Parish Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: Thomas & Julia O'Connor; (Anniv)
12.00: Peg Tierney, (Anniv).
6.30: Willie Morris and late family members, (RIP).

AS I WAS SAYING.....

I referred last week to the fact that our new Pope regards Augustine (354-430) as his hero. "I have developed my thinking in dialogue with St. Augustine" Joseph Ratzinger, the theologian, wrote in 1969. He devoted four years of his early academic life to the exclusive study of Augustine's works. As we shall see, Augustine has left his mark on the Pope.

Down the ages, the thinking of the Catholic Church has been dominated by two very distinct schools: 'Thomism' (after Thomas Aquinas) and 'Augustinianism' (after Augustine). The former is optimistic in that Thomas believed that nature and grace were entirely compatible. In the face of strident opposition, he made extensive use of any author who could lead him to truth, be they pagan, Christian or Jewish. He saw no opposition between the truths discovered by reason and those revealed by God (in the scriptures). In short, according to Thomas, the incarnation teaches us that, despite sin and evil, the world is still 'God-friendly'.

'Augustinianism', on the other hand, contains a very strong, negative strand. It is no accident that Luther and Calvin turned to Augustine's writings to support their pessimistic view of the human condition. Karl Marx once wrote that 'context conditions consciousness'. Our context, the world in which we live, leaves an indelible stamp on the way we think. Augustine, the Christian bishop, greatly admired the civilisation constructed by pagan Rome. But it was now disintegrating before the old bishop's eyes, and this disintegration depressed him deeply. Increasingly, he tended to dwell on human depravity, on humanity's incapacity for 'unaided' goodness. His pessimism became more pronounced as he aged, and the political world around him unravelled. He wrote:

"You are surprised that the world is losing its grip? That the world is grown old? Think of a man: he is born, he grows up, he becomes old. Old age has its many complaints: coughing , shaking, failing eyesight, anxious, terribly tired. The world too is old; it is full of pressing tribulations."

The contrast with Thomas couldn't be more stark. Augustine wrote his final 22 volume masterpiece, City of God, as a direct response to this disintegration. There he asserted the superiority of the church to any human society. He identified the institutional church with 'the city of God'. The city of God is a stranger here on earth, Augustine believed, and it must be in the world but not of the world. Augustine was convinced that the world and the church had parted ways irrevocably. Dr. Ratzinger swings on the same gate.

In 1997, Cardinal Ratzinger quoted a homily given by Augustine in which he tells the story of a son who wakes his father from sleeping sickness. The father becomes angry, but the son says, "I can't let you sleep." The church also must not let its members sleep, according to Ratzinger. The church must "raise her index finger and become irksome." It is a good summary of what the Cardinal took away from his master. Like his master too, the new Pope has (or at least had!) a low expectation of the world. There could well be lots of finger-wagging!

-Dick Lyng.

A STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

About 150 late teenagers flocked into Knockmitten church on a cold December morning to attend the funeral of their friend Brian who had died of cancer at the age of seventeen. Brian had been 'waked' at home on Saturday and Sunday. During those two days the house was full of his friends who stood within and without often just in silence. Some were in tears. Others just hugged and whispered to each other. They put a can of 'Bud' beside Brian in the coffin. When I called to the house I felt that the prayers and words I had to offer were totally alien to these fine young people. I felt a stranger in their midst.

It was the same at the church for the Funeral Mass. There was no response to the prayers. Yet they all came for Holy Communion. They put a lovely expensive wreath on the altar in his memory. They played a tape of his favourite song and some sang along with the music - they had provided a copy of the words. Two of his closest friends paid brief tributes to him - but their words were drowned in their grief. Another friend then made his way to the mike and recalled a few memories he had of Brian. He used some inappropriate language which drew a loud but nervous response from his friends.

They carried his body out of the church as they had carried it in. They followed the cortege to the Newlands crematorium about four miles away - many arriving late and out of breath. When the ritual prayers were over they again played a tape of his favourite music. They just sat there in silence.

It was strange! Yet I felt somehow comfortable with them. My head wanted it to be different but my heart was with them. I affirmed them for their support and care and thanked them for the way they had supported their friend' s mum and his only sibling. I thanked them for their solidarity with each other.

I put the Christian message of life and death as relevantly as I could. I felt though that I was in an alien land. I regretted that the beautiful and consoling message of Christ meant so little to them.

Reflecting on the situation the following morning I wondered how and where the Church had failed both these young people and their parents. The Christ message is so rich, yet its reception so poor. What a great pity! They miss so much.

Why have all our catechetical programmes failed to connect with the reality of young people' s lives? Why do they take away so little from all the effort and good will of our schools?

Lord, enlighten me.

Meanwhile this is Tuesday morning. Brian is at peace and rest and awaits the Resurrection. His family and his friends are still trying to make sense of what has happened. I thank God for the solidarity that our young people show at a time like this, for the care of the staff at the children' s hospital, for the goodness of Brian' s neighbours and for the quiet acceptance of his death by his family.

-Fr Des Byrne, CC, 45 Woodford Drive, Dublin 22.

HAPPENINGS THIS WEEK

By the way.........

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