Bishop Keenan preached this homily at a Mass during which he dedicated the new church of St Fergus in Paisley, on Friday 15th September, the Solemnity of St Mirin.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters, it is a joy for me to gather with you this evening for the dedication of our new Saint Fergus church out of what was formerly our parish hall, and on the Solemnity of Saint Mirin, the Holy Founder of our Diocese, who established his mission from a similar little church near the River Cart around Seedhill.  Who could have imagined how the faith he formed in that little chapel would blossom into the worship of the glorious Paisley Abbey around which the town was built.  Or who could have believed how, through the twists and turns of history, Mirin’s little Mission would be born again in the Diocese of Paisley with its splendid Cathedral and parishes spread along the central southwest of Scotland, from Eaglesham to Wemyss Bay.  Mirin’s little church and mission remain to this day a testimony as to how the LORD can take the morsel of bread of our faith that we entrust to His hands and multiply it a thousandfold, and how He can even pick up the scraps and move on to start out anew. 

As I celebrate this Holy Mass with you this evening, I am conscious this will be the third church consecrated for this parish, and that I am the third bishop of Paisley to preside over such a consecration.  

Bishop James Black, the first bishop of the diocese, dedicated the original church of St. Fergus in 1950.  Bishop John Mone, commenting on that dedication when celebrating the anniversary of the parish, set out the usual order of things: that a parish is first erected without a church, and building the church is the first project for the parish.  The eventual opening of its church becomes the sign that the parish has established itself and taken on a life of its own.  It is a visible sign to the neighbourhood of the parish as a living and worshipping community.  

Yet he was struck at how Bishop Black’s sermon opening the first church had turned the order of things on its head.  He put the challenge in the opposite way. “You have achieved the building of a church.  Now you must go forward to build a parish.’

In 1971, Bishop Stephen McGill solemnly dedicated the second church which still watches over us outside.  By then. St. Fergus was indeed an established parish, and the opening of the new, modern church marked a fresh phase in the life of the parish.  As Bishop Mone put it, St. Fergus parish had become part of the landscape of Paisley and was making its contribution to the life of the diocese as well as to the common good of the town and local community. 

He thanked GOD for the church building and for all it meant to the  parish community as their house of God where GOD dwelled among them; a place where they came together for Holy Mass, where they heard the Word of GOD and entered into the Sacrifice of Calvary, where their children received their First Sacraments, where their young joined each other in marriage; and where, at the last, they commended their departed loved ones to the LORD’s mercy.  For us Catholics, our church is a most beloved building, even more sacred to us than our family homes.  It is GOD’s Home in our community where He hears our tale of misery, where He answers our petitions, where we enter His Mystery and receive His blessing.  It is the place where we feel most holy and worthy as we give thanks and praise to GOD. 

All of this Bishop Mone commended and yet, coming that day on the Gaudete Sunday of Advent, he turned the people’s attention to the Gospel and to St John the Baptist crying in the wilderness in an appeal to the people to find GOD not just in their synagogues and their Temple in Jerusalem but first of all in their hearts, which longed for the coming of the LORD.  John the Baptist pointed the People away from bricks and mortar and to the Person of Jesus and the anointing of the Holy Spirit in their immortal souls.  

So, even as the bishop blessed their church, he called them to renew their personal and communal faith in the LORD’s coming to begin a new chapter in their lives, and to prepare for His coming with joyful and hopeful expectation.  They needed look no further than the little stable of Bethlehem, which was just the perfect size for containing the amazing mystery of GOD’s love for the world.   The presence of GOD among them, tiny and poor, was a power that would go on to transform the world. 

Bishop Mone’s visit came in a period when the parish community had already undergone many social changes and was, at the same time, going through harsh economic times, but he encouraged them to press on regardless and build up their parish community anew, with their church and, still more, with Jesus as the centre, of Whose real and living presence their church was simply a sign.  So, they were to reset their parish life and community confidently on the LORD Who, just as surely as He came to Bethlehem, was coming again into their lives and times to save them.  His coming at Christmas taught them never to succumb to disappointment or fear but to be full of the same hope. 

Now, as your Bishop, and following in Bishop Mone’s footsteps and in those of our beloved Founder and Bishop Saint Mirin, I come to dedicate this latest little parish church around the Seventy-Fifth anniversary of the erection the parish of St. Fergus. 

Just like the People of GOD of old who heard Ezra and Nehemiah retelling their glorious history to them, we have heard of the great story of St. Fergus parish in its origins. Nehemiah noticed a certain sorrow in the People that their past seemed so much rosier than today, but he urged them not to weep and instead even to throw a party because their today, their present circumstances, were even more precious and holy to the LORD than was their past.  Even more today, the joy of the LORD was to be their strength.

Like the Christians in Corinth, I hope we can see this new, small plot here as GOD’s field and this little church as GOD’s own building.   We thank GOD for the grace He gave to our founding fathers, to the priests and people of St. Fergus who laid wise foundation for our parish.  But now we are called to build upon it, careful to develop our parish life again on the one foundation already laid, Our LORD Jesus Christ, never forgetting that we, ourselves together, are GOD’s sacred temple with His Spirit powerfully dwelling in us.

Today, with this dedication of our church, the LORD Jesus shows us He wants to stay at our house.  I hope that, like Zaccheus, we will welcome Him gladly - poor, repentant sinners thar we are!  Today salvation comes to our little church and to all of us, children of Abraham, who worship here.  Let us be of good cheer, for nothing is ever lost when the Son of Man comes seeking us out anew, and more than we can imagine is gained whenever and however He chooses to make His Home in our midst.

May Our Lady of Paisley, Who made a Home for the LORD in Nazareth be with us and teach us how to build in Ferguslie a home precious in which for Him to dwell.