Diarmuid Pepper reports from Creeslough.
“YOU, THE PEOPLE of Creeslough, are living through a nightmare of shock and horror.”
Those were the words with which Bishop Alan McGuckian opened his homily this morning after Friday’s tragedy in Creeslough.
As he spoke, ten red candles were lit on the altar to honour the ten people who lost their lives in the explosion.
He acknowledged the “ever-widening circle” of pain and trauma; starting with the ten victims and their families, the eight people in hospital (one of whom is in a critical condition), everyone in Creeslough, the first responders and the emergency crews.
The Gospel reading for the Mass was of Jesus healing ten men who had leprosy.
Speaking to The Journal, Bishop McGuckian meditated on the symmetry of the figures, noting that the men with leprosy were also “bruised and broken”.
“When I was thinking of the ten victims, it was only later that I noticed that it was the same number of people (in the Gospel reading).
During his homily, he noted how the ten men with leprosy banded together and called on the community of Creeslough to also band together in the aftermath of the tragedy.
The group of men with leprosy in the Gospel reading call out, “Jesus, take pity on me,” and Bishop McGuckian expressed a similar appeal for the people of Creeslough.
He also encouraged the people of Creeslough to avail of the counselling services which have been made available locally.
Bishop McGuckian also reflected on a line from a local person that has stuck in his head: “It is so random.”
“Anybody could have been caught up in the blast. We ask ‘why did this have to happen here? Why us?’ The bereaved and the victims have to carry this question with them forever,” said Bishop McGuckian.
“We are not masters of our own destiny,” he continued. “We are fragile and vulnerable and in this sense we can all identify with the men with leprosy (from the Gospel reading)”.
Speaking to The Journal after this morning’s service, Bishop McGuckian was asked about how people of faith can make sense of the “random” nature of the explosion.
Standing in front of the altar on which the ten candles burned, Bishop McGuckian said: “For the people who suffered the most, I have no doubt that this will be a slow process.
“The symbol of these candles is, they are long burning candles that will burn day and night for a week. That speaks to the slow, long process of healing for everybody but it is not simple and we cannot expect it to happen quickly.”
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