How do you pay tribute to one who gave their life to others? Surely, it would seem, that in offering their life to the service of others, such a person would not seek acclaim, praise or validation.
When we receive the news of a death – whether it’s someone we have known and loved, someone we only knew indirectly, or someone we had only ever heard of – it has an impact on our own lives.
In our current epoch of mass media proliferation and instant news, as soon as the details of someone’s passing are made public, news feeds and social media streams will become awash with tributes to the one who has died.
This can be a heartening experience as we witness the very length and breadth of a life well lived.
Upon hearing the news of Archbishop Noel Treanor’s passing on Sunday August 11, it came as a great shock to me, as it did for everyone else.
The initial shock we experience compels our minds to action, and forces memories to the forefront of our minds’ eye. In remembering Archbishop Treanor my thoughts turned to his unparalleled intellect; his work in bringing the Gospel to the heart of the European project; and his drive to make our local Church a place of welcome, with active participation among the laity: a Living Church. He was remarkable.
However, in that moment I allowed myself time to sit with my memories and to remember another side to the Archbishop. One of a pilgrim, a sojourner, with a pastoral heart that had limitless depth.
Many of these experiences were to be found during the diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes. When the then Bishop Treanor was consecrated as Bishop of Down and Connor in June 2008, I was completing my fifth and final year on the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes Youth Team.
In many ways, those of us who completed our time on the youth team in that period had been spoiled, in the very best way. The previous bishop of the diocese, Bishop Patrick Walsh, and his Auxiliary Bishops, Anthony Farquhar and Donal McKeown, had shown us that the Church leadership, like the living God, is not one that is distant, but close, and attentive to the needs of the people. They engaged with us on the youth team and exemplified that as young Christians, we could be alive with the Gospel and impassioned with faith.
This came to fruition with Bishop Treanor. In his first pilgrimage to Lourdes as Bishop of Down and Connor, his efforts to meet the youth team and hear our voices were evidenced.
The Bishop was actively listening to us, and none were excluded. In listening to him in return, he was ever keen to stress the need for us to be actively participating in the various arenas in which we find ourselves, and in whatever vocation we are called to. It was what he referenced as ‘dual citizenship’.
In remembering Archbishop Treanor my thoughts turned to his unparalleled intellect... but he also a pilgrim, a sojourner, with a pastoral heart that had limitless depth
Having made the annual pilgrimage numerous times after that, I was ever struck at Bishop Treanor’s openness to listen to anyone, or to participate in the pilgrimage by simply offering his own prayers in the Accueil Hospital, or by simply offering his own prayers in silence in the Grotto. Such experiences illustrated the Bishop’s pastoral heart of limitless depth. This simple loving kindness was lived in imitation of Christ.
This concept of dual citizenship was one he expanded upon in 2016, in writing the foreword to a book I was compiling on the life of the Catholic Chaplaincy at Queen’s University Belfast.
The Bishop referenced a second century letter to Diognetus in addressing that sense of dual citizenship. The unknown author of the epistle discusses how Christians, “dwell as sojourners in corruptible [bodies], looking for an incorruptible dwelling in the heavens”.
The unknown author goes on to instruct: “Love edifies [knowledge]... Let your heart be your wisdom; and let your life be true knowledge inwardly received.”
Archbishop Noel Treanor has completed his earthly pilgrimage. He has now attained the full citizenship of heaven offered to us through Jesus Christ.
Many will remember a lecturer, a diplomat, and the Pope’s representative. I will remember a priest, silently offering his own prayers in the Grotto of Massabielle, ever illustrating a life lived in the imitation of Christ.
His legacy will be one that is expanded upon by wiser and more knowledgeable minds than mine. I will remember him as a bishop of great wisdom, with a pastoral heart of limitless depth, who led our local Church through turbulent times. His heart was his wisdom.
In life, Archbishop Noel Treanor sought no acclaim, praise or validation, but offered his own life to help us – regardless of age or station – know that we live as dual citizens, with our eyes firmly fixed on heaven’s promise.
His earthly pilgrimage now complete, I trust that he will now enjoy the eternal joys of that promise.
