The season of Lent invites us to alternate between meditating on Jesus as he embraces his cross and going with outstretched arms to assist our neighbour in need. Can you imagine doing both at the same time? One of the many legends about St. Kevin illustrates how such a prayerful exercise might require us to ponder deeply on the ways in which God calls to us from the natural world, and also calls us to expand our understanding of who our neighbour in need is.
Living as a hermit in the remote countryside in the 6th century, St. Kevin was praying one day with his gaze turned to the sky and his arms outstretched to the world, so that his body posture resembled a cross. His concentration was such that he was perfectly still. A blackbird, in search of a secure place to build her nest, alighted on the palm of one of his hands. Realising she had found not just a sturdy ‘branch’ but also a serene setting, she began to gather twigs, leaves, grass and mud to build her nest there. Over the following weeks, she laid her eggs, hatched them, and tended to her chicks until they were ready to fly.
According to the legend, once it dawned on St. Kevin that the blackbird was including him in her plans, he decided to cooperate with her, and maintained a fixed posture while engaging in fervent prayer throughout the entire period. How long might that have been? The task of building a nest generally takes the female blackbird from one to two weeks. Once completed, she lays her eggs over a three-to-five-day period and then hatches them during the following two weeks. It takes a further two weeks for the chicks to open their eyes, grow feathers, and develop the strength and confidence to take their first flight. A grand total of about 40 days!
The season of Lent also spans 40 days. Since the blackbird begins building her nest in early March, and Ash Wednesday frequently falls around that time – can you imagine how St. Kevin laboured throughout that Lenten season? And the ecstasy that he must have felt when the brood of chicks took flight at Easter!
This story is one of several concerning St. Kevin’s devotion not only to God but also to the natural world. While most of them are legends, they have succeeded in capturing the imagination of many people down the centuries. In recent times, this legend stirred the Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney to a profound reflection in his poem St. Kevin and the Blackbird (1996). Clearly, such legends continue to resonate in our hearts because they remind us that we are stewards of God’s creation and that this responsibility entails Lenten commitment and sacrifice so that our feathered and furry neighbours might also share in Easter joy.
