From the archives: A missionary's Christmas message in 1941
By Tom Gillespie
AT Christmas 1941, the Rev. J.D. Barrett, S.M.A., a native of Castlebar, who was stationed at the Catholic Mission, Warri, Nigeria, West Africa, wrote the following letter to The Connaught Telegraph:
It is only through the kindness of the editor that I can hope to get the message of Christmas greeting and remembrance across to the many, many friends at home that I should dearly wish to write to if I could. Many will, I hope, find in this letter a reminder to write.
They will ponder - and know they are not forgotten. They will kindly consider this letter as personal and individual to themselves and understand that it is none the less cordial and friendly on my part for being public.
Christmas Day will be hot and sweating out here. The Mass will be all that Christmas will have in common with Christmas at home.
Recollection, pleasant and poignant, will rise in the hearts of us missionaries. Whenever there are Christian communities there will be some of that intense, inner, other world joy that Christmas brings to you at home.
Pagans, too, will join in and make merry and capture some of that festive spirit that the great feast of the Christmas spreads around it.
They will beat their drums and dance and sing and shout all day and all night.
A few years ago I cycled about 12 miles on Christmas Eve to spend Christmas in a certain town. I heard Confessions 'til midnight, had midnight Mass and preached. It was near 3 a.m. when I flung myself, exhausted, on an old camp bed to rest 'til next Mass at 6 a.m.
But the townspeople had no notion of sleeping and they kindly showed their appreciation of my presence by making all the din they could around the Mission.
Big drums and little drums, shrieking tin-whistles and blaring cornets clambered to drown each others noises.
But it seemed there was only one tune. They played it over and over again. And that was - in case I did not realise it - ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’!
Often times during the year one comes across groups of pagans making merry. They tell you gleefully that they are making Christmas. For them as for others the word ‘Christmas’ merely means merriment.
But for the vast majority out here, for millions, the word ’Christmas’ means nothing. They have never heard of it. The ‘Good tidings of joy’ that the angels brought on the first Christmas night have not reached them yet.
War or no war, hundreds of them die every day not only ‘without the priest’ but without Baptism, without ‘hope, without having ever heard of the name of Christ’.
There lies our task and our opportunity - ours and yours.
Passing through a village the other day I was told there was a man sick there. We are always on the lookout for sick people. We have ‘agents’ in all the villages to report them and to baptise them if we are not there.
I found the sick man sitting outside the door of his hut, dazed, and still supporting himself on a bench. He was a staunch old pagan in his day but now he was a mere bagful of bones, slowly fading away from sheer old age.
He nodded consent to all my instructions, and all went well 'til I began to tell him about the resurrection of the body. He shuffled uneasily. Every bone in the old body stirred.
For the first time he spoke: ‘I want to rise again!’
He had enough of this old world and didn’t want any more of it. Further explanation eased the situation. He gazed at me through bleary eyes when I told him about Heaven.
Even then he seemed a bit sceptical, but finally he took me at my word, removed the old ju-ju charm from round his neck, and bowed his head for Baptism.
He died the next day. The fag-end of his life smouldered out with the odour of incense.
Friends and well-wishers will be glad to know that I am, thank God, hale and hearty, and happy as the day is hot. So are all the Mayo missionaries out here.
In these troubled and threatening days we often whisper the old prayer: ‘God Save Ireland.’ You know the best Christmas gift you can give us - the sustaining strength of your continued prayers.
Your prayers are more powerful for the conversion of Africa than even efforts of a missionary on the field. It is an old principle of missionary activity that you can do more good talking to God about man than by talking to man about God - God will at least listen to you.
May the peace of the first Christmas Night, and the blessing of Jesus and Mary follow this paper to hearts and homes at home. Very sincerely in Christ - J.D. Barrett.
In a covering letter, Fr. Barrett said that he still received The Connaught Telegraph from Mrs. Haughey, Castlebar, to whom he was deeply grateful.