Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: (Vigil) Colman, Mary and 'Brod' Flaherty, (Anniv).
11.00: Christy & May Deacy, (Anniv).
6.30: John Melvin, Bohermore (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

Obviously, 'unacceptable' has become a buzz word. It is pressed into service to express some level of disapproval. But it's a morally fuzzy word. It can mean anything, from unsatisfactory, to irritating, to just downright wrong. But the difference is that, whereas something that is unacceptable might become acceptable if things change, how can what is wrong become right? Not long ago we regarded bonuses for bankers as quite acceptable; when the financial bubble was still expanding and loans were showered on us like confetti, it was all acceptable. But it quickly became unacceptable when economic circumstances changed. So acceptable appears to mean what our society will swallow at any given time; unacceptable is what it gags on - the final authority apparently being what one minister recently called the court of public opinion.

Moral relativism is the view that morality is culturally conditioned and therefore subject to a person's individual choice. We can all decide what is right for ourselves. You decide what's right for you, and I'll decide what's right for me. Moral relativism says, "It's true for me, if I believe it."

In a sermon the day before he was elected Pope, Joseph Ratzinger denounced a "dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and desires." This is evident in contemporary society, which labels "a clear faith based on the creed of the Church" as "fundamentalism," he said. "In political life it seems almost indecent to speak of God, almost as if it were an attack on the freedom of the nonbeliever" the Pope concluded.

C.S. Lewis points to the nature of most quarrels as a clue to what we truly believe. Inherent in those quarrels is a concept of fairness, as in "how would you like it if someone did that to you?" When we make that statement, we are appealing to a standard of behaviour we expect the other person to know about. Where do you think that standard originates?

Lewis went on to compare the moral codes of the four great religions. He concluded that underlying the varieties of law and custom there are certain basic values that persist because any tolerable life is impossible without them, and central to all these faiths are ideas of right and wrong, good and evil.

Words matter: often, they not only describe a truth; they embody it - which is why the exact language used by Northern Ireland politicians reacting to the murder of the two soldiers and the policeman last week were so crucially important. Any equivocation would have been disastrous. There is nothing slippery about words like 'right' and 'wrong'. When we use them, we are standing up for a moral order we passionately and clearly believe in. On the other hand, words that blur moral distinctions are in the end, as they say, unacceptable.

-Dick Lyng

HAPPENINGS

OSA Lenten Programme

Tues 24th March: Jesus and the Kingdom Metaphor and Meaning

Tues 7th April: Jesus and the Disciples The Way of the Cross

Various Lenten Offerings

CROI NUA

' A Passion for Life'
Wednesday, March 25th, 8p.m.-10.p.m.
Mr. Padraig Ó Ceidigh

DIOCESAN PASTORAL CENTRE

Monday, March 23rd: Mrs. Mary Trench, Tuam Diocese
"My Faith Journey"

THE ABBEY CHURCH

Taize Gathering every Thursday during Lent from 8.00-9.00

Misunderstanding Pain

A drunk man who smelled like beer sat down on a subway next to a priest.

The man's tie was stained, his face was plastered with red lipstick, and a half-empty bottle of gin was sticking out of his torn coat pocket.

He opened his newspaper and began reading. After a few minutes the man turned to the priest and asked, 'Say Father, what causes arthritis?'

The priest replies, 'My Son, it's caused by loose living, being with cheap, wicked women, too much alcohol, contempt for your fellow man, sleeping around with prostitutes and lack of a bath.'

The drunk muttered in response, 'Well, I'll be damned', then returned to his paper.

The priest, remorseful about what he had said, nudged the man and apologized. 'I'm very sorry. I didn't mean to come on so strong. How long have you had arthritis?'

The drunk answered, 'I don't have it, Father. I was just reading here that the Pope does.'

A Theological Surprise

"You can't have too many students studying theology in Maynooth these days." That is a common response I get when I say I am teaching theology at St Patrick's College, Maynooth. In truth, we probably have as many theological students as ever before. The only difference is that the majority are now laypeople.

There are 365 students this year studying theology and allied subjects at the Pontifical University: in 1968, there were 268, all clerical. The vast majority of our students are schoolleavers. In the current academic year (2008-9), 57 women and 36 men are enrolled in the basic theology programme.

- Fr Brendan McConvery, Lecturer in Scripture.

Silence is Golden

"According to Zen, it's the space between the bars that holds the tiger", says Dr Wayne W. Dyer, in Staying on the Path "and it's the silence between the notes that makes the music".

The power and importance of silence in music has often been emphasised, in classical as well as liturgical (not a lot of it in modern or pop!) but probably well respected in traditional music circles also.

Sometimes we treat silence at Mass as if something has gone wrong, or someone has forgotten what's next. In fact, what's next is the richest few moments of our time with God, a few moments of calm and peaceful reflection.

Arms and the Woman

Madam,

- Your columnist Kate Holmquist is only one of many women to comment favourably on Michelle Obama's toned and sculpted upper limbs (Give Me A Break, March 17th). Does this amount to tacit support of the American constitutional right to bare arms?

- Yours, etc,
JOHN P. DUNNE,
Bree, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.

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