Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: Ann Cosgrave, (Recent).
11.00: Bobby Pierce (Funeral Mass).
6.30: Maura Flynn, (Recent).

As I Was Saying...

Hindsight, as we know, is a wonderful thing. Our culture today is, to a considerable degree, victim-driven. A victim-dominated culture will have more than its share of scapegoats. Joe Duffy of Liveline has really established himself as 'the National Herdsman for Scapegoats'! They queue up to gain admittance to his paddock. He pokes them and strokes them in turn, orchestrating a cacophony of victimised bleating.

The scapegoat was a goat driven off into the wilderness as part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. The scapegoat is now a metaphor for someone to blame for misfortunes, often a deliberate distraction from the real causes. Rarely does a day go by without a news story where hindsight demands a scapegoat. The first casualty in such circumstances is logical, clear thinking. Into the resulting vacuum rushes hysterical, irresponsible and ill-judged 'ventilation'.

Could the Virginia massacre or the horrific Wexford killings have been averted? Who, in the chain of decision making had access to information which might have prevented such terrible tragedies? In the Wexford case, who should shoulder the blame? The Health Board, or the Gardai, or the clergy? In the Virginia case, the University authorities or the local Police? As hindsight increases, as it does with time, the clamour too increases for an explanation of the tragic events.

My sympathies are four square with the scapegoats. These unfortunate people find themselves in that precarious buffer zone between potential victims and their tormentors. To these falls the responsibility for making complex decisions that will affect the lives of others irrevocably. And these decisions must be made without any firm evidence and, of course, without the benefit of hindsight. Today, an additional complicating factor has to be recognised: the litigious mentality that pervades our society. Remove children from their parents without cast-iron evidence of imminent danger and you may well find yourself on the wrong end of an very expensive lawsuit.

If we accept the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that all human beings are born free and equal, then we have to be extremely careful when we make decisions on the basis of other people's behaviour or tendencies. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. We should avoid scapegoats which are always a distraction. The real causes are always more complex and usually lie elsewhere.

Violence is rooted within the very society we ourselves have shaped. As Dr. Reville has pointed out in the article below, we have woven some very unsavoury strands into the fabric of this society: over-consumption of alcohol, drug-taking, avoidable carnage on our roads, massive increase in violent crimes, weakened sense of community, and so on. But the great imponderable in modern society is suicide. This dark mystery has eluded all efforts to understand it. And I reckon that it will continue to prove elusive.

Despite our many modern advances, the understanding and control of the human being remains seriously limited. Of course we owe it to the victims to leave no stone unturned on our search for answers. But we do them no service by providing them with scapegoats only.

-Dick Lyng

Items of Some Interest

But are you happy?

The London School of Economics don Richard Layard has just published an interesting book, Happiness (Penguin, 2005). Layard's definition of happiness is simple: 'feeling good and enjoying life'. We all want happiness for ourselves and our children. But how do we achieve happiness? The most common fallacy is that lots of money brings happiness. 'Win the Lottery and your problems will be no more' the TV ads would have us believe. Would that things were that simple!

Surveys have shown that happiness has not increased since the 1950s, even if in real terms, average salaries have more than doubled, we have more cars, bigger houses, a shorter working week, more holidays, more food, more clothes, more central heating and better health.

Money correlates with happiness only when you have very little money. It is not possible to be happy if you live in grinding poverty. And your happiness will rise steeply as you acquire sufficient money to satisfy the basic necessities. But, once average income exceeds what is required to cover the basics, further pay rises bring no greater happiness. In other words, if nurses and medical consultants swapped salaries, neither party would end up happier or unhappier! (Although the consultants might need a while to adjust.)

Why is money so insignificant then? Well, one reason is that we are born with a sunny or a sour outlook on life. This is genetically determined. The other reason is that most of us switch from an absolute way of looking at money to a relative way once we rise above having just enough to satisfy basic necessities.

Psychologists tell us that happiness is not to be found by directly pursuing it as an end in itself - rather it is the byproduct of the satisfaction you feel from consciously living a productive life. We are structured psychologically to accept credit only for our own conscious efforts and actions. The Lottery win is limited!

We are frequently reminded that Celtic Tiger Ireland is one of the richest countries in the world. We have full employment, widespread access to third-level education, genderequality, improved leisure facilities, and much more.

This is all good, but are we happier, as Pat Rabbitte might say? I'm afraid not! Paralleling the positive trends over the past 20 years are several negative trends: a sharp rise in national consumption of alcohol, youth binge-drinking and drugtaking, increased suicide rates, great increase in violent crimes, sharp rise in births to single mothers (many in poor economic circumstances), weakened sense of community, and so on.

Overall, when the negatives are subtracted from the positives, we are no happier now than we were 30 years ago. We all have much more money now than we had in the past. This is good, but, in itself, will not make us any happier. In fact, money can be quite dangerous if spent largely in the pursuit of pleasure. We have been very successful in improving the economy and we should be proud of this, but it is now time to devote energy to improving quality of life in other respects. Our happiness resides largely in these latter dimensions and we can rest assured that efforts spent in this regard will be well rewarded.

- Adapted from William Reville, Irish Times, 26-04-07.

Easter Liturgy Meeting

We are meeting at 8.00pm on Wednesday night next, May 2nd to review our Holy Week and Easter Ceremonies. We would really love to have as many as possible of those who attended the ceremonies present. We are realistic enough to know that whole congregations will not show up! But if we had all those good people who participated directly, we would be more than happy.

A Message for Vocations Sunday

We grow slowly: learning to talk, learning to walk, growing in knowledge, growing in inner strength, learning to be patient, all of these are slow processes. As we grow we need healing because we make mistakes; we need guidance, we need protection, support and encouragement. There is in us a deep desire to grow. If the best is to happen for us we need shepherds who care for us and draw out of us a good response. As we grow towards maturity we notice care, respect, and sensitivity.

We look for people with inner strength on whom we can depend. We seek shepherds that are authentic, people with whom we can share our fears and feel safe. Only when the shepherds make sacrifices will we have full confidence in them for no friendship is genuine until it has been tested. The experience of shepherds who guide us, care for us, bring us healing and wholeness, enables us in our turn to become shepherds for others, We become shepherds when we see we have responsibility for one another, when we notice that others depend on us, need us.

Today, Vocations Sunday, our thoughts turn to the Good Shepherd. He is the pattern for all shepherds. He leads us to where life is found, he protects against danger, he responds to our deepest hungers and thirsts. His shepherding brings unity, it heals divisions.

On this Sunday I invite the whole diocese to join in prayer, asking the Lord to bless us with many good vocations, and I invite young men of faith and generosity to consider whether the Lord might be calling them to serve him in the priesthood.

+Martin Drennan

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