THE CRY OF THE BANSHEE

A SERMON FOR TRINITY SUNDAY

In the lands of the north, where the black rocks stand guard against the cold Irish Sea, in the dark night that is very long, the men of Erin’s valleys stand by the great log fires, and they tell a tale.  They tell of a triple goddess, three pagan sisters who represent but one being.  This being goes by many names, the Phantom Queen of Fairies, the Lady of the Lake, the Moon Goddess, the Black Raven, the Banshee, the Morrigan.  It is a distant memory, but the legends are still told. 

And there is another, second tale that is told by the light of these log fires that warm the room and dispel the darkness, bringing light and truth to the old myths of Morrigan.  It is a tale of pirates who brought to the shores of Erin a young boy from across the sea, a slave captured in the lands beyond the rising sun.  The name of this boy was Patrick, and he was young and strong and fair as the men of the northlands are.  More importantly he was a follower of a new religion that had come as the morning sun behind the mountains to melt away the black clouds of the pagan night.  They tell how he lived among his captives until he grew in wisdom and holiness, and how then Patrick built a ship, and sailed away again, back across the sea, how the Pope of Rome made him a bishop and then sent him back to convert the pagan idolators from their superstitious ways, to bring the Catholic faith to the Irish people.

And when Patrick arrived a second time on the shores of this land of dark forests and snow, this land of mountains and valleys, of deep, narrow bays where the sea roars between the black rocks, and the wind howls cold in the night, they tell how this time he was met by all the wrath and fury of the demon Morrigan and her pagan high priests and priestesses.  Determined to defend their triple goddess of the night against the rising sun of Christianity, these druid priests went to work on their dark arts, summoning their demons, the three pagan sisters of Morrigan, with magic and incantations, poisoning the good folk of the land against the young bishop and his new Trinity. 

Inspired by God, Patrick decided to face the druids and the mobs of angry people. As the two sides met, as light met darkness, St. Patrick reached down to the good and honest soil of Ireland, and plucked a simple three-leafed clover, a shamrock, from the field, and held it up.  The ancient Irish Celts revered the shamrock because it has three leaves, and they considered "3" to be a sacred number. The three leaves shaped like hearts held mystical powers, they thought, powers associated with their evil triple goddess, the "Three Morrigans", the screaming banshee of the Celtic myths.

St. Patrick held up the shamrock before them, and transformed the ancient beliefs of the pagan druids into the understanding of another Trinity, one based on a truth far more ancient than their dark mythology.  A truth that extended beyond the memory of the men who told their tales around the great log fires, a truth that already existed when in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  When in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God, and without whom was made nothing that was made.  When the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.  When the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  The beginning, when there was only God.  God the Creator, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God.  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

The Druid High Priests were impressed by St. Patrick’s teaching, and gave their approval to St. Patrick's missionary work in Ireland.  Many of them converted to Christianity and some became bishops themselves.  St. Patrick and his shamrock banished the demonic Trinity of Morrigan from the shores of Ireland.  And to further emphasize the exile of this triple deity of evil, the new patriarch of this now-Catholic land drove out all the serpents from the island, forcing them to follow their demonic mistress into the sea.  From that time forth to this day, as we all know, there have been no snakes in Ireland.  In fact, no matter where you are in all the world, you will never find a snake in a field of shamrock. In many places shamrock is used as an antidote to snake venom.  The foul serpent fleeth before the image of the Trinity! 

For centuries, the people of Ireland remembered their great patron saint and his teachings.  They kept the faith he taught them, often in the face of terrible persecution.  They believed in the blessed Trinity and made his name holy throughout the land, from the humble reverence of simple farmers, to the learned and holy minds of great saints and scholars.  The words “Catholic” and “Irish” were synonymous, and it was unthinkable that the Emerald Isle would ever falter in her faith.

The unthinkable happened on the 22^nd day of May, 2015.  A question was placed to the good Catholic people of Ireland.  It was a simple question, and had a simple answer.  The question was as follows: “Do you believe that marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex?”  In other words, do you accept that from now on, the definition of marriage that you learned in your catechism from the infallible teaching of the Catholic Church is wrong?  Do you accept that from now on, the laws of God forbidding homosexuality may be broken at will, and with the approval of your Catholic nation?  Do you agree to take the holy doctrines of your patron Saint Patrick who brought you the Catholic faith whole and undefiled, and tear up his teachings, smashing to pieces the tablets of the law of Moses?  Do you dare to defy God? 

If approved by a majority of the good Catholic people of Ireland, it would be the thirty-fourth amendment to the Irish Constitution.  But as I said, it was surely unthinkable that the people of the Emerald Isle, so many of whose blessed ancestors had been persecuted and had laid down their life to preserve this faith intact, for their children and their children’s children—it was unthinkable that they would, by a simple referendum, vote to replace the holy sacrament of marriage with the law of Sodom and Gomorrah.  And yet, the unthinkable happened.

Two-thirds of the Irish people voted to rebel against Almighty God, and overthrow his divine teaching on the sacrament of marriage.  With voices raised in defiance against their God and their Church, both once held in such veneration, they voted to drive out the Blessed Trinity from their shores.  As if God can be summoned and dismissed by the pull of a lever in a voting booth.  And yet, make no mistake.  God does listen to the will of the people.  He will not impose his presence in a land where he is no longer welcome. The Blessed Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost gave us free will at our creation, and will surely abide by the free-will decision of these once proud Catholics who have rejected him, and he will allow them to choose an alternative god if they so desire.  And when the Blessed Trinity does forsake the shores of the Emerald Isle, who do you imagine will blow back in over the black rocks that guard against the cold Irish Sea?  Who will return to reclaim her own?  The people of Ireland may not realize it yet, but they have voted to welcome back the once dreaded triple Morrigan into their midst.  For the first time since the days of Patrick, the scream of the Banshee can be heard again in the once quiet and peaceful Irish night, and it cannot be long before the serpents return to their long-cold nests.

After St. Patrick converted Ireland, the monks from that nation were instrumental in bringing the faith to many of the northern lands of Europe.  Saints like the good abbot Columba, founded monasteries and evangelized the other countries that had held on to their pagan beliefs.  Today, what do the Irish immigrants bring into this land, they who for the past two hundred years brought the faith of St. Patrick to these shores?  Since the Banshee returned to take over Ireland last year, we have witnessed the first ever St. Patrick’s Day Parade at which once banished homosexual groups were now allowed, and even encouraged, to participate.  Do we really expect St. Patrick to bless from his heavenly home a parade in which a group calling itself “The Irish Queers” were given pride of place?  And did the Church complain?  On the contrary, Cardinal Dolan had already given his blessing the previous year when the LGBT community had been permitted to march incognito.  Then last year it was made official, and “coincidentally,” it was the first year that the St. Patrick’s Day Parade was broadcast live to the people of Ireland and the United Kingdom, courtesy of Raidió Teilifís Éireann.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  And the earth was without form and void.  And darkness was upon the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters.  And God said “Let there be light.”  These are the first verses of the Book of Genesis.  They describe the beginning, when “God” created all things.  At Holy Mass today, in this humble setting, the great miracle of creation is in a certain sense re-enacted.  As we offer the Son of God who died for us on the cross of Calvary, to his Father in heaven, we have the same Blessed Trinity.  As the priest bows down over the bread and wine at the Consecration, remember then the divine Word of God who spoke at Creation:  Let there be light.  This time, through the mouth of the priest, the Word of God utters new words, but with the same meaning.  He says not “Let there be light,” but “This is my Body, this is the chalice of my Blood.”  And to whom does this Body and Blood belong?  To the Lord God Almighty, our Saviour Jesus Christ, the Light of the World.  Let there be light!  And behold, the people who walked in darkness, as the prophet Isaiah says, have seen a great light.  We, who walk in the darkness of an increasingly God-less world, in which the gratification of our most bestial lusts have become the new god, we at least, at this Mass, at this altar, have the real presence of the Blessed Trinity.  We have been given the grace not to fall into the same sin and darkness as our Irish brethren.  With our free will let us not drive him away, but let us rather respond gladly to this grace, this gift of God, who has given us this Mass, this Blessed Sacrament.  Let us receive Our Lord into our heart, let us welcome the Blessed Trinity into the darkness of our mortal nature with its temptations and its weaknesses and its desire for pleasure and sin.  Let us introduce into our family the blessed Light of Creation, by which we may see all things for what they truly are.  Let us, with firm hands, take up the sword of light of Blessed Michael the Archangel, and drive far from us the infernal Morrigan with all her wickedness and snares.

Last year, I met an elderly doctor of medicine, a son of Ireland, a man of science, but a devout Catholic.  And like the ancients who stood around their log fires in the cold, dark night, he told a tale.  He had been present at the death bed of one of his patients, and as the man’s eyes closed in death and the priest snuffed out the candle by his bedside, there was heard in the still of the night air, the piercing screaming howl of the triple Morrigan, come to claim the soul of the dead man.  With his own ears, this doctor had heard the cry of the Banshee.   

When all is dark in this our world of sin, when we can hardly make out any more the presence of the Blessed Trinity in all the terrible things that go on around us, perhaps when we might even think we hear the approaching cry of the Triple Morrigan echoing in the empty spaces, let the triple incantation of Our Lady’s Prayer, the Angelus, ring from our lips instead, reminding us at morning, noon and night of the might and power of our heavenly Father, the infinite mercy of his Son, and the love and peace and blessings of the Holy Ghost.  May that peace and heavenly benediction be with us now, henceforth, and for evermore.  Amen.