Week ending August 28th 2012
Church
and State met in full colour high definition on no man’s sand at the edge of
the Atlantic Ocean near Carna on one of the
finest days that came in August 2012. A Cabinet Minister and minister of
religion (me) met briefly on the water’s edge as I emerged from my annual swim
and he dipped a toe into the tide before plunging manfully into the sea. There
was a muffled greeting in Irish and English as we passed each other by, not so
much like ships in the night, as currachs in the day. I will respect the privacy
of the Minister’s holiday by not naming names, but I was glad to see him there
sharing the same waters as myself rather than in some far-off exotic location
that would take him out of touch with ordinary folk.
The earth did not move beneath our feet, except where the sand was very wet. There was no shift in the tetonic plates beneath the surface of the earth. Church and State relationships seem to be on a more even keel than in the aftermath of the Cloyne Report last year when strong words were said and needed to be said on behalf of the people. The Eucharistic Congress among other things helped to smooth matters out, and we have seemed to settle into a ‘live and let live’ approach. State and Church do not need to pick fights at every available opportunity to prove which has more power. Mutual respect should be the name of the game. Power is, or should be a contradiction in terms in so far as followers of Jesus Christ are concerned. Power bestowed by the people on a temporary basis from one election to another is a necessary part of government, and is expected to be, and for the most part is, used responsibly.
Olympic success and a few fine days helped to raise the spirits of the nation, while counties still involved in hurling and football championships help their followers to live in hope for another while at least. The storms and rain on and around the fifteenth of August reminded me of my first visit to the Aran Islands in the summer of 1970 when a similar storm opened my eyes to the realities of island life, about which I was to learn much more later. It reminds me now that not all bad weather can be blamed on global warming, or that it was not today or yesterday we had to endure similar storms. The Knock apparition and the detailed reports associated with it let us know that was obviously a very wintry August night too, while Oiche na Gaoithe Móire, the night of the big wind in 1839 tells us there is nothing new about bad weather in Ireland.
While we have a lot to complain about we have much to be thankful for too. Would we swop our rain for drought and famine? We could obviously do with less of it, but as a political observer once remarked about government – “Two cheers for democracy.” It may not be the best system, but it sure beats dictatorship, as we see in Syria and other places. As we approach the end of a fairly bad summer we can raise our glasses (of rainwater) and give two cheers for the Irish weather. We live in hope for the traditional September Indian summer to replace the cowboy one we have just endured.
The earth did not move beneath our feet, except where the sand was very wet. There was no shift in the tetonic plates beneath the surface of the earth. Church and State relationships seem to be on a more even keel than in the aftermath of the Cloyne Report last year when strong words were said and needed to be said on behalf of the people. The Eucharistic Congress among other things helped to smooth matters out, and we have seemed to settle into a ‘live and let live’ approach. State and Church do not need to pick fights at every available opportunity to prove which has more power. Mutual respect should be the name of the game. Power is, or should be a contradiction in terms in so far as followers of Jesus Christ are concerned. Power bestowed by the people on a temporary basis from one election to another is a necessary part of government, and is expected to be, and for the most part is, used responsibly.
Olympic success and a few fine days helped to raise the spirits of the nation, while counties still involved in hurling and football championships help their followers to live in hope for another while at least. The storms and rain on and around the fifteenth of August reminded me of my first visit to the Aran Islands in the summer of 1970 when a similar storm opened my eyes to the realities of island life, about which I was to learn much more later. It reminds me now that not all bad weather can be blamed on global warming, or that it was not today or yesterday we had to endure similar storms. The Knock apparition and the detailed reports associated with it let us know that was obviously a very wintry August night too, while Oiche na Gaoithe Móire, the night of the big wind in 1839 tells us there is nothing new about bad weather in Ireland.
While we have a lot to complain about we have much to be thankful for too. Would we swop our rain for drought and famine? We could obviously do with less of it, but as a political observer once remarked about government – “Two cheers for democracy.” It may not be the best system, but it sure beats dictatorship, as we see in Syria and other places. As we approach the end of a fairly bad summer we can raise our glasses (of rainwater) and give two cheers for the Irish weather. We live in hope for the traditional September Indian summer to replace the cowboy one we have just endured.
Week ending August 21st 2012
I blame the fake tan for the bad weather we have had in recent years. The sun is embarrassed and jealous. It has gone into a sulk. What were to expect when we started messing with nature? The sun is hiding behind the clouds because it has the hump. It is angry that people should choose a make-up (in more senses than one) product rather than allow the rays of the sun to give human skin the nice colourful glow it has being doing since the days of the cavemen and women. I’ll bet they had no truck with fake tan. They made the sun their God, and it worked for them. They made hay while the sun shone and they didn’t need any round bales of silage for the rainy day. They gathered on mountain tops to express their gratitude, mountain tops we appropriated for our own uses later on. Is it any wonder we used be told not to cut hay on Reek week? There would nearly always be mist. The sun’s revenge. We made the mistake of not keeping both sides with us, the Sun-God as well as the Son of God.. As if things are not bad enough on the weather front, we have now started messing with Mars. Of all the names in the world, the Americans called their spacewagon ‘Curiosity.’ Was it any wonder that every cat on the red planet went into hiding when they saw it coming? They too had heard that ‘Curiosity kills the cat,’ so they set out to protect their nine lives. The Martians have already named the hole the spacecraft landed in ‘the poor old crater’ because of the out of space prodding and poking it has to endure. What do NASA expect to find? A stash of Mars bars? President Barak Obama has set the target of getting humans to Mars in the Twenty-thirties. The ‘Mars bar’ will probably be replaced by the ‘Irish Bar,’ which I suggest might be called the Monegall Arms if the Presidential wish is fulfilled.
Nine months it took the Curiosity to get to Mars, so one of the challenges of the future will obviously be the space pregnancy. The idea of mother and baby being weightless for nine months might help produce the perfect baby, though weightlessness might in fact be more useful as children begin to walk, fall and crash into things. They can test that theory on their way home from Mars, I suppose. So far I have probably given the impression that I am anti-science, but as you may have noticed, my tongue has been deeply ensconced in my pudgy cheek. I am actually fascinated by the possibilities of imagination, and the directions in which science is likely to take humanity in the future. So much has changed in my own sixtysix years on this planet, that the skies and space are literally no longer the limit.
As I write, the sun has of course decided to trick me. It has emerged from weeks of cloud, mist and drizzle to give a clear blue sky, as if to say: “All is well with the world. I was not hiding, not sulking, just waiting to come out to ripen the corn in due season..” Television pictures of a world record number of Combine Harvesters in the one field in County Meath brought home to me the difference in farming enterprises in different parts of the country. A Combine would be bigger than many of the fields here in South Conamara, and any corn grown would be cut by scythe or sickle. Despite all that people have survived, have kept their language, refused to be colonised or to have the words taken from their mouths. Now, before I visit the Carna chemist: “What is the Irish for fake tan?”
Nine months it took the Curiosity to get to Mars, so one of the challenges of the future will obviously be the space pregnancy. The idea of mother and baby being weightless for nine months might help produce the perfect baby, though weightlessness might in fact be more useful as children begin to walk, fall and crash into things. They can test that theory on their way home from Mars, I suppose. So far I have probably given the impression that I am anti-science, but as you may have noticed, my tongue has been deeply ensconced in my pudgy cheek. I am actually fascinated by the possibilities of imagination, and the directions in which science is likely to take humanity in the future. So much has changed in my own sixtysix years on this planet, that the skies and space are literally no longer the limit.
As I write, the sun has of course decided to trick me. It has emerged from weeks of cloud, mist and drizzle to give a clear blue sky, as if to say: “All is well with the world. I was not hiding, not sulking, just waiting to come out to ripen the corn in due season..” Television pictures of a world record number of Combine Harvesters in the one field in County Meath brought home to me the difference in farming enterprises in different parts of the country. A Combine would be bigger than many of the fields here in South Conamara, and any corn grown would be cut by scythe or sickle. Despite all that people have survived, have kept their language, refused to be colonised or to have the words taken from their mouths. Now, before I visit the Carna chemist: “What is the Irish for fake tan?”
Week ending 14th August 2012
The Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady on the fifteenth of August has an enduring appeal for many Roman Catholics. I have had more requests from people who would like to have loved ones remembered at an open-air Mass that evening beside a holy well, Tobar Mhuire, than for most other occasions. The well and the well-cared for shrine beside it is in a sheltered spot by a narrow road which winds down to one of the many beaches in the area. There are always flowers and candles around Mary’s statue, evidence of many visitors in quieter moments, local people or passers by on their way down to their land or to the beach. There was a public rosary there on the evening of May Day and many people brought primroses and other flowers as part of the traditional ‘flowers of May’ homage to Our Lady. There will be many bigger and more spectacular pilgrimages on the day. The Novena at Knock will draw many thousands, as will other major shrines, but this is not a competition. The little altar lovingly tended to in somebody’s kitchen or entrance hall is as important in its own way as the spectacular ceremony. Our quiet roadside get-together will not be a traffic stopper, unless a stray car happens to wander down the road at the time. Too often we get hung up on numbers doing this or that, as if what is in each individual heart is not important. This is not the spiritual Olympics. Losers, triers and non-triers are not excluded. There is room for everyone at the table of the Lord and the shrine of Our Lady.
A recent weekend gospel story which saw Jesus down to the wire as regards numbers of followers illustrates the importance of commitment over having crowds running after you. Crowds began to drift away from Jesus when the promise of his leading a revolution to throw the Romans out of the country faded. Those who had eaten the five loaves and two fishes had hoped for more of the same, and not just bread but swords as well. They lost interest when Jesus began to talk of food for the soul, spiritual nourishment that could bring someone to eternal life. He was left wth his little band of faithful followers, whom he asked: “Will you too go away?” Peter answered for the rest of them: “To whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life.” Like all followers of Jesus, the same Peter had his good days and bad, but that response certainly said it all.
The Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady is known in the Irish language as “Lá Fhéile Mhuire Mór san Fhómhair,” (The Autumn Feast of Mary, the great one.) Mary herself was given the singular honour of having a name all to herself – Muire. Girls named after her were called Mary or May, Máire, etc, but ‘Muire’ was retained for ‘the great one.’ Many prayers referred to her protection, to being wrapped in Mary’s cloak, not unlike Jesus’ comment about gathering people together as the hen gathers her chickens under her wing. As the Feast of the Assumption approaches: “Faoi bhrat Mhuire go raibh sibh – may you all be protected under Mary’s cloak.”
A recent weekend gospel story which saw Jesus down to the wire as regards numbers of followers illustrates the importance of commitment over having crowds running after you. Crowds began to drift away from Jesus when the promise of his leading a revolution to throw the Romans out of the country faded. Those who had eaten the five loaves and two fishes had hoped for more of the same, and not just bread but swords as well. They lost interest when Jesus began to talk of food for the soul, spiritual nourishment that could bring someone to eternal life. He was left wth his little band of faithful followers, whom he asked: “Will you too go away?” Peter answered for the rest of them: “To whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life.” Like all followers of Jesus, the same Peter had his good days and bad, but that response certainly said it all.
The Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady is known in the Irish language as “Lá Fhéile Mhuire Mór san Fhómhair,” (The Autumn Feast of Mary, the great one.) Mary herself was given the singular honour of having a name all to herself – Muire. Girls named after her were called Mary or May, Máire, etc, but ‘Muire’ was retained for ‘the great one.’ Many prayers referred to her protection, to being wrapped in Mary’s cloak, not unlike Jesus’ comment about gathering people together as the hen gathers her chickens under her wing. As the Feast of the Assumption approaches: “Faoi bhrat Mhuire go raibh sibh – may you all be protected under Mary’s cloak.”
Week ending August 4th 2012
“What are we afraid of?” is the approach I would be inclined to take on the question of same-sex civil marriage which seems to be a cause of some division between the Government parties, Fine Gael and Labour at present, or is this silly season holiday speculation? I distinguish between civil and religious marriage here, because I can not see the Roman Catholic Church to which I belong accepting same-sex marriage any time soon, even though I and many other Catholics would have no major problem with its introduction. At the same time I understand the concerns of those who see the very definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman and are unwilling to see this changed in any way. I can understand why churches or other groups in society would decide to confine marriage of its own voluntary members to its traditional boundaries, but there are many in society who take a different view. Tánaiste Éamon Gilmore sees same-sex marriage as a civil right, and I would agree with him. Back in the eighties and nineties of the last century I saw civil divorce as a civil right and campaigned for its introduction while retaining the right to proclaim the sanctity of marriage within the institution of my own church. The sky did not fall. The country did not collapse with its introduction. That is why I raise the question: “What are we afraid of?” with regard to same-sex civil marriage. People will get on with what they are happy with according to their own lights.
Nobody intends to force anyone, same sex or heterosexual, to marry. The “gunshot wedding” has been decommisioned with all the other weapons of deconstruction. This is thankfully where the country is at the moment. No force, no compulsion in so far as that is possible. Live and let live. I hope this kind of reasoning will mark the big questions that need to be faced in the not too distant future on matters such as same-sex marriage and abortion in cases of medical emergency in particular. A recent debate on this matter in the Dáil did not carry any of the rancour associated with “moral” debates in recent decades. It is not as if people feel any less strongly about what they hold dear. We have, I hope, learned to listen a bit more, and see other points of view. Long years of negotiation on matters to do with Northern Ireland have honed skills we lacked in the past.
As I have already mentioned the Roman Catholic Church is unlikely to allow the marriage of same-sex couples any time soon, but there are ways in which it could reach out to people who are gay rather than continuing to alienate and demonise them.
The provision of prayer texts for those who wish to have civil unions of both gay and heterosexual couples blessed would be a small but significant step. Some clergy provide such blessings already, but it is on an ad-hoc basis, and a priest does not know whether he is going to have his knuckles rapped or not for doing so. I started with a question so I will finish with another: “Would Jesus refuse anyone a blessing?”
Nobody intends to force anyone, same sex or heterosexual, to marry. The “gunshot wedding” has been decommisioned with all the other weapons of deconstruction. This is thankfully where the country is at the moment. No force, no compulsion in so far as that is possible. Live and let live. I hope this kind of reasoning will mark the big questions that need to be faced in the not too distant future on matters such as same-sex marriage and abortion in cases of medical emergency in particular. A recent debate on this matter in the Dáil did not carry any of the rancour associated with “moral” debates in recent decades. It is not as if people feel any less strongly about what they hold dear. We have, I hope, learned to listen a bit more, and see other points of view. Long years of negotiation on matters to do with Northern Ireland have honed skills we lacked in the past.
As I have already mentioned the Roman Catholic Church is unlikely to allow the marriage of same-sex couples any time soon, but there are ways in which it could reach out to people who are gay rather than continuing to alienate and demonise them.
The provision of prayer texts for those who wish to have civil unions of both gay and heterosexual couples blessed would be a small but significant step. Some clergy provide such blessings already, but it is on an ad-hoc basis, and a priest does not know whether he is going to have his knuckles rapped or not for doing so. I started with a question so I will finish with another: “Would Jesus refuse anyone a blessing?”
