:

If there is any lesson for us to be learned at this present time it is surely in taking those words of St Mungo to heart in our own time.

We know that this year on which we have now embarked in Glasgow as indeed in the whole of Scotland, is “the year of homecoming”. Further, this year Glasgow is also celebrated as the “City of Music”.

Consequently, as Christians we should realise the joy which is ours and the joy which should belong to others as well at this present time as we seek to celebrate our common Christian faith with joy and rejoicing on this feast day.

But we must never be unaware of the enormity of the task that faces us here in Scotland and in the world at this present time. Just 26 years ago the late pope John Paul 11 was here in Glasgow and speaking in Bellahouston Park he stated:

“We find it harder to follow Christ today than appears to have been the case before. Witnessing to him in modern life means a daily contest. As believers, we are constantly exposed to pressures by modern society which would compel us to conform to the standards of this secular age, substitute new priorities, restrict our aspirations at risk of compromising our Christian conscience”.

On reading of the endeavours of Mungo to live the Gospel himself and to preach that Word of God here in this land some fourteen hundred years ago; and being reminded of our present difficulties today – surely it is incumbent on each of us to turn back to that Word of God again realising the strength we have from that word and the importance of the messages from Jesus Christ handed on to us when he was on earth and still handed on to us today.

Preaching the Word of God and praising his name must still be incumbent on each one of us in this great City of Glasgow. Strengthened by the roots of so many in this City, aware that countless thousands have looked upon Glasgow as their home; may we too realise the call which continues to us at this present time from Christ through Mungo to continue to let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of his word and the praising of his name.