We are gathered here today to say farewell to our dear brother priest, a brother, an uncle and friend, Fr Matt O’Connell, SMA whom God called to himself last Friday morning. No matter how prepared we might think we are, when death comes to our doorstep it stops us in our tracks. Because someone has passed on and is no longer with us – and we try to come to terms that he is gone from us. We turn to the scriptures and today’s second reading tells us that:
“We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that it will be the same for those who have died in Jesus: God will bring them with him”.
These words from scripture assures us, that for those who have died in Jesus, God will bring them home to himself.
These words offer us great support and consolation when we are faced with the death of a loved one. Their going seems to be a terrible loss for us and yet our faith assures us that they have gone home to God. They have gone to meet the Lord and will stay with Him forever. Fr Matt is now gone home with God and we pray he will be at peace.
Fr Matt was born on 7th September 1932 in Toberpatrick, Dromard, Co. Sligo. He was one of sixteen children born to Owen O’Connell and Belinda O’Brien. From an early age, he thought about becoming a priest. But it was a missionary priest he wanted to be. In those days, many religious groups visited schools looking for vocations. But the young lad set his sights on the SMA (because of his wish to be a missionary in Africa) and he began his studies first in Kilcolgan College in Co. Galway in 1951 and then on to our Seminary in Dromantine, Newry, Co. Down and was ordained a priest on 18th December 1956. He was one of eleven ordained on that day in St Colman’s Cathedral, in Newry.
In 1957, Fr Matt’s first appointment in Africa was to the Diocese of Benin City in Nigeria. For the first six months, he did an induction course to help him to adjust to this new culture, to a very different climate and to begin to learn the language of the people he lived among. This was some challenge but Fr Matt was happy there and gave his best in undertaking all the parish ministry from visiting the many outstations, administering the sacraments and building up the local church in that area.
In 1965, while home on leave from Nigeria, he was asked by his Provincial Superior to take up an appointment in Australia. He accepted and set sail for Australia and took up parish ministry in the parish at Beaconsfield Western Australia for 3 years. But by 1968, the attraction of returning to Africa was pulling strongly on his heart and while home on leave from Australia, he met with his superiors and was given permission to return to Nigeria to the same diocese as before.
When a person dies, his life story passes before us, with its joys and sorrows, successes and failures. We all have our own stories of Fr Matt. No matter what we may say now about Fr Matt, they can never tell the full story of his life. At best, what we have are fragments. However, the full story is known only to God.
The sad fact is that all our stories end in death. But as we know, death is not the end. Every human story is the story of a journey, the journey of life. God walks with us on that journey. And as we reach death’s door – what happens? The door opens and God leads us through into another wonderful life with him. Death is not the end of the story but only the beginning of a new life, of life eternal with God. So I encourage you to treasure your memories and stories of Fr Matt.
The first reading today tells us that:
“The Lord is good to those who trust him, to the soul that searches for him. It is good to wait in silence for the Lord to save”.
For the past 6 to 7 months Fr Matt received constant nursing care from the dedicated nursing staff of St Theresa’s in Blackrock Road, Cork. Over this time, he would have waited in silence for the Lord. As his body weakened from the seriousness of his illness and not having the energy to talk much when family and visitors came – he would have spent long times just waiting, pondering and being with the Lord in prayerful moments. Yes, waiting for that day when the Lord would come to call him home.
The reading says: “The Lord is good to those who trust him” – during all his life, Fr Matt trusted in the Lord. His long years of missionary work in Nigeria, in Australia and then in Ireland were marked by the fact that he was a man of faith and believed in what he was doing. Fr Matt had a passion for Mission and a passion for life. He was a missionary and an instrument in the Lord’s hands. The Lord used him to reach out to others.
Fr Matt worked for a total of 38 years in Nigeria. Not all in the one place but in different dioceses wherever the call was greatest. In 1979 after a sabbatical programme of renewal, he accepted an appointment to Neilstown Parish in Dublin. For over 11 years he ministered in that parish reaching out to the parishioners and administering the sacraments and was happy there. But by 1991 the thoughts of Africa pulled once again on his heart and he returned to Nigeria once again and continued in the parish ministry in different SMA Parishes.
In fact, you can say that all of Fr Matt’s priestly life was about parish ministry and that he is what he loved. He got on well with parishioners and accepted them as they were. He firmly believed that God is there for everyone. Who was he to stand in the way? Fr Matt was not there to judge but to help them in any way he could but most important to share how loving and forgiving our God is and to trust in his mercy.
Fr Matt had great compassion for people especially for those in need or struggling in any way. Even during his years of retirement in Cork, he maintained contact with parishioners and people he knew in Africa and went out of his way to send something to help them.
At the farewell Mass on Monday from that SMA Community in Blackrock Road, Cork – Fr Tim Cullinane SMA who actually travelled with him on the same ship to Australia in 1965, shared with us in his homily that Fr Matt had a special greeting of A Grá to everyone he met. He would say Mary a Grá or John a Grá. Fr Matt preached that God was an A Grá God – not a policeman God checking on our faults but a God who was loving and forgiving and who made allowances for our weaknesses.
The Gospel today says:
“I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die”.
These are the words spoken by Jesus to Martha and Mary as they mourned the death of their brother Lazarus. This is really one of the most powerful statements in the Gospels. Because it means that Jesus holds the key to life and death. Jesus, by experiencing death and rising from the dead has broken the power of death forever. We are sad now because death has claimed the life of our loved one – Fr Matt. But we should not be overwhelmed by it. What sustains us now is our faith and hope in Jesus – who is the resurrection and the life.
Fr Matt would have assisted at many a funeral of family members, relatives, friends and parishioners in the parishes he worked and he would have reflected upon and shared this message from today’s gospel, Today, we speak these words for Fr Matt because he believed in these words. He has passed through death’s door and into the loving and merciful hands of God. Yes, reunited now with his parents and his sisters and his brothers all his relatives and friends who have gone before him.
May he now enjoy the fullness of eternal life and receive the reward that awaits this good and faithful servant of the Lord.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
BY FR MALACHY FLANAGAN