‘The Fragments of life’ – a reflection by Joe McVeigh

 

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The great Monaghan poet, Patrick Kavanagh, spoke about the presence of God ‘in the scattered fragments of life’. Patrick from Iniskeen was indeed a kind of a saint, a mystic, odd in his ways, we are told, but close to the earth and the sacred with a distinctive way of seeing and observing people and especially the natural world. He saw the supernatural intruding on the natural. He also had the gift and the ability to translate these beautiful thoughts into words woven together like magic. Referring to the country farmer he observed:

Yes, sometimes when the sun comes through a gap

These men know God the Father in a tree:

The Holy Spirit is the rising sap,

And Christ will be the green leaves that will come

At Easter from the sealed and guarded tomb.

Patrick experienced these mystical revelations in his own life and wrote about them in many of his wonderful poems. He contrasted the richness and the poverty of life in a poor country parish, the life which he saw all around him and which he described in his long poem ‘The Great Hunger’.

 

The cycle of the seasons, the work of the farmer, the rising of the sun and its setting are constant reminders of the  evolving universe which, to those with the eyes to see, proclaims God’s presence in the world we live in. God is not distant way up there in the sky…God is here with us especially in our sorrows and struggles and in the life of the earth around us. Native peoples have this spiritual sense more intensely. The beauty of creation, the energy, the life in all of creation which comes and goes, ebbs and flows and in which we are all caught up as in a web.

The planting and sowing, the growing and dying, the seasons and the rising of the sun every day- and its setting – are constant reminders of the changing nature of our lives and of the pattern of all life here on this planet Earth. We too are always changing. We too are on an evolutionary journey and we too will die so that new life will be born. It’s a great circle referred to in the Irish language as the ‘Rotha Mor an tSaoil’.

Pope Francis in his wonderful encyclical Laudato Si reminds us that we are all connected –that everything in creation is connected and related and everything we do affects others. We cannot escape from this relationship with others and with the earth we live in, our common home. It means, as Pope Francis reminds us, that we have responsibilities to all of the creatures on this planet and for the planet itself. It is because of this that people of conscience oppose fracking and the pollution of the environment,

Love is the energy and the glue that holds all together. It is the undercurrent that keeps it all moving and evolving. When love is absent or corrupted there is a breakdown and violence and chaos results as we see when there is conflict and war and oppression. When our Mother, the Earth, is disturbed there are serious consequences for the health and well-being of all creatures.

But, in spite of the wilful harm being done, the energy of love survives and will survive because it is an energy than cannot ever be destroyed and creation will continue to evolve and life goes on even in the midst of the decay and the dying all around us.

Death cannot destroy love.

 

 

 

6 Responses to ‘The Fragments of life’ – a reflection by Joe McVeigh

  1. Twinbrook Lad August 24, 2016 at 12:35 pm #

    This is lovely. More of them please

  2. Eddie Finnegan August 24, 2016 at 6:29 pm #

    Thanks, Joe, for something worth reflecting upon.

    Now it beats me why they never canonised Kavanagh a slightly rough-cornered saint, or ordained you a less than smooth-edged bishop. Maybe it’s not too late yet.

  3. BaldyBapTheBarber August 24, 2016 at 6:55 pm #

    Nice piece Joe! Some of what you wrote brought to mind a line by C.S Lewis that I love – “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

  4. Gerard August 25, 2016 at 10:05 am #

    Nice piece Joe. Patrick Kavanagh was a legend!

  5. Ernesider August 25, 2016 at 5:30 pm #

    My friend Maurice McElhone died yesterday ..

    No man is an island,
    Entire of itself,
    Every man is a piece of the continent,
    A part of the main.
    If a clod be washed away by the sea,
    Europe is the less.
    As well as if a promontory were.
    As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
    Or of thine own were:
    Any man’s death diminishes me,
    Because I am involved in mankind,
    And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
    It tolls for thee.
    John Donne

    • Jude Collins August 25, 2016 at 7:02 pm #

      Well said, Ernesider. And another to supplement your own very apt quotation:

      Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
      Nor the furious winter’s rages;
      Thou thy worldly task hast done,
      Home art gone, and ta’en they wages:
      Golden lads and girls all must,
      As chimney-sweepers, come to dust”
      Ar dheis de go raibh a ainm…