My sisters and brothers in Jesus Christ,

I am pleased to learn that here in South Belfast for several years, six Churches representing four Christian denominations, have produced an Ecumenical series of talks for Lent.  The initiative has been going so well that this year it is being expanded with this joint worship service being added on the eve of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  I am honoured to have been invited to speak at this joint worship service.

This year the theme of the Week of Prayer is:  You Are Witnesses.  We are all called to be witnesses.  We can only witness to what we have seen or heard.  So, in what sense can we be witnesses? 

The Greek word for witness is MARTYR.  In the New Testament there is a very specific Christian meaning given to the word ‘witness’.  The apostles are the specially commissioned witnesses, appointed by God.  Each of them is a witness of what he has seen or heard.  But the object of their witnessing is concerned with the resurrection of Christ.  But soon the object of what the apostles witnessed was broadened. 

A genuine witness must have lived with Jesus from his baptism in the Jordan until his ascension into Heaven.  The apostles are witnesses for Christ.  They take their stand as witnesses in defence of Christ and his opponents.  For this purpose they were given a special gift by the Holy Spirit. 

In the writings of John, witness is given not specifically to the facts of the history of Jesus, but to the person of Jesus as the eternal Son of God.  So, witness can be given by those who are not eyewitnesses.  It is given by those who confess their faith in what Jesus was, and what he stood for.  During the 2nd century persecutions added a new depth to the concept of witnessing and it became a term reserved for the ‘one who seals the seriousness of his witnessing with death’.  Although the initial period of persecution ended in 313, the call to give witness through physical martyrdom has re-appeared frequently down through the centuries.  And yet, thankfully, the vast majority of past and present Christians have not actually experienced a threat to their survival because of being Christian.

For all Christians, of all ages, the challenge is to bear witness to the joy of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ despite what would appear to be contrary evidence.  And so, for the vast majority of us, that witnessing must take place in the midst of the more ordinary trials of life.  Of course, every now and then, there occur trials which can be quite extraordinary, such as the disaster in Haiti and which raises problems.

The Christian always remains a disciple – a learner.  One of the things we have learned is:  how much we have in common – especially the two great realities – the sacrament of baptism and the Sacred Scriptures. 

To speak of Baptism is to try to understand what it means to be a disciple of THE perfect disciple, Jesus.  The challenge is to retain our faith in His victory over sin and death, despite the disasters and trials and tribulations of this life.

We come together seeking understanding of what it means to be witnesses to Jesus Christ today – here and now.  We are called to bear witness in the light of the Gospel which we share and hold.  Does it mean selling all that we have and giving the proceeds to the poor and then setting off to some country where Christians are being viciously persecuted and getting ourselves put to death?  Perhaps.  At one stage there was a tendency to link intense Christian witness with an austere ascetical life.  This tendency began early and has re-appeared in many different forms down through the centuries.

Of course, the best of this ascetical tradition involves something that has always been present in genuine Christian witness.  That is, the capacity to live a life of compassionate and joyful faith, even in the face of the sufferings and losses of this world.  The great Christian missionaries had that capacity. So, in every generation the missionaries have given up possessions, comforts and even their lives, to preach the Gospel we share to those who have not yet received it.

The model of Christian witness continues to evolve.  In the past – witness to God – was often seen as above and beyond the everyday world.  Today the emphasis is more often on our witnessing to God’s desire to be among us in the sending of His Son.  We realise that we are all called to holiness and therefore to bear witness to Christ.  By Baptism we share in the mission of Jesus to the world.  He now depends on us.  He has no other hands with which to feed the poor, but our hands.  He has no other lips, but our lips, to tell the Good News of God’s love and fidelity. 

So today, witness to God now focuses often on the divine desire to transform human life here and now.  It underlines the need to work to transform the world into the kind of world Jesus envisaged.  So, in the light of this, we see more clearly the witness value of Christian marriage for example.  We see its immense value as a witness to God’s fidelity as well as the witness value of parenthood to the revelation of God’s healing love.  There is also the witness value of secular work in creating a just and more prosperous world.

Today, the struggles to bring about social justice, especially basic human rights, for the poor and the homeless and the foreigners are another developing realm of Christian witness.
The courage to speak out in defence of a fragile peace and to work to consolidate that peace – even at a personal and party-political cost – are definitely places of Christian witness today.

The Gospel of Life makes imperative the efforts to defend the dignity of every human life, at every stage of its existence, as well as the value of marriage as the essential building block of society.  The struggle to protect the environment will involve a willingness to significantly change lifestyle and probably a reduction of privilege and status.

The heart of Christian witness remains putting our trust in the saving truth of the Good News of Jesus Christ.  This takes us to this evening’s Gospel.  That Gospel tells us of two disciples on a journey, trying to make sense of their experience.  They are trying to understand the death of Jesus and the discovery of his empty tomb. Like so many people in our world today, their faces are ‘downcast’. Their hopes have been dashed. What had seemed like a promising new beginning for them and for Israel has come to a tragic end. They feel let down.

One striking feature of the story is how Our Lord identifies with their search for meaning. He guides the disciples to a new way of seeing.  A new way of understanding what they thought they knew already. He opens up new vistas of imagination and meaning in the Law, the prophets and the psalms. Their ‘hearts burn within them’ as he explains the Scriptures to them.

In the conclusion to the story, which we will hear shortly, the disciples return to Jerusalem.  There we have the assurance of the promise made by the Lord on that and on many other occasions.  It was this: the Risen Lord will not only walk with his followers on the road to Emmaus. He will not only explain the Scriptures to the disciples in Jerusalem but he will continue to walk with his people in every age. He will continue to inspire and illuminate the Scriptures for each of us in our day, in our life and our time.

And how will he do this?  He will send down the Holy Spirit who will continue to teach us and lead us into all truth. This is the Holy Spirit who unites us every day to the power and presence of the Risen Lord. This is the same Holy Spirit who seeks to deepen our union with one another in the love between the Father and the Son. The Spirit will remind us of what Jesus said and did.  He will remind us that the interpretation of the Scriptures, given by Jesus, consisted in his life of love, compassion and healing for all.

I believe that the story of the journey to Emmaus suggests three areas where we could do more together to bear witness to Jesus in our world today.  At the heart of this story is the understanding that comes from hearing and reflecting together on the scriptures in the presence of the Risen Lord.

This was a major area of reflection during the XII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Catholic Bishops, in Rome, in October 2008, which I attended with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.  The topic of the Synod was The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.  It was also attended by a wide range of representatives from other denominations.  During the Synod it was warmly acknowledged that the renewed emphasis on access to the Scriptures, promoted by the Reformation, had brought great graces to every denomination. We also heard the very heartening news of all the work which Bible Societies are doing to share the Sacred Scriptures with others. We heard how ongoing co-operation between various Christian Bible Associations has produced a very popular Ecumenical Translation of the Bible.

A particular Bible I cherish myself is one presented to me two years ago by the Bible Societies of Ireland. It is a lovely leather bound edition.  One of its many attractive features is its illustrations.  I often inspired by the illustration of the messenger coming across the mountains, bringing the Good News.  He or she is running flat out, has just reached a summit on the mountain road, is rounding a bend and coming into view. It is all-out action – with flailing arms, pure determination and focussed intent.  I think it is a powerful illustration of the kind of action which we need to carry out together to spread the fantastic news of the peace, joy and hope contained in the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death.

At the Synod there was also an earnest reflection on the words of St Gregory the Great who said “Frequently, many things in the Sacred Writings, which I was unable to understand on my own, I came to grasp while in the presence of my brothers” (Homiliae in Ezechielem, II,2, I: PL 76, 948-949). Pope Benedict XVI made a similar point when he said “Listening together to the Word of God, practicing together the Lectio Divina of the Bible … constitutes a path to walk for reaching the unity of faith, as a response to hearing the word” (Discourse of Benedict XVI, Jan. 25, 2007).

The story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, I believe, challenges us to do more to create opportunities for shared reflection on the Sacred Scriptures. It invites us to listen to the Word together, to practise Lectio Divina of the Bible together.   Lectio Divina is an ancient mode of reading scripture linked to prayer.  The Emmaus story invites us to learn from one another and from our cherished perspectives on the Word, in the company of the Risen Lord. In the words of the final proposition of the Synod, “The Bible is truly a privileged place of encounter among the diverse churches and ecclesial communities.  Listening together to the Scriptures helps us live together in a real communion” (Relatio post disceptationem, 36).

Secondly, we can continue to pray together. It is only a few years ago that the prospect of Christians of different denominations on this island coming together to pray would have been unimaginable. Jesus did not simply call the Christian community to theological dialogue or joint action. He called us first to communion in prayer. It is in prayer that Jesus appeals to the Father: ‘May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me’

This brings me to the final area where I believe the Emmaus story challenges us to offer joint witness to our world today. Ireland today, I believe, is experiencing a crisis of hope. Part of the problem lies in an understandable reaction to dramatic events in the economy and in the Church. But there are also deeper roots to this loss of hope. Recent surveys suggest that faith in God in Ireland remains relatively high, while belief in an afterlife is considerably lower. There is an increasing disconnect between the meaning of this life and the prospect of an eternal future.  A culture of disregard for the dignity and worth of the body in this life may be caused by a lack of interest in the resurrection of the body in the next life. This is turn may be contributing to a culture of listlessness and despair, not least among the young.

Part of the challenge for us as Christians today I believe is to become more effective witnesses to hope. Let us try and work together to bring to others, the joy of knowing Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection? How can we help every person to discover their eternal uniqueness before God and the intensity with which they are loved by their Creator? By our shared witness to the resurrection, we can help others to the knowledge that in Jesus life has a definite direction and an eternal hope?  Our very being together this evening is a witness to that hope. Let us pray that the Lord will continue to deepen our unity and strengthen our hope.

Jesus told his disciples that they were witnesses to three things:
1.    His suffering,
2.    His resurrection, and
3.    The preaching of repentance in his name for the forgiveness of sins.

I believe that if we read the Scriptures together, we too become witnesses to the fact, not only that Christ was destined to suffer, we also see that the body of Christ continues to suffer to this day.

If we pray together for example, the Lectio Divina, we will definitely experience the presence of the Risen Christ.  He will give us peace and turn our sorrows to joy.  He will walk beside us on our journey.  And, if in fact, repentance is preached in His name for the forgiveness of sins to all nations that would be the source of the greatest hope and joy imaginable.  There will be more joy in Heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance.

The message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins is both a journey and an invitation to journey.  The journey continues by means of witnesses – primarily witnesses to the Resurrection, but, in reality, any reader of the Gospel who responds with an open mind.  The journey is not under the control of the witness but under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Clothed with power from on high, we can all be those witnesses and may God grant that we may indeed all become faithful witnesses.

AMEN

Homily of Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh at the Requiem Mass for His Eminence Cahal B. Cardinal Daly Archbishop Emeritus of Armagh, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh

President of Ireland and Dr McAleese, Your Eminences, we are honoured by your presence.  Family of Cardinal Daly, you have our deepest sympathy.  Taoiseach, Deputy First Minister, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Ministers of the Oireachtas and of the Assembly.  Former Taoiseach, Members of Parliament and of the Oireachtas, Mayors and Members of Local Authorities, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and of the Judiciary. The Chief Constable, Matt Baggott.

My Brother Bishops, your Grace, my Lord Bishop of Down and Dromore, representing the Church of Ireland, Dr Hutchinson representing the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Rev Kerr, President of the Methodist Church. Priests and people of the Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise and the Diocese of Down and Connor.

My Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, I welcome you

I welcome all of you to Armagh today.  We gather with the family and friends of our late, beloved, Cardinal Cahal Daly to offer them our sympathy and the support of our prayers.  We come to commend him to God’s tender mercy and compassion. We come to praise and thank God for Christ’s victory over sin and death. 

I think there is something deeply symbolic about his dying on the last day of the civil year and in the middle of the Christmas season. He has indeed finished the race of a full, happy, and illustrious life. He has died in the season when we celebrate the coming of the Son of God to be our Saviour. It was a season he loved and celebrated so well. This year that celebration was marred by the news of the fire which engulfed his former Cathedral of St. Mel’s in Longford. It was news which caused him great distress. St. Mel’s held a very special place in his heart. It was here he started his ministry as Bishop. It was here that he began work of liturgical renewal and reordering of Churches following the Second Vatican Council. We extend our support and good wishes to his successor Bishop Colm O’Reilly as he prepares to rebuild the Cathedral following the tragic fire.

Many of you will have received Cardinal Daly’s now famous annual Christmas cards. They are a work of art in their own right. They also tell us so much about the man: about his abiding faith in Jesus Christ – the same yesterday, today and forever; about his loving devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Those Christmas cards spoke of a man who loved art and beauty, prayer and poetry, especially religious poetry, as well as Holy Scripture.

We are here today to pay our respects to a disciple of Christ who worked and prayed tirelessly for mutual understanding, peace and reconciliation. His support for the noble vocation of politics is well known. Today, at the beginning of a New Year, we renew our encouragement to those who serve the public good in the political arena. The hopes and dreams of so many depend on you. Remain steadfast in the search for a brighter future for all. Remember the distance you have already travelled together. Continue to work together to address social, economic and environmental challenges and thereby create the kind of country which Cardinal Daly and so many others yearned to see. I am certain that a reconciled, stable and sustainable future would be the best monument you could build to his memory.

What a consolation it is to welcome so many representatives from other Christian traditions here today.  Your faith and friendship played an immense part in the development of Cardinal Daly’s own faith and ministry. From his earliest days in Loughuile he sought to understand the proud, confident tradition of his protestant neighbours. He knew instinctively that those who treasured the Word of God with such love and devotion, who professed Jesus Christ as Saviour with such conviction, shared a bond with Catholics that went much deeper than politics or nation. He never tired of reminding Catholics that ‘one cannot be authentically Christian or Catholic without the ecumenical spirit’. To be bound by the common bond of Baptism, he used to say, is to be related to a fellow Christian as sister and brother.  As we take leave of our brother Cahal today, we rejoice in our common Christian conviction that, in the words of our Gospel reading, ‘whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life.’

It was his keen desire for eternal life that made Cardinal Daly so passionate in his commitment to the renewal of the Church initiated by the Second Vatican Council. The Council was an historic and momentous event which he attended as an advisor to his predecessor, the late Cardinal Conway.  There his conviction that all the baptised share in the priestly, prophetic and kingly mission of Christ was given renewed energy and direction. In the three Dioceses where he served as Bishop the renewal set out by the Council became the dominant theme of his pastoral ministry and teaching. He set about establishing Diocesan Pastoral Councils and actively encouraged them at Parish level. He pioneered programmes of theological and spiritual formation for lay people in preparation for their increased participation in the liturgy, in catechesis and in administration. He established initiatives for young people and played a key role in developing a new national catechetical programme for Catholic schools. He was always anxious to ensure the effective renewal of the priesthood through initiatives of ongoing formation and fraternal support. He also had a very personal interest in the renewal and development of religious life. As many of the religious here today will testify, he was a regular visitor to the religious communities of his Dioceses. There he drew great strength from participation in the communal celebration of the Eucharist and the liturgy of the hours. I think he would have been very pleased with yesterday’s Evening Prayer in which so many women religious had leading parts.

Those who knew Cardinal Daly knew that he was never more content than when at prayer. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, his heart burned within him as he prayed the Scriptures and as he brought his lively intellect to the work of faith seeking understanding and understanding seeking faith.

In so many ways Cardinal Daly was ahead of his time. As early as 1973 he was working with other Christian leaders in the search for peace. A report which they prepared at that time set out principles for a non-violent way forward for the divided communities of Northern Ireland. Today its language bears a remarkable similarity to that of political agreements we have now. Cardinal Daly remained adamant always that justice, mutual respect and purely peaceful means were the only way forward. It was a source of considerable satisfaction for him later to see politicians take courageous risks for peace. As he would often pray from the psalms, ‘Mercy and faithfulness have met, justice and peace have embraced’. Our task today is to continue along the path of mercy and to tackle all remnants of sectarianism in our midst.

In his later years Cardinal Cahal was also prophetic in warning us of the importance of renewing our Christian commitment to the Minding of Planet Earth; what he would call our fragile and precarious home.  This was rooted in his early interest as a seminarian in Maynooth in the Social Doctrine of the Church. It was something that would continue to animate his ministry and preaching throughout his life. It found expression in one of his most notable and enduring contributions to the work of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, the pastoral letter entitled The Work of Justice. Here he played a central role, as he did in so many of the publications of the Conference, in anticipating many of the social and economic challenges which would come to confront Ireland in an era of unprecedented change.

He was prophetic too in his appreciation of the contribution and role of the feminine in the life of the Church. Throughout his life he drew inspiration from his deep devotion to the Mother of God. He often noted that it was a woman Mary, whom the early Church celebrated in song as ‘The Highest Honour of Our Race’. He would always insist that every effort would be made to ensure a balance of gender on Pastoral Councils, Committees and in the leadership of prayer groups and pastoral projects. The image of the prayerful Madonna would always adorn his Christmas cards. He would often refer to Mary as ‘the woman wrapped in silence’, who carried the mysteries of the Lord in the depth of her heart. This was reflected in his particular appreciation of the role of female religious, especially women contemplatives in the life of the Church.  He had a great devotion to St Bernadette and to the sanctuary at Lourdes. However, he had a particular devotion to St. Thérèse of Lisieux. She was the young contemplative who, although she never strayed from the grounds of her enclosed Carmel in Lisieux, is the patron Saint of the missions. She is the heavenly patroness of those who go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News, in season and out of season. It was in the life of St. Thérèse of Lisieux in particular, I believe, that Cahal Daly as a young priest found inspiration for his life of untiring apostolic activity rooted in deep, contemplative communion with the Lord and giver of all life.

Yes, Cardinal Cahal Daly was a prophetic, renewing and transforming figure in a time of immense change in the history of this island. But his mission would be misunderstood, his legacy misrepresented if it focused solely, or indeed principally on the social and political aspects of his work. Cardinal Cahal Daly was first and foremost a man of faith, a man of prayer, a man of God. He was consumed with the desire to know Jesus Christ, to embody his values and to make him known to others. He did this so that others might know the hope God’s call holds for them and for the whole world.

One of the Cardinal’s favourite scripture verses comes from the Acts of the Apostles. He quotes it more than once in his autobiography. He said it often gave him inspiration in times of difficulty. He gave it place of honour on his 2007 Christmas Card, the year of his 90th birthday. In his last will and testament he has directed that it be inscribed on his headstone.
It goes like this: ‘Life to me is not a thing to waste words on, provided that, when I finish my race, I shall have carried out the mission the Lord Jesus gave me – and that was to bear witness to the Good News of God’s grace.’ (Acts 20:24).

Those words come from the famous farewell speech of St. Paul to the Church at Ephesus. There Paul described how he came as a humble servant. He came to preach and to teach, to preach and teach people how to come to know God and his healing love. Cardinal Daly saw himself as having a similar vocation in life. Well, the great long race is over. His mission has been accomplished. His life is a challenge to each one of us. It challenges us to ask ourselves – to what do we bear witness? Is it the Good News of God’s healing and merciful love? His life challenges us to keep on running the race! It challenges us to continue carrying out our mission and to declare before all who will listen, the truth of God’s renewing presence and love.

In God’s providence, the life of this gentle, kindly, loyal and ever faithful shepherd of God’s flock, who sleeps before us in the peace of Christ, was a sure guide to God’s people on their pilgrim journey. He guided us with such certainty through the challenges and change of the post-Conciliar era, to the first decade of the new millennium.  As we contemplate the manifold challenges which lie ahead for the pilgrim Church in the Ireland which he loved so dearly and served so generously, we would do well to draw strength from his tireless spirit and his boundless confidence. That confidence was not in his own power but in the power of God to do infinitely more than we can ask for or imagine.

Cardinal Daly would have been well aware that the next steps on that pilgrim journey for the Catholic Church in Ireland will be among the most critical and most challenging of its history. The abuse of children and its shameful mismanagement by those charged by God to protect his ‘little ones’, have wrought such damage on those who were abused. It has caused such justified anger and outrage on the part of the faithful and damaged trust so profoundly in the integrity of the leaders of the Church.

No-one can doubt the Catholic Church in Ireland is now at a defining moment in its history. The only way to authentic renewal is that of humble service to God’s people. The rebuilding of trust will entail making sure that children are safe at every moment and in every Church setting. It will require complete commitment to the path initiated by Cardinal Daly, of working with the civil authorities and whole parish communities to ensure best practice, cooperation and accountability in safeguarding children in all Church activities.

In the sadness of saying farewell to one who gave so much and who was loved by so many as Cardinal Daly, today’s liturgy speaks to us of hope. In the words of our first reading: ‘That is what I shall tell my heart, and so recover hope: the favours of the Lord are not all past, his kindnesses are not exhausted; every morning they are renewed; great is his faithfulness.’

In the Epilogue of his autobiography, Steps Along My Pilgrim Way,  Cardinal Dalys leaves us with some compelling words of hope. ‘This is emphatically not a time for discouragement’, he says, ‘It is not a time for pessimism or fear about the future. The Holy Spirit has worked powerfully in the Church in our time, and continues to work mightily among the priests and lay persons who constitute the People of God. The fields are now ripening in harvest…. No one needs to save the Church because the Lord saves his Church, the Holy Spirit renews the Church constantly and always leads it back to the joy of its youth.’

As we now accompany our brother Cahal with our prayers on his journey to the eternal youth of the Church in heaven, we thank God for the give of his long, generous and happy life. We renew our own hope in God’s promise to make all things new.

May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.