Today the Church of St John, Middletown is being re-opened and rededicated.  Next Thursday the Chapel of the Irish College in Rome will be rededicated to the praise and glory of God after a major work of renovation.  The centrepiece of the renovation is a beautiful mosaic in the sanctuary.  

The mosaic, which is a picture made of precious stones, represents Christ and Mary, his mother, surrounded by the saints of Ireland.  I am glad to say that St. Patrick, St. Brigid, and St Oliver Plunkett, all saints with Armagh connections, are shown in that lovely mosaic.  In the mosaic, Jesus holds in his hand, the Book of the Gospels.  On the page that is open we see the words:  I am the Good Shepherd. For Jesus is indeed the Good Shepherd.

•     The shepherd that never runs away
•     The shepherd that knows his flock
•     The shepherd that loves his flock
•     The shepherd that ultimately lays down his life for his lambs and his sheep

Sometimes the enemies of Christ have the insolence to suggest that Christ is not such a good shepherd after all.  They would not dare to say so explicitly but they would be hinting at it.  They would be pointing to things like the decrease in vocations to the priesthood and religious life and perhaps implying that the Good Shepherd may be forgetting about us.

But the Good Shepherd never forgets his people.  This is why he raises up people to build and renovate churches where the Good News can be preached and heard, where faith can be nourished, and the praise of God’s name sung.

That is why the Good Shepherd inspires people to think no only of themselves but to be mindful of others – especially the hungry and the homeless; the Good Shepherd inspires his followers to stand at gates and on street corners to collect.

The snow has made us all more conscious of the needs of the little birds and of the animals.  But, first and foremost, let us not forget our fellow human beings and their needs.  The Good Shepherd inspires people to challenge poverty wherever it is found – as happened last week with the publication of a joint statement by St Vincent de Paul, St Mary’s University College, Belfast and the Northern Ireland Catholic Church Council on Social Affairs entitled:  Challenging Poverty in Northern Ireland.

Because the Good Shepherd knows and loves his people, he raises up candidates to become Permanent Deacons in the Church.  The word ‘deacon’ basically means servants.  The deacon is essentially one who serves.  That service can take many forms – the service of the Word of God – that reading and explaining and preaching the Good News – so that people may hear that Good News as Good News.  It means prayers with, and for, God’s people.

It can mean service at the altar in the form of celebrating the sacrament of Baptism, or witnessing, on behalf of the Church, the sacrament of marriage – which is always celebrated and administered by the spouses themselves to each other.  It could mean bringing Holy Communion to the sick and elderly and housebound – something that is already being done and will continue to be done by the ministers of the Eucharist.  
Finally, being a Deacon can mean serving that section of the Family of God who are poor and hungry and homeless – who are sick or in prison.

So today is a red-letter day in the history of the diocese as six candidates officially declare their desire to serve the people of God as Permanent Deacons.  I thank them.  I thank their wives and families who support this decision.  I thank Father Gates and his team of helpers who have conducted the process of selection and preparation and formation.  I ask God to bless all concerned in this noble adventure now and always.  The Good Shepherd does not, and will never, leave his beloved people without the care of his saving grace and love.  

Today’s celebration takes place on a day when the Church really gets it teeth into preparing for Christmas.  We are constantly reminded of the ever diminishing number of days left until Christmas.  The hint is to get on with the shopping and spending, the decorations and the Christmas cards and all the rest.  

Now I am all in favour of all of that – provided it is kept in proportion to our means and that it is not allowed to become so overpowering and oppressive as to cause us to forget the real meaning and purpose of Christmas.  I am delighted that the world makes such a fuss about the birthday of my Lord and Saviour – provided that my Lord and Saviour does not get lost in all of that fuss.

To make sure that this does not happen, the Church has, what you might call a couple of big hitters which it wheels out very prominently at this time of year – every year. They are the prophet Isaiah and St John the Baptist, St Joseph, the foster father of the child Jesus and, of course, the Virgin Mary – the mother of Jesus.  Between them they continue to haul us back to concentrate on what Christmas is all about.

Christmas is essentially a remembering of the first coming of Christ.  That is why we have cribs to remind us of how it actually took place – in a stable in Bethlehem – because the big busy world had no place for them in the inn.  The big busy world and indeed all of us need to be reminded to make a place for Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the Inn of our Hearts.  If that does not happen, well I am afraid Christmas will not really mean very much – no matter how perfect all the other preparations may have been.  

Bethlehem was King David’s city and David was the son of Jesse.  That is why Israel could write foretelling – hundred of years earlier:  

•     A shoot shall spring from the stock of Jesse
•     A scion thrusts from his roots
•     On him the Spirit of the Lord rests.

The prophets took care of the remarkable preparations for the coming of Christ.  But the immediate and detailed and most important preparations were entrusted to the one and only John the Baptist.

Strangely those preparations took place not in the big City of Jerusalem but out in the wilderness of the desert.  I would say that there was not nuch use for credit cards in the desert!

But obviously there was great use for a character like John the Baptist – because the people flocked to him in their thousands from all over the place.  What was his secret?  Someone has ventured the opinion that it is extraordinary how a mortified man draws people.  They admire the man whose needs are minimal, who is the Master of his own appetites, who has a deep interior freedom.  John the Baptist, with minimal clothes and minimal food was a magnet.  People trusted him because he could not be bought.

His message was simple and clear:  in fact Jesus began his preaching with the exact same words:
“Repent for the kingdom of Heaven has come near”.

The people believed him and, as a sign of their belief, they were baptised and they confessed their sins.

Some years ago the Archbishop of Dublin, Desmond Connell, wrote a Pastoral Letter for Christmas entitled:  Come Home for Christmas.  It was an invitation to go to Confession for Christmas and I think it takes us to the heart of the Christmas message.  Jesus came preaching repentance of his sins because he knew that if we did not do so and change our lives, his suffering and death would be of no use.

John the Baptist had fierce words of condemnation for the Pharisees and Sadducees despite the fact that they came to him for baptism.  He rejected them because they had rejected his message of the need for change in their own lives. They went through the motions without any real change of heart.

Who are the Pharisees and Sadducees of today?  I don’t want to judge anyone but it is possible to go through Christmas, enjoying all the benefits of food and drink and presents, without making a real effort to change our attitudes towards sin and the need to repent, and the need to think of others besides ourselves.

The final point is to remember that Jesus came in the flesh, as a human being 2,000 years ago.  He will come again in glory at the end of time.  But Jesus comes now – in a real but mysterious way – recognising him now and welcoming his call to repent – that is the secret I think of a happy Christmas.

Amen.

To bury our dead with dignity is a most sacred duty.  The fulfilment of that duty is sometimes associated with the name of a princess in Ancient Greece called Antigone.  She was prepared to defy the decree of the king and lose her own life rather than leave her brother’s body lie unburied on the streets of the City of Thebes.  

When Jesus came he taught us that mercy will be the quality on which everyone will ultimately be judged.  Traditionally, this teaching has been handed down to us as the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.  They are the works which should be the outstanding characteristics of the lives of those who claim to follow Christ.  

The corporal works require us to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit those in prison and, last but not least, to bury the dead.  And so, after all these years of waiting we come here today to bury the mortal remains of Gerry Evans.  

There is a great sense of relief that, at last, the waiting has come to an end.  At first that waiting was filled with hope – the hope that Gerry was still alive and would, one day, turn up safe and sound.  But then, as the years rolled by, one kind of hope was replaced by another – the hope that his remains would be found and identified so that the mourning could begin, and the burial take place, and proper respect be paid to his memory and prayers be offered for his eternal rest and happiness.

And so, our first reaction today is one of great sympathy for Mary and Noel and Tom and Seán for the great crime committed against a brother and a son, for the great wrong that was done to them.  Our sympathy is also tinged with great admiration for the fact that they never lost hope that Gerry’s remains would be found one day and given proper burial.  

Along with that there has to be great anger and even sadness, great fear and pain perhaps, at the thought that we live in a society where certain people took upon themselves to play God with regard to the life of Gerry Evans.  They took upon themselves to be judge and jury, executioner and undertaker.  What arrogance.  What appalling wickedness.  I just want us all to try and take on board the enormity of it.  Then each one of us will determine, hopefully, to do all in our power to ensure that something similar never happens again.  God alone is the Lord of Life – from its beginning to its end.  No-one can, under any circumstances, claim for himself, the right to directly destroy an innocent human being!.

As in every funeral Mass, today we celebrate the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We believe that in Baptism Gerry Evans was united with Christ – the Christ who not only suffered and died but who rose from the dead.

Gerry Evans died before his time.  He died because someone or some group decided to take to themselves the right to destroy his life.  People die before their time for various reasons.  Others live to ripe old age.  What is absolutely certain is that we are all going to die.  What is absolutely important is that we all be ready to die when death knocks at our door, as eventually will happen one day.  What is absolutely important is that, in the meantime, we live virtuous lives – righteous lives.

Gerry Evans was baptised.  In Baptism he was united with Jesus – the same Jesus who, for love of us, suffered, died and rose from the dead.  By rising from the dead, Jesus conquered death, once and for all.  Gerry made his First Communion and was confirmed.  In other words, he received his share of the riches of Christ.  He received the gifts of the Holy Spirit to guided him and direct him on the journey of his short life.  In his death he passed from this life to the next in union with Christ to be purified in soul and to be welcomed into Heaven.

We are here to pray for Gerry – in union with his sorrowing mother, Mary and with his brothers, Sean, Noel and Tom as they have faithfully prayed for him all these years.  We pray that he may be found worthy to enter into the company of the saints with his father, Gerry and his brother, Martin.  Found worthy that is to enter into the mysterious presence of the Eternal God.  Then we shall proceed to bury his mortal remains at last.  We Christians do so with great care for we believe that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit and we believe in the Resurrection of the Body.

In death our soul is separated from our body.  As a result, the human body decays but the soul goes to meet God – while it waits to be reunited with is risen and gloried body.  

From the very beginning the Christian faith in the Resurrection was ridiculed and rejected.  Yes, many accept that your life and my life could continue in some spiritual way – that is, without a body after death but they ask:  How could you expect us to believe that the body so clearly weak, could rise to everlasting life.  And yet that is exactly what we do believe.  We believe that God will give incorruptible life to our bodies in the resurrection.  God will reunite our bodies with our souls forever.  The profession of our Christian faith ends with a proclamation of the Resurrection of the dead and of life everlasting.  

In this Mass we pray for ourselves that we may be ourselves, ready for death when it comes.  We pray for those who killed Gerry.  We are moved to do so because we believe in Christ’s victory over sin.

“Raise up your power, O Lord and come” is our constant prayer in this Advent Season.  The power in question appears most wonderful when in fact it becomes mercy and victory over sin.  God is never revealed so great as when his power becomes pardon.  God will not refuse His pardon to all who ask it.

“They have taken my Lord away and I do not know where they have put him” was the anguished cry of Mary Magdalene.  Gerry Evans was brutally taken away and, for all these years, his grieving mother and family did not know where they had put him.  What was not taken away was their faith -the faith of the Evans family in their Risen Lord and Saviour.  Jesus has never ceased to give them hope in all their trials and tribulations.

We pray for ourselves that our faith too in Jesus may remain strong.  Yes he has returned to His Father and His God, to our Father and to our God.  But. He has also promised to be with us to the end of time.  It is our challenge to grow in our awareness of His presence.

We pray in thanksgiving for the work of the Commission for Victims – North and South for their assistance, Patience and perseverance are essential elements of genuine hope. The patience and perseverance of the Commission have sustained the hope which we see fulfilled here today.

AMEN

I met an amazing person yesterday.  His name is Father Emmanuel.  For the past fourteen years he has been Parish Priest of Gaza.  Gaza is a city in south-west Palestine – that is, the Holy Land.  It is part of Palestine but surrounded by Israel with which it has been at war for many years.  The stress of it all took its toll on Father Emmanuel’s health .  So he has had to retire to his native village in another part of Palestine.  He has recovered somewhat and now is on an international tour.  He has come to Ireland to speak, to quote his own words: “A word of faith – Hope and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering”.  

I have myself been to Gaza and I have seen that suffering with my own eyes.  The present situation does not promise any quick solution or the end of the occupation that is imposed upon them.  And yet they say:  “despite the lack of even a glimmer of positive expectation, our hope remains strong”.  

I find those words truly inspirational.  I find them inspirational because the people of Gaza see that the various talks and visits and negotiations have not brought any change in the situation or the suffering.  Even President Obama – who wants to put an end to the tragedy – has not yet been able to change this reality.  

But despite all of this – their hope remains strong because it is a hope from God and God alone is good, almighty and loving.  They are convinced that God’s goodness will, one day, be victorious over the evil in which they find ourselves.

As St Paul said:  ‘If God is for us, who is against us?  Who will separate us from the love of God?  Will hardship or distress or persecution or famine, or nakedness or pain of sword”.  That is St. Paul’s list.  We could add a few more of our own – recession, bleak economic prospects, economic depression.  Yes, all of these are really depressing and painful and practically unbearable, and yet they cannot separate us from the love of Christ.  I say they cannot separate us from the love of Christ because the hope that is within us means, first and foremost, our faith in God and God is love.

Secondly, our expectation, despite everything, is for a better future.  Hope is the ability to see God in the midst of trouble and doom and gloom and to be co-workers with the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us. Such people are beacons of hope in the midst of doom and gloom.  Being a co-worker with the Holy Spirit to improve things – no matter how desperate – usually involves working with others.  It certainly means not giving into evil but standing up to it and resisting it.  Here in Ireland we have big problems.  Terrible economic problems but really they are not in the same league as the problems which Gaza and the people of Gaza face.  And yet I think we could learn something from them about the Spirit of Hope with which they face these difficulties.

I attended a Conference recently in Zagreb in Croatia.  We were told that today in certain parts of Europe, one in four pregnancies ends in abortion.  People are talking of the population winter – which, if it is not halted, will end up in certain nations disappearing off the face of the earth.  Happily, Ireland with its high birth rate is not one of those!
 
Pope Benedict is determined not to yield to this terrible threat.  He is determined to stand up to it and to continue to resist it.  That is why he is celebrating this Extraordinary Vigil for all unborn human life tonight.  It is timely and inspired.  It is a clear call to all of us to work and pray to ensure that the deliberate destruction of human life never takes place, at any moment of its existence.  This surely must be one of our great hopes in this Season of Hope.  

Tonight we gladly join with this Prayer Vigil for all Unborn Human Life.  The vigil is meant to become a cry of all humanity.  That cry goes up to God the Father – who is the Giver of all good things.  Throughout the world it cries out for every human life to be respected, protected and loved.  God entrusts to every woman and man, the task of defending and promoting life.  Yes, it involves prayer, liturgy and the sacraments.  But, above all, it ought to happen in the daily life of each one of us.  It means a spirit of charity towards everyone. – that spirit is shown by our own self-giving and by showing care for all life and for the life of everyone.  

One of the great signs of life in the Church is vibrant parish communities.  That is, communities which make their faith active and present in service to the poor, in love of neighbour and in prayer for the needs of the world.  To facilitate all of that and provide leadership, an active Parish Pastoral Council is essential.  I am very pleased that the Rite of Commissioning of the new Parish Pastoral Council is part of tonight’s ceremony.  I am also pleased to know that the recently published book Parish Pastoral Council by Debra Snoddy, Jim Campbell and Andrew McNally will be launched next month.   

The final part is the Installation of the Parish Priest.  I ask you to pray for Father Keenan as he is installed as Parish Priest in this parish of Haggardstown and Blackrock.  I also ask you to pray for Father Brennan and for his family.  In fact I ask you to pray for all the clergy of this diocese.  Pray that by getting to know the love of Christ we may all put on the mind of Christ in order to become servants of Christ and bearers of Christ’s love for all and to all.

Pray that we all unite our lives and our sufferings with the sufferings of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ for the Cross of Christ is our only hope.

OPENING ADDRESS BY CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY,
ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH AND PRIMATE OF ALL IRELAND
AT THE IRISH INTER-CHURCH MEETING CONFERENCE
‘THE CHURCHES AND EDUCATION: CONTEXT, VISION AND VALUES’, EMMAUS RETREAT AND CONFERENCE CENTRE, SWORDS, CO DUBLIN

I welcome you all this morning to this Conference on ‘The Churches and Education: Context, Vision and Values’, organised by the Church in Society Forum of the Inter-Church Meeting. I thank the Chair of that Forum, Mrs Eileen Gallagher and the Planning Sub-Committee for the very comprehensive and challenging programme they have put together for us.

The theme could not be more timely or significant. The dramatic cutbacks in public spending which have been announced in both parts of our island have left many reeling with fear and uncertainty. Then there is the ongoing debate north and south about the relationship between faith and schooling, about how scarce public resources should be used in a society of diverse religious and ethnic identity as well as increasing secularity.

This is part of the ‘context’ of our shared reflection today. In a sense, Christian education is global.  But what of the ‘vision’ and ‘values’?

The Book of Proverbs tells us ‘Without a vision, the people perish’. Today is an opportunity to reflect together on the vision that might inspire, energise and direct the mission of Christian education in the Ireland we find ourselves in today.

We do so as Christians – united by our common baptism.   I feel this topic seems to be flowing quite logically from the topic of the lat Inter-Church Meeting which was Baptism.  Baptism makes us members of the Body of Christ with rights and responsibilities.  Baptism gives to the baptised certain rights within the Church – especially the right to be nourished by the Word of God.  But, corresponding to that right of baptised children, is the right and duty of parents to ensure that this right of their children is respected and upheld.

We do so with the shared conviction that the love of Jesus Christ opens us to the true wonder, beauty and potential of every human person.   We do so with a shared vision of humanity that respects and values every person equally.

Part of our challenge, therefore, part of the opportunity we have today, is to explore together how we can put new heart into the values which give life to our shared Christian vision of education.

When I was in Rome I was often struck by the fact that so many frescoes from the early Church portray Christ in the tunic and cloak of a teacher. These symbolise the conviction which has united Christians in every age that Jesus Christ is in his very nature and person an ‘educator’. He is one who quite literally ‘leads us out’.  He leads us out of ourselves into the limitless horizons of the encounter with God and with each other. Leading us out of ourselves and our own selfish preoccupations he then sends us out to bring his liberation to others.

That is why Christians have always understood Christian education as fundamentally a liberation.  It is a liberation from the destructive forces that vie within our fallen human nature, which in turn frustrate our efforts at a more just and peaceful world.  It leads us to the liberty of the children of God – the freedom of a life for God and for others.

It is this ‘freedom for’ which means that the question of Christian education is, and always will be, associated with the question of society. If the encounter with Jesus – if our salvation – is a ‘leading out’ then it invariably leads us into engagement with the society of which we are a part. This is why authentic Christian education can never be a matter of escape from the world or from the challenges which confront it. It can never be about walling ourselves in, precisely because Jesus calls us out – out into mission – into the marketplace of competing values, philosophies and ideas, always ready, in the words of St. Peter, ‘to give a reason for the faith’ that is within us.

In the first centuries Christians usually received their religious instruction in the family or in the Church.  But things moved on.  We are no longer in those centuries.  As Christian education matured in the Middle Ages, education and learning came to be seen as necessary means in the process of civilizing the so-called barbarians.  When the barbarian invasions and the ensuring chaos almost extinguished the light of learning and education, it was the Church, and especially the monasteries that kept it alight.  

Unlike totalitarian regimes, the Christian philosophy of education holds that the family, the State and the Church all share a responsibility of educating young people.  

Christian education requires a constant striving for intellectual excellence, social responsibility, emotional maturity and striving for spiritual perfection.  So we cannot talk about Christian education without talking about the society through and in which it is mediated. Here in Ireland, north and south, that society has been characterised, in recent years, by change:

•    There are new levels of diversity and secularity.
•    There are new and unexpected financial challenges.
•    There is the new and more peaceful situation in Northern Ireland.
•    There has also been an important change which is less commented upon. Within the Christian community there has been an important change in how we relate to each other.

That we are meeting here in Emmaus to share our perspectives on Christian education could hardly have been imagined fifty years ago. We should never take this change for granted or become complacent about its significance.

This positive and welcome change challenges us to renew our vision of Christian education in Ireland today. It challenges us to ensure that the resources, structures and values behind our mission of Christian education on this island are giving the fullest possible expression to our Christian vision of justice, peace, reconciliation and respect for the rights and freedoms of all. The Trustees of Catholic Schools, north and south, have indicated time and time again that they are open to a creative, responsible discussion with others about how we can respond constructively to the needs of a diverse society.

Recent suggestions that schools in Northern Ireland should be forced into one single state system are a stark warning to all those who respect diversity and the rights of parents. It seems strange that people in Northern Ireland are being told that they should accept a lower standard of rights and freedoms than they would have if they lived in Britain, Scotland or the south of Ireland. People in Northern Ireland deserve to live in a normal society. Diversity is part of a normal society, including diversity in the range of schools available for parents to choose from.

Such comments set back the discussion about the future of education, north and south. They create distrust and suspicion rather than a constructive atmosphere of collaboration, sensitivity and mutual respect. Today is an opportunity for us as Christians, with our own particular histories on this issue, to demonstrate that sensitivity and respect for each other. It is an opportunity to explore what opportunities might exist for greater co-operation and sharing in the mission of Christian education in Ireland today. It is an opportunity to identify how we can work to support each other against efforts to remove our legitimate rights and interests in education.  

Without a vision the people will perish. Without prayer and discernment our vision will be imperfect and impaired.  Let us now ask God to bless and inspire our efforts today to know and do his will, and where we can, to help us to do it joyfully and together.

Thank you.