The Thinking Anew column in The Irish Times today
Michael Commane
I’m forever asking myself and others what is life about. Indeed, at this stage when people see me coming, they are waiting for my question.
In tomorrow’s Gospel John quotes Jesus: “I am the bread of life, he who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst.” (John 6: 35).
Here I am, a Catholic priest, ordained in 1974 and I’m still asking myself what life is all about. But the older I get the more I realise my questioning may not at all be too far off the mark. Our journey of faith is a lifelong one and it makes no sense at all for anyone ever to think that they have captured God. That is idolatry.
Yes, I see the emptying churches. I hear the footsteps of people as they walk away from churches. I’m acutely aware of the growing divisions and tensions within the churches with specific reference to the Catholic Church, which has been my home all my life.
The Mass has been in the news over the last few weeks for different reasons. On the one hand Pope Francis has issued new rules on the celebration of the Old Latin or Tridentine Mass.
Personally I am delighted with Pope Francis’ brave announcement.
On the other hand there has rightly been great concern expressed about the appropriateness of conduct at funeral Masses in controversial circumstances.
The Eucharist is above all the Christian community in prayer with one another and Christ at the centre.
It is that moment when people and God are communicating life in a most extraordinary manner.
It is fitting that we do so in the language we use every day, just as God is present in our daily lives.
The Mass is a central source of spiritual nourishment. And of course everything we say about the Eucharist presupposes our acceptance that we are a people of faith. We should come away from Mass inspired and impressed by the presence of God in our world.
The deepest and most meaningful conversations I have with people are conducted through the medium of English because that is where I am most at home. I cannot fathom why people with a very limited knowledge of Latin celebrate the Tridentine Mass.
Is the Latin phenomenon some sort of attempt to escape into a past that is no more? Why choose to live in the past, adopting styles and vocabularies appropriate to long gone times?
Shouldn’t we think more about the present? In 47 years of priesthood I don’t think I’ve ever been encouraged to attend any sort of workshop or seminar on how best to celebrate the Eucharist. None of us priests can put our hands on our hearts and say that we have perfected the way in which we celebrate Mass.
Priests and bishops should, I suggest, make greater efforts to make the vernacular an inclusive celebration that makes those present know that they come face-to-face with Jesus, who is the bread of life.
How often have people left church understanding that in believing in Jesus they will never thirst? Every day I meet young, old and sick people, good and decent women and men who have been alienated by church and churches. I find it most frustrating because I see how wholesome and good they are and how broken the institutional church is.
The big question we must ask ourselves is why people have walked away. There are myriad reasons, but I keep saying to myself the institutional church does not do enough to pass on ownership to all baptised members. And people are wise and perspicacious enough to see all the shadow boxing that takes place.
But I am heartened by tomorrow’s Gospel when Jesus tells his followers that it is not Moses who gave them the bread from heaven, but rather his Father, who gives us the bread from heaven.
Our celebration of the Eucharist always has to be dynamic and real, a faith-filled experience that has clear meaning and availability for us. It has to be celebrated in such a manner that we will be enlivened with the Word of God and nourished by the body and blood of Christ, and subsequently be enthusiastic in living it out in our everyday lives.
The life of a good man or woman nurtured by the bread of life leads to God. For many Christians the Eucharist is that source of nourishment but why have so many walked away?
The bread of God gives life to the world. Jesus Christ spoke to us in the everyday language of his homeland, and it is in our daily lives that his message of love and salvation, the bread of Heaven, belongs.
2 comments:
Why have so many walked away?
Some suggestions.
Church financial corruption all the way to the Vatican.
Church sexual abuse of vulnerable children.
Church cover up of that sexual abuse all the way to the Vatican.
Nuns making a profit from the slave labour of the inmates in the mother and baby homes and laundries.
Christian Brothers making a profit from the industrial schools and farms.
Christian Brothers' cruelty to the inmates of industrial schools and farms.
Opus Dei.
Christian Brothers' sexual abuse of boys in industrial schools.
Christian Brothers' cover up of sexual abuse of boys in industrial schools and farms.
The sale of babies by nuns from mother and baby homes.
The cruelty of nuns keeping birth information from adopted people.
The cruelty of nuns keeping information from the parents of adopted people.
The refusal of religious orders to cooperate with government investigations into sexual abuse.
Bishops getting lawyered up rather than simply tell the truth.
Hundreds of babies buried in unmarked graves.
Archbishop of Dublin banning girls from athletics.
Archbishop of Dublin banning people from Trinity College.
Insisting that children of mixed marriages be brought up as Catholic.
Thousands of children fathered by Roman Catholic priests.
Discrimination against gay people, against women, against people living together without the benefit of marriage, against the children of those relationships, discrimination against their own priests who are not allowed to get married.
The ban on the use of condoms to prevent AIDS.
The ban on artificial contraception.
The ban on IVF for childless couples.
The cruelty of the teachers in Catholic national schools and secondary schools.
Religious orders refusing to hand over property that they agreed to hand over more than ten years ago.
Pregnant girls being read off the altar.
Bishop's Palaces, with separate trades men's entrances.
Convents with tradesmen's entrances.
Monasteries with tradesmen's entrances.
Lay brothers eating at separate tables from the "real" brothers.
Lay sisters eating at separate tables from the "real" sisters.
Refusal to give funerals to people who died by suicide.
Locking churches against funerals of unmarried girls who died giving birth.
Reading out the dues from the altar.
Banning Catholics from attending the funerals of their Protestant neighbours.
This short list is just off the top of my head. I'm sure that, given time, I could come up with even more.
In 1971, Br. Meagher (or Maher) in Naas CBS gave us a subject for a debate: "The Catholic Church in Ireland, has it been a force for good or ill?"
He knew the reality then and that was his way of letting us know too. That's 50 years ago.
Finally, the millions of Catholics that turned out in 1979 to see the Pope felt cheated over the next 40 years as the extent of the abuse, corruption and cover up was revealed. Maybe that's why, of the people who described themselves as Catholic in the most recent census, nineteen out of twenty decided to stay at home during the more recent Papal Visit.
What have so many walked away?
Do you really not know?
Where have you been this last 50 years?
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