Pentecost and the unveiling of God’s presence

The Thinking Anew column in The Irish Times today. The final two paragraphs do not appear in the printed or digital versions of today’s newspaper.

Michael Commane

Tomorrow is the feast of the Ascension, and the beginning of the last week of the Easter Season. The following Sunday is Pentecost, and so ends the high drama of the celebration of our belief in the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Pentecost is about the unveiling of the presence of God in the world, the following Sunday is the feast of the Blessed Trinity. They are all fabulous reminders to us of the history of salvation.

But what does all that mean to the majority of ‘ordinary’ people living in Ireland today? To say anything about God and the mystery of God we are deploying difficult language and using words, which mean different things to different listeners. It is too easy to create our own image of God and then feel totally at ease with that creation. But isn’t that what idolatry is?

David Jenkins was the Church of England bishop of Durham between 1984 and 1994 and during those years he got into many controversies about his belief. Video cameras were in their early days, and he was reported to have said that it was unlikely for him to have captured the ascension of Jesus rising above the clouds had he had a video camera at hand. You can imagine the discussion it garnered. “I want to get people talking about religion in the pubs”, he famously said. 

These days I’m reminded of what Bishop David Jenkins said and wrote. So many people alienated from established religions, searching for God in different way. I’m also aware that our profession of faith has become clichéd, and it can be that cliché that many people reject. 

The divisions that are making themselves manifest across the world, including within Ireland, are also openly on view within the churches and within its priestly class. I officiated at a wedding in Donegal last weekend. I know no one should presume anything but I also know that most of the people in that church on the Inishowen Peninsula seldom if ever are inside a church outside the usual big occasions. 

But we had some great discussions after the marriage ceremony. They centred around lines in the readings at the Mass: ‘you are blessed’, ‘delight in the truth’, and ‘That we may be one and the world will realise it’. I got the impression they had never heard those biblical sentences before. Has the Irish Catholic Church lost its way, become deaf and blinded by the trappings of power and control?

This year the Dominican Order, of which I am a member, is celebrating 800 years in Ireland. Instead of talking about all that we did in the past I’d much prefer us to talk about our vision for the future. Interesting how little is being said about the wrong we did. 

I keep getting the impression that the church is trying to prop up old ways and systems. Yes, as priests, we speak to people, we even speak to people who have recently been converted to Christianity and are newly-enthused by all that surrounds a nostalgic church. Nostalgia has its place but not at the expense of present challenges. 

St Dominic founded the Dominicans to speak the words of the Gospel in a way that  made sense to the people of the time. And that’s exactly what we need to do today. Strangely, I felt at that wedding in Donegal I had far more in common with the people who were sitting in the pews than I do with many aspects of the hierarchical church. But of course it is not as simple as that, nothing is. Tomorrow’s feast isn’t either, but it does point us in some wonderful mysterious way to the God of all creation.

I am particularly sad writing these lines as it is my last time on this page. The Irish Times has decided to discontinue the column. Preparing words like these once  a month for publication has brought joy to me. 

Be kind to each other. And thank you to readers and The Irish Times for affording me such a fabulous Saturday morning ‘pulpit’. If someday in the future I should sit down beside you in a pub, you’ll understand that Bishop David Jenkins and St Dominic sent me.