The task of the Church is not about being “just another social commentator” Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said.
Addressing up to 500 male and female active and contemplative
religious, as well as consecrated virgins and Dublin auxiliary bishops,
Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field at the Service of Prayer for Consecrated Life
at St Brigid’s Church, Killester, the leader of the Church in Dublin
described people in Ireland as “shocked, angry and puzzled. People ask
what happened and why. There is a kind of blame and insecurity.”
He said there is no doubt there is “a crisis of credibility in
Ireland.”
Referring to the three weeks of electioneering that lay
ahead, Dr Martin said the populace would hear promises being made and
they would listen to analysis.
However, he underlined that it was “not the task of the Church to
present some alternative or parallel election manifesto – no matter how
noble its aspirations might be. The Church is a community inspired by
the word of God which mediates meaning and hope to the many who drift
lonely and alone in the turbulent sea of the deeper questions about
life’s meaning,” he said.
He added that “mediating meaning and hope, especially to our young
people is something educational congregations have done for years if not
centuries.”
However, the Archbishop also recognised that those who
served the Church in the past had often turned faith in Jesus Christ
into “a reality of gloom or guilt” and that they had “acquiesced in an
individualism, even in faith, which left people alone and isolated.”
In this culture, the quality of community life in contemplative life
was “an important barometer of how much contemplative life is a true
exegesis of the Gospel,” he said, referring to Pope’s Benedict’s
teachings in Verbum Domini.
He added that the challenge of faith today was to remind people “forgiveness and true liberty are always available.”
Paying tribute to the role of members of religious life and lay
consecrated in the Church, the Archbishop said they were gathered in St
Brigid’s church on World Day for Consecrated Life to “give thanks to God
for the witness of contemplative life in the Church of God, in this
archdiocese of Dublin, and the witness of contemplative to the people of
God in the Church.”
“Religious life is always an ecclesial reality, it is not just a way
of saving your own soul,” the Archbishop told the packed church.
“It is
a special witness in, and for, the Church and the contemplation of the
scriptures, which is very much part of religious life, is not just for
your private illumination but is a charism or a gift for the Church,” he
said.
Explaining his reason for choosing Trinity College Dublin as the
location of the launch of the special edition of the Gospel of Luke last
year, Archbishop Martin said it was because he wanted the launch to
take place close to the Book of Kells.
“The Book of Kells is a remarkable witness to the loving and
specialist care shown by Irish monasticism in presenting the word of God
in the most gracious, beautiful and elegant way available to Irish
monasticism at that time.”
Dr Martin then asked how today’s religious could present the word of God in a most graceful, beautiful, elegant way.
“Our generation of Christians has to construct what will be our
contribution – the contribution we will leave as our inheritance for
those who come after us and we have to ensure that the legacy of our
generation will be as striking, effective, and as inspiring as the Book
of Kells.”
Speaking at the close of the ceremony, the Archbishop thanked all
concerned in the preparation of the special liturgy and reminded those
who had attended that the “default position of God’s people was exile”
and that it was in this period of exile that God’s people renewed itself
and purified itself.
Paying tribute to those religious working in education, he said one
of the “great success stories of the Church in Ireland in the last few
years have been the new educational trusts in bringing renewed dynamism”
into religious education in the schools.
“I think they will be one of
the great contributions to the Church that we will be looking at in the
years to come,” he said.
But with one of the highest youth suicide rates in Europe, he said
those in consecrated life had to ask themselves why there was a void in
so many people’s lives and how could they fill that and reach out to
young people.