Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: Margaret Egan,(Anniv).
11.00: Philomena Naughton & Charlie McDermott, (Anniv.)
6.30: Gerry Gilmore (Month's Mind).

As I Was Saying...

It has been such a hectic week in the public forum: a most improbably 'dawn chorus' Northern Ireland, with doves and hawks singing off the same hymn sheet; a bizarre General Election campaign down here, with Bertie's Piggy Bank attracting inordinate attention; Tony Blair vacates the political scene; the ongoing Nurses' dispute; the 'Miss D' cases raises the abortion issue again.

In the normal run of events, any one of these events would have been of sufficient importance in itself to grip the nation's attention for a week. Yet, despite all these 'historic' happenings, it was the agony of a private English family that gripped the nation. The fact that the McCann family has an Irish background may provide a partial explanation.

It is over a week now since the 3-year-old toddler disappeared. Her image is everywhere, an image of innocence which tugs at the heart. Her parents, Gerry and Kate, have sought comfort in their faith when attending Mass at the Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Light in the Algarve on Sunday last. Yet faith at such a time does not only bring comfort. It also brings the terrible question of betrayal: Why did God let this happen? And Why to her? And Why to us?

What religious person has not asked such a question at a time of personal or family crisis? German Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, once wrote, 'Only a suffering God will do'.

This is not just another pious reflection that cheapens Christianity. Rather, it goes right to the heart of our faith. The abduction of little Madeleine should not have happened. Christians are not fatalists. We cannot accept this as the will of God. When faced with human suffering, Jesus shows anger alongside compassion. In John's Gospel he is twice described as 'snorting like a horse' in the face of human suffering (John 11:33 & 38).

The worst part of this Madeleine case is the 'not knowing'. To go into a Church, to gather together with others, to light a candle - there is an instinct here that says that though we know what happened should not have happened, and though we do not know what it yet means, we can at least be present to one another and to God. In fact that is all we can do. This form of prayer is perhaps wider and deeper than belief.

Theology speaks of God as all powerful, all knowing and all present. Perhaps this means that God knows the outcome of all this? There will be some kind of resolution. Tomorrow, and next week and next year are not today. But in another sense God lives through it moment by moment as we do, with every human moment stretched into eternity. God is so deeply inside it all, with Madeleine and her parents, that we cannot see it; there is simply the wordless presence with us and among us, grieving and hoping. Bonheoffer was right: 'Only a suffering God will do.'

Outside the birds are singing and spring ploughs on relentlessly into summer. In this intricate universe the innocent are vulnerable and we wish it were not so.

-Dick Lyng

Items of Some Interest

St. Rita of Cascia Annual Triduum

Beginning on Saturday, May 19th Rosary, Sermon & Benediction Each Evening at 7.30 Preacher: Fr. Michael Brennock, OSA Mass of the Feast on Tuesday May 22nd, 11.00

Pope Visits Tomb of Augustine

{Pope Benedict has always been fascinated with St. Augustine. In fact, the subject of his doctoral thesis was the works of Augustine. 'I have developed my thinking in dialogue with Augustine' he claims. Three weeks ago, he returned as Pope to the tomb of his mentor in Pavia, Lombardy. Below is an extract from the speech he delivered to the staff and students of the University of Pavia on that occasions. Some of you may find bits of it interesting!}

"St Augustine was a man driven by a tireless desire to find the truth, to find out what life is about, to know how to live, to know man. And precisely because of his passion for the human being, he necessarily sought God, because it is only in the light of God that the greatness of the human being and the beauty of the adventure of being human can fully appear.

His faith in Christ did not have its ultimate end in his philosophy or in his intellectual daring, but on the contrary, impelled him further to seek the depths of the human being and to help others to live well, to find life, the art of living.

It was faith in Christ that brought all Augustine's seeking to fulfilment; yet he always remained 'on the way'. Indeed, he tells us: 'even in eternity our seeking will not be completed, it will be an eternal adventure, the discovery of new greatness, new beauty.' He interpreted the words of the Psalm, "Seek his face continually", and said: this is true for eternity; and the beauty of eternity is that it is not a static reality but immense progress in the immense beauty of God.

Thus, he could discover God who guides us and gives meaning to history and to our personal life. Augustine's love for Christ shaped his personal commitment. From a life patterned on seeking, he moved on to a life given totally to Christ and thus to a life for others.

He discovered that being converted to Christ means not living for oneself but truly being at the service of all. May St Augustine be for us a model of dialogue between reason and faith, a model of a broad dialogue which alone can seek truth, hence, also peace."

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