Two of Ireland’s most senior churchmen have suggested that Easter should be seen as an reminder of hope in the face of the current economic crisis. Cardinal Sean Brady and the Church of Ireland bishop of Dublin John Neill both said that the message of Easter is an antidote to the current gloom and doom about our national and personal finances.
In his Easter message, the Cardinal said that while having or being a Christian could not spare anyone the full mental and emotional weight of life’s crises or traumas, the risen Christ offered the gift of peace in the middle of “physical, psychological and fiscal trials”.
“It is the gift which the risen Jesus offers to every one of us this Easter Sunday,” he remarked.
“It is a gift which can help to take us beyond the paralysis of fear in response to life’s most challenging events, including the fear of death”.
“We scan the papers and watch the news for the first signs that our economy is ‘bottoming out’ and that the green and pleasant pastures of economic growth are returning” the cardinal remarked.
Everyone hoped for the anxiety about the economy to end and wanted to “know the bottom line”.
“As one person said to me recently, I just want to know how bad things are going to get”.
There were few people, Cardinal Brady said who did not share this anxiety at the moment and who did not dread “some kind of economic Calvary casting a shadow over the desire to feel positive and optimistic about the future”.
He was concerned that many people were depriving themselves of a vital spiritual resource because they held an “outdated caricature” of the Church as harsh, soulless and joyless.
Nothing could be further from the truth said the Cardinal and the Christian message was not a rejection of the material world.
“It is an invitation to use the wealth of this world in a just and responsible way”.
“For those who have learnt in recent months what it is to be fearful for the future, perhaps for the first time in their adult lives, the Christian message is about overcoming our fear,” said Dr Brady.
It is important to acknowledge, he continued, “the spiritual and human resources which can contribute to the well being of individuals and society as we search for a way out of our current economic difficulties”.
Research show, he pointed out that “having a life of religious faith which provides community support, purpose, acceptance, an outward focus, and hope contributes significantly to the prospect of general well being and happiness”.
“My hope this Easter is that many more Irish people will rediscover the joy and peace of Christ’s victory over fear, anxiety and physical death”.
“My prayer is that those who feel overwhelmed by their financial worries will find peace and perspective in the words of the risen Jesus’ to his disciples: ‘Peace be with you!”.
For people with faith, Cardinal Brady said, “the green shoots of recovery are already appearing”.
The cardinal’s sentiments were echoes of a sermon for Easter preached at Dublin’s Christ Church Cathedral by Church of Ireland archbishop John Neill.
He said the current economic downturn showed that there was little in Ireland or the world that was imperishable or unfading.
“These last few months have seen the foundations of society, certainly of western society, shaken to the core,” he remarked.
“The property bubble began to burst, the financial institutions seemed to tremble, and very soon everything seemed to be in freefall,” Dr Neill continued.
“The old reliables, the old certainties, and the trusted securities, are no longer reliable, certain or secure”.
The archbishop said that when everything is shaken to the foundations, people are driven to ask whether there are any foundations there at all.
“We are naturally sceptical about quick recovery, and such scepticism is perhaps itself a negative force”.
Most people would wish to build their lives on what is reliable, certain and secure, said Dr Neill but when all around begins to collapse at an alarming rate “we must surely begin to ask what can life be built upon – what makes sense of this crazy world in the end?”
He said Christ’s resurrection was “God’s challenge to a society that has lost all meaning and direction and a society that has lost a grip on its ethical foundations”.
“The resurrection was precisely this in first century Palestine, and it is precisely this in twenty-first century Europe and beyond”.
“It is a challenge not of despair, but of hope – a living hope – a hope by which to live”.
“The resurrection is God’s offer of hope whenever we have lost our way – “a new birth into a living hope”.
Meanwhile in his homily at Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said the Easter message was one of joy for all humankind and for all of creation.
The resurrection freed us, he said from “being closed in on ourselves, within the framework of our limitations” and opened up a new way of finding ourselves “in the immensity of the love of God”.
This new life, Dr Martin continued, was different to all ideologies of violence.
“It is a style of life which rejects corruption and the desire for power and possession”.
The resurrection was, he said, an opportunity for a “concrete reaffirmation of humankind and creation” and for the establishment of relationships of harmony, truthfulness and integrity.
“Being believers in the gift of life means we must welcome and sustain life in all its forms,” Dr Martin went on.
“A life marked by love will never be self-centred, but will be characterised by relationship and entails constructing a community of welcome for and solidarity with all those who are on the margins of society, those who suffer any form of handicap, and those who are troubled or anxious”.
The archbishop said that in the face of the current economic difficulties and their effects on individuals, families and caring institutions, believers were called to renew society with “a spirit of solidarity and responsibility and care for others”.
“Resurrection spirituality encourages progress in science and medicine at the service of the human family”.
But science would never eliminate the need for love, Dr Martin said and there was a danger that as we become more successful using science in fighting suffering that we might “banish suffering to the margins of society, to hide it from our sight”.
“Where suffering is banished out of sight, then the sense of compassion is also weakened”.
“The sick person needs medical care but also needs the sense of having someone with them and beside them”.
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(Source: ADA)