It's how we treat one another that matters

The 'Thinking Anew' column that appears in today's Irish Times

Again this Christmas, Christian churches around the world were filled to capacity as people celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ and their belief in the incarnation.

With Christmas over for another year, the numbers attending will dwindle and churches will have more free space, in some cases it will be a matter of handfuls attending liturgical services.

There has been some discussion of late as to how one decides whether or not a person can call himself or herself a Christian. Once baptised, can we claim life-long membership to a particular faith? When can a person say they are Anglican, Catholic, Episcopalian, or indeed any of the various Christian denominations?

German writer Heinrch Böll observed that once a person is born a Communist or Catholic, they die a Communist or Catholic. But it probably is not as simple as that. Equally, how often a person attends church is an unreliable guide to their faith. It is also not helpful to speak of à la carte Catholics or Anglicans.

Does one have to believe categorically in every dogma of faith in order to say one is a believer in a particular religion? If that were so, our churches would be even more sparsely attended than they are at present. Such a doctrinaire viewpoint can't be healthy and indeed, would force us to relegate so much of our history to a nonsense.

Tomorrow the western Christian churches celebrate the baptism of the Lord.

On one hand, it might sound an odd sort of feast. Why should God made man be baptised?

Tomorrow's feast is a clarion call to all Christians to realise the importance of living out belief in God made man in the community in which we find ourselves in the here and now.

Jesus Christ, God incarnate, is baptised into the community and once that happens, Mark tells us a voice comes from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you". (Mark 1: 11)

Of course there are many aspects to Christianity, as there are to everything else in life. But Christianity can only be lived in the context of community. And the baptism of Jesus puts that great stamp of authenticity on living the Christian life in community. Jesus is a member of the community and lives his life in the community. Ultimately some sections of the community reject him and put him to death.

Close to 15 per cent of our population is unemployed. According to a survey carried out for the Samaritans, 70 per cent of the population are worried about what's in store for them and their families in 2012.

People are nervous, very little is secure. So much of what we thought was as safe as houses is falling through our hands like sand.

But whatever happens we are part of/members of a community. And as Christians, we belive that the favour of God rests in a very special way on those who give themselves to their communities.

Liturgies, dogmas, hierarchies, all play their role in living Christian communities, but it is when people behave in a just and charitable way towards their fellow human beings that it is then really possible for all of us to see in such clear terms God's favour shining down on top of us.

Of course church attendance, our prayer life, our acceptance of dogma, play significant roles in the living out of the Christian life, but the real hallmark of the woman or man is how she or he treats fellow human beings, bringing about the presence of God in the here and now. Sometimes it takes difficult and challenging times to make us focus our attention on the real priorities.

The months and years ahead may well reveal aspects of Christianity that have very little to do with church attendance or what words we use to express our faith.

Of course we will be surprised and God's favour will shine in places least expected, just as it did at the river Jordan on the occasion of the baptism of the Lord.

But the women and men, who will carry their cross and shine a light of hope on all of us, will be people, who speak of justice and charity and act on it, no matter what the cost.


Michael Commane OP