Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30 (Vigil) Joseph & Ester Crean, (Anniv).
11.00: Tom, Josephine & Patrick Staunton, (Anniv).
6.30: Frank Barrett, (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

Religion is having a bad time right now! The Pope and the Mullahs, who really should be swinging on the same gate, are at daggers drawn. The Sunnis and the Shiites (with a little help from a God-fearing US President) have reduced Iraq to anarchy. Both George Bush and Tony Blair have both boasted of keeping the bible by their bedsides.

And then we have the suicide bombers killing in the name of religion, and the rather attractive heavenly rewards awaiting these theological heroes. Increasingly, we hear talk of an imminent 'clash of civilisations', when the religious fanatics of the East will take on the decadent hedonists of the West.

If you are not at all religious, the world beyond Europe must seem a great puzzle. Because everywhere else in the world, people are generally religious, and religion often plays a very public role. But a prolonged period of secularisation has made many of us Europeans tone deaf to the music of religion. As the world shrinks, we shall have to come to terms with this. We can't assume that, as societies modernise, they will invariably become more secular. 'Expose them to enough learning, and religion will evaporate' thought the naive 18th century Enlightenment people.

The most technologically advanced society is the United States; yet America is a deeply religious culture in a way that Britain for example is not. No, if we want to get on with our global neighbours we are going to have to become more religiously literate.

But 'religious people' face a challenge too. An inescapable feature of a free world is its pluralism. Freedom means nothing if it doesn't include the freedom to believe differently or not at all. As we seek to create free societies, religion can either be a force for cohesion or disintegration. It is possible to find in all the great religious traditions resources that encourage inclusiveness rather than confrontation.

Christians, for instance, can think of Jesus as the way, the truth and the life in a manner that excludes the possibility of insights in other faiths. Or they can reflect on the fact that Jesus in his parables shoves aside religious boundaries and emphasizes common humanity. The Good Samaritan is good because he is compassionate. Ultimately, it is good deeds, not religious identity that matters. By drawing on parables likes these, Christianity can, and has been, put at the service of all humanity.

Similarly in Islam, Muslims can remember the Quranic injunction that among all human groups the Muslim community must be the best of communities, reflecting in its life the attributes of God who is above all compassionate and merciful.

Religion plays a crucial role in the transformation of many societies. The question for religious people is whether they can rise to the challenge of the 21st century: Will they search their traditions for those resources that will help build free societies, or will they only contribute to their fragmentation?

-Dick Lyng

Events of Some Interest

The Perfect Church

If you should find the perfect church
Without one fault or smear,
For goodness sake, don't join that church.
You'd spoil the atmosphere.
If you should find the perfect church
Where all the worries cease,
Then pass it by, lest joining it,
You'd spoil the masterpiece!
If you should find the perfect church
Then don't you ever dare
To tread upon such holy ground.
You'd be a misfit there!
Since no such perfect church exists,
Made up of perfect men,
Let's cease on looking for that church
And love the Church we're in!

-Anon in Intercom, October, 2006.

It's Your Funeral

Priests have plenty of horror stories about eulogists who were either too emotional to speak or who were too flip and irreverent about death and the deceased or who talked on and on and on. There is no question that establishing the right tone of familiarity and reverence, and doing so while controlling our emotions, is a delicate task. Priests and bishops are right to be concerned. But the people in the pews have a right to be concerned, too. Instead of dealing with cold, unforgiving rules regulating music and eulogies, they would like to hear their priests and bishops say, 'O.K., it's your funeral.' Because, after all, it is.

-Terry Golway, America 5-12 June 2006

"On Politics and Government..."

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