FATHER JOHN O’DONNELL

New Zealand Tablet, 16 May 1918, Page 18

FATHER JOHN O’DONNELL

Twelve months ago Father O’Donnell died in Queenstown among the people for whose souls his life was spent. The anniversary was kept on Tuesday, May 14, when Masses were celebrated from an early hour in the Church of St. Joseph by the late pastor’s fellow-priests. Large numbers of the parishioners received Holy Communion at the 6.30 and 7 o’clock Masses, and at 8 o’clock a crowded congregation assisted at the Solemn Requiem Mass. The incidental music was rendered by the choir of St. Joseph’s Church, and, at the conclusion of the ceremony, the. organist (Miss M. McCarthy) played the “Dead March” from “Saul.’’ The celebrant of the Mass was the Very Rev. James O’Neill, Waikiwi; deacon, Rev. James Delany, South Dunedin; subdeacon, Rev. D. O’Neill, Roxburgh; master of ceremonies, Very Rev. James Coffey, St. Joseph Cathedral. . The following clergy were also present: —Rev. H. Woods, Invercargill; Rev. A. Farthing, Gore; Rev. W. Corcoran, Queenstown; Rev. M. Scanlon, Holy Cross College. The occasional sermon was preached by Father Coffey, who said: “I am the Good Shepherd: I know mine and mine know Me.” (John x. 14.) Our Divine Lord in His instructions to His Apostles and in His discourses to the people used the best-known and the simplest illustrations to teach the most sublime truths. The loving care with which the shepherds of the East guarded and fed their flocks was known to all. The shepherd lived with his flock, he selected the pastures for it and walked before it whilst the sheep followed him because they knew his voice. Our Lord used this simple illustration to teach His hearers the relationship which should exist between the Apostles and the people. The Apostles were appointed shepherds of the spiritual flock. They were to teach it and protect it from the wolves. The sheep were to learn the sound of the shepherd’s voice, and to follow that voice with confidence, knowing that the good shepherd would not lead them astray nor fly when' the cry “Wolf” was raised.

It is now just one short year since a good pastor was taken from his flock in this district of Wakatipu, or rather shall I say, since a good shepherd laid down his life for his flock ; for truly he spent himself unto death in the interests of you, his dear people. On that occasion, in the presence of his mortal remains surrounded by sorrowing hearts, we did him all honor possiblehonor sanctioned by our loving mother, the Church. We listened to an eloquent .'recital of his characteristic virtues, and his life's work, and we felt how powerless are human words, no matter how elo-

quently spoken, to fill the void left by the death of a dear friend and a good pastor. We then laid his' body to rest under the shadow of those eternal hills he loved So much in life, where it awaits the sound of the Archangel’s trumpet call to put on immortality, and, again joining his pure and noble soul, enter into eternal bliss. To-day, the anniversary of his falling sleep, the Church, which never allows us to forget our departed friends but ever preserves unbroken the golden chord of friendship and fraternal charity, calls us together that we may, as in duty bound, .pray for the soul of our departed brother and may encourage ourselves to follow his example by recalling his virtues. Having dealt with the office and dignity of the priesthood, the preacher went on to tell of the Apostolic qualities and the sterling virtues of Father O’Donnell. His piety led him to have an unfailing confidence that God would give him strength' to bear the burden of his office and bring him successfully through all his trials and difficulties. “When God is with us, what matter who is against us?” When the storms blew strongest a*id the heavens grew darkest, to him the Lord was nigh, and though He seemed to sleep He ever heard the cry of the faithful servant, “Lord, save us, we perish.” A priest has to carry a heavy burden —a burden before which an angel might tremble. He is placed on the “watchtowers of Israel” to keep continual guard over the souls of his flock. He is the shepherd who has to be ever on the watch for the wolves who seek to devour his beloved sheep. The neglect of one duty, one false sentence in the tribunal of penance, one piece of wrong advice from the pulpit may mean the loss of a soul for whose salvation Jesus has paid a great price the price of His Precious Blood. Here again confidence in God, Who by the Divine Spirit will guide the priest in the work of the ministry, makes the burden light and enables him to carry it with gladness because he feels that God has made “His yoke sweet and His burden light.” This humble confidence in God stamps on the soul of a priest two characters which I think you must have recognised in your late pastor. It gives him an extraordinary patience in suffering and a heroic spirit of self-sacrifice. He looks to Jesus, the “Author and finisher of our faith,” Who, when “He had joy placed before Him embraced the Cross, despising the shame.” (Heb. xii. 2.) During many of the later years of his life his body was constantly in pain, yet no word of complaint was ever heard from his lips. On the contrary, as you know, he undertook work which might lawfully be considered too much for a younger and stronger man. He might be heard, like St. Francis, asking God to send him greater crosses, greater afflictions, and greater trials. He had the true spirit of self-sacrifice, which made him forget himself and be solicitous only for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. With St. Paul, he desired “to be dissolved and to be with Christ, yet with St. Ignatius, he was willing to live on and endure, if God so willed it, pain, labor, and fatigue, if by so doing he could gain souls to God. The priest must be a man of prayer, standing, as the prophet describes him, between the porch and the altar: the priest, the Lord’s minister, -shall weep, and shall say, “Spare, O Lord, spare Thy people; and give not Thy inheritance a reproach.” (Joel ii. 17.) The late Father O’Donnell cultivated the spirit of prayer to an extraordinary degree. You all know with what faith, fervor, and devotion he offered the Holy Sacrifice daily, and called upon God in the sublime words of the Offertory: “Receive, O Holy Father, Almighty and Eternal God, this Host without spot which I, Thine unworthy servant, offer to Thee,' my living and true God, for mine innumerable sins, offences, and negligences: as also for all here present, and for all faithful Christians, living and departed, that to me and to them it may be profitable unto life everlasting.” You know how he loved to pay his visit every day to his Lord in the Tabernacle, and how he spent hours in recollection before the Blessed Sacrament, telling his dear Jesus of his difficulties and his desires, speaking to Him of

his people, and asking the Sacred Heart to take compassion on some poor sinner who had wandered from the fold and got entangled in the briars of passion or worldly ambition. You know how he loved his Rosary, and how he advised and encouraged you to say it and to make it your daily family prayer, and thus carry on the beautiful tradition you brought with you from the Old Country, and keep the crown of roses ever fresh and fair round the Immaculate Mother, of God. One incident in this connection I will relate which tells of his faith in the Rosary as a means of obtaining God’s help in trouble ; it will also serve to show you how he had you always in his thoughts. A couple of years ago a fellow priest, now dead, “God rest his soul,” and I were staying a week with your late pastor. It commenced to rain, and rained very heavily for a couple of days. One night, as it was still raining in torrents, Father O’Donnell called on us to go out to the church to say the Rosary that it might cease raining, as his poor people were in danger of suffering from the floods. Before we returned to the house the rain had stopped : his prayer had been heard. When our Lord appointed His Apostles He said to them, as He says to all His Priests, “I have appointed you that you should bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. ’ (John xv. 16.) Zeal in the service of God and for the salvation of souls—the fruits of a priest's lifeshould be a characteristic in the life of every worker in the vineyard of the Lord. Everything round him speaks to him of the necessity of zeal. . . . The

fruits of the zeal of your late pastor in these respects are an open - book. You have only to look round this church, admired so much ‘by you, and by all who visit Queenstown, to appreciate what he did to provide a fitting dwelling place for his beloved Lord. He built and improved churches in other portions of his vast district, he kept the Christian school open and efficient under great difficulties, and at great personal sacrifice in face of a falling population, so that the “little ones” of his flock might get that wholesome spiritual food necessary to sustain them through life. And where these schools were not passible he undertook the work of instruction himself. I

have known him to travel all the way to Skippers once a week to teach the catechism to one child. You, his people, know with what unction he delivered Sunday instructions to you; He spoke “as one having authority.” You also know of his tender care and attention to the sick and dying. He held himself ever ready, night or day, to go at the call of duty to the remotest part of his extensive district to attend a sick call. In doing this he had formidable difficulties to overcome, but it was his delight to overcome difficulties. You all know of the extraordinary journey he undertook some years ago to visit one member of his flocka journey which robbed him of his robust constitution. lam sure you often wondered how in his failing health he could undertake all this work and

undertake it so willingly and graciously as to make you believe that you were conferring a favor on him in asking him to start on the longest journey over the lake or over the almost impassable roads, even at night time. I will tell you the secret. I heard it from his

own lips as I sat beside his bed a few days before his lamented death. We were talking of some of the journeys he had to make and of the work he had done, and I ventured to say I did not know how he could have done it. His answer was, “You could not do it

unless you loved the people.” That answer contained a world of meaning. It was the pivot of his life and of all his actions; his zeal, arising from pure love of God and love for his people in God. His heart burned with an intense love for the

land of his birth. How he loved to sing her national songs, those songs in which the sadness and sorrows of her glorious history are mingled with her undying hopes ! His one worldly hope was to live to see the sun of freedom rise over the whole land, with North and South joining hands in making the country the “first flower of the earth and the first gem of the sea.” He loved this countrythe land of his adoption—and

. .j, , . - . . v , rejoidfed in her * prosperity - and. the prosperity ;of her people. His wise counsel and- generous assistance were ever at the call of those who endeavored to promote the prosperity of .this district. - The dearest spot on earth to him was his home here among the mountains, where every morning he thanked the Great God, Whose beauty and love he saw reflected in the deep blue waters of the lake. Just twelve months ago you laid his body, that frail casket which enclosed his beautiful soul, to rest under the towering peaks of Ben Lomond. The faded ■leaves of another year have spread themselves over his grave, but his memory has not faded from your minds. His bright example is ever before you, urging you on to obey duty’s call. He has erected a monument to his memory in your hearts : you on your part will erect a monument to him in the way he would best like by helping to send more reapers into the over-ripe harvest of the Lord. The Church tells us, by calling on us to keep this anniversary of his death, “that nothing defiled can enter into heaven,” and that “no mail is perfect.” When the brilliant light of God’s justice shall search the human soul, many imperfections hidden from our dim gaze may be revealed, “Therefore it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins.” His soul may still be calling out to us, whom he has helped while on earth, “Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends; for the hand of the Lord has touched nie ” Let us not be deaf to that cry. Let us pray for his soul now and many times when we think of him and when we enter this church. Let ns ever say “May his soul and the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace.” Amen.