10 Feb Soul Food for Sundays

A Reflection for the Sixth Sunday of the Year, 13th February 2022

Noel Moynihan C.S.Sp.

Ordained in 1977, Fr Noel was appointed to Sierra Leone. He subsequently served in the USA for three decades. Returning to Ireland in 2014, he has ministered in Kimmage / Greenhills parishes and as part of the Province’s Promotions Team.

Nowadays if you want a blessing, you have to sneeze. There is an irony attached to this blessing offered to those who have tickly noses. In medieval Rome, a respiratory plague first showed itself with a sneezing fit, and shortly afterwards, the victim died. Witnesses immediately prayed for the afflicted, because they would shortly be among the Blessed.

Jesus loved to talk about The Kingdom of Heaven and ironically those who attain the Blessed state (The Beati), are all those you would not expect. The Kingdom of Heaven is not what we expect it to be. God, and only God, knows what it will be like. And ironically, there is a lesson in that.

Thy Kingdom come!