Abbot Mark officiating at the ceremonies
of the obsequies of Brother Aidan Hunt at Nunraw.
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----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Mark Caira
Sent: Fri, 15 April, 2011 21:06:51
Subject: Re: Funeral Thursday 14th. 1.00 P.M.
Homily at Br Aidan’s Funeral Thursday 14 April, 2011 Br Aidan and I entered the Abbey here at Nunraw in what doesn’t now seem all that many years ago. I was senior to him by date of entry but junior to him in almost everything else. He would have told you that himself, so it must be true. He was in fact older in years and experience of work and I suppose it remained that way as we rubbed shoulders and clashed heads together over the years. That’s the way we sometimes get to know others and appreciate what they are made of. When I began working in the woods as a very young monk, it was Aidan who had the work experience and could tell us what and how to do it. He had been with the Forestry Commission for a number of years. But when I began helping on the farm, I was the one who became the ‘old hand’ and he ‘the chicken’. For his first main job at Nunraw Br Aidan was put to work as part of the building squad at the new Abbey. During that time he made many friends among the camp workers who came over the years to help put up this solid building that is now our home. After a good number of years on the building site, Aidan was sent to the farm to help Br Carthage, the farm manager. (There is a saying in monastic circles, that it is not good to help someone for too long or you will end up with the job yourself). He learned quickly a lot of the skills involved in caring for the cattle, and experienced the unsociable hours involved in looking after sick animals and helping cows when they were having a difficult calving. (They call this a bachelor’s life!) Eventually he did become farm manager in his own right. With the advice of people like Michael Sheridan, a well-known and shrewd cattle dealer, and long time friend of the community, Aidan learned how to produce a fine herd of beef cattle. There are others who could be named who were also good friends and advisors. They know who they are. I don’t want to mention a long list of names as it would be embarrassing in the extreme to leave someone out. But Br Aidan didn’t come into the abbey just to work, though that played a large part of his monastic life. The basic call of the monk, as St Benedict tells us, is to seek God simply and truly. That was what Aidan came to do. His long working day allowed the choir monks to pray the Divine Office at the set times, unhindered as far as possible from pressures of work. But he had his own times of prayer, before and after his work periods, which he kept to faithfully. He was always up at the early community Mass. If he wasn’t there, it meant he was either called out to some emergency on the farm or that he wasn’t well.. It is so easy for us to make excuses to stay in bed or opt out of what is going on. If he had been ill, he would be up and about his business as soon as he was fit enough. Besides his work on the farm, Aidan had many other little useful jobs within the monastery itself. For years he performed miracles repairing our broken-down or damaged shoes and sandals. Someone said that he should get some else to do that work as he had enough to do, but Aidan said that it was good to have a hobby, something different from his normal work to keep him relaxed. He was always ready to help out in other little chores that needed doing and that kept community life running smoothly. The hot cup of tea, for example, we enjoyed after the Christmas and Easter Vigil celebrations before going out into the cold on the way home, had been prepared by Aidan while the Mass was in progress in the Church Only a few days before he died, Br Aidan went with a few of the community to see the film “Of Gods and Men”. The film was about seven of our fellow Cistercian monks living in Algeria who were unwittingly caught up in the political unrest, which still continues in that country. They lost their lives in a way that is still not clear. He was hesitant about going to see it. He had said these kind of films don’t always live up to expectation. In fact he went and did enjoy it. The film showed how the monks and their mainly Muslim neighbours related to each other. When the individual monks were pondering about what they should do, to leave because of the danger to their lives or to stay, one of their Muslim neighbours told them ,’We are here because you are here’. Br Aidan was asked by a friend at the film if he thought they were right to stay. His reply was, ‘Probably yes, because our lives are for others.’ Aidan had made many friends over the years among those who came to help build the Abbey and also from within the numerous farming contacts he had made as farm manager and he was good at remembering them For his friendship and the good he has done in his life we thank God and we pray for his eternal happiness with God.   |
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