From motorbike to hard shoulder to truck

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane
On Thursday August 15, I set off on my motorbike from Dublin, destination West Kerry.

I’m excited. Weather forecast is not bad, and no rain due.

It’s my first time on the three-lane Kildare motorway and it makes a big difference.

Before Portlaoise I leave the motorway as I want to amble along quiet roads and also plan to call to the Cistercian Abbey in Roscrea.

I’m shocked at the death of rural Ireland, empty villages and towns. Why are we allowing this to happen?

As a child I had often been at the Cistercian Abbey outside Roscrea. It’s a stunning setting, large parklands, a church, monastery and school. My maternal grandparents married in the abbey church and my father was at school there.

Today there are nine Cistercians in the abbey, ranging in age from 52 to 92. A notice in the church saying there is Mass on Sundays and Holy Days at 12.30. Alas no 12.30 Mass today, the feast of the Assumption.

What at all can its future be? A million dollar question.

Off and away on the bike, taking quiet roads to Dunkerrin and then back on to the motorway.

I relax on the seat, give the bike throttle and slowly but surely I notice the bike is not responding. No matter how high the revs go the bike is slowing down. I’m now down to 40 km/h. Nothing else to do than to pull over on to the hard shoulder and turn on the flashers. I crawl on at less than 25 km/h and then decide to stop.

It’s not a pleasant experience to be stopped on the side of a motorway nursing a clapped-out motorbike.

I’m in the AA, which is a source of relief. I’m anxioius, standing on the side of the motorway. Just as I’m wondering what to do a lorry pulls up. I go up to the cab. The driver asks me if I’m in trouble and I explain my plight. 

He drives a motorbike and knows about bikes. He gives the bike a quick check and thinks I have a clutch problem. I explain to him that I can phone the AA. While still checking out the bike he says that his truck is loaded with pallets of cardboard but that he might be able to load the bike. I’m gobsmacked by his offer. He opens the back of the truck, spends appoximately 10 to 15 minutes rearranging the pallets. 

He lowers the ramp. We wheel the bike onto the ramp. It’s my first time on such a ramp. I’m scared of falling off. He presses the button to lift the ramp. He closes the truck doors, raises the ramp and off we drive.

I introduce myself and he does likewise.

We spend the next hour in conversation. He tells me that he lost a young child to meningitis. As a result of his experience he set up an organisation which facilitates the speedy transfer of blood to hospitals using motorbikes.

Later telling my story to a Bus Éireann driver in Limerick he remarks that truck drivers are renowned for their kindness to fellow-drivers in trouble on the road.

It was worth the motorbike breakdown to meet this man.

It’s at our peril that we understimate the goodness of people.

It’s so easy to complain and criticise. It can be lazy too, especially when we so often are surrounded by goodness and kindness.

It’s been a great lesson for me.

Krakow archbishop speaks unhelpful words

The Archbishop of Krakow Marek Jedraszewski said at a Mass to mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising that while Poland is no longer tormented by the 'red plague' of Soviet Communism it has instead been infected by a 'rainbow' plague of homosexuality, which denies human dignity and seeks to control "our souls, hearts and minds".

Not a way to win friends.

Also, think of the number of priests and Communists/former Communsits Jedraszewski has insulted.

And then the church wonders why people are speaking with their feet.

The wealthy crew

Ten per cent of the world’s listed firms generate 80 per cent of all global profits.

Firms with at least one billion dollars in revenue account for 60 per cent of total global revenue.

According to some estimates Google and Facebook account for 60 per cent of all digital advertising revenue.

Vasily Grossman

Many people say that Vasily Grossman is the Leo Tolstoy of the 20th century

Grossman was a journailst reporting on the Great Patriotic War for Soviet newspapers.

His book ‘Stalingrad’ was published in English this year.

At th beginning of August 1942 Colonel General Yeromenko arrived in Stalingrad.

He said: “Stalingrad is no ordinary line of defence. What we are defending here is Russia itself!”

The mood of the people was as if to say: “Here we are - the Volga! Can we really retreat any further?”

Grossman writes:

“The boundless river of the Soviet people’s anger and grief had not been left to drain into sand. The will of the people, the will of the Party and state had transformed it into a river of iron and steel and it was now flowing back, from east to west. Its immense weight would soon tilt the scales.”

Gorbachev on Trump’s move

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev considers Donald Trump’s recent withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty as the start of a new arms race.

Napoleon on the ‘honest man’

An interesting quote from Napoleon Bonaparte:

“The honest man never doubts the existence of God’.

A blow of a garda baton 50 yars ago

It’s 50 years since the British embassy in Dublin was set alight by an angry crowd demonstrating against the carnage in Northern Ireland.

That night Dominican priest Paul Hynes had been visiting his mother at the family pub in Mount Street.

On his way home he found himself in the middle of the demonstration and received a blow from a garda baton.

Paul died at 52 in the mid-1980s. He had a form of cancer that damaged part of the brain that sends signals from the brain to other parts of the body.

Last weekend was the 50th anniversary of the burning of the embassy and the subsequent garda charge.

Was Paul’s death linked to the blow he received from the garda baton that evening?

Words and their pronunciations

This week’s Independent News an Media Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

So is the camán a hurley or a hurl? I always thought the stick was called a hurley, the game is hurling and hurlers hurl.

Sort of summer season silly stuff but a letter-writer to a national newspaper started the debate and it has taken on a head of steam and all sorts of experts and non-experts have been giving their penny’s worth on the topic. Should that be cent’s worth?

A linguistic’s expert was on radio and his view was that the stick is called a hurley in Munster and a hurl in Leinster.

It set me thinking about words and their pronunciations.

I can still remember in primary school a substitute teacher coming in to our class and asking us what was the correct pronunciation of ‘often’. Was it pronounced with or without the ‘t’. I have no idea on which side he came down but I well remember that he belittled those who got it wrong, or at least got it wrong according to his ‘wisdom’. Maybe it was an important lesson; does it really matter how we pronounce words? And certainly we should never sneer at those who mispronounce words or vere from the accepted norms and rules of pronunciation.

Probably best to say it’s funny how language and words change with time. When I was a young ‘fella’ the sophisticates would sneer at people who pronounced advertisement placing the stress on the ‘ise’. These days the ‘coolest dudes’ are placing the stress of the ‘ise’.

Out of the blue the word ‘contribute’ has appeared with the stress going on the ‘bute’ whereas I have always pronounced it with the stress going on the ‘trib’.

Then there are the regular old chestnuts: Tipperary people often omit the ‘e’ and call it ‘Tipprary’. Have you ever noticed people often say sarcrifice rather than sacrifice? And that’s interesting because the posh English are inclined to add the letter ‘r’ to certain words, they talk about the ‘lawr’.

As to the word ‘posh’, whether true or not, I was told it’s an acronym for Port-Out-Starboard-Home. When the British were visiting the far-flung dominions of their Empire they travelled out on the port side and returned on the starboard side of the ship. Something to do with the sun.

And did it ever dawn on you why they spell it ‘Comptroller General’? It looks and sounds wrong, at least according to any rules of English. It seems the first man in that job was not a good speller and he wrote it so. His underlings were afraid to bring it to his attention and correct him. 

The moral of that story is how important it is to stand up to so much of the nonsense and incompetence of our superiors.

I’m back thinking whether or not the ‘t’ is silent or not in ‘often’, but it certainly is in ‘castle’ and ‘apostle’.

But who knows when we’ll be pronouncing the ‘t’ in castle?

Who is it that decides we’ll change the pronunciation of a word?

I’m sticking with ‘hurley’. But that maybe because my late mother was from Tipperary.

Albert Einstein and the atomic bomb

After the US dropped atomic bombs on Japan Albert Einstein said: “I made one great mistake in my life - when I signed a letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atomic bombs be made.

“If only I had known, I would have become a watchmaker.”

Dublin Airport

In July 3.5 million passengers arrived and departed at Dublin Airport.

Nineteen thousand people are employed at the airport and on its busiest days 120,000 people pass through it.

And only one person lives at the airport and that is the chaplain, Fr Des Doyle, who has been in the job since 1964.

The wisdom of people

The ‘Thinking Anew’ column in ‘The Irish Times’ today.

 Michael Commane
 Have you noticed how politicians come to power promising to clean up society? The more right-wing they are, the louder they are in making it known how they are going to stamp out every type of evil and wrong-doing.

Dominican priest Donagh O’Shea, in one of his Gospel commentaries on Goodnews.ie,  makes the point and adds that it is noticeable that Jesus never promises to clean up society, but he certainly has the welfare of people at heart. 

In the letter to the Hebrews (12: 1 - 4) in tomorrow’s liturgy we are told not to lose sight of Jesus. He leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection. 

What are the qualities of good leadership? If a politician attends a family funeral should we look favourably towards her or him when elections come around. Is that the way it works, is that the way it should work?

Somewhere at home I have a charming letter a senior politician wrote to me on the occasion of my father’s death. 

Listening to the roar of approval US President Donald Trump received at a rally in Orlando I sat and wondered why people supported the man. They must genuinely believe that he is doing a good job for them and the United States. 

What should we ask of our leaders? Surely it’s the job of politicians to enhance the common good and improving the lives of all the citizens but especially those who are weakest and most in need of help and support?  

Leadership today has much to do with “sound bites” and appearance. It seems so superficial but maybe we have given too much importance to temporal leaders and placed too much trust in them.   

Vasily Grossman’s novel ‘Stalingrad’ was first published as a book in Russian in 1952. It has been translated into English this year. Grossman was a war correspondent looking on events as they unfolded from a Soviet perspective. ‘Stalingrad’ paints a detailed picture of what life was like for the people after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. And then the terrible battle and ultimate Red Army victory at Stalingrad, after five months of what must be the bloodiest warfare mankind has known.  

Novikov is a Soviet colonel, who witnessed the German breakthrough at Brest. He is a thinking man. Grossman expresses brilliantly Novikov’s thoughts on his fellow officers immediately after the German invasion: “Many of those who were usually most timid and silent, seemingly untalented men whom nobody noticed, revealed a wonderful strength. And sometimes he glimpsed an unexpected void in the eyes of commanders who only the day before had seemed the loudest, most energetic and self-confident; now they seemed lost, crushed and pathetic.” 

In so many ways our lives are lotteries. We are far more fragile and vulnerable than we ever imagine. We can be easily manipulated. Often, we find people in positions of leadership who are simply not able for the job. It happens all the time right across society. 

It can be so easy to get angry and frustrated with our leaders. And then that reading in the letter to the Hebrews pops up and we are told that Jesus leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection. 

It is never a good idea to place too much trust in human leadership. I’m thinking of that now-famous comment of Enoch Powell that “all political lives end in failure”, because that can be the nature of politics and of human affairs. 

Notice how so-called strong politicians, especially the dictator-style ones always find so much to clean up and clear out. They always find scapegoats and blame most of the woes of the world on them. The same too in the churches. It’s so easy to focus on some terrible evil, whip up the crowd and get a good fight going. 

I’m back thinking of Novikov’s description of those soldiers who were at one time considered untalented and then those “important ones” who were tested and found to be pathetic. 

It’s never a good idea to underestimate the wisdom and strength, indeed, the faith of the people of God.  

The style and method of Francis’s papacy places great emphasis on the community. This pope issues no big edicts, makes no dramatic hardline utterances. Pope Francis does not need to raise his voice when he stresses the importance of listening.

None of us is so important to know the full story. Surely leadership is about inspiring and encouraging people, especially offering the hand of friendship and a smile to the poor? And then meaning it.

A talent for losing things

This week’s INM Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

Have you a propensity to lose things? I’m thinking of items such as keys, bags, books, anything really. Losing things is obviously a long-practised habit of mine. I remember on one occasion coming home from a working holiday in Germany and my mother commenting how surprised she was that my head was still on my shoulders.

I recall a balmy summer day cycling from Dublin city centre to Cappagh Hospital to visit my father, who had had hip replacement surgery. I arrived home to discover I had lost my keys. I retraced my journey, eventually finding the keys at a roundabout near Cappagh Hospital. And retracing my journey meant cycling the entire way from Dorset Street to Cappagh on the wrong side of the road. Mea culpa.

Fast forward approximately 30 years. Earlier this summer I visited two people in St James’s Hospital. My mode of transport this time had been upgraded to a motorbike.

If you have ever been to St James’s you will be aware that there is always a large number of people near the main entrance to the hospital. A month ago while on another visit to the hospital I spotted two men chained to each other, presumably a patient prisoner chained to a prison officer.

I visited the two patients I planned to call on. We chatted, laughed and listened to one another. Two lovely people and for me a privilege to know them.

It was time to leave. Went looking for the key of my motorbike. There are many pockets in the jacket and trousers of motorbike gear. Couldn’t find the key. Kept searching, no sign of the key. But I knew it had to be somewhere. It wasn’t.

I went down to the shop in the main concourse where I had earlier bought a newspaper. No key had been handed in. Then off to the main reception. 

Another blank, no key. I retraced my steps back up to the patients, searched the two rooms, crawled around the floor, looked under the beds. No keys. Walking those long corridors in motorbike gear and boots plus helmet is no fun.

I panic easily but for some odd reason on this occasion I was staying calm.

There was one last possibility: had I by any chance left the key in the motorbike?

Out the main entrance. The bike is parked close by and what do I see? The key is in the lock of the pannier at the side of the bike. And so visible for all to see.

I returned to the informaiton desk and told them that I found the key. When they heard my good news they smiled and assured me that somebody was looking affter me. The two receptionists were so kind. I asked them if they would phone one of the patients to let her know that I had found the key. 

Guess what, they did. I always find hospital receptionists friendly and helpful.

Phew. Lucky man. Or is it that most people are honest?

Of course I am back thinking of my mother and how accurate she was about my ability in losing items.

Casement's Costa Cat

This poster is on the door of the main entrance to Casement Station Tralee.

And Costa the Cat is in residence at the station.

He is keeping an eye on passengers and staff. He takes time out sitting in the waiting room and at other comfortable spots at the station.

He also keeps a check on the comings and goings of trains.

Costa is a great addition to Casement Station. Well done Irish Rail and thank you. 

 And he's a  clever cat too.

Being open and honest with one another

“More than anything, he remembered the sense of togetherness that came into being between his men.

“Everyone had spoken openly about their whole lives, from their earliest childhood, and everyone’s path through life had seemed clearly marked out; people’s characters, their strengths and weaknesses - everything about them became manifest, in word and deed.”

Words spoken in 1942 by Nikolay Grigorievich Krymov, a Red Army Commissar in ‘Stalingrad’ by Vasily Grossman.

The words were spoken as his group of 200 solders found themselves behind German lines near Bryansk. The Germans were heading for Moscow.

They were hungry, hiding in woods, constantly avoiding German capture and trying to join up with their own regiments.

They all believed in ther cause.

The Berlin Wall

On August 13, 1961 Berliners woke up to witness troops of the GDR/East Germnay build a wall dividing their city in two.

The GDR in the days leading up to August 13 had denied all rumours that a wall was to be built.

Between 1961 and 1989 East German authorities successfully managed to build a fortification between the Federal Republic of German and the German Democratic Republic that was impenetrable.

And then one November night in confusion and error the Wall came tumbling down.

In the summer of 1985 had anyone foretold what was to happen a short four years later they would have been considered to be delusional, though a Protestant priest working in Goerlitz, a city on the GDR Polish border, told a group of students from a West Berlin university that East Germany was bankrupt in every respect and its days were numbered.

As the Germans invaded Russia in 1941, Stalin made a radio broadcast to the nation in which he said: “History shows us that there never have been invincible armies.”

Wise words indeed. And a sense of irony too.

Changing hearts

“The church’s role is to change hearts, not governments.”

Pope Benedict XVl to the late Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, who was archbishop  of Havana for 35 years.

Phones in cars

Ninety motorists are stopped every day by gardaí for using phones while driving.and that probably is the tip of the iceberg.

’Deathbed etiquette’

St Mary’s University in Twickenham has launched a new guide on deathbed etiquette.

It is aimed at helping people suppoprt a loved one as they die.

The guide is available online at www.artofdyingwell.org

The day the US destroyed Nagasaki

On August 9, 1945 Nagasaki  was destroyed when the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city.

Thirty-five thousand people were immediately killed. 

The dead included 23,200–28,200 Japanese war workers, 2,000 Korean forced workers, and 150 Japanese soldiers.

Communicating is a great help

The English translation of Vasily Grossman’s Stalingrad is a sensational read.

Novikov, an important character in the novel and a senior officer, commented after the German breakthrough at Brest that the “greatest misfortune of the first few hours had been the breakdown in communications. With proper communications everything would have been different.”

Not for a moment to compare senior Soviet battle commanders with church ‘leaders’, but how different our church could be if there were a modicum of real or serious communication.

Might the new Master General of the Dominican Order make it a goal or project of his that people begin to communicate openly and honestly.

Lord Lamont and Mr Donohoe

Last evening on BBC 2’s ‘Newsnight’ Emily Maitlis interviewed finance minister Paschal Donohoe in the Irish Embassy followed by an interview with former chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Lamont.

Donohoe spoke with confidence and every word he said was easily understandable.

It was difficult to know what Lord Lamont was saying and he made reference to the Irish EU Commissioner ‘Mr Foley’.

The topic was Brexit.

The Tipp Wexford game

This week’s Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

The Tipperary Wexford All-Ireland semi-final was an exciting game. I know little or nothing about hurling but that game was spectacular. The excitement right to the final whistle kept me on the edge of my seat.

And that’s all quite amazing as it’s one of the few hurling games I have watched on television from start to finish.

That semi-final brought so many memories and emotions running through my head.

Over the years I have been following Wexford manager Davy Fitzgerald, who enthrals me. Any time I hear him on the radio or television he immediately catches my attention and I’m listening to every word he says. The man has something; it might be genius, then again it might be roguery, whatever it is he has charisma and personality in abundance.

My mother was from Tipperary, so ‘loyalty’, whatever that is, should have had me supporting Tipp. No self-respecting hurling enthusiast will like my saying that I was changing side from each puck of the ball. When Wexford was a point down I was on their side and when the Premier County were trailing I was counting on Bubbles O’Dwyer to score or Jason Forde to point a free.  Whatever happened I was winning and losing.

And then all the memories of fadó fadó. I spent my summer holidays on a grand-uncle’s farm in Kilkenny but it straddled Tipperary and to this day I’m not sure where’s Tipperary and where’s Kilkenny, though I do remember the address included lines: ‘Via Thurles, Co Tipperary’.

Come August it was time to leave and head back home. 

En route we would call to a nearby family, a sister and two brothers, to say goodbye. It seems always to have been the Sunday of the All-Ireland final that we called. 

In the early years the three of them were glued to the radio listening to Micheál Ó Héir’s commentary on the game and then later watching every stroke of the ball on television. I have this memory of their jubilation when Kilkenny won, and I, out of ‘devilment’ would be shouting for Tipperary.

My family had no interest in GAA games whereas our nearby cousins were players and supporters of ‘the code’. That was a word I often heard used for GAA games. Indeed, they would often call to our house asking my brother and me if we would go with them to Croke Park. Their father was John D Hickey, who was GAA correspondent for the ‘Irish Independent’. On a few occasions I must have gone as a small boy as I can still remember playing in the press box with not the slightest interest in the game below.

On another occasion in Thurles I recall trying to operate a handle on one of those now-obsolete Bakelite telephones so that my uncle could file his match report after a Munster Final at the ‘Sportsfield’, which has now morphed into Semple Stadium. Those black telephones with no dials have long ago disappeared.

Interesting what a game of hurling can do. Watching that game, my mind kept wandering back to my childhood.

As to the final: up Tipp, up Kilkenny.

US bishops oppose return of death penalty

According to the current issue of The Tablet Catholic leaders have reacted strongly to US Attorney General William Barr’s announcement that federal executions would resume after a 16-year hiatus.

There are 62 inmates on death row in US federal prisons.

Bihsop Frank Dewane, chair of the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and human Development said that he is deeply concerned that the US will return, after many years to the death penalty as a form of punishment.

Meanwhile Cardinal Raymond Burke objects to Pope Francis altering the Catechism to say the death penalty is always wrong.

It's all to do with where you begin

This is the cleverest of pieces and seems to make great sense.

A good Irish joke, written by a Guardian journalist, the son of an Irish woman.

And it ends where it begins.

A great read and might make one think again about Jeremy Corbyn.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/03/jeremy-corbyn-brexit-remain-boris-johnson-election-victory?CMP=share_btn_link

Gerard Timoner talks about his new job

An interview with the new Master General of the Dominican Order Gerard Timoner.. The interview took place in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

What are your priories for the Order for the  next nine  years?

Frère Bruno told me that to be Master of the Order is for me to remain as who I am i.e., “Br. Gerard” but whose ministry is to be “Dominic” for the Order in the next nine years. “To be Dominic” means to lead the brothers in serving the mission of the Order i.e., to help build the communion of the Church, the Body of Christ, as St. Francis and St. Dominic did when the Church was in dire need for a “new” evangelization in the 13^th century.

How do we help build the Church, the Body of Christ?

First, it is important to realize that we are only “helpers” or “assistants”. The primary “builder” is the Triune God, the model and source of communion. We know that the simplest yet deepest theology of communion is the prayer of Jesus for unity, which reveals his will and mission: I pray… that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you… that the world may believe that you sent me (John 17). We recall that our fundamental constitution states: “The Order’s nature as a religious society derives from its mission and its fraternal communion” (LCO VI). Our mission and fraternal communion together constitute our nature, we are friars-preachers. Dominic’s vision for the Order is clearly manifested when he asked Pope Honorius III to make a small but meaningful change in the Bull of 21 January 1217 i.e., to have the original word praedicantes (persons who are preaching) changed to the substantive praedicatores. Thus, we can say that our mission is not primarily what we do i.e., to preach but who we are, i.e., preachers. We serve the mission of helping build the Church through the charism given to Dominic and the Order. To be a bit more concrete, this means that a Dominican parish is one in which the communion of brothers shepherds the communion of the parish; a Dominican academic institution is one in which the communion of brothers lead the academic community in study, instruction and research; a center that seeks to implement the social teachings of the Church, that seek to promote the peace of Christ through just relations is a communion of brothers who seek to help people live according to their dignity as God’s children. To be realistic, diversity and differences among the brothers could sometimes weaken communion. But this, too, can become part of our prophetic service to the Church and society: it is possible to have differences and remain brothers, that it is possible to disagree without breaking communion.

I hope and pray that in the coming years, the re-structuring of the Order we have begun years ago will move towards a more intentional and deeper sense of communion. Frère Bruno told us that we have 800 brothers in formation — how do we provide these brothers the same quality of formation, because they are not just sons of provinces but they are our brothers. I once heard a beautiful saying from an African brother: it takes an entire tribe to raise a child. Perhaps it is good to ask this chapter and the entire Order, how big is this “tribe”? Our Constitutions remind us: the Order is a communion, not a federation, of provinces. It is important to note that this communion has two inseparable dimensions: affectus communionis (affective communion) and effectiva communio, an effective or concrete communion.

How could we deepen this sense of communion so that we all become conscious that the work of the Order in Amazonia, for instance is ours as well; that the success of the institutions under the Master like the Angelicum, the Albertinum and the École Biblique is our success as well?

Br. Timothy told the brothers in his inspiring homily, “the role of the Master is to support the Provinces and the brethren to whom the Spirit calls to some courageous mission.” That is an important advice I need to remember in the next 9 years.

Which fears you had to overcome personally in order to say “yes” to the decision of The Elective General Chapter that had place in Biên Hòa 2019?

I told the capitulars that I believe the Master must have the capacity “to listen” to all the brothers. The brothers promise obedience to the successors of St. Dominic. But the Master does not only receive the profession of the brothers, he must also lead the brothers in obedience i.e., in obeying or listening to the Word of God, to the needs of the Church, to the decisions of the general chapters, etc. To do these, he must also listen to the brothers, as individuals or as communities; but I have big linguistic handicap because I speak just one of the three official languages of the Order. I am not as talented as my predecessors, and I know that there are many qualified brothers present in this general chapter who speak all three, or at least two of the languages. I also lack the skills to solve the problems of the Order. I am neither the brightest nor the bravest brother in the chapter. Thus, I would perfectly understand if someone thinks that I was foolish to say “yes” and accept the election. Yet, it was not foolhardiness that made me say “yes”; rather it was the brothers of S. Sabina, specifically Br. Vivian, who talked sense into my confused head: “we all sincerely prayed for the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and the brothers decided in good conscience… unless your house is burning… you have to go down, meet the capitulars and accept…” (probably not his exact words, but those are the words I remembered). Br. Orlando hugged me and told me “you are not alone, we are here”. After these brothers accompanied me in prayer at the chapel, I knew I had to accept the decision of the brothers.

What gives you happiness in these days? Br.Timothy Radcliffe asked to Holy Spirit for a “cheerful master”?

Br. Timothy ended his preaching during the Mass of the Holy Spirit for the election of the new master with the words: “The gospels said that disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. All of our preaching springs from that joy. Without joy, we are wasting our time. May the Lord give us a joyful Master.” I think Br. Timothy refers to a gift that all Dominicans must have: a capacity to preach evangelii gaudium, the joy of the Gospel. Thanks to God’s grace, I have experienced that joy in seeing the Lord, manifested through the fraternal embrace, support and love of the brothers present here in Vietnam; the prayers and kind words of support of the brothers and sisters from all over the world, including my family. They have been, for me, concrete manifestations of the Emmanuel, the Lord who is with us.

Faith and the challenge of mortality

The 'Thinking Anew' column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane
My mother died in 1988. I can still vividly remember the morning my father and I received the call from the hospital. It was early, sometime close to 6am, on a grimmer day than any I’d previously known. Losing a mother is a tragedy and traumatic experience. I know. Leaving the hospital later, I recall saying to myself if some people could avoid death I would be greatly annoyed at the death of my mother. But death is a reality that no one escapes.

Strange how we avoid at all costs saying the “death word”, speak or write the word. These days people don’t die, instead they pass, pass on, pass away. Are we afraid to face reality in the eye? Are all these calculated attempts to ameliorate the reality? There is no better or more perfect verb to use than to say that ‘we die’. On the other hand, might it be that those terms imply there is a passing on to another world. But is that not odd in a time when many people believe that there is no life after death?

And after death? I’m inclined to reply: who knows? But any time I visit the grave of my parents I find myself saying out loud that they are not annihilated, they are not gone. As a Christian I believe that in some way, far beyond my understanding or comprehension, they are alive with God.

Can the sum of our earthly lives end in death? Surely not?

In the first reading in tomorrow’s liturgy (Ecclesiastes 1: 2; 2: 21 – 23) the author writes: “Vanity of vanities, the Preacher says. Vanity of vanities. All is vanity!” And he goes on to explain that placing worth in our creations is nothing else but vanity.

And then in the Gospel (Luke 12: 13 - 21) we read about the rich man, who stores up treasure for himself and then God says to him: “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?”

More vanity?

Three years ago this month, I began working as a hospital chaplain. I have written here previously about my experience in the job. It has been a life-changing gift. Every day I am confronted with the wonder of life, the mystery of living and dying, and all the time I am pushed to ask myself about the purpose, the fragility, and sometimes the apparent meaninglessness of our lives. Death is the great leveller, no one avoids it. No matter who we are or what we have done with our lives, death sees us lifeless in a bed, on a mortuary slab, in a coffin.

Every Saturday this newspaper carries obituaries of deceased people, who have been in the public eye, people who have gone that extra mile for the good of the community. Sometimes too, it carries the obituaries of people who have caused harm and pain. Now they are dead.

We all grapple with the reality of death. We enunciate words in attempt to capture the moment. In Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’ Mark Antony at the funeral oration of the emperor Caesar says: “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”

It is a quotation often used. Again, it tells us something about death, about life too, but anything we ever say is never the full story. Indeed, it’s also true to say that the good too lives on after the death of people.

But as Christians we believe that dying, “this shuffling off the mortal coil” as Shakespeare’s Hamlet puts it, is not the end. It is an extraordinary sentiment to express. But everything about living and dying is extraordinary.

Resurrection is too. But we believe. It’s challenging, exciting, it’s being ecstatically hopeful to talk and think about life after death. To try to give it any parameters or classifications will immediately limit it, indeed making it our own creation. We need to appreciate that we cannot fully understand what death means.

We do believe that Christ rose from the dead and that we are to share that resurrection with him. A wise man recently said to me that the disciples experienced a risen Christ and that’s good enough for him. His words of wisdom help me in my grappling with my faith in resurrection.
After death resurrection.

At the core of the Christian message is our belief in suffering and death and then glorious resurrection.

Alleluia.

German foreign minister ashamed at German savagery

Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising.

The German foreign minister Heiko Maas was in Warsaw to pay respects to the Polish people and to ask for forgiveness for what the Germans did.

He said: "I am ashamed of what the Germans did to your country. And I am also ashamed that for so long after the war there was nothing spoken of what we Germans had done," Maas said in the Museum of The Warsaw Rising in the Polish capital.

The foreign minister believes a memorial to the suffering of the people of Warsaw at the hands of the Germans is long overdue in Berlin

Vasily Grossman, author of 'Stalingrad' wrote these words about life in Treblinka, which lies 108 kilometres from Warsaw:

"This creature [SS guard at the camp] specialised in the killing of children. Evidently endowed with unusual strength, he would suddenly snatch a child out of the crowd, swing him or her about like a cudgel and then either smash their head against the ground or simply tear them in half. 

"When I first heard about this creature—supposedly human, supposedly born of a woman—I could not believe the unthinkable things I was told. 

"But when I heard these stories repeated by eyewitnesses, when I realized that these witnesses saw them as mere details, entirely in keeping with everything else about the hellish regime of Treblinka, then I came to believe that what I had heard was true".

Do these figures add up?

There are 47,255 children on hospital outpatient lists.

And the State last year subsidised private schools to the tune of €90 million.