PEACE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
ARTICLE FOR THE MONTH BY
MOST REV. SEAN BRADY, DCL
ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH
24 AUGUST, 1998

The stirring events of the past two months in Northern Ireland, namely the Drumcree Parade issue and the Omagh bombing, have pushed the topic of reconciliation or reconstruction centre stage as never before. People in Northern Ireland are no strangers to political and civil unrest, to communal trauma and upheaval, of the most extreme kinds. Yet as I write people are talking of a watershed in society. There is a perception that the absolute depths of depravity, as never before, have been reached in the Omagh bombing and in the arson attack in July which killed three young boys. Both communities feel utterly aggrieved and disgusted by these two dastardly acts and feel an unprecedented disdain and revulsion for the people who perpetrated them and for the mentality which made these deeds possible. What must now follow is the reconstruction or rather the rebuilding of relationships in society. Such rebuilding does not happen immediately or easily. The process is slow and difficult. The weight of the past burdens the present immensely. That burden is compounded by memories of violence, betrayal and oppression. Only the gift of reconciliation can really lift that burden.

THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT

The Good Friday Agreement of 10 April brought joy and hope to many people, not just in Northern Ireland, but everywhere in the world where the cause of genuine peace is cherished. Some were surprised that there was not more euphoria here in Northern Ireland. The explanation lies in the fact that people have had their hopes dashed so often in the past that they were almost afraid to believe and to hope; afraid to believe that such an agreement was possible, almost afraid to hope that it could work. However, the approval given to the terms of the Agreement in the subsequent Referenda, North and South in Ireland, and the confirmation of that approval reflected in the results of the election to the new Assembly in Northern Ireland, have helped to dispel the doubts.

The Good Friday Agreement points a way to peace. It points a way forward out of the conflict which has left so many people scarred and heartbroken in both nationalist and unionist parts of the community. It has left so many lives wrecked and so many families devastated, Catholics and Protestants.

A huge majority voted to approve the Good Friday Agreement because they appreciated that it was unique in the range of parties and governments which had taken part in the negotiations. Agreement was reached after an enormous commitment of time and energy, patience and resilience by all the participants.
The Agreement provides for a wide-ranging programme of human rights protection. All sections of the Community benefit from this. A just society is one that is regulated in such a way that human rights are respected, human dignity is protected and human development is promoted. The rights and interests of all sides of the community are protected in a way that simple majority rule did not achieve.

MARCHING ISSUE

The spirit of hope of earlier this year was severely dented by the violent and sometimes tragic events of the month of July. The pain and fear experienced by so many began, once again, to cast doubt on the earlier optimism. The crisis reached its most awful moment with the murder of the three little Quinn brothers in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim on 12 July. The most chilling thought is that those murders could have happened at any one of a huge number of similar arson attacks on homes. Each of those attacks could have led to similar deaths.

A march forced down the Garvaghy Road on the third consecutive year without consultation with the residents would have been disastrous. It would have run the risk of unravelling the whole agreement and of handing a moral victory to those extremists who oppose the Agreement on the Nationalist side. Thankfully this did not happen.

The marching issue is in great need of a permanent solution. Northern Ireland can simply not continue enduring one disastrous summer after another. Building new relationships of trust and mutual respect and neighbourly harmony are absolutely necessary. Dialogue, accommodation and compromise must be our new weapons. Bigotry, sectarianism and intransigence must be decommissioned.

OMAGH BOMBING

The last thirty years in the history of the Northern Ireland have been more remarkable for the divisions they have caused between the two communities rather than for the occasions and issues there have been to bring the two communities together. The joys of one community were not always shared by the other; the sadness and sorrows, angers and frustrations of one tradition were not always recognised by the other; indeed acknowledgement of same might not always have been appreciated or considered sincere or genuine.

The Omagh bombing seems to be a watershed, however; a republican bomb in a mainly nationalist town killing and maiming both Catholics and Protestants, men, women and children, from both Northern Ireland and the Republic, and from as far abroad as Spain, changed everything. This was a tragedy in which all could identify and all could share. Both the Irish and British Governments, both traditions in Northern Ireland, the public throughout Britain and Ireland, were all united in shock and horror. The appalling face of terrorism and the absolute futility and insanity of violence had been unmasked in their absolute nakedness and impoverishment as never before. The widespread desire to publicly show grief and manifest revulsion throughout the island by public demonstrations and acts of reflection and remembrance was quite unique and unprecedented in the history of Ireland.

We must now make certain that the hopes of peace are consolidated and not ruined by this bomb. We must redouble our prayers and efforts to ensure that the worst atrocity of the past thirty years may in fact prove to be the last. We do so in the belief that lasting peace is ultimately a divine gift as well as a human task. To do anything else other than to work and to hope and to pray for peace is to yield to despair and to give in to the temptation to believe that such peace is impossible. That would be the final surrender to those who instil terror and inflict violence. We owe it to the memory of those who have died to make sure that this does not happen and to do all we can to guarantee that they have not died in vain.

POLITICAL FUTURE

At the end of a particularly awful summer, and summer is always very difficult in these parts, the hope that the Good Friday Agreement is going to work, is still thankfully very much alive and well. The awful events of recent months have, in a perverse way, been a catalyst for good. We cannot be prisoners of our history, of strife and dissension forever. Of course there are very real fears on the Unionist side that they are in danger of being pushed by what they see as a vindictive and unforgiving nationalist population.

Some see their whole way of life under threat and receiving less protection than it deserves from a British Government that is basically, in their opinion, uncomprehending and unsympathetic. It is up to nationalists to recognise that these fears exist and to take decisive and generous action to deal with them.
On the Nationalist side there are the sceptics who have yet to be convinced that any real change is to be expected. Fine words must be matched with deeds. People must prove that they are prepared to change and work in partnership for a better future.

A NEW BEGINNING

This is a very hopeful, challenging moment in our history. Hopefully the majority which approved the Agreement will act consistently and continue to make of it which the prophet Isaiah calls ‘an enterprise of justice’. When the lawyer asked Jesus what must he do to possess eternal life, Jesus told him essentially to love God with all his heart and his neighbour as himself. Basically it means building and establishing good relationships. Today those relationships are taken to include right relationship with self, God, people, institutions and the environment.

In the Scriptures they have a word for that sort of reality – good relationships – they called it peace, Shalom – and the work of building those good relationships was called peace-making. Jesus Christ is the True Peacemaker. He has been compared to a cornerstone which unites two great walls coming from two different directions – the Jews and the Gentiles. He made one Church out of those two peoples – the believing people of the Jews and the believing people of the Gentiles. Two believing peoples can have their differences. They can have different traditions, different practices, different beliefs but they can also have much in common – common beliefs, common hopes, common hurts and common fears. The process of healing the hurts and calming the fears must begin now. It requires people of courage to always uphold what is fair and reasonable. We need people of faith to pray that this glorious opportunity for a new beginning is not squandered.

BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS

Jesus Christ brought peace because he broke down barriers. He brought forgiveness and he called people to repentance. He brought forgiveness and he called us all to repentance. For Christians, Jesus Christ comes first before loyalty to nation or ideology, party or politics. Which of us can say that this has ever and always been the case and that we do not share in any way in the blame associated with our present troubles. Which of us can say that we or our community have never failed to live together with our neighbour in peace and mutual respect.

I think the concept of respect is crucial. The word itself comes from the Latin word respicere. It means to look at something again and to see the good that is there.

Differences and divisions needed to be owned, discussed and directly confronted.

The fact is that we are all interdependent on this island of Ireland. The Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA) are interdependent. There are lots of hidden relationships founded on history and on geography. They need to be identified and acknowledged. We need to listen to each other’s story and to hear each other’s fears of being divided from one’s own place. History and geography are important but not all important. The vast majority of the peoples of this islands of the North Atlantic have positive feelings for each other and want to live in peace. Of course peace is much more than the absence of war. Getting rid of the fears and the threats is only the first step.

The plight of victims is crucial. Appeasement is not reconciliation. A lasting peace that trivialises suffering is not reconciliation. To call on those who have suffered to forget or overlook their suffering is in effect to continue the oppressive situation.

It is, in fact, wrong and unjust to say that the experiences of those who suffer are not important and that they themselves are not important to the process. By forgetting the pain and the hurt the victim is forgotten. So the causes of the suffering are not uncovered or dealt with.

Our only future lies in working together. I call on all people in Northern Ireland to commit themselves now to that work. I ask them not to “cross to the other side of the road” to avoid it, but to engage positively and proactively in this immense task of reconciliation.

The events of 1998, despite the recent atrocities, continue to provide solid grounds for believing that a lasting peace is attainable in our community. Guided by the Holy Spirit, Christians are called to play their part in building that peace and in ensuring that the community which emerges is the kind that Christ wants us to be.

XII WORLD YOUTH DAY
PARIS
WEDNESDAY, 20 AUGUST, 1997
ADDRESS BY MOST REVEREND SEAN BRADY

It is a great privilege to be asked to help as a Catechist to all of you who are gathered here in Paris to celebrate the 12th World Youth Day. The theme for our catechesis today is: “Jesus lives in his Word”. Recently I visited the tiny, but beautiful, island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. The island of Iona is famous because St. Columcille or St. Columba, made it his headquarters. From there he, and his missionaries, set out to bring the Good News of Jesus to the Picts of Scotland and the English of Northumbria. There is a tradition that Columcille always went to the northern edge of the island to meditate on the Word of God. There he looked out over the Atlantic ocean and its mighty waves. It is said he would never go to the south side of the island because there he would be looking towards his native country, Ireland, and might be tempted to yield to loneliness and abandon his decision to be a pilgrim for Christ. There is also the legend that upon arrival he, and his twelve companions, buried their boat behind the bay for the same reason lest they be tempted to return home.

Nowadays, each year the tiny island of Iona welcomes 100,000 visitors. This year the visitors will be far more than 100,000. This year 1997, marks the 1400th anniversary of the death of St. Columcille and people go there in such numbers to pay tribute to Columcille and to his companions who brought the Good News of Jesus to large parts of England, Scotland and Wales.

Jesus lives in his Word. That same word of Jesus that we are reading today inspired Columcille and his companions to do great things for Christ.

This theme corresponds magnificently with that of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 which is Jesus Christ, the One Saviour of the World, yesterday, today and forever. In our preparation for the Great Jubilee, the year 1997 is being devoted to reflection on Christ, the Word of God. In order to know who Christ truly is, Pope John Paul urges us, especially in the course of this year, to renew our interest in the Bible. In the Sacred Scripture God Himself comes to us in love. God remains with us and shows us what His son, Jesus, is really like. He reveals to us how He plans to save the world. So we take up the Word of God with great love and reverence knowing that it is alive and praying that it will become more active in our lives.

Our teacher is, as always, the Holy Spirit. We ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in our prayers this morning, First of all we ask the Holy Spirit to quieten us down because we live in such a busy world. We try and leave our pre-occupations and distractions and worries behind us. We want to really listen to the voice of God that speaks deep within us. We know that He stands at the door and knocks. Many people don’t hear that knock because they are too preoccupied with other things. We all know from our experience of listening to one another how difficult it often is to give each other our full attention. Listening to God is no different. Spending time with God in quiet is not in any way an escape from the struggles of this world. The God we encounter within us is at the heart of the world’s struggles as well. In this listening to God we may encounter painful truths about ourselves. It is better to face them because in that way we become more free to fully serve God in the world.

Our aim in all of this is to discover the secrets of the heart of God and to find out what God wants to say to us. Our aim is to receive help and guidance. We are looking for light in our decision-making and hope in the various difficult situations in which we find ourselves, and strength in the hard choices we have to make. With the light of God’s Spirit we will hopefully be able to see the presence of the Lord, not only in the Word of the passage we have just read but also in our own lives. For God has sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father. When we ourselves are no longer able to pray the Holy Spirit comes to us and prays within us. That is very important and now we call upon that Holy Spirit again: “Come Holy Spirit, fill our hearts, guide us. Help us to listen and to hear your voice speaking within us. Pray within us when we are no longer able to pray”.

We begin by recalling the characters in the passage we have just heard. Jesus was there of course. He is the main character. He is at the beginning of his public life. He has spent almost thirty years in the hidden life at Nazareth. There he grew in wisdom, grace and holiness. Then he had moved from Nazareth, which was in Galilee, and had arrived at the banks of the Jordan. For the Jews the Jordan was a holy place. Long ago people had crossed over this river into the Promised Land. Here, God would appear to give His people life. Today’s story finds us at this holy place where John the Baptist is proclaiming the Lamb of God.

Jesus had come to his cousin, John the Baptist, and had asked to be baptised. John tries to make Jesus change his mind saying: “I ought to be baptised by you and yet you have come to me”. “Let it be so for now” said Jesus, “in this way we shall do all that God requires”. Jesus is always anxious to do what God requires. On another occasion he said: “My meat is to do with the will of the One who sent me”.

Sometime previously John the Baptist had come down to the desert of Judea and started preaching. He told the people to turn away from their sins because the kingdom of Heaven was near. People came to him from Jerusalem, from the whole province and from all the countries near the River Jordan. They confessed their sins and he baptised them in the Jordan. When he saw the Pharisees coming to him he said: “You snakes, who told you that you could escape from the punishment God is about to send”.
The other people involved are Andrew and his companion. Both of these were disciples of John the Baptist. The second is not named but is probably John, the author of the Gospel. There are some precise details recorded such as the fact that it was the tenth hour which only someone who was present would have remembered. These details were treasured and caressed by John who had witnessed it all personally and retold it lovingly, as one is wont to retell many times events and incidents which change the course of one’s life. So John, the beloved disciple, was probably there.

Andrew and his brother, Simon Peter, were there, as well as their fellow townsman, Philip, whose name means ‘lover of horses’. These three came from the town of Bethsaida on the banks of the Jordan, north of the Sea of Galilee. Peter and Andrew were fishermen and the name Bethsaida means ‘a house of fish’.
The final character involved was Nathaniel who came from Cana in Galilee, the site of the first miracle worked by Jesus. Cana is not far from Nazareth. Perhaps there was some bad blood between the two towns because Nathaniel’s questions suggests something like that. He asks: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” The question suggests that he may have had some negative experience of Nazareth or of some of the people of Nazareth. He seems a bit soured and cynical. A little praise from Jesus works wonders. We call it affirmation nowadays. Jesus said to him: “Here is a real Israelite in whom there is no guile” and Nathaniel is a changed person. The words of Jesus seem to have set him free from his negativity. “Teacher” he answered “You are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel”.

What events of significance take place in this Gospel scene? Well, Jesus walks past and John points out Jesus to his companions, to his disciples, as the Lamb of God. The previous day John had indicated Jesus as the ‘Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world’ and his listeners would have understood this as referring to someone who overcomes and conquers evil in the world.

John is here suggesting to his two friends, his two companions, that now his own task has come to an end. Now they are to follow Jesus and not follow him any longer. It illustrates what John himself was to say later on, “He must increase and I must decrease”. It also shows the great humility of John the Baptist. His two friends take the hint and proceed to follow Jesus. Perhaps it was at some distance. Perhaps they did so rather shyly or sheepishly. In any case, Jesus turned and saw them following him and puts a question to them: “What are you looking for?” It is the first question which Jesus asked in the Gospels. A similar sort of question is found in the beginning of the Old Testament in the Book of Genesis where God asks Adam and Eve: “Where are you?” Of course to ask questions is one of the basic human activities. Questioning begins in childhood and continues in different and deeper ways throughout life. Once upon a time a faith without questions may have been possible but today it is not very likely. The disciples answered the question of Jesus with another question: “Where do you live Rabbi?” Literally they ask, “Where do you stay Rabbi, where do you remain?” St. John used the same word later when he says: “Remain in my love”.

In answer to this questions Jesus invites them to come and see for themselves. They accept his invitation and so began the adventure which was to change their lives. They went with Jesus and saw where he lived and spent the rest of the day with him. They went. They saw. They stayed. During that day they saw and heard enough to convince them that Jesus was in fact the long awaited Messiah. That was the message which Andrew gave to Simon, his brother. “We have found the Messiah”. It was the most exciting discovery that any faithful Jew could ever make. Then Andrew took his brother, Simon to Jesus.

Andrew and John were not content to stay there on their own and keep their call to themselves. Andrew tells Simon his brother immediately. Good News cannot be kept secret. Disciples make disciples. They share the news of the discovery they have made with others. They tell their brothers and their friends and so bring about the vocation of Peter, Philip and Nathaniel. Jesus looked at Simon and said: “Your name is Simon, son of John, but you will be called Cephas”

Even though Jesus says relatively little in this passage he does in fact dominate it in an extraordinary way with his question: What are you looking for? and his invitation / command to them to come and follow him. The authority with which Jesus changes the name of Peter is quite remarkable. And the remarks of all the others are about Jesus. “There is the Lamb of God” says John the Baptist. “We have found the Messiah” says Andrew. “We have found the One whom Moses and the prophets wrote about” says Philip. Even Nathaniel’s question: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth? is of course a reference to his hometown.

“Seek and You Shall Find”

This passage is about the search for God and the search for Jesus Christ. The key phrases indicate this very clearly: What are you looking for?, Come and see, we have found the Messiah, We have found the One Moses wrote about. It is interesting to note that the first question in the Old Testament is that addressed by God to Adam and Eve, Where are you? The first question in the New Testament in St. John’s Gospel is: What do you desire? In each case it is God who is asking the question. It is God who is coming in search of us.

Sometimes this search fails and must be set right. Then we discover that our search for God is rooted in the fact that God first seeks us out. Out of sheer goodness God created us. God created us to have us share his own blessed life. For this reason, at every opportunity, God draws close to us. He calls us to seek Him and to know Him and to love Him with all our being. He calls all people together into the unity of His family which is the Church. To accomplish all of this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son. In His Son, Jesus, and through Jesus, God invites us to become His adopted children. He invites us and calls us to be heirs of His blessed life.

That is the drama that is being enacted in this Gospel. Jesus invites Andrew and John to say exactly what they want. It is the first question to any would-be follower. What are you looking for? Yes, they were searching. They were on their way to hear John but John pointed them towards Jesus. Then they discovered Jesus in fact searching for them. The searchers discover that they in turn are themselves being sought.

Every religion is a search for God. Christianity is slightly different in the sense that it is not just a question of our seeking God. Instead God comes in person to us, not only to speak to us but to show us the road by which God may be reached. It begins with Jesus taking flesh and becoming one of us.

When they found Jesus, Andrew and John had to make a decision. Would they accept this invitation to come and see or not? For that they needed faith. Faith is our response to God who comes in search of us. That response must be freely given. God has far too much respect for us to try to manipulate us. Andrew and John, Simon Peter and Philip all put their faith in Jesus. From that simple dialogue began the adventure that changed their lives. That adventure took them far from the banks of the Jordan. It took Simon Peter for example to Rome, to the banks of the Tiber, to suffer and die like his master, on a cross on the Vatican hill.

“Come and see”, This is an invitation to all of us to experience Jesus directly and immediately. It is a call to begin a journey in faith. Going to see God’s dwelling place involves leaving one’s own. There comes a moment in every life when the child must leave home and begin to make his/her way as an adult in the world. One must, in a certain sense, cut oneself off from the sheltered security of the small familiar world to adventure in the other greater world. So also the Christian journey involves, not just once but frequently, a pulling away and separation from the familiar, from the known.

Beneath this story we have the whole theology of vocation. We get an understanding of how one can be called to be a disciple of Jesus. It can be brought about by human factors. For the four disciples the important factors were friendship, they were friends. Three of them were from the same town, they were pursuing the same ideals as the disciples of John the Baptist. Simon and Andrew were blood brothers. There were human factors involved but God had taken the initiative. The key words “seek” and “follow” describe the essential attitudes of every disciple. To follow Christ indicates that we take the means which we have decided are necessary to bring us to Christ. The words “they find”, “they see”, and “they stay”, describes the reward for someone who follows Christ.

Jesus makes his first disciples his friends. He begins a new phase in his life. And this touches us all very closely as we too have been called, we believe ourselves to be called, to make the joyful discovery of Jesus as our Friend and Master. Jesus calls all who would listen to him, to follow him. He expects them to live out his teaching in their everyday lives. Living out his life and teaching means accepting Gospel values.

Jesus said: “Seek and you shall find”. The fact is that many sought Jesus in the Gospel, even some of his relatives, without finding him. Jesus said: “You will look for me but you will not find me because you cannot go where I will be”. He is saying that those people will discover too late that he is Saviour of the world and then they will seek him in vain. The short time that he stays with them is the only time of salvation on offer to them.

Some people fail in their search for Jesus because they seek only their own gain. He warned about this in his Gospel. “I am telling you the truth. You are looking for me because you ate the bread and had all you wanted, not because you understood my miracles”.

The search for God and friendship with God is not an easy one. We need to use all the helps that are available to us. We need to make sure that we are searching in the right place. Just as the Israelites saw Moses come down from the mountains with tablets of stone, so we need to see the signs of God’s call to friendship.

One such tablet is nature. The human eye sees God’s grandeur in creation. The universe invites a sense of wonder in the human heart.

A second such tablet is Sacred Scripture. Sacred Scripture indicates what we are to believe and what we are to do in order to achieve friendship with God. Through it we learn to meditate, to contemplate and to pray.

The third such tablet is the love which Christians have for one another. Friendship with God is connected with the friendship we experiences in the body of Christ, the Church. That friendship comes from Baptism and from Eucharist. It comes from ministering with one another and working to build up God’s reign on earth.

The last tablet is prayer. Friendship with God means surrendering to God’s love, in loving conversation with God. This can only happen if we allow God’s Spirit to move our hearts and enter into peaceful communion.

The second important point is that we search for God where God is to be found. There is an eastern parable which describes God as playing ‘hide and seek’ with humanity. According to one version God asks the angel for advice about the best place to hide. “Go to the farthest star” one said or “Try the depth of the sea” and somebody else suggested some inaccessible cave or some faraway desert. One other angel suggested that God might find the best disguise among the poor. Eventually one very wise angel came up with another idea: “Hide at the centre of human experience where the heart meets reality. Hide yourself at the cutting edge where people share their lives.” According to the parable that is the solution that God chose.

God is found through following the light and the guidance and the call that leads us into mystery. To find the strength and the courage for that journey we sometimes need to be set free. We sometimes need to be awakened to the wonder of our own existence. Maybe that is what Jesus did for Andrew and John on that first afternoon. That conversation lasted a long time. Perhaps Jesus revealed to them the wonder of their existence and the wonderful love God had for them.

God is also to be found in the darkness that is sometimes unavoidable along the journey through life. That need not overwhelm us, discourage us, or dishearten us provided we remember that darkness is never the whole story. We are never abandoned or alone in those shadows. God is to be found in the questioning which comes up in life. We saw how the disciples were questioned by Jesus. They didn’t know how to answer. They were trying to make sense of their experience, so they answered with another question: “Lord where do you live?” They were saying that this was far too complicated a business to discuss here on the side of the road. So they wanted to go aside to a quiet place and talk.

God is most certainly to be found by walking side by side with companions along the road to life. We have already seen the part which Andrew and John the Baptist played in bringing others to Christ. We are not meant to travel alone. Faith flourishes when people become members of a community. There are many such exciting communities all around us here today in the Church. Above all, especially God is found in the house of the Church. It is the place where the Spirit continues to guide the friends of Jesus. There, vast numbers of people find food for their journey every day and guidance by listening to the Scripture, they get strength and energy by being nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ.

God is found through adoration and prayer. God is found through giving. We are here for others, especially for the many wounded of our world. Anyone who tries to care in any way is not far from the Kingdom. And at the evening of life, says John of the Cross these will be judged by love.

I want to give God thanks for this great assembly of young people. I give praise to God who not only speaks to us in Jesus Christ but also seeks us out and comes to us in person to look for us and to show us the road by which God may be reached. I give thanks for the coming of Christ into the world which proves that our God is a searching God and I want to praise God who loves each one of us so much as to send his only beloved Son into the world so that we may have light and may not perish. I thank God for the John the Baptists and the Andrews in my life who have, in various ways, pointed out the Lamb of God to me and who have pointed out that Jesus is in fact living next to me in the brothers and sisters with whom I share my daily existence. I ask for light to see how God loves me forever. God is found by following the guidance and the advice that leads us into mystery when I ask from God the strength and the courage for that journey. I ask that God would awaken each one of us to the wonder at our own existence. I ask God to give each one of us the light that will take us through the darkness that is unavoidable along the journey. I ask for light to see God’s plan more clearly, a plan which aims to make each one of us His beloved daughter and son, and to have us share His eternal happiness forever. I ask God to let us see how we are considered His special possession, so special that our names are written on the palms of His hands.
I pray that in all our struggles, with studies or with relationships, with our mood and our decisions, with our hurts and disappointments we may be sustained by enough faith to continue the search.

Lord, we thank you for your invitation to come and see where you dwell. We ask you for the grace to remain in your love so that we may be able to come and see at the end of our earthly life the place you have gone to prepare for us in the bosom of the Father.

I think that through this passage God wants to tell me that the answer to my deepest yearnings and strongest desires is not something but someone, a person, Jesus Christ. So today, I realise that like everyone else I too am searching for Jesus Christ. No-one else or nothing else will satisfy my deepest desires. He alone has promised us life to the full.

Today God wants to tell me that Jesus is the reference point for an answer to the big questions in life. God is telling each one of us not to be afraid. “Do not be afraid” he says to Mary and to Joseph and the disciples. He is telling us not to be afraid to draw near to Jesus, to come and see where he dwells and to speak with him face to face as we would talk with a friend. He is telling us not to be afraid of the new life he is offering, not even of the demands it will make.

God also tells me that He loves me, and that I am precious and valuable to Him. If I remember that and imprint it on my memory, and on my heart, then my pilgrimage will have been well worthwhile.

Then how does this Word relate to my life? The discovery of Jesus by those four disciples brought a lot of changes into their lives, symbolised by Peter having his name changed. Andrew and John had a change of master, they were no longer disciples of John the Baptist. Nathaniel was changed from a cynical sort of person to a great believer who made a fantastic act of faith.

This Word challenges me to continue to grow in my relationship with Christ and that often means to change; the effect of grace in our lives is to change us. It means facing reality and confronting the struggles, great and small. It means seeing that the kingdom of God is here as well as hereafter.

Today God is constantly inviting me to come and see where Jesus lives. He invites me to stop looking for happiness in illusory desires, and to stop searching for fulfillment where it cannot be found.

This passage is imploring me not to be afraid to meet Jesus and to cross the threshold of his house and to speak to him face to face as one would talk to a friend. This passage tells me that it is along the paths of daily life that I can meet the Lord. I can and must meet the Lord in my own house because I can be sure that Jesus will come looking for me there in the first place. So I must certainly can and must meet the Lord in the person of those with whom I live.

I think he is inviting me to look at my life, and specifically to examine:

MY HOME: How do I get on with my parents, brothers, sisters, family? Do I do my fair share of work, and invite my family to pray with me?

MY WORK OR STUDY: How do I get on with others, and what or who influences me, and whom do I influence?

MY RECREATION: Does my recreation create me, or does it leave me exhausted, tired, frustrated, worried, unhappy? How do I treat others, and how do they treat me?

THE PLACE I GIVE GOD: Do I accept His invitation to “come and see”, or do I block or hinder or forget God’s invitation. Do I respect God’s name, God’s day, God’s house. How do I react and behave in each case.

God invites and challenges me to look at my life and see one area in it where I am trying hardest to hear His voice, and one area where I am doing my best to block out His voice.
Today Pope John Paul urges each one here to be an ambassador for the Messiah you have found in this dwelling, the Church, so that many more young people, people of your age, may be able to follow in the footsteps of Christ. May the Virgin Mary who is a model for every disciple, help you to find her son at every moment of your life and to follow him.

AMEN

STATEMENT FROM CARDINAL SEAN BRADY,
ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH

AT THE FUNERAL OF MRS. MARY GRIMES, BERAGH, CO. TYRONE

WEDNESDAY, 19 AUGUST, 1998, 11.30AM

Today, once again, our hearts go out to the Grimes family as we gather for the funeral of Mary, loving wife, devoted mother, and outstanding grandmother. We are all here to offer our sympathy and the support of our prayers as they struggle to cope with this tremendous loss. The death of a beloved wife and mother always brings great pain and sorrow but when that death coincides with the tragic killing of her daughter, Avril, and grand-daughter, Maura, the pain becomes unbearable, the grief incredible. If this triple tragedy were due to natural causes or an accident it would be already immensely sad. But this is the work of fellow human beings and our hearts are filled, not only with sadness but with anger and outrage. That it was carried out under the pretext of patriotism, adds shame to that outrage and sorrow.

We are here to pray with you and for you. We are joined by hundreds of thousands of people who are thinking of you at this time and asking God to give you the strength which you need during these terrible days. We pray especially that your pain may be eased and your sorrow lessened and your memories healed.
Father James, Mary’s brother-in-law, has prayed for forgiveness for the people who carried out this terrible atrocity. This prayer is yet another example of the wonderful courage and dignity which the Grimes family and so many other families have shown over these days. As we re-echo that prayer, we know that there are people who cannot find it in their hearts to share those sentiments at this time. We also know that God pardons those who turn to him with a sincere heart, no matter how terrible the sin. But we mortals find it more difficult to forgive. It would make it easier if those responsible were to show remorse and indicate a change of heart.

The efforts made in recent days to offer an explanation show that the bombers realise that something went terribly wrong. They need to go further, much further. They need to realise that their whole campaign is utterly wrong and totally evil and completely devoid of justification.

How could the murder of baby Maura, of baby Brenda Devine, of eight year old Oran Doherty, of nine teenagers, of twelve adult women and of four adult men, all of them innocent victims, be other than something very evil? If those responsible will not listen to the voice of the ballot box, let them at least listen to the voice of revulsion, expressed so clearly and so powerfully and so consistently. Let them listen to the voice of their own conscience and ask: Is this the kind of person I really wish to be? Are these the kind of values I wish to live by? Let them answer those questions honestly and end this senseless campaign of violence permanently now.

Last Saturday’s tragedy has once more brought home the lesson of the dreadful horror of violence. That is the sort of thing which bombs, once primed and planted, do. They kill and they maim; they wreck and they destroy. The experience must galvanise all of us to reject the path of violence totally once and for all.

The Omagh bomb has united a community in grief. Let it bring us all together to work to ensure that the hopes of peace are not ruined. Let it unite us all in praying and hoping that the worst atrocity may in fact prove to be last. We must continue to pray and to hope and to work. We do so in the belief that lasting peace is ultimately a divine gift as well as a human task. To do anything else other than to work and to hope and to pray for peace is to yield to despair and to give in to the temptation to believe that such peace is impossible. That would be the final surrender to those who instil terror and inflict violence. We owe it to the memory of those who have died to make sure that this does not happen and to do all we can to guarantee that they have not died in vain.

In the early Church the day of the death of a saint was regarded as her real birthday – the day of her birth into real and everlasting life. Mary Grimes was called from this earthly life on her birthday. We commend her, and Avril and Maura to the Lord, that the Lord may receive them into his place and raise them up, restored and renewed on the last day. As we do so I offer to her husband, Mick, to her family, to Father James, to all her relatives and friends, my sympathy, the sympathy of Bishop Clifford and of the priests and people of the Archdiocese of Armagh.

May she rest in peace.

THE OMAGH BOMBING
STATEMENT BY CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY
ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH
15th August 1998

I am appalled, shocked and deeply saddened by this dreadful atrocity which has killed and maimed so many innocent people. I pray that God may comfort the families and relatives of those who have died. I offer to them and to the injured my deepest sympathy. Those who carried out this terrible act of murder have done so with a ruthless determination to wreck the prospects for peace. They must not be allowed to succeed.

PRESS STAEMENT ON THE DAMAGE TO A NUMBER OF ORANGE HALLS
AND A CHURCH OF IRELAND CHURCH
From Cardinal Seán Brady

I wish to condemn unreservedly the damage caused to three Orange Halls and a Church of Ireland Church last night by Petrol Bombers. I call on those responsible or anyone contemplating such attacks to desist, there is not, nor can there ever be, any justification for such attacks. Acts of violence lead to further acts of violence and following the horrific murders of Richard, Mark and Jason Quinn it is incumbent on all to stop this madness. Such actions do not lend to the building of new relationships, which are so badly needed.

I offer my sympathy to all those affected by these latest attacks.

July 14, 1998.

MESSAGE OF CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY
TO
ORANGE ORDER CHAPLAINS

I warmly welcome the expression by a representative group of Orange Order Chaplains of their deep sorrow that so many Catholics have been intimidated out of their homes and that several churches have been burnt. This sensitive expression of sorrow is a courageous step on the road to the establishment of new and better relationships in our divided society.

Roman Catholics eagerly share the hope of the Chaplains that the day may quickly come when all the people of Northern Ireland will be enabled to live in mutual respect and neighbourly harmony. Achieving that mutual respect and harmony is a challenge to us all. I unreservedly condemn the arson attacks on a Church of Ireland Church and Orange Halls in recent days. I am sorry that these senseless and criminal actions have taken place. They only delay the establishment of the new relationships which are so badly needed.

Archbishop of Armagh
July 14, 1998.

“THE DRUMCREE STAND-OFF”
MASS IN ST. JOHN’S CHURCH, PORTADOWN
HOMILY BY CARDINAL SEAN BRADY
12 JULY 1998

“What must I do to possess eternal life?” This question which the lawyer put to Jesus is an important one. It is the sort of question that must occur to everyone at some stage. The lawyer believes there is such a thing as eternal life, that death is not the end. He believes that eternal life is something good and desirable, something which he wants very much for himself because otherwise he knows he won’t be happy. Finally he realises that there is a connection, a vital connection, between what we do in this life and how we will be in the next life. Jesus takes the lawyer’s question seriously and he helps him to find the answer to his question. He says: “You are a lawyer, you have studied, what do you read in your textbooks?” and the lawyer tells him “Love your God with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself”. It is a question of building and establishing good relationships with one’s God and with one’s neighbour.

In the Bible they had a word for that sort of reality – good relationships – they called it ‘Peace’. And the work of building the good relationships was called ‘peacemaking’. Jesus Christ is the true peacemaker. He has been called the cornerstone who unites two great walls coming from different directions – the Jews and the Gentiles. He made one church out of those peoples – the believing people of the Jews and the believing people of the Gentiles. Two believing peoples can have their differences. They can have different beliefs and different traditions but they can also have much in common. They have hurts and fears and hopes that are the same. Jesus brought peace because he broke down barriers. He brought forgiveness and he called people to repentance.

Peace is about more than the absence of war of course. It is about more than the lifting of the siege. Getting rid of the fear and the threat, that is indeed only the first step.

Since Sunday last an atmosphere of fear has been growing in this community. People are frightened and uncertain about the next few days. What a contrast to the spirit of hope which had been evident in the previous weeks. Many were looking forward to a future together based on the principles of dialogue, mutual respect, equality and partnership.

During the past week we have seen the pain and the hurt experienced by so many people in the Catholic community. Some have been intimidated out of their homes, others have been denied access to and from their homes by protesters, whole areas have been ravaged by acts of violence. I condemn this violence and intimidation, the burnings, the physical and verbal abuse which has, and continues to be directed, against sections of the community.

I am sure that the majority of you voted ‘Yes’ in the Referendum. You voted for things like: equality and mutual trust, reconciliation and tolerance and respect. You voted for the protection of the rights of everybody. These are the basis of a real and lasting peace. The implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, the establishment of all those things would in fact be the nuts and bolts of good relationships between neighbour and neighbour. You voted ‘Yes’ for the Agreement, despite the many hurts which you, as a community, have suffered down through the years. Despite the fact that people like Michael McGoldrick, Robert Hamill and Adrian Lamph have been killed, violently. Despite the hurt of marches being pushed down the road against the will of the residents. You voted ‘Yes’ despite your many fears, the fears that once again your views might be disregarded. You voted ‘Yes’ because you believe you have the power to forgive and to grow and to heal, and you are right. And so we have this new situation which gives rise to new hopes and to new possibilities.

The Good Friday Agreement commits us all to respect the rights of others. One of the basic rights is for people to have their own culture and to express their culture. Since this is so, I can understand how many Orange people feel genuinely hurt and puzzled as to why a march back from a Church service can pose such difficulties to some people. I think the answer to this question lies in part in the fears and resentments of Catholics which I have already mentioned. It is also due to their sense of exclusion from the centre of Portadown.

We all must recognise that we have responsibility not only to ourselves and to our own community but also to the wider community. It has to be recognised that there can be no lasting settlement to our differences, not only in Portadown but in Northern Ireland, without taking account of the feelings and experiences of those of different views to our own.

The problems over marches are a symptom of the fact that Catholics often do not believe that they, their culture or their religion, are respected in Portadown, however rich many personal relationships across the divide are. I think that it is in that context that many resent an Orange march going through, what is mainly a Nationalist area.

I would appeal to all to try and understand to try and understand the pains and hurts of the other community. We Catholics and Protestants are not actually that very different from each other. We all have families, we all have hopes and fears for the future. We all suffer from our divisions and from the dreadful images that these portray of Christians fighting each other in our country.

There is a story told of a Nationalist in Portadown who dreamt that he was eavesdropping at a barricade on the conversation of three Orangemen. He expected to find them debating the pros and cons of their situation. Instead he found them talking about their grandsons’ delight at the goal scored by Ronaldo the previous night. He remembered that he had seen the same joy in his own grandson’s face.

We can only resolve our problems in Portadown by developing a new relationship between Catholics and Protestants, Nationalists and Unionists. To do that we need to meet and to dialogue with each other and to address the issue of respect for all our different cultures but especially the exclusion that Catholics experience in Portadown and the fears of Orange people that their culture is being marginalised. The future lies in a more mature society in which we can respect each other’s differences. In that new respectful relationship we will no longer have problems over marches or over Catholic safety in Portadown.

The hopes of all are that a means can be found of resolving this problem, not just for this year but on a longer term basis. Limiting the discussions solely to conflicting rights has not succeeded in the past. It is unlikely to do so now. Building new relationships of mutual trust and mutual respect would be a more helpful approach. Transforming old relationships into new ones is never easy. It takes time and effort. It means going the extra mile to listen to each other’s stories and experiences. It means hearing the hurt and feeling something of the pain of the other person.

Of course it is much easier to dub both sides as intransigent, in a holier than thou attitude. But that approach dispenses one from investing the time and the effort required to address these difficult issues. The work of reconciliation is slow and painstaking. It is always a tough challenge.

The command of Jesus to love your neighbour as yourself is another tough challenge. We are all called to be Good Samaritans to those who are being wounded in the conflicts of life. We have to realise that we ourselves have often been hurt and are in need of the healing of a Good Samaritan. Jesus held up the Good Samaritan as an outstanding example of someone who built good relationships. He didn’t stop to ask if the wounded man was a Samaritan or a Jew. He didn’t cross over to the other side of the road to try and duck the problem. He saw the man who was hurt, he saw his wounds and he had pity on him.

In situations of conflict Jesus is the Good Samaritan, the cornerstone who unites two walls and is our model. His is the way of active non-violence. He does not leave us on our own. He guides us with the light of his truth and helps us to grow in our abilities to face difficult situations. Be not afraid he will give us the strength we need.

And so, I appeal to all this weekend to act peacefully and with dignity. To all those who feel they have to protest this weekend I say to stop for a moment and consider carefully, very carefully, how they intend to register that protest. Good intentions and declarations that protests will be peaceful can easily be forgotten or pushed aside when emotions run high.

I appeal to all to act responsibly and do not set at risk what has already been achieved on the road to the establishment of a genuine and lasting peace. I appeal to all to be active peacemakers particularly this weekend by contacting friends and neighbours and acquaintances and assuring them that the intentions are good and the friendships will endure.

INTRODUCTION

Jesus has asked us to celebrate Mass in memory of him.

We come together to remember Jesus and especially His love for us. Jesus came on Earth to reveal to us God’s love for each and everyone of us – God’s love for us is always the same. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. We are always in God’s love and in God’s care.

That is a very reassuring thought. Especially:

when we are afraid.
when we feel threatened
when we feel isolated and lonely, cut off and hemmed in.

We are always in God’s loving care. We are always in God’s hands. Jesus stays with us in the Blessed sacrament to reassure us of that.

Behold I am with you always, even to the end of time…….

DRUMCREE PARADE
JOINT STATEMENT
BY THE ARCHBISHOPS OF ARMAGH

As Archbishops of Armagh we share the widespread concern and fears of many people regarding this year’s parade by the Orange Order at Drumcree.

We recognise the depth of feeling within the Order and within the local nationalist community on this issue.

At this critical time for all the people of Northern Ireland we urge both the Orange Order and the local community on the Garvaghy Road to use every means possible to seek to achieve accommodation. To ensure that there is no threat to human life and no danger of damage to property we urge them to act with restraint, to act peaceably and within the law so that the rights of both traditions may be respected and expressed with dignity.

We are conscious of the tension which this event evokes and pray that a new awareness of the rights and duties of all our communities may be evident at this time.

We urge all with influence in both communities to do all they can to encourage respect for the feelings and aspirations of others.

We pray for a peaceful and just outcome to all controversial events this summer in the name of the vast majority who yearn for a peaceful and stable future for Northern Ireland.

+ Sean Brady + Robin Eames
Archbishop Archbishop

ECUMENICAL SERVICE OF THANKSGIVING
FOR THE PROGRESS OF PEACE TALKS IN IRELAND
ST PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL
MELBOURNE
June, 1998
MESSAGE FROM
MOST REVEREND SEAN BRADY, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH

I am very happy to send my warmest greetings to everybody gathered in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, today for this ecumenical service of thanksgiving to God for the progress made in Northern Ireland towards a permanent and lasting peace.

It is particularly appropriate that today’s ceremony should be held in a cathedral dedicated to the patron saint of Ireland, St Patrick. Here in Armagh, the historic See of St Patrick, our two cathedrals, Catholic and Anglican, are also dedicated to our revered patron. He is part of our shared Christian heritage.

The Good Friday Agreement was unique in the range of parties and governments which participated in the negotiations and ultimately agreed the terms of the final document. Agreement was reached after an enormous commitment of time and energy, of patience and endurance by all the participants.

Your service today has two themes. The first is to remember the sorrow and pain of so many people. It is right that your thoughts should turn first to those who have suffered. Our prayer must be that God will comfort the bereaved and the maimed in their loneliness and distress. The Good Friday Agreement points the way forward from the conflict which has left many people heartbroken in both the nationalist and unionist communities, so many lives wrecked and so many families, Protestant and Catholic, devastated.

The second theme of today’s service is hope, the hope which the future offers to all who seek an end to violence and a way forward to building relationships based on freedom and justice. We give thanks to God that we have come this far while recognising that there is still a long way to go. The electorates in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland have handsomely endorsed the Good Friday Agreement in referenda. There is a perceptible lessening of fear and a deepening of trust between the two traditions, so essential to lasting peace.

I am very conscious that, throughout the whole process leading to the Good Friday Agreement, prayers were offered by many people in Ireland and across the world for the success of the talks. It is a source of immense encouragement that so many people continue to pray for us.

It is, therefore, with sentiments of the deepest gratitude that I send this message to you today. I pray that God grants abundant blessings to you and to each of your families.

VISIT OF THE PRESIDENT OF EUROPEAN UNION
TO BELFAST
MAY, 1998
ADDRESS BY MOST REV SEÁN BRADY

I gladly welcome you Mr. President, and I hope your stay in our country will be a very happy and very fruitful one. I think that our presence here as a group will prove the untruth of the assertion that the troubles in Northern Ireland are essentially religious troubles.

We – representatives of the Four Main Churches – meet many times each year at various levels and a good working relationship exists between us. The fact that you have asked to meet us underlines once again your conviction, I think, that religion has an important part to play in the life of modern Europe – that it must not be banished or relegated to the sacristy as some of the enemies of religion would wish to have them.

Your own efforts to underpin the Economic and Monetary Union with an ethical basis and framework of ethical values is entirely laudable. I was very pleased to read of the important presence of people from the European Union at the Symposium sponsored recently in Brussels at which Mr. Tiedemayer spoke and also Mons. Diarmuid Martin – on the implications of the EURO. There is a price – a moral price to be paid for undertaking the task of putting a soul into Europe. That price involves solidarity with the weaker elements and poorer regions of the Union. It involves taking decisions to give to those in greatest need and that inevitably involves taking from those who have the greatest capacity to give.

The work of the Local Partnerships is very important in breaking down barriers of fear and suspicion and it provides a very valuable subvention for some of the most remote areas. It is essential for the future of the whole peace endeavour.

I would view with great alarm the gradual denudation and decimation of the countryside which is taking place in Ireland as well as in England, Scotland and Wales. That way of life had a great solidarity and stability about it which is conducive to the inculcation of a greater sense of responsibility.
The inclusion of a Church clause in a protocol to the recent Treaty of Amsterdam was a source of gratification to many people. It indicates, I think, a copper fastening of the position of the Churches in society.