The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1919. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH

New Zealand Tablet, 20 February 1919, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1919. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH

SC lIEN a y° un g man kneels before the altar, ™ yjjf robed in white, candidatus, petitioning Ufa- Holy Church to accept him as a Levite and to permit him to bind himself ,to the service of the Lamb by irrefragable Qgg vows of chastity and obedience, a solemn, '®3>T warning is spoken by the bishop, who, in the measured words of the ordination service, reminds the suppliants that they are still free to turn back, and that if they go forward now they will be bound to Christ in an especial way, for life here and for life hereafter. They who hear the ritual warning read have long pondered on its full meaning, and when they arise to go towards the altar instead of turning from it, they recognise that henceforth they belong sacramentally to Christ and to the people who form His mystic Body, that His wish is tenfold more to them now than before, that they have given up the world that has spoken to them for the last time, and the pleasures and the purely selfish interests it might have in store for them in future, and that, now and for ever, it will be not so much a sacrifice as the mere fulfilment of a duty for them to give even life itself when Christ calls for it in His service. Because of the deep conviction that it is their duty, and that they have already made their election rlp.l 1 VIPVQ f.oKr OTld wm‘/xr.4- n X! .1 *i. ._ - ' ' t . -- —v 6 iuu x j > iiii it ct Avonaertully easy thing to respond to the hardest summons when it comes; they spring naturally to action with a spontaneous Adsum on their lips the moment a call comes They never weigh the danger to themselves, or if they do weigh it there is never a thought of hesitating because of it. Sacrifice is duty, and duty is sweet and they have learned even to welcome as a supreme bless-

ing from God death that comes by way of the fulfilment of duty. So there is the secret spring of a heroism which is among the wonderful things of life, a heroism which will carry men through perils of all kinds, with nothing to gain from a worldly point of view, in calm and cool deliberate performance of the same sacred ministry which is their everyday occupation. In battle and in pestilence, in earthquake and in shipwreck, the marvellous readiness of priests to affront the worst perils is, after all, a state of mind for which their vocation has prepared them and taught them to regard as a matter of plain duty, for the highest of motives. Thus it is that While all about them rise, The crashing discords of a world’s dismay, the clergy of the Catholic Church make the gesture; of heroes, with perfect simplicity and naturalness. * On Wednesday, February 12, a numerous body of prelates, priests, and laics gathered together in St. Joseph’s Church, Wellington, to assist at the Holy Sacrifice offered to God for the good estate of the souls of Fathers Kinkead, Cronin, and Lewis, who had died in the performance of their duty during the recent epidemic. These three young Irishmen met death in the way in which any priest may at any time be called upon to meet it; and as, we trust and believe, through the grace of our Lord, any priest would meet it. They did a heroic thing, which to them was, after all, but a natural thing, for the reasons, upon which we have briefly dwelt. They had, a few years left all things to follow Christ, and in leaving also the dear land of their birth, which all three loved with the deathless love of Irish patriots for their country, they had relinquished more than every priest is called upon to leave. Two of them for about eight years, the third for hardly so many months, devoted themselves to the care of the people to whom the will of their ecclesiastical superiors sent them : they had received a mission, or a sending, and the plague that swept over - New Zealand found them doing their work as Catholic priests, faithfully, silently, patiently, just as their fellow-priests were doing theirs. Others who had labored long and borne the heat of the day were as ready as they, but it was the young priests, one of them but bending to the harvest, the other two as yet in the morning hours, whom the Master called away to receive their reward, for whom in His mysterious ways He prepared the crowns of martyr-priests. And so they arose and left behind this earthly life, as they .had left behind the promise of the world a few years earlier when they knelt at the feet of the ordaining bishop and solemnly gave themselves to Christ and His people. For Christ and His mystical Body they died ; and we, who are members of that Body too, have a title to share in their glory and a right to feel the legitimate pride which springs from the contemplation of hardships and duties nobly endured and performed; as also through that organic union we still remain their friends as we were during their mortal days, and have the obligations of friendship to compel . us to remember them before the altar, praying that God may give them refreshment, light, and peace unending. They were His disciples ; He gave Himself into their keeping as familiarly as He did in the days when other disciples were privileged .to touch His wounds . and when He took from their hands broiled fish and wild honeycomb by the side of the lake : He called them suddenly and they were —ready to prove by dying for their 'friends that they had the great love which makes men most like unto Him. “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching. Amen, I say to you, that He will gird Himself and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them.”

The archdiocese of Wellington has felt the loss of these three young priests sorely. The good Catholic people among whom they lived and for whom they

died will mourn long for them. - We, whom the bonds of intimate friendship united to the two seniors, offer to all their friends, here in New Zealand, and to those others who will mourn most, beside the Shannon, under the shadow of the Kerry hills, and by the rivers of Leinster, our deepest sympathy; and hardly less are we impelled to offer them our congratulations, for the brave deaths of the three and the sure reward they have won are things to be thankful to God for. . And here, with the words of the great Catholic poet, we say our Ave clique Vale and leave them, not forgotten, in their last earthly sleep:. Love made the bed; they’ll take no harm; Let them sleep: let them sleep on, Till this stormy night be gone , Till.the eternal morning dawn; Till the curtain will he drawn And they wake into the light, Whose Day shall never die in Night,