FEAST OF ST KESSOG

Homily at Emmaus House Chapel 10^th March

Readings:

Leviticus 19: 1-2, 11-18 – “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.”

Matthew 25: 31-46 – “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you?”

Today is the feast of St Kessog. Who, you might ask? Well, in fact Kessog, an Irish Celtic missionary of the late fifth, early sixth centuries is one of Scotland’s most important early saints. Like Columba, he was of Irish royal blood, the son of the King of Cashel, and today still commemorated by churches dedicated to him and by an area of Inverness, an oilfield in the North Sea and a real ale named after him. 

Kessog was Scotland’s patron saint before St Andrew and his name was used as a battle cry by none less than Robert the Bruce as he led his army against the English at the battle of Bannockburn. More than that, Kessog’s bishop’s crozier and his relics were carried before the men as they advanced into battle. So Kessog was still important and much loved even six hundred years after his death.

Martyred, it’s said, on a missionary journey into Europe, his body was returned to Scotland wrapped in linens and sweet herbs, to be buried at Luss (meaning herb in Gaelic). Kessog continued to be more popular than St Andrew for many years because whilst St Andrew was imposed by a King (Kenneth McAlpin) Kessog had lived and worked and served among the people, and did so travelling between warring kingdoms fearless of the danger to his own life, such was his zeal for the Gospel and love for people.

The Bible tells us “The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance; the memory of the just is blessed”, and this is why the Church keeps ancient names like Kessog’s alive even now – because a light still shines. Men died with Kessog’s name on  their lips.

But the challenge to us is to be lights ourselves, remembering that the effects of what we do and how we live echo and reverberate into other lives, other futures far beyond what we can see.

Just as the righteous in the Gospel say: “When did we do this for you, Lord?”, so we will be surprised too. Whatever we do for the least of our brothers and sisters today may still be life-giving for someone years from now. Many years ago I heard a school chaplain preach at an assembly on the theme: “Be a saint – why not?” The call to righteous living in Leviticus, Jesus asking us to wake up to other people’s needs, these are not impossible demands.

We can do it. The Spirit of Jesus lives in us to help us. Lent is when we open up our lives to God so that he can, in the words of our liturgy, kindle in us the fire of his love, and stir us again with the joy of the saints.