Reality December 2015

Mother of Perpetual Help Icon on Tour

DECEMBER 2015

The most famous teenager in the world

The Lady that brings down walls

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

BETHLEHEM TODAY

A PERSONAL VIEW OF DAY TO DAY LIFE IN THIS HOLY CITY

CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY HOST TO THOUSANDS THIS CHRISTMAS

THE OTHER INFANCY GOSPELS

SOME ANCIENT ACCOUNTS OF JESUS’ CHILDHOOD

PLUS SUSAN GATELY THE JESUIT WHO MAPPED THE MOON PETER McVERRY SJ A RETELLING OF THE CHRISTMAS STORY

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RESOURCES FOR THE YEAR OF MERCY YEAR OF MERCY DIARY

This diary accompanies us through the Year of Mercy, from December 2015 until December 2016. Each month has a meditation on some aspect of God’s mercy, written by Fr Denis McBride C.Ss.R., with a prayer and a quote. The diary is A5 and has two double page spreads per month to offer ample room to record appointments and events. There is a stunning piece of art chosen by Fr Denis that will not only make this diary an attractive accessory for the year but also help you to ponder the theme of mercy.

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JOURNEYING WITH JONAH –THE STRUGGLE TO FIND YOURSELF By Fr Denis McBride CSsR

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In this new book Fr Denis has chosen to explore the character of Jonah – a somewhat unlikely hero. The prophet Jonah is a sympathetic partner, albeit a curious one, to help us review our lives. Although a believer in God, Jonah struggles to come to terms with the awful strangeness of God’s choices, particularly God’s mercy; he grapples to find his true self and purpose in life; he tries to flee from the presence of God; he is angry when he finds that God is not angry but all-merciful. Jonah is offered to us as an unusual teacher – awkward, reluctant, disobedient, opinionated, fearful, flighty: the prophet who remains stubborn to the end.

But his story celebrates the beauty of the indiscriminate mercy of God, a message for our time.“ There is one constant in the book of Jonah: Jonah’s belief that God’s indiscriminate mercy extended to the pagans of Nineveh is not only inappropriate but incomprehensible: Jonah is scandalised by God’s mercy. Our minor prophet has to learn as we all do, that mercy is indivisible: we cannot plead for mercy for ourselves and then deny it to others.”

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IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES 12 BORN IN BETHLEHEM A young woman describes life there today

By Amany Abu Awad

17 CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY Ancient church commemorates Christ’s Birth

By Brendan McConvery CSsR

20 OUR LADY WHO BRINGS DOWN WALLS Icon on the Wall of Separation

By Ian Knowles

22 QUESTIONS TO JESUS “So What Do You Say?”

By Mike Daley

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24 THE OTHER INFANCY GOSPELS Some ancient Christmas Stories

By Catherine Punch

28 THE JESUIT WHO MAPPED THE MOON A priest scientist of wide ranging interests

By Susan Gately

32 LIMERICK’S SHRINE TO OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP First copy of the Icon came to Limerick

By Seamus Enright CSsR

32

17

35 THE KILMORE CAROLS A collection of old carols is still sung

By Thomas R Whelan CSSp

38 SAVING FOR A SUNNY DAY With Trócaire in Ethiopia

By Brian Lowney

Plus

ue Free with this iss The Redemptorist Newsletter See centre pages

OPINION

REGULARS

11 BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

04 REALITY BITES

21 KATY DOBEY

07 POPE MONITOR

31 CARMEL WYNNE

08 SAINT OF THE MONTH

41 PETER Mc VERRY SJ

09 REFLECTIONS 42 UNDER THE MICROSCOPE 43 GOD’S WORD

REALITY BITES LAST OF SLOVAKIA’S UNDERGROUND BISHOPS SLOVAKIA FEARLESS WITNESS

4

The late Cardinal Jan Chryzostom Korec

Cardinal Jan Chryzostom Korec, the retired bishop of Nitra, who was secretly ordained a priest and bishop and spent more than a dozen years in a communist prison, died on 25 October last at the age of 91. In a message of condolence, Pope Francis described Cardinal Korec as a "fearless witness of the Gospel and a strong defender of the Christian faith and human rights. Incarcerated and prevented for years from freely exercising his episcopal mission, he never let himself be intimidated, always giving a shining example of strength and trust in divine providence."

When the communists came to power in Czechoslovakia in 1948, they assumed total REALITY DECEMBER 2015

control of the Churches. Only government approved priest were permitted to minister.

Many bishops, priests and religious were arrested and imprisoned. Churches were closed and religious orders outlawed. Those who refused to comply went underground.

Among them was a young Jesuit clerical student called Jan Korec. He was secretly ordained priest 1950 and, equally secretly, made a bishop less than a year later.

For nine years, he worked full time in a factory, secretly celebrating Mass and ministering to Catholics. Arrested and sentenced to prison in 1960, he continued to celebrate Mass and to minister to his fellow prisoners. When he was discovered, he was put into isolation. He described this as the most terrible punishment. “Yet necessity is the mother of invention, so I discovered a very simple system to break up the isolation. I imagined I was making the spiritual exercises.

I followed a very detailed and intense daily program. I began in the morning with a good hour of meditation."

Although without vestments or liturgical books, he managed to get bread and wine, so he was able to celebrate Mass and "that was enough to give me such joy. After Mass, my program of studies began: I reviewed from memory theological and philosophical texts, discussing them out loud as if I was at the university, in front of the professors. When I felt tired, I relaxed by singing hymns."When he was released from isolation, he said, "I felt spiritually stronger as if I really had completed a series of spiritual exercises."

He was released from prison during the short-lived “Prague Spring” of 1968. Although in poor health, he found work first as a street sweeper, then as a labourer in a tar factory and continued his ministry, especially among young people. With the fall of communism and the re-establishment of the hierarchy, St. John Paul II named him bishop of Nitra, the diocese in which he was born Jan. 22, 1924 and named him a cardinal in 1991.

Croagh Patrick

CROAGH PATRICK AT RISK? MAYO

HUMAN TRAFFIC PROBLEMS

Up to 40,000 people climb the 760 metres of Croagh Patrick in Co Mayo every year. It is one of the West’s top tourist destinations. It has become popular with runners who ascend it at speed in all weathers. The large new car park at the foot of the mountain is full most days of the year, and the local pub does a brisk trade in food and drink. While tourists have brought money and jobs to the area, some things cause concern, including so-called ‘fun runs,’ that litter and do less than justice to the mountain’s status as a holy place. According to a local priest, “Nature's greatest cathedral in the west is being severely damaged.” The amount of human traffic means that, as rocks become dislodged, they are a danger to other climbers. Safeguarding the heritage of Croagh Patrick is difficult. Many local farmers have commonage rights to grazing on the mountain, and any work to improve pathways or put safety measures in place will need their consent. The archdiocese of Tuam has authority only over the small chapel on the summit. The local council is unwilling to claim any responsibility for the mountain, for fear of claims for injuries on the mountain. Church, tourist authorities, farmers, environmentalists and those who visit it regularly, agree that something must be done to protect the mountain’s outstanding natural beauty and its spiritual significance. Exactly what should be done, however, remains a big question.

N E WS

BACK IN THE BLACK DUBLIN

SISTERS IN CHINA CHINA

CRISIS WITH CHINESE NUNS

Catholic female religious orders have expanded rapidly in China over the past decade, but they are now facing restrictions and a decrease in vocations. "Religious sisters are highly important here, as they do most of the missionary work in parishes, as well as providing educational and medical help," said Sister Teresa Yu, a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. "But the government is now demanding licences, so conditions have become more difficult. Some of our clinics and homes have had to close, and we fear more curbs will follow, while people are less willing to see their children enter religious orders because of the one-child policy."

Nuns run catechism and Bible study classes in most Chinese parishes, as well as helping the sick, homeless and elderly, but they are frequently limited by unnecessary restrictions. The extent of religious freedom depends on the region, and while sisters can generally conduct activities inside church premises, they face problems once they step outside.

It is estimated that the Chinese Catholic Church numbers 14 million members in about 100 dioceses. Thirty five of the bishops are not recognised by the Chinese government. There are about 4,000 priests and 860 seminarians. Male religious orders are banned in China, but diocesan congregations of sisters are permitted under strict control. They currently number more than 5,000 members, roughly the same as before the 1949 communist revolution.

Sister Yu said women's congregations "sprouted like bamboo in the springtime" when official policies were liberalized in the 1980s and they had helped confront the "psychological emptiness" felt by many Chinese. "Most congregations just woke up and started walking,” she said, “with their feet on thin ground, having only a vague understanding of their charism, unable to make ends meet, and without any formal clear-cut model to follow. For people who have professed religious vows, China, with its rapidly developing economy, its dominance of material values, its hedonistic mentality, consumerism and vast spiritual emptiness brings a great deal of tension and trial." The continuing restrictions on religious life posed particular problems for younger nuns, who longed to be allowed to wear their habits in public without being apprehended by police, while older nuns needed the fellowship of convent communities, but were usually forced to live separately in parishes with private families.

TOTAL ACCOUNTABILITY

The 2014 Financial Report of the Irish Bishops’ Conference shows that the Church is back in the black.

There was a surplus of €616,091, compared to a deficit of €103,076 the previous year. Income from all sources was €5,382,161, while total expenditure was €4,766,070.

MARTIN LONG Catholic Commications This is the first time the financial report has been published, and according to Martin Long, director of the Catholic Communications Office, its release is intended “to increase accountability to the faithful concerning the financing of the pastoral work of the Irish Bishops’ Conference”. While the accounts cover the main areas of activity including the five commissions of the conference, it does not include Trócaire, which is a separate trust.

Income for the counselling service for survivors of clerical abuse, “Towards Healing”, increased by almost €250,000. The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church saw its income drop from €342,226 to €243,975. According to a spokesperson for the board, its income comes from a number of sources, and since these had increased, less funding from the conference was required.

Christ born in a stable is born in me Christ accepted by shepherds accepts me Christ receiving the wise men receives me Christ revealed to the nations be revealed in me Christ dwelling in Nazareth You dwell in me Christ, grant that people may look at me and see Your Presence. Amen

continued on page 6

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REALITY BITES PERSECUTED FOR THEIR FAITH

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Christianity looks set to disappear from key parts of the Middle East, according to a report published in October which highlights a worsening cycle of persecution. Persecuted and Forgotten? A Report on Christians oppressed for their Faith 2013-15 was compiled by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. It concludes that if the exodus of faithful from Iraq continues at existing levels, the Church could all but disappear within five years. It notes an even faster rate of attrition in Syria, where the faithful have reportedly plummeted from 1.25 million in 2011 to as few as 500,000 today.

The report assesses 20 countries where it considers persecution as “severe.” It says that there is a “religiously motivated ethnic cleansing” of Christians by Islamist terror groups, especially in Iraq and Syria but also in parts of Africa. It concludes that since 2013 the situation for Christians has worsened in 15 of the 19 core countries under review.

In ten countries, the persecution is ranked as “extreme:” this is an increase from the six places

Pakistanis protest over a Christian couple who were burned alive for alleged blasphemy in Islamabad, Pakistan

named in last edition of report for 2011-13. Ranking Islamism as the greatest threat, the 2015 report also highlights growing problems caused by other extremist religious groups, including militant forms of Hinduism, Judaism and Buddhism, with attacks increasing in number and ferocity. Totalitarian regimes, notably China, have put increasing pressure on the Church, but with severe threats also face Christians in Eritrea and Vietnam.

Describing the report as “a shocking read for

shocking times,” its editor John Pontifex said: “A cultural genocide of Christians is erasing the presence of the faithful from large swathes of the Middle East, the very heartland of the Church.” He denied that the report lays the entire blame for persecution against Christians at the door of extremist Islam, and went on to say that it demonstrates that many of the problems stem from non-Muslim extremist, nationalist faith groups and historically communist totalitarian regimes.

CALIFORNIA LEGALISES EUTHANASIA

GERMAN BISHOPS SEEK TO PROMOTE WOMEN

California became the fifth, and the largest, American state to legalise physician-assisted suicide. It remains illegal in forty-five other states and in the District of Columbia.

Governor Jerry Brown signed the law in October. It will allow terminally ill patients, with only six months to live and who have the consent of two doctors, to be prescribed medicines that will end their lives. “In the end, I was left to reflect on what I would want in JERRY BROWN the face of my own death,” the Governor said. “I do Governor of California not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain. I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill.” Governor Brown was raised a Catholic and spent some years in a seminary.

Cardinal Seán O’Malley, chairman of the Bishops’ Conference committee on pro-life activities, said, “Governor Brown’s decision this week to sign a bill legalising doctor-assisted suicide in California is a great tragedy for human life ... A government that legalises assisted suicide sends the terrible message Pope Francis has so eloquently warned us against, that there is such a thing as disposable people.”

The Catholic bishops of Germany have launched a programme to promote women in the Church, after a new upsurge of departures in the wake of recent scandals. “German dioceses want to prepare young female talent for management positions, so the number of women in church leadership positions can increase,” the Bishops’ Conference. “The programme will encourage and empower women to take senior jobs in church institutions, as empirical studies have shown that line structures where women and men are represented are more focused, creative and transparent.”

The programme will involve twinning “experienced line persons” with “junior employees” in a mentoring relationship and it will be organised by the Bonn-based Catholic Hildegardis Association, which has promoted women’s advancement in Germany since 1907.

Ten of Germany’s dioceses, including Aachen, Cologne, MunichFreising, Munster and Trier have already begun pilot projects. It will be extended to all 27 dioceses next year.

“The Church is committed to increasing the proportion of women in significant leading positions,” the statement said, “and it will evaluate the concrete measures carried out in 2018.”

REALITY DECEMBER 2015

N E WS

POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS TIME TO END PREJUDICE AGAINST TRAVELLERS, SAYS POPE It was estimated that as many as 400 travellers with Irish roots attended an international gathering of gypsies and other travellers in Rome. Some of those attending were related to the eleven travellers, including an unborn child, who died in a fire at a site in Carrickmines, Co Dublin on 10 October.

After a concert of traditional music, dance and songs , Pope Francis addressed them. "The time has come for uprooting centuries-old prejudices, preconceptions and mutual distrust that often are the basis for discrimination, racism, and xenophobia,” he said.

Quoting the words of Blessed Paul VI during a Mass celebrated for gypsies in 1965, Pope Francis said: "Wherever you end up, you are considered a nuisance and foreign ... Not here. ... Here you will find someone who loves you, respects you and helps you."

While praising the progress made in evangelization and social development by traveller communities, he recognized that difficulties, misunderstandings and challenges still persist. He asserted, that like everyone else, travelling people have the right to dignified living conditions and employment, education and health care He condemned the continued tragedies that unfold in some travelling communities, like children dying from the cold or fires caused by arson attacks or faulty heaters; children falling prey to "depraved persons,- young people and women who are involved in drug or human trafficking." Pope Francis also called on the travelling communities to do their part in being constructive members of society and "good Christians, avoiding all that is not worthy" of being a Christian, namely, "lies, scams, fraud and fights."

"Dear friends,” he concluded, “do not give the mass media and public opinion the opportunity to speak badly of you. You are the shapers of your present and future."

Biddy Connors meets Pope Francis

HOUSING FOR HOMELESS AS MEMORIAL OF PAPAL VISIT Pope Francis' presence will remain in Philadelphia when a nine-story mixed use building is dedicated near the city centre as the Francis House of Peace. It will provide low-cost housing for formerly homeless men and women and young adults at risk.

The 94-unit building was expected to be completed in November."Francis House of Peace is a sign of hope for our entire community," said Sister Mary Scullion, Sister of Mercy, executive director of Project HOME and co-chair of the World Meeting of Families' Hunger and Homelessness Committee. "It demonstrates that we are finding even more ways to take concrete steps toward truly preventing and ending homelessness in Philadelphia, and it shows what is possible when people come together with shared vision and commitment."

The residents will have access to all Project HOME services, including basic medical care and fitness classes through its health initiative programme and job training.

CLOSURE OF SYNOD The work of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family has concluded, but its final document has not yet been published. Some media reports on the Synod may have raised unrealistic expectations as to how it saw its work. As Pope Francis reminded the participants on their final working day, “it was not about finding exhaustive solutions for all the difficulties and uncertainties which challenge and threaten the family, but rather about seeing these difficulties and uncertainties in the light of the Faith, carefully studying them and confronting them fearlessly, without burying our heads in the sand.”

Referring to reports of disagreement between Bishops from Africa on the one hand and Europe on the other, he said: “we have also seen that what seems normal for a bishop on one continent is considered strange and almost scandalous for a bishop from another. What is considered a violation of a right in one society is an evident and inviolable rule in another. What for some is freedom of conscience is for others simply confusion. Cultures are quite diverse, and each general principle needs to be inculturated, if it is to be respected and applied.”

As he often does, Pope Francis placed the Church’s commitment to the poor at the centre. The Synod, he said, “was about making clear that the Church is a Church of the poor in spirit and of sinners seeking forgiveness, not simply of the righteous and the holy, but rather of those who are righteous and holy precisely when they feel themselves poor sinners”.

There was a rebuke for those unwilling to countenance change, for “the Synod was also about laying bare the closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families.” He reminded the bishops and other participants that “the Church’s first duty is not to hand down condemnations or anathemas, but to proclaim God’s mercy, to call to conversion, and to lead all men and women to salvation in the Lord.”

7

FEAST OF THE MONTH Reality

ST FINIAN (470-549) OF CLONARD

Born: c.470 Died: 549 Feast Day: 12 December Patron of the Diocese of Meath

8

Finian was born about 470 near New Ross. His name may mean ‘the little blond one.’ His father was Rudraigh, an Ulster noble and his mother, Telach of Leinster. He was reputed to have been baptised by Saint Abban. At an early age, he was placed under the care of Bishop Fortchern of Trim, and remained with him for thirty years. Finian then took on the role of the pilgrim monk, searching for wisdom wherever he could find it. He may have gone as far as Tours, the great monastic site in France but he spent much of his time in Wales, where he placed himself under the guidance of Saints David, Gildas, and Cadoc.

Once , Finian was asked to take the place of the monk who normally looked after the supplies of the monastery. Pleading his inability to carry heavy loads of goods and firewood, he tried to excuse himself from the chore but the superior insisted. Finian had little choice but to obey, and an angel came to his assistance. With the help of the heavenly messenger, Finian was able to do everything required.

When the time came to return to Ireland, Finian planned to make a pilgrimage to Rome, but another angel appeared and told him to go straight back home as his good intention would be accepted for the deed. Angelic guidance came to the fore once again and directed him towards a spot in County Meath, which remains associated with him to this day. Clonard, or Cluain Eraird (“the meadow of Erard”) was destined to become one of the most important monastic foundations in Ireland. Within a very short time, its reputation as a centre of learning and monastic discipline was attracting many disciples.

Finian seems to have been particularly sought after as a teacher of scripture. Clonard is reputed during his life-time to have hosted 3,000 students in residence each year. After his death, Finian became known as ‘the teacher of the saints of Ireland.’ One particular group of students was identified as the “Twelve Apostles of Ireland” - the two Brendans (of Birr and Clonfert), the two Ciarans (Clonmacnoise and Saighear), two Columbas (of Iona and Terryglass), Mobhi, Molaise, Canice, Ruadhain, Senan, and Laiserean.

Like all the Irish monks, Finian followed a way of life characterised by great austerity.

His normal diet was bread and herbs, which on feast days, he enlivened with a little beer or whey. He slept on the bare ground using a stone as a pillow. Despite his reputation as a learned and saintly man, like all the Irish saints Finian had a place for the poor in his heart. It is said that he wept with those who were sad and hungered with those who were hungry. Finian is said to have died during a great plague that swept through Ireland. The old Celtic list of saints, the Marytrology of Oenghus, invokes him: A tower of gold over the sea, May he bring help to my soul, Is Finian fair, the beloved root Of the great Cluain Eraird.

Brendan McConvery, CSsR REALITY DECEMBER 2015

Volume 80. No. 10 December 2015 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960 Published by The Irish Redemptorists, 75 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Republic of Ireland Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org (With permission of C.Ss.R.)

Chair, Redemptorist Communications Seamus Enright CSsR Editor Brendan McConvery CSsR bmcconvery@redcoms.org Design & Layout David Mc Namara CSsR dmcnamara@redcoms.org General Manager Paul Copeland pcopeland@redcoms.org Sales & Marketing Claire Carmichael ccarmichael@redcoms.org Administration & Accounts Michelle McKeon mmckeon@redcoms.org Printed by Nicholson & Bass, Belfast Photo Credits Catholic News Service, Shutterstock REALITY SUBSCRIPTIONS Through a promoter (Ireland only) €18 or £15 Annual Subscription by post: Ireland €22 or £18 UK £25 Europe €35 Rest of the world €45 Please send all payments to: Redemptorist Communications, 75 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Republic of Ireland ADVERTISING Whilst we take every care to ensure the accuracy and validity of adverts placed in Reality, the information contained in adverts does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Redemptorist Communications. You are therefore advised to verify the accuracy and validity of any information contained in adverts before entering into any commitment based upon them.

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REFLECTIONS I stopped believing in Santa Clause when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.

SHIRLEY TEMPLE

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.

Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it white.

BING CROSBY

Christmas, it seems to me, is a necessary festival; we require a season when we can regret all the flaws in our human relationships: it is the feast of failure, sad but consoling.

Leave all the doors wide open before her, The Virgin who’ll come with the child on her breast, Grant that you’ll stop here tonight, Holy Mary, That Jesus a while in this household may rest.

MAIRE MHAC an tSAOI

A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.

Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.

Fágaidh an doras ar leathadh ina coinne, An Mhaighdean a thiocfaidh is a Naí ar a hucht; Deonaigh do shuaimhneas a ligean, a Mhuire, Luíodh Mac Dé ins an teach seo anocht

GARRISON KEILLOR

G.K. CHESTERTON

MAIRE MHAC an tSAOI.

When we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans--and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused--and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself.

At this Christmas when Christ comes, will He find a warm heart? Mark the season of Advent by loving and serving the others with God's own love and concern.

This is the day our Saviuor was born: what a joy for us, my beloved! This is no season for sadness, this, the birthday of Life - the Life which annihilates the fear of death, and engenders joy, promising, as it does, immortality.

ROY L. SMITH

GRAHAM GREENE

ST TERESA OF CALCUTTA

Christmas works like glue, it keeps us all sticking together.”

In dark’s dull density, a single candle was put to burn in each sill till morning.

The back door remained unlocked whatever the weather, so that there was no danger of Mary and Joseph going astray in their search for a resting place.

Across the fields, the houses glittered, the light from their candles like jewelled pinpoints in the darkness.

ROSIE THOMAS

ALICE TAYLOR

SIGRID UNDSET

ST LEO THE GREAT

The message of the Christmas tree, therefore, is that life is "ever green" if one gives, not so much material things, but of oneself, in friendship and sincere affection, and fraternal help and forgiveness, in shared time and reciprocal listening.

ST JOHN PAUL II

9

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E DI TO R I A L UP FRONT BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

ONCE IN ROYAL DAVID’S CITY

I

usually do my last minute chores on the afternoon of Christmas Eve to the accompaniment of the service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge.

At 3.00pm precisely, an unaccompanied boychorister sings the opening verse of ‘Once in Royal David’s City.’ My Christmas has begun.

From our childhood, Bethlehem has become as familiar as the next village or small town down the road, yet relatively few of us have been there. I have been privileged to have gone there often over the years, and even to have spent an academic year in Jerusalem when Bethlehem was only a bus-ride, or better, a shared taxi ride, away. The shared taxi, or sherut, is first cousin of the Belfast ‘black taxi:’ everyone piles in, and for a flat fare, you pick up the gossip of the day, as well as getting to your destination.

It is not the only resemblance to Belfast. Both have what, in polite society, are called ‘peace walls.’ The inhabitants see them differently.

These barriers impose on the physical reality of a place the spiritual and mental divisions of minds that are fearful, familiar with bitterness and obsessed with a desire to control the other. If you are a tourist or a pilgrim going to Bethlehem in the comfort of your coach, you hardly notice the inconvenience. The young Israeli soldiers are invariably smiling and polite. You will be waved through with the minimum of fuss. If you are an inhabitant of Bethlehem, or a student or worker living in Arab East Jerusalem and coming to the City of David for work or university, the reality is very different. The hassle at the crossing point becomes a twice daily encounter with uncertainty. You are not always treated with the courtesy on display for the tourist. You might miss a class, be delayed starting work or face another lengthy delay returning home as darkness falls.

In this issue, a young Palestinian woman describes daily life in Bethlehem. It is easy to be romantic about the little town of Bethlehem.

The reality is more uncomfortable. It forms part of the Palestine National Authority, which is a patchwork of scattered territories, with little prospect of cohesion or of serious economic growth. Bethlehem is lucky. It continues to attract pilgrims and tourists. Their stay, however, has become briefer, usually just long enough to visit the holy places and to do some quick souvenir shopping, but they do most of their spending in Israel.

Bethlehem and Nazareth were once towns in which Christians made up about 80% of the population. Today, Nazareth is 30% Christian, while Bethlehem has been estimated as less than 20% Christian. The religious orders that came to the Holy Land made health-care and education their priorities. The Sisters of St Joseph, the de la Salle Brothers, the Franciscans and Salesians and others, invested great energy in creating a first class education system. The brothers run the first university in Palestinian territory, open equally to Christian and Moslem students. Its products are fluent in at least one European language, as well as Arabic and Hebrew. Many well-educated young people leave the country to further their education or to gain work experience. Fewer now return.

The Middle East has become an uncomfortable place for Christians. The Christian communities of cities like Damascus or Aleppo have a distinguished history stretching back to the beginnings of the Church. In recent years, many have suffered violent death or been forced into flight from their homeland. Might we may have to contemplate the likelihood that the Christian population of places like Bethlehem and Nazareth will plummet even more rapidly, until all that is left is a small aging population of local Christians, along with the foreign religious who run the shrines and the pilgrim hostel?.

This Christmas, remember the babies born in Bethlehem this year and their parents. Like the Christ-child, many of them may have to flee, not into Egypt, but to wherever will take them in, and that too brings uncertainty. Yet they are people of faith. A few years ago, an icon was painted on the Wall of Separation. It is an image of a pregnant Mary on her way to Bethlehem the first time. It is called “Our Lady who Brings down Walls.” We pray with her that God will bring down this wall and every wall like it, but especially the walls in our hearts and minds and all the walls that generate hatred, violence, fear and indifference between people and between nations.

All of us at Redemptorist Communications wish you a happy Christmas.

Brendan McConvery CSsR Editor

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JESUS WAS NOT THE LAST PERSON TO BE BORN IN BETHLEHEM. THE CITY OF DAVID AND RUTH IS TODAY HOME FOR ABOUT 30,000 PEOPLE AND IS A CITY OF THE PALESTINIAN NATIONAL AUTHORITY. A YOUNG PALESTINIAN CHRISTIAN WOMAN DESCRIBES WHAT IT IS LIKE TO LIVE IN BETHLEHEM TODAY.

BY AMANY ABU AWAD

What

is it like living in Bethlehem? That’s a question I get asked a lot, being a young Christian woman living in the place where

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Jesus Christ was born. Before answering this question, let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Amany Abu Awad and I grew up in a family of five, my parents,

two brothers and sister, and in case you are wondering, I am the baby. I enjoy an active life for I play the guitar and run. I am a senior at Bethlehem University majoring in English

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literature with a minor in translation.

Bethlehem University is a great Catholic La Salle institution to be part of. No other university in Palestine offers the great atmosphere it does, an atmosphere full of mutual respect between the students.

Bethlehem University not only respects its Christian students’ right to practice their religion, but also the right of its Muslim students to do the same. Not only does it have a rather lovely chapel, but there is also place for Muslims to pray. In fact, it is the only university in Palestine to offer a required

religious studies course where students learn about both Christianity and Islam in order to enrich the understanding of each other’s religion and so to build a stronger relationship among them.

LIVING BEHIND A WALL OF SEPARATION The current political situation has now been in existence for over 65 years. Living in Bethlehem can be a daily struggle. It is not as intense or as dangerous as it can be in other occupied cities, like Jerusalem, Hebron or Gaza, but the people of Bethlehem still

suffer the same limitations and constraints imposed by the Israeli occupation. Our biggest challenge is the inability to commute freely within and outside the West Bank – that part of the Holy Land west of the River Jordan. It is intensified by the existence of checkpoints and the “Apartheid Wall.” This 8 meter high wall does not only swallow our land, but it prevents us from crossing freely to the other side of the West Bank, to Jerusalem and what is beyond it. In order for us to cross this wall and its highly-guarded checkpoints, we need a special limited-in-time permit

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given only on special occasions Christmas, Easter and Ramadan. The longest we get this permission for is three months.

It is not enough just to get the permission though, for we have to go through the long and f ru str ating process of passing through the Christian and Muslim students socialise outside Bethlelem University checkpoint. This can take from ten minutes to three hours, on time. If they finish at 4 p.m., they may not depending on the soldiers’ mood. It is exactly get home until 6 to 7 pm, which gives them the same as in an airport, but a more the little time to study. That is only one part of inhumane and humiliating version of it. our struggle living under occupation.

Although it is located in Bethlehem, Bethlehem University has a large percentage LIVING IN BETHLEHEM TODAY of students whose homes are in the Jerusalem All what I have said so far is occupationarea and who face a daily struggle coming to related, but I have not given you insight into and from the university. The torture I have our economic, social and religious life here to endure going to Jerusalem every once in a while, they have to live with twice each day of their university life. A trip from or to Jerusalem should not take any more than half an hour: it takes them an hour and a half or two hours, depending on whether the soldiers are happy, angry, bored or not that day. Students who have an 8 a.m. class in Bethlehem. One of the biggest problems have to be up at 5 a.m. in order to get to class we face not only in Bethlehem, but the West

Bank as a whole is the very high rate of unemployment, which stands at about 40 percent.

We have limited job opportunities, which are mostly in nursing, teaching, business and tourism. This is why thousands of students across Palestine graduate every year but it takes them a long time to find a job or else they find one outside of their field of study. That is why many of them tend to go abroad for a master’s degree in order to get a better job.

This in turn contributes to the problem of the brain drain of Palestine’s labor force, as they find it so much easier to stay where they are and not return when their studies are finished.

One of the biggest problems we face not only in Bethlehem, but the West Bank as a whole is the very high rate of unemployment, which stands at about 40 percent

Bethlehem at a Glance

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The earliest reference to Bethlehem is in an Egyptian collection of clay tablets known as the Amarna Letters from 1350 BC. “AbduHeba, prince of Jerusalem, complains that Bit-Lahmi [Bethlehem] has gone over to the Apiru (a group of nomadic invaders).” The name Bethlehem means ‘House of Bread.’ It was the centre of an important wheat growing area. It is first mentioned in the bible as the burial place of Rachel, wife of Jacob, who died in childbirth (Gen 35:19). “Rachel’s Tomb” is near the city.

Let me tell you a little about social life in Bethlehem, especially from my own

Ruth and Naomi returned to Bethlehem in search of food during a famine (Ruth 1:19).

David was anointed King in Bethlehem by Samuel (I Sam 16:13). Modern Bethlehem has a population of about 30,000. It is 2,543 feet above sea level and 10 kilometres south of Jerusalem. In 1948, Christians made up 85% of the population: today it has been estimated that they are as few as 15%. By municipal law, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Bethlehem must be Christians.

perspective as a young woman. What is it like to be a woman in Bethlehem? Living in a patriarchal society imposes many limitations on women. While it is OK for the man to do whatever he wants, within the cultural

A cl e ar e x am p l e is something I face whenever I go running every Saturday with my running team “Right to Movement.” Running in

On Christmas Eve, people dressed in their most beautiful clothes go out to the streets of Bethlehem to welcome the Patriarch of Jerusalem boundaries of course, a woman has her life designed for her by the society. She is told what to wear, how to behave, how late to stay out etc. It is not as drastic as it can be in many other Arab countries, but you can still sense the male power controlling the society we live in.

Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem waves upon his arrival to attend Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem, 2014

the streets of Bethlehem, I can see people looking at me as if I am doing something wrong, something outside the norms—as if I am breaking the rules. It is like they are telling me “you don’t belong here.” It is not just the looks I get, but the catcalls I hear.

This is not just the case in Bethlehem. It

A Palestinian girl in a Santa suit claps as she watches a parade in Manger Square outside the Church of Nativity on Christmas Eve in Bethlehem

is a reality in every part of the West Bank with some slight differences from town to town. Despite all these social obstacles and limitations, women keep running. In fact, more women are joining our team every day—a team of boys and girls running for their right to movement. That there have been some improvements in the society, we cannot deny. Women have been given a chance to be more actively involved in the society, especially politically. A living example is the fact that Ms. Vera Babun is the first female mayor of Bethlehem.

CHRISTMAS IN BETHLEHEM Now that I have introduced you to the struggles we face living under occupation, our economic situation and the social life we live, I would like to reflect a bit on religious life as well.

Bethlehem is the birth place of Jesus Christ. It is also hometown to many Muslims. Actually, Christians in Palestine are considered to be the

People gather in Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity

Palestinian Catholic Scouts play bagpipes outside the Church of the Nativity

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minority. Contrary to common belief, Muslims and Christians in Palestine live together in a relationship characterized by mutual respect. We cannot deny the fact that problems sometimes arise between the two, but these never affect the strong bond that connects them. Although as Christians, we are a minority, we are given full freedom to practice our religion.

Since Christmas is coming soon, I would like to share with you how we will celebrate it. Here in Bethlehem, we throw the best celebration in the world! After all, this is where Jesus was born. As the tradition goes, on Christmas Eve, people dressed in their most beautiful clothes go out to the streets of Bethlehem to welcome the Patriarch of Jerusalem. They start gathering three hours prior to his arrival, to watch the scout marching bands play their drums and blow their bagpipes, which all combine into beautiful music.

You can sense people’s happiness especially in the smiles drawn on the faces of little children dressed like Santa Claus—smiles that symbolize the hope we refuse to give up after over 65 years of humiliation caused by the Israeli occupation.

The best part is, that on this day, not it is not only Christians who go out onto the streets to celebrate, but Muslims do so as well, reflecting the relationship of respect I mentioned above.

On his arrival, the patriarch is accompanied by the priests, mayor and people into the Church of the Nativity. At midnight, mass is celebrated.

On Christmas Day, we have a family dinner after which people visit each other to wish everyone merry Christmas. People come to Bethlehem from all over the world to join the celebration of Jesus Christ’s glorious birth.

As recent as last October Palestinian protesters were clashing with Israeli soldiers in Bethlehem

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE Living in Bethlehem is a struggle, but despite this struggle, Bethlehem will always be my home. Yes, I am planning on pursuing an MA and maybe working abroad if I get a chance, but Bethlehem will always be the home I go back to, for as they say, “there is no place like home”. I could go on and on talking about life in Bethlehem, but I would like to end by expressing my wishes for a better future, a future where we all live in peace.

Amany Abu Awad is a native of Bethlehem. She is a student at the University of Bethlehem, run by the Christian (De La Salle) Brothers

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A Palestinian Christian prays in the Church of Nativity on Christmas Eve in Bethlehem

THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY

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EACH YEAR, THE CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY IN BETHLEHEM HOSTS THOUSANDS OF PILGRIMS WHO COME TO CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. FOR WESTERN CHRISTIANS, 25 DECEMBER IS CHRISTMAS DAY. FOR THE ORTHODOX CHURCHES, IT IS 6 JANUARY AND FOR THE ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH, IT IS 18 JANUARY. BUT WHERE EVER WE ARE, WE REMEMBER THAT IT ALL BEGAN IN THE LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM.

BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

pproaching it across the square, it looks more like a fortress than a church. When you get closer, you will look in vain for a majestic doorway leading into one of Christianity’s great historic church. You can still trace the outline of the original great door, but today, only one person can enter at a time, bowing very low to squeeze through the narrow passage. This is how pilgrims first encounter the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the world’s “Christmas Church.” The great entrance was reduced to its present size, it is said, to prevent looters from driving their carts into the church, or to stop horsemen disrupting services.

The first church commemorating the birth of Jesus here was consecrated in 339. It was one of three churches built on the orders of the newly converted Emperor Constantine to give pleasure to his Christian mother, Helena. Helena had embarked on a pilgrimage to the places associated with Jesus in Palestine and wanted places of

prayer to be established at them for future pilgrims. The most important and most magnificent was the Basilica of the Resurrection in Jerusalem that incorporated into a marvellous complex the place of Jesus’ crucifixion and of his tomb. Another church on the Mount of Olives, the Eleona, commemorated his Ascension.

Little trace of it remains today. It was destroyed by the Persians in 614. A modern church, the “Pater Noster”, stands on the site today, reflecting a tradition that Jesus had taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer there.

ANOTHER IMPERIAL BUILDER Little of Constantine’s basilica at Bethlehem remains, apart from some pillars and part of the original floor mosaic, exposed to view at several points around the church. The present church was substantially rebuilt by another emperor, Justinian, who reigned from 527 to 565. Justinian was as determined as Constantine to put his stamp on the Holy Land.

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He built a great church, the Nea, in honour of the Mother of Jesus near the site of the Jerusalem temple, another on Mount Gerazim in Samaria and a third in Tiberias on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Little trace of them remain, apart from some ruins of the Nea which came to light during archaeological excavations in Jerusalem in the 1970s and fragments of the Mount Gerazim church.

Justin was a tough task-master.

It is said that when he first saw the newly constructed building at Bethlehem, he was enraged that it did not measure up to the architect’s promises, so he accused him of embezzling the building funds and ordered him to be beheaded! Although many of its features have suffered damage in the fifteen hundred years of the church’s life, it remains a striking monument to the industry and art of its builders.

It is modelled on the design of an ancient Roman basilica, or place of public assembly. A double row of columns on each side divides the space into five aisles – a larger central place of assembly, with two narrower aisles on each side.

The sanctuary of the church is now cut off from the nave by an eighteenth century iconostasis, or screen ornamented with icons that encloses the sanctuary area of an Orthodox church.

The church of Bethlehem was spared by the Persians, who invaded in 614, because, it is said they recognised the Magi in a mosaic on the facade as fellow countrymen who were wearing the same costume as themselves!

The Crusaders brought new life to it for about a century. They added to its decorations including

a painting of St Cathal of Ireland on a pillar.

Another Irish connection is the visit by the famous Dublin rake, Buck Whaley of Hell-fire Club fame. It is said that Buck came to the Holy Land in 1789 to win a bet. His father had been such a notorious ‘priest-hunter’ in penal times that he was nicknamed “Burn Chapel Whaley.” Buck was charmed by the hospitality of the friars. “We were attended all the morning by these innocent men” he wrote, “and at one, an excellent dinner was prepared for us, consisting of at least 30 dishes.”

SHARED BY THREE CHURCHES The church today is shared by three major Christian denominations the Orthodox, the Armenians and the Roman Catholics. The

Orthodox control most of the basilica. The Armenians have a small area in the main church.

The Latins (as Roman Catholics are known in the Holy Land) have an altar in the grotto of the Nativity, which is shared by all three, and three additional chapels in the underground area, including one reputed to be the cell of St Jerome where he translated the bible. A large church, dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria, is attached to the basilica, where the Franciscan friars, who administrates the Holy Places, celebrate the daily office and eucharist.

This might seem on paper a perfect example of Christian ecumenical sharing. The reality is very different. Relations between the three communities have a very complex history behind

them. The Armenians parted company with the Great Church over a dispute about the nature of Christ which came to a head at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Latins and Greeks split in 1054 over some relatively trivial issues. Relations were not helped by history, including the arrival of Islam in the seventh century. The European Crusaders travelling to liberate the Holy Places often pillaged Orthodox cities on their way.

Relations between the churches today are governed by an agreement known as the Status Quo . It goes back to the Crimean War, one of whose causes was ostensibly, the plight of Christians in the Turkish Ottoman Empire.

Every act is regulated by the way it was in the mid-nineteenth century. Each group jealously guards what it considers its territory. Riots between groups of brush-wielding clerics have often broken out because someone may have ventured into someone else’s territory. The Franciscans mark out their territory each day with a procession that has the same boundary-marking objective as an Orange march in a Northern Ireland village.

THE GROTTO OF THE NATIVITY Access to the Grotto of the Nativity is by a steep stairway under the sanctuary. In the small narrow space are a few altars.

The main one,for the Orthodox, marks the spot of the birth. Under the table-shaped altar, hang lamps tended by all three communities.

On the floor, a silver star bears the inscription Hic de Virgine Maria Iesus Christus natus est (here of the virgin Mary was born Jesus Christ).

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Near by, another altar marks the place where the crib stood. At another altar, Latin rite priests may celebrate Mass, but only very early

grounds for the links between these places and the Gospel stories they commemorate. Excellent archaeological evidence,for

Relations between the three communities [that share the church]have a very complex history behind them in the morning.

How historically reliable is the claim that this is the site of Jesus’ birth?

All the holy places began life as places where pilgrims assembled to hear the biblical story associated with the spot, and, through the eucharist, to relive the wonder of Christ’s presence. The Holy Places make no infallible claim to be the exact spot. Nevertheless, there are good

example, supports the claim that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre encloses both Calvary and the Lord’s tomb. All we know from the Gospel is that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger.

Caves were used for stabling cattle in the Bethlehem area. This particular spot was venerated less than three hundred years after the event: is it likely the association was based on some genuine local memory? We cannot be sure, but

the visitor to Bethlehem and its surrounding country will never read the Christmas story the same way.

WORLD HERITAGE SITE IN DANGER In 2012, the Church of the Nativity was placed by UNESCO on the list of World Heritage Sites. The same year, it was placed on another list of heritage sites in danger. The roof is letting in water, rotting the beams and damaging the mosaics on the walls beneath. The danger to the fabric of the building has driven the three churches to come together to seek a solution. They were persuaded by the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, in 2010 to allow Italian craftsmen, structural engineers and wood scientists, to begin the first major

restoration of the roof since it was rebuilt in 1479.

The restoration of the roof has been successful, but much more needs to be done, especially on internal features such as the historic mosaics and the stone work of the pillars. Restoration work is expensive and the Palestinian Authority has limited resources. Fortunately, some European countries have made generous donations, both financial and scientific, to the work. But after so many centuries of neglect, it will be many years before the birth place of the Lord will be restored to its former glory.

Brendan McConvery is a Redemptotist from Belfast. He is a well-known biblical scholar and author. He is currently editor of Reality.

SEEK A NEW DIRECTION

EXPLORE RELIGIOUs SISTERS OF CHA RIT Y

The Love of Christ urges us on – as Sisters of Charity we continue to live a journey of loving service in the Spirit of our Foundress Mary Aikenhead who spent her life in love serving ‘God’s nobility the suffering poor’.

The rest of your life is starting now – Is God inviting you to share in this same journey of loving service as a Sister of Charity, as a friend of Mary Aikenhead or as volunteer in one of our services?

Take the first step and contact Sr. Rita Wynne on 086 343 4448 or email ritawynnersc@eircom.net

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You can also get more information on our website www.religioussistersofcharity.ie

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© Photography by Michael R Jackaman

OUR LADY WHO BRINGS DOWN WALLS

BY IAN KNOWLES

Bethlehem

is not at peace.

Daily clashes with the Israeli military bring clouds of tear gas down where the icon of Our Lady Who Brings Down Walls is painted on the separation wall. Pilgrims now come in large numbers, some by the coach load, some in smaller groups to celebrate Mass beneath the image, others on their own, all to pray for peace, where there is no peace.

I painted this icon here in 2010, at the request of some local people who gathered each week to pray the rosary ever since the wall was built, digging deep into occupied REALITY DECEMBER 2015

Palestine, cutting through ancient olive groves and demolishing countless homes.

It was largely inspired by words of Pope Benedict XVI to bishops from the Middle East, who described the image of the a Woman clothed in the sun found in Revelation as a prophecy about the suffering of Christians in the Middle East. SInce then the Occupation has crushed Palestinian hopes almost to extinction, while churches are burnt by Jewish fanatics in Galilee and radicalised, heavily armed Muslims hack their way through Christian communities in Iraq and Syria. From Egypt to Turkey the blood of Christian martyrs flows.

In the icon Mary, visibly pregnant with the Christ Child, holds her hand to her head in sorrow and anguish. She is, through Jesus, the Mother of All Christians, especially those who suffer and so she also suffers and seeks consolation for them from the prayers of the faithful. She holds open her mantle so that her children might find refuge in her prayerful protection, those threatened by the ‘waters sent by the beast’ to consume her Child.

Ian Knowles is a British iconographer who works with the Bethlehem School. Visit its website http://www. bethlehemiconcentre.org/about-bic

COMMENT THE WAY I SEE IT KATY DOBEY

THE MOST FAMOUS TEENAGER IN THE WORLD

SEVENTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL WAS THE YOUNGEST PERSON EVER TO WIN THE NOBEL PRIZE. I have been keeping a journal since I was about ten years old.

On my twelfth birthday, I received a gift of a diary with dated pages.

This gave me one page per day.

Since I did not want to waste pages, I made a great effort to write something every day. I kept at it into my early twenties, and it is a pleasure now to have many diaries to look back at and to remember the minute acts that have made me who I am today.

At the age of 12, I recorded a family New Year’s Eve Party, where I stated how my uncles had made “fools of themselves” by singing and dancing in front of everyone. At fifteen, I was writing about shopping trips to town, board games and studying for the Junior Cert. I moaned about the hardship of cycling to school and rejoiced when it rained, so that I’d get a lift! At fifteen, my life wasn’t any more exciting than these mundane stories in my diary, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.

When she was just fifteen years old, Malala Yousafzai was confronted by a gunman. She was shot in the head at point blank range on her school bus in the northwest of Pakistan.

The assassination attempt sparked a wave of national and international support for Malala.

Malala Yousafzai, had been targeted because of her work as an advocate for children’s and women’s rights. This advocacy work all started with her diary entries.

to school due to the Taliban edict. While I was celebrating Christmas holidays, Yousafzai wrote about the “bad mood” she was in because winter vacations were starting shortly. With no end date to the holidays, there was reason to believe the school might not reopen. Her grim mood is in stark contrast to the happy-go-lucky tone in my own writings.

Malala Yousafzai

From the age of ten, this girl had spoken out about the right to education. Since her father was a school owner and an educational activist, Malala received an education, despite some cultural obstacles and a Taliban edict that banned girls from attending school in her native Swat Valley. From an early age, her father encouraged her to think and learn about politics.

In late 2008 Malala’s diaries brought her on to the international stage. She started writing “Diary of a Pakistani School Girl” for the BBC. These were turbulent times in the north-western Swat district.

Taliban militants made sweeping prohibitions of television, music, and girls’ education. Her secret

diary, written under a pen-name, gave brief insights into the day to day life of a school girl facing a ban on education. She writes of being afraid, of not knowing when the school will reopen and of her friends moving away due to the Taliban edict.

Reading the diary entries she wrote when she was just eleven years old, I dug out the diary I had written a few years earlier, when I was her age. At eleven, I recorded playing “selling houses” and “shop”. I wrote about bumping my head and about watching a Robbie Williams concert live on Sky One. At the same age, Yousafzai wrote about fears that her school would be attacked, about curfews and of the low numbers turning up

Despite this ordeal, Malala Yousafzai used the publicity gained to further her fight for education. On her 16th birthday, she spoke at the UN calling for education for all children. The following year, 2014, she became the youngest every Nobel Laureate at 17. She continues as an advocate for education and opened a girls’ school for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon this year.

After she was shot, a German newspaper claimed that “she may be the most famous teenager in the world.” Time has named her three times in its list of the world’s most influential people in the world. She has highlighted the unequal access people have to basic human rights. At her age, I was happily moaning about school work and study: she and those around her rejoiced when schools reopened at the end of February 2009. It is a constant reminder of the need to speak out for others and for ourselves when injustice is done. If an eleven year old girl can make a terrible situation known and change it, there is hope for all of us.

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Q U E ST I O N S TO JESUS 4

“SO WHAT DO YOU SAY?” JESUS’ ENEMIES SOMETIMES TRIED TO TRAP HIM IN WHAT HE SAID AS A WAY OF UNDERMINING HIS CREDIBILITY. HE HAD, HOWEVER, A KNACK OF TURNING THE QUESTION BACK ON THEM AND FORCING THEM (AND US) TO CONFRONT UNCOMFORTABLE ASPECTS OF OURSELVES.

BY MIKE DALEY

Schadenfreude.

It’s a German word which means to take great pleasure in the suffering of others. Perhaps it’s human nature. Usually it involves people (often men) who have been at the heights of their power and career. Think Tiger Woods and golf; Bill Clinton and the presidency, your neighbour and their promotion, and the Catholic Church and authority. Then the fall, and the sad, sweet delight we take in it.

It was the same with Jesus. Ever since he began his public ministry, those in positions of power tried to diminish his credibility. The Gospel of John has a classic story in the woman caught in adultery (8:1-11). Some legal and religious leaders bring a woman supposedly caught in the very act before him. What they’re really trying to do is trap Jesus and destroy his public standing.

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SETTING A TRAP They know what the Mosaic Law commands— stoning. But they’re also aware that the Romans are the only ones who can carry out a capital offense. If Jesus defers to the Romans, he betrays the Jewish tradition. If he demands stoning, he usurps Roman law and contradicts his message of mercy.

The question is then offered: “So what do you say?”

At this Jesus bends down and begins to write on the ground with his finger. Many have long wondered, what did he write? Could it have been “Where is the man?” or “Have any of you committed adultery?” In such a male-dominated REALITY DECEMBER 2015

culture, where women were little more than property, I strongly believe he was challenging them to recognize the woman as a person, not someone’s possession to control or an adulteress to scapegoat. After continued questioning, Jesus stands up and says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Apparently, he had struck a nerve. The crowd begins to disperse. Eventually, it is just Jesus and the woman. Now Jesus asks a question, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

She replies, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, [and] from now on do not sin anymore.”

THE GREAT (IRISH) AMERICAN NOVEL Since I can’t write the Great Irish Novel (my apologies to James Joyce, Jonathan Swift, and Elizabeth Bowen), I’ve set my sights on the Great American Novel – the book which speaks to the depth (or lack thereof) of America's soul. I await the day when my name will be mentioned alongside the likes of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

Mindful of the phrase "Where angels fear to tread, fools rush in," if I had to pick just one book, my choice would be Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Though set in 17th century, Puritan, America, the story has much to say about our times as well through the themes of guilt, sin, mercy, condemnation, and redemption.

Unavoidably stands the figure of Hester Prynne.

Everywhere she goes she is followed by the sign of her fallen state—a scarlet "A" sown onto her

clothing. Often with Hester is the fruit of her sexual indiscretion, her paradoxically named daughter Pearl.

Her lover, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, is publicly seen as a good and holy man by the townspeople. Behind closed doors, however, he is literally tortured by his guilt for leaving Hester and Pearl to fend for themselves in broad daylight. Though too spiritually paralyzed to do

students. I invite them, as I visibly model my sinful state, to place this marker of the human condition in their school I.D. holder. Most smile when they see me do it. Some actually take me up on it.

Looking back on his experience wearing the letter one student remarked that, "I had to take time and reflect that we are all sinners. And people became uncomfortable when I was saying I was wearing this symbol of evil to show I was imperfect. Because we as a culture like to think that we are all perfect and nothing is truly wrong."

Jesus and Pope Francis both stress that there is a future beyond sin. There is no condemning judgment or shameful words, only love, forgiveness, and freedom so, Dimmesdale longs to live the truth The Scarlet Letter‘s narrator offers at the end of the book: "Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred."

The third figure in this tangled triangle of humanity is Hester's forlorn and estranged husband, Roger Chillingworth. His last name symbolically represents how his desire for revenge turns him cold to relationship. He has become what he hates.

WEARING THE “A” Ultimately, the great truth, however much we deny or can't see it, is that we all wear the letter "A." Having taken in all the whispered judgments and condemning glances of her so-called Christian neighbors, Hester lives out a hard-won compassion for all. Freed from the concern of public respectability and its associated condition of self-righteousness, Hester's mark of shame becomes a badge of honor. She has turned schadenfreude in on itself.

By the end Hester's "A" has changed from "adultery" to "able." Able to own her contradictions. Able to become more sensitive to peoples' hidden vulnerabilities. Able to be more human. Able to admit that she is a sinner in need of a savior.

For some years now, after a class presentation on the book, red "A"'s are passed out to all my

NO, NOT HIM? Someone else who knows and admits his sinfulness may surprise us at first—Pope Francis. In one of his first interviews as pope he was asked to describe himself.

His reply: "I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner." Perhaps that is why he is such a promoter of God's mercy.

Though I may not like to admit it, I am a sinner too. In saying this, I am at least opening myself up to the person and ministry of Jesus through the Church. Yes, I need the grace and forgiveness communicated through the sacraments. As Jesus said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come not to call the righteous but sinners" (Mk 2:17).

I don't want to leave without saying the most important thing though. From Pope Francis: "God is greater than sin." Jesus says as much when he tells the woman, and us today, to sin no more. Jesus and Pope Francis both stress that there is a future beyond sin. There is no condemning judgment or shameful words, only love, forgiveness, and freedom. The disgraced outcast is made whole and brought back into community.

So, “What do you say?”

Mike Daley is a teacher and writer from Cincinnati, Ohio ,where he lives with his wife June, and their three children. His latest book is Vatican II: Fifty Personal Stories (Orbis).

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C H R I ST M A S

r e h t O The

s l e p s o G y c n Infa

24

THE ACCOUNTS OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS IN THE GOSPELS OF MATTHEW AND LUKE FORM THE BACKGROUND OF EVERY CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION. WE READ THEM IN THE LITURGY. THE COMPOSERS OF OUR CHRISTMAS CAROLS SET THEIR WORDS TO MUSIC. GREAT ARTISTS THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY THEM AND THEY FIND THEIR WAY ON TO OUR CHRISTMAS CARDS. LESS WELL KNOWN ARE A GROUP OF EARLY CHRISTIAN WRITINGS KNOWN AS THE “APOCRYPHAL INFANCY GOSPELS.”

BY CATHERINE PUNCH

The

Apocryphal Infancy Gospels take as their starting point the gospel story of Jesus’ birth as told by Matthew and Luke. Two other Gospels, Mark and John, lack a narrative of these events since they start with the baptism of Jesus

REALITY DECEMBER 2015

As the Church spread, people became more curious about Jesus and his family. From about second century onwards, some writings appeared that tried to close the gap by telling stories about Jesus and his family in the form of popular narratives.

They are known collectively

as the Apocryphal Infancy Gospels. Apocrypha is a Greek word that means ‘put away’ or hidden. These writings were never considered as part of the canon (list of biblical books) of scripture. Some church leaders might indeed have preferred them to disappear completely,

but they proved so popular that they kept being copied, well into the Middle Ages. Some of them, for example, were translated into Middle Irish.

They should not be confused w i th a n o th er g ro u p o f ‘Apocryphal Gospels,’ known as the ‘Gnostic Gospels.’ These

her as not understanding what Jesus when he says “I must be in my Father’s house” (Luke 2:4950). This is not expressed in the Infancy Gospel. Rather Mary is addressed in a beatitude when she is told, “You are the first among women because God has blessed the fruit of your womb, for we have seen or heard of such glory and such virtue and wisdom.”

Ultimately, the In fancy G osp el shapes a storyline of Jesus’ early life that is brimming with rich and creative imagery and filled with abundant detail. It does not reveal any new facts about Jesus’ life, but it does provide us with a snapshot of how Christians of the second and third centuries viewed, interpreted, and eventually expanded, the Jesus story in line with their own beliefs and theological concerns. It remains a challenge for us today to hear this Gospel anew and seek to engage with its complex

theology and characterisation of the child Jesus.

THE PROTEVANGELIUM OF JAMES The Protevangelium of James was probably the most widely read of the Infancy Gospels.

The Infancy Gospels proved so popular that they kept being copied, well into the Middle Ages. Some of them, for example, were translated into Middle Irish

Jesus making birds from clay– taken from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas

were excluded from the canon because they were tainted with heresy about the nature of Jesus.

The Apocryphal Infancy Gospels offer us different perspectives from Matthew and Luke. One of them, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, for example concentrates on Jesus from the age of five until twelve. Another, the Protevangelium of James, relates events before the birth of Jesus. They contain slightly different theologies, but they invite us to reflect on how they tell the story of Jesus’ early life.

We will look a little closer at these two examples.

THE INFANCY GOSPEL OF THOMAS It begins with the author identifying himself as Thomas, the Israelite. His Gospel presents details about Jesus’ extraordinary childhood deeds. While Joseph

is named as Jesus’ father, Jesus tells him, “Do you not know that I do not really belong to you?” It narrates miracles performed by the child Jesus. It depicts him as the one in whom his followers should place their trust. It ends with him in the temple, engaging with the teachers in matters of the Law. Jesus is more actively engaged in Thomas than he is in Luke’s version (Luke 2:42-51).

The story is narrated so that Jesus does not simply listen to the teachers and ask questions, he interrogates them and explains to them, the main points of the Law and the parables of the prophets. It is intended to showcase Jesus’ astounding wisdom.

For Thomas, there is no doubt that Jesus is an authoritative teacher and expert in the Law. In this scene, Mary is identified as his mother. Luke’s presents

Protevangelium literally means ‘first gospel’ and it claims a figure known from the New Testament as James, the brother of the Lord (1 Gal 19:6) as its author, making him Joseph’s son from an earlier marriage. Mary is such a central character, however, that it could almost be called an early ‘life of Mary.’ It narrates her birth and childhood. It identifies her parents as Anna and Joachim, claiming they were long barren

Syriac Manuscript of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas

25

C H R I ST M A S

its religious beliefs and wider practices. The Protevangelium fleshes out traditions reflected in Luke and Matthew in dealing with the characters of Mary and Joseph. It remains a fascinating and engaging Gospel for us today, and gives us another chance to reflect deeply on the whole story of Christmas.

26

Icons of the Nativity include two midwives bathing the Child. Midwives are mentioned in the Protevangelium account of the birth of Christ.

before Mary was born.

Mary’s betrothal and marriage to Joseph, her pregnancy, and the preservation of her virginity feature prominently in this Gospel. The emphasis on her virginity is not simply that she is a young woman of marriageable age. It depicts her as pure from the very beginning. From the age of three to twelve, she spent her time in the temple at Jerusalem (hence our feast of Mary’s Presentation, 21 November).

There she lived in a state of purity, and was fed by the hand of an angel.

REALITY DECEMBER 2015

Her betrothal to Joseph is narrated at some length.

When she is discovered to be pregnant, she and Joseph must pass a test, before the high priest declares their innocence.

The Protevangelium narrates the journey to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus and a visit from the local midwives, who pronounce that Mary has remained a virgin after the birth. It recounts also how Jesus was hidden from Herod, but John too had to hide in the hills with his mother Elizabeth.

These stories show both similar and dissimilar elements to the

stories as narrated by Matthew and Luke. According to Matthew Joseph took the child and his mother to Egypt, to escape from Herod (Matt 2:13-15).

In effect, the Protevangelium focuses on the central role Mary plays in the plan of God. In her purity she fulfils the blessing the priests pronounced when she was one year old: “she might be blessed with a blessing that could not be surpassed”. We can also see in it how a growing devotion to Mary shaped the literature of early Christianity and it offers us a glimpse into

HAVE THEY ANY HISTORICAL VALUE? These Gospels have important theological value in their telling of the birth, childhood, or ancestry of Jesus. It is highly unlikely they contain any historical information not already in the canonical Gospels.

Their value does not lie in their historical value, however, but in how they witness to the social and theological background of pious believers in the decades and early centuries of the Church’s life. They were written, read, and circulated in a world very different from ours. This is world they reflect and it is this that makes their contribution invaluable for us today.

At first glance, these “Infancy Gospels” may appear frivolous or even fantastic and unlikely to be of much significance among the writings of Early Christianity.

When we look deeper, we can see how much these texts contributed to the piety and tradition of the church. Some of their details they contain about the Christmas story were passed down in preaching and art. They also reflect a growing devotion to Mary in the life of the Church.

They are not “heretical” in the same way that the Gnostic “apocryphal gospel” are.

Reading the Infancy Gospels,

Goodbye

to Pain!

we meet traditions that might seem bizarre to our modern ears. Yet we are reminded that these often challenging insights are placed alongside other pious and sometimes deeply profound traditions. In attempting to tell the story of Jesus or Mary, they have become infused with a new ways of thinking and tell aspects of a familiar story from a different angle (e.g. Jesus’ birth).

That is how the authors bring this story to life all over again.

This Christmas, we are invited to see the significance of the story of Jesus and Christmas with fresh eyes, so it may be re-told with invigorating hope in our world.

It is not by focusing exclusively on the bizarre or even the pious aspects that we can grasp the creative and vibrant mixture

encapsulated by these Gospels.

Rather, it is when the reader can hold these tensions together that he or she enters their mystery as set forth by the authors. As our attention is arrested, the discovery of the mystery begins anew.

Online versions of these texts can be found at http://www. newadvent.org/fathers/0846. h t m a n d h t t p : / / w w w. newadvent.org/fathers/0847. htm

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SCIENCE AND FAITH SERIES Science and Faith are often placed in opposition to each other.

In fact nothing could be further from the truth. Some of the greatest scientists have been Catholics, and among them a number of Catholic priests. In this series we tell some of their stories.

THE JESUITS WHO MAPPED THE MOON

BY SUSAN GATELY Giovanni Battista Riccioli

28

In

the mid 17th century two Jesuit priests using primitive telescopes mapped the landscape of the moon. Little could they imagine that just over 300 years later two astronauts would stand on the place they designated 'The Sea of Tranquility'. Mapping the moon was just one of an extraordinary set of works and experiments in physics and astronomy carried out by a group of dedicated Jesuit scientists in Italy lead by Fr Giovanni Battista Riccioli.

COUNTING THE SECONDS "He was a serious scientist – very thorough, very detail oriented, very interested in getting to the truth about the world," says is biographer, Chris Graney."He must have been fairly personable because he was able to get a team to help him with all kinds of experiments, many of which were quite tedious, owing to Riccioli’s quest for accuracy at all costs."

REALITY DECEMBER 2015

None perhaps could have been quite as tedious as Riccioli's first quest - to design a completely accurate pendulum marking the seconds in a minute. Aided by some Jesuit colleagues, for six consecutive hours he counted time, but found the pendulum was slightly off. They repeated the experiment, this time with nine priests taking it in turns to count pendulum swings for 24 hours. Again the result was out.

Riccioli shortened the pendulum and undertook more trials. Some of his friends dropped away, but a fellow Jesuit scientist, Francesco Grimaldi twenty years his junior, stayed the course. It was the beginning of a firm and fruitful partnership. Finally they developed an accurate pendulum and then another that could mark one sixth of a second.

Armed with this device, they began doing experiments on gravity.

WHERE IS THE EARTH? The key scientific debate in 17th century Italy was about the earth's place in the universe.

Did it stand stationary at the centre (the geocentric view) or did it revolve with other planets around the sun (heliocentric).

Dividing the moon like a pizza into eight quadrants, they devised a naming system A century earlier, Copernicus had promoted the heliocentric view. With the help of the telescope, Galileo supported him but was ordered by the Inquisition to stop defending 'heliocentric' views.

Riccioli set out to determine scientifically if the earth moved, putting all his thoroughness and obsession with accuracy into the project," says Graney.

The Jesuit scientist was not convinced by Galileo's experiments on falling objects. With the helpf of Grimaldi and other Jesuits, he set out to disprove them. They conducted a large series of experiments dropping balls of different sizes and densities from the top of the 300 foot Asinelli Tower in Bologna.

To Riccioli's surprise the experiments largely vindicated Galileo's ideas about falling bodies. Galileo had died, so the priest immediately reported his findings to a Galileo fan. "It was incredible how greatly he was exhilarated because of our testimony," recounts Riccioli.

REWRITING AN OLD BOOK The Jesuit wrote up his findings on gravity and the nature of the world in a landmark book Almagestum Novum (“The New Almagest”) published in 1651 which runs to 1500 pages in Latin. The original Almagest was the treatise composed by Ptolemy in the second century on the motions of the stars and planets which placed the earth at the centre of the cosmos Its central enquiry was whether the earth moved or was at rest. Based on science, Riccioli concluded it was at rest. He justified this because of the inability to detect certain effects that a rotating planet should have produced in projectiles and falling bodies, and because of the problem of star size.

The Copernican model required stars to be huge distances away and, in order to also be as large as they appeared in the primitive telescopes of the time, absurdly enormous in size. Copernicans appealed to divine majesty to justify the huge size of the stars. "The greater the king, so much greater and larger the palace befitting his majesty," wrote the

The 'Moon Map' by Riccioli Grimaldi

German Copernican Christoph Rothman.

Riccioli was not convinced. "Decades later, other scientists would discover that the large sizes of stars seen through early telescopes were false, and that the rotating planet effects did actually exist," remarks Graney.

Following the lead astronomer of the era, Tycho Brahe, Riccioli rejected both the heliocentric and geocentric views of the world, backing instead Brahe's mixed Geoheliocentric model in which the Sun and Moon orbited the Earth, while the other planets orbited the Sun. "It wasn’t that they were holding on to old ideas," says Graney, "but they thought a different system, which used some of Copernicus’s ideas but still had an immobile earth, was what was correct. Riccioli and Grimaldi undertook to see if Brahe’s science still held up in the age of the telescope, and concluded that it did."

MAPPING THE MOON Riccioli’s “Almagest” contained the first

detailed map of the moon, meticulously drawn by Fathers Riccioli (then aged 53) and Grimaldi.

Dividing the moon like a pizza into eight quadrants, they devised a naming system, beginning in the north west with names of ancient Greeks, followed by Romans and early Christians, then by medieval scholars both Christian and Moslem and ending with 'modern s c i entist s ' i n cl u d i n g Copernicus, Galileo and their own names. The nomenclature they devised has remained as has their system of comparing lunar features to earthly ones.

This has lead to 'mountain ranges' discovered on Pluto being given the names of living people "rather than abstract references such as 'Pluto surface irregularity #NH4350-1234'.

For years Francesco Grimaldi suffered from consumption. In the final period of his short life (he died at 45), he worked on experiments with light. In a two volume book published after his death, he announced the discovery of the diffraction (breaking up) of light.

"Light propagates and spreads not only directly, through refraction, and reflection, but also by a fourth mode, diffraction," he wrote. He showed that light which passed through a hole took on the shape of a cone.

He was one of the earliest physicists to suggest that light was wavelike in nature. Ironically, it was the behaviour of light as discovered by Grimaldi that was responsible for giving the false star sizes in early telescopes.

Fr Giovanni Battista Riccioli died at Blogna in 1671, eight years after his younger Jesuit friend. In addition to his scientific works, he wrote theological books including one defending the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

29

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LE

CHRISTIAN PARENTING CARMEL WYNNE

THE CONSUMER IS IN CHARGE

FAMILIAR ADS AT CHRISTMAS TIME CAN STIR MEMORIES BUT HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THE POWER OF ADVERTISING? Do you look at advertisements on television? Usually I don’t. I’m one of the many people who put the pause button on, make a cup of tea, and if the ads are still on when they return, avoid them by flicking through the other channels or checking the guide.

Coming up to Christmas, however, I get nostalgic and I look out for familiar ads that bring back happy memories. Some people find that the magic goes out of Christmas when there are no small children in the house.

The advertisements that my daughters loved when they were full of excitement, anticipating Santa’s visit, still hold a magic for me. I love the Cocoa Cola ad with that huge seasonally lit truck. It has the big Santa Claus with the background jingle; holidays are coming, repeated with just the right tone of expectation.

Even though it’s years since I’ve seen a horse drawn carriage driving through snow In December, there is a magical memory in the Budweiser ad. It starts with the lovely jingle of bells keeping time with the clip clop of the horses’ hooves trotting through the snow.

There is a kind of wonderland atmosphere with the hint of a promise that this year we might have a white Christmas.

It’s said that marketing has more to do with feelings than logic. Take, for example, the affection people hold for that radio advertisement, where a man says there’s something about Christmas that creeps inside and brings out the child in you. He’s in a shop looking

© Coca-Cola

e

COMMENT

around to see what the boys might want for Christmas.

He brings home a train set and is told, “Sure that’s not what they boys wanted at all”. You cannot but believe him when he says, “This is for me, Santa will bring them what they want”.

The year it did not run, Barry’s Tea was flooded with requests from people, who missed an advertisement that was loved and had fond associations with preparations for Christmas. What a lovely example of the power ordinary people have to bring about change.

I’ve often wondered what percentage of people who like an advertisement go out to buy the product. The old-fashioned way of marketing was to find out what the consumer liked, and then to come up with a story line that showed that particular brand was better, inspiring and different.

From the advertisements I have watched recently I find the more modern way of advertising is anything but inspiring. The two

greedy women who scoffed the boxes of Pringle have turned me off buying those crisps ever again.

At my stage of life I won’t be looking for a mortgage from any bank. But Bank of Ireland is the last place I would go to for a loan after seeing the socially inadequate Steve and Rachel advertisements.

They so alienate everyone they come in contact with that moving away from them looks like a desireable option.

And the bullying woman in the Carr's Biscuits advertisement has such a lack of basic courtesy that she snatches the lunch from a timid younger woman who doesn’t protest.

Now I’m not so out of touch that I fail to recognise that times have changed. Advertisers need to market products in a way that makes a brand memorable.

Anyone over 30 will be well aware of the power of the consumer. In the mid-eighties Dunnes Stores workers refused to handle South African products. My daughters supported the strike. I was proud of their stance, and sometimes I

was frustrated by it too.

I used to feel irritated when I thought they were taking their protest to extremes. One evening I served gammon steaks with pineapples slices and was castigated. The tin was extracted from the bin, the label was checked. The girls expressed disappointment. I let them and the strikers down.

My protestations that the tin was purchased long before the protest, I didn’t want to waste good food and they could see that the fruit was about to go out of date fell on deaf ears.

Over time, other goods were banned in our house. Nestlé products were barred because of the company’s stance on selling powdered baby milk in third world countries. Our family were now part of a worldwide consumer protest because of the harm done to babies.

Mothers who couldn’t read made baby formula that was overdiluted or too rich. My daughter insisted that we had to boycott all Nestlé products because they believed this was not ethical.

Nestlé responded to the protest by putting up posters in Africa promoting breast feeding.

I refuse to buy products that are advertised with storylines that use greed, bullying, unkindness and general unpleasant behaviour. You can use consumer power too...

Carmel Wynne is a life and work skills coach and lives in Dublin. For more information, visit www.carmelwynne.org

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JU BI LE E O F OUR MOTH E R OF PE RPETUAL HELP

LIMERICK’S SHRINE TO MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP BLESSED POPE PIUS IX PRESENTED THE ICON OF OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP TO THE REDEMPTORISTS FOR VENERATION IN THEIR NEWLY-BUILT CHURCH OF SANT’ALFONSO IN DECEMBER 1865. IT WAS MUCH IN NEED OF RESTORATION SO IT WAS APRIL 26TH 1866 BEFORE IT WAS SOLEMNLY INSTALLED THERE. THE HOLY FATHER GAVE THE REDEMPTORISTS A MANDATE: THEY WERE TO PROMOTE DEVOTION TO OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. JUST OVER A YEAR LATER, THE FIRST COPY ARRIVED IN IRELAND.

BY SEAMUS ENRIGHT CSsR 32

The

icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help has a long connection with Ireland. It had been in the care of Irish Augustinians since 1656, first in the Church of San Matteo and later in their Churches of Sant’Eusebio and Santa Maria in Posterula. It had been available for public veneration until 1819, when it was placed in the community oratory of the Augustinians. This broke with a tradition of public veneration going back to 1499 when the Icon was first venerated in San Matteo.

The Irish connection was restored in December 1867 when one of the first copies of the icon to be made was received in Mount St Alphonsus, then the only Redemptorist church in the country. It was from Limerick that devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help spread in time to new Redemptorist communities, first in Dundalk and then Belfast, as well as to churches and homes throughout Ireland. Irish Redemptorists setting out off from Limerick took copies of the icon with them to Australia and New Zealand (1882), to the Philippines (1906), to

REALITY DECEMBER 2015

Sri Lanka (1939) and India (1940). Devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help was already well established in Teresina (Brazil) when Irish Redemptorists replaced their American brethren there in 1964. The spread of devotion from Limerick shows how faithfully Irish Redemptorists have taken the mandate of Blessed Pope Pius IX. The Limerick Shrine

LIMERICK EN FETE TO WELCOME MARY The arrival of the icon in Limerick in December 1867 was greeted with great festivity, culminating in a three-week long “Mission for Men” and the foundation of the Holy Family Confraternity. The people of Limerick took Our Lady of Perpetual Help into their hearts and homes from the very beginning. A beautiful shrine was built to house the icon, to which members of the confraternity generously contributed. It was opened for prayer on the Feast of the

can be seen in the plasterwork, the mosaics alternate symbols of Mary with titles from the Litany and the side walls develop the Marian themes of rosa mystica (mystical rose) and lilium agri (lily of the field).

The words of the Hail Mary in Latin are inscribed on the roof windows.

The shrine continued to be developed and embellished over the years. A notable development took place in 1959 when the women of Limerick donated their jewellery, notably their wedding and engagement rings, to make crowns for the images of Jesus and Mary in the Icon. The images were crowned on the Feast of the Assumption that year.

An annual nine-day novena in preparation for the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help had been celebrated in Limerick for many years. Fr Vincent Kavanagh decided it needed refreshing, and re-launched it as the “Solemn Novena” in 1973. Fr Vincent highlighted the celebratory and festive side of the event. He also recognized how important prayer of petition and intercession was for the people celebrating the novena. People were encouraged to write their prayers of

Irish Redemptorists setting out off from Limerick took copies of the icon with them to Australia and New Zealand (1882), to the Philippines (1906), to Sri Lanka (1939) and India (1940)

CHANGING DEVOTION Devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help has been a constant feature of life in Mount St Alphonsus since December 1867, but the forms of the devotion have changed. The Redemptorists in St Louis developed the weekly or “perpetual novena” in the 1930s.

It was brought to Clonard Monastery in Belfast in 1943 by Fr Matthew Meighan, an American Redemptorist serving as a chaplain with the American forces. From Belfast, it spread from Clonard to Limerick and to many other centres in Ireland.

The original icon in the Redemptorist Church, Rome

Assumption, 1869. The shrine rapidly became the spiritual heart of Limerick and the surrounding areas. Additional decorations and mosaics were added in 1893 under the direction of the architect George Ashlin.

The shrine is an artistic treasure, glowing with mosaics and gold leaf. One can contemplate and be inspired by the entire Catholic tradition of devotion to Our Lady as one prays in the shrine. The main decorative scheme is inspired by the Litany of Loretto. Various symbols from the Litany

petition and thanksgiving, as they always had been, and samples of these were read at each novena celebration. These are truly the prayers of the faithful.

Fr Kavanagh was ahead of his time in harnessing the talents of professional people in both developing and promoting the novena. He believed in the power of advertising and began using such forms of advertising as road signs and information flyers in a way that was regarded as revolutionary at the time. The Limerick Redemptorists, inspired by the pioneering work of Fr Vincent, launched a digital advertising campaign in the lead up to this year’s Solemn Novena. The campaign – Limerick’s Novena - was very well regarded and received extensive media coverage, as did the decision to advertise the novena on the city busses. When Jesus told us to preach the Gospel on the highways and the byways, he surely intended us to take to the digital highway as well.

TRAVELLING MADONNA? Celebrated each year in June, the Solemn Novena continues to attract more than 10,000 people to its ten daily celebrations, from 7am and until 10.30pm. There is also

33

JU BI LE E O F OUR MOTH E R OF PE RPETUAL HELP

Fr Seamus Enright stands before a Limerick city bus that advertises the Solemn Novena

The late Fr Vincent Kavanagh

a satellite novena in Holy Family Church, Southill, each evening.

The Redemptorists worldwide are celebrating the 150th anniversary of their relationship with the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and of the mandate of Blessed Pope Pius IX to make Mary known to the world as Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The centrepiece of the celebrations in Ireland will be a pilgrimage with a copy of the Icon to all of the 26 Irish Cathedrals. This pilgrimage will

begin in Mount St Alphonsus on Monday April 4th 2016 and conclude in Clonard Monastery on May 15th. The pilgrimage website – www.followtheicon.ie – will go live on the First Sunday of Advent, November 29th, 2015.

An ancient prayer inscribed in Latin on the archway over the icon captures much of what devotion to Mary has meant to the people of Shannonside: Dear Mother of the Redeemer, help the fallen people who strive to rise again.

Seamus Enright is Rector of Mount St Alphonsus, where he also serves as Director of the Solemn Novena. He chairs the Irish Committee for the 150th Jubilee of Redemptorist Devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

DCHY00028

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C H R I ST M A S

The

Kilmore Carols A RURAL PARISH IN COUNTY WEXFORD MAINTAINS A TRADITION OF SINGING A THREE HUNDRED YEAR-OLD COLLECTION OF CAROLS BETWEEN CHRISTMAS AND EPIPHANY.

BY THOMAS R. WHELAN CSSp

The

story of the Kilmore carols (sometimes called the Wexford carols), is fascinating, not just from the point of view of the carols themselves and their music, but also because of their origins some 330 years ago. Much of their early history has been lost to us, but enough survives to give us some sense of their unique story and of how they have remained a living tradition in the parish church of Kilmore for over 260 years. Originally they formed a collection of 22 carols, eight of which are sung today, They date from the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they were written in Wexford, and presumably, their purpose was the catechetical and devotional betterment of Catholics of that time.

WHERE DO THEY COME FROM? The earliest collection was published in 1684

by Luke Waddinge (c. 1628-1688), who later became Bishop of Ferns in 1683. He is not to

be confused with his much older and better known cousin, the Franciscan theologian, Luke Wadding (1588-1657). Here we find some eleven carols, many if not all of which were written by Waddinge. They used popular tunes of the day, most being sung to the air, “I Doe Not Love, Cause Thou Art Fair”, while the others use tunes known as “Need Major Neale” and “Bonny Brooe”. The earliest text of what is now known as the “Sussex Carol” (“On Christmas Night all Christians Sing”) is, in fact, one of Waddinge’s carols,.

Waddinge composed this “garland” (the word found in the title of his collection) in the aftermath of a period of severe repression of Catholics in Ireland. The collection also contains religious poetry intended to uplift and give hope to the disinherited gentry of Co. Wexford, of which Waddinge was a member.

Wexford town provided a welcoming port, and many English settled in this important trading centre, not a small number of whom

were Catholic. As the life-style and practice of Catholics at that time left much to be desired, Waddinge gave a strong catechetical dimension to the Carols. The fact that they were to be sung to popular tunes meant that they were easily accessible to the local population. Waddinge’s Garland was first published in Ghent in Belgium in 1684. It was very well-liked and was reproduced again in 1728 and 1731.

A second collection was composed by Fr William Devereux (1696-1771). Initially it circulated in manuscript form and was copied throughout the generations, but it was not published until the twentieth century. The manuscript appeared around 1728. Devereux’s carols were composed principally for the people of his parish of Drinagh, Co. Wexford. He included three carols by Waddinge along with a few other popular hymns.

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C H R I ST M A S

36

THE KILMORE CAROLS TODAY The carols are sung by six male singers: all six sing the first and last verse of a carol and the intervening verses are alternated by two groups of three singers. Musicologists today associate the style of singing with an earlier form of Scots-Gallic psalm-chant, but one can also sense a style that is uniquely Irish, reminiscent of a slow version of sean-nós singing. The Kilmore singers use a very low register, and the carols are sung slowly with deliberate and intricate ornamentation.

Because they are sung in unison by a group of six singers, there is no room for improvisation or free use of extra ornamentation.

Research shows that in the 1800s a tradition of singing these carols was to be found in many parishes in Wexford, including Killane (where they were first sung around 1731), Ballymore, Mayglass, Lady’s Island, Tacumshane, Kilmore, and Rathangan. They died out in these places sometime before the First World War. Only St Mary’s parish

church of Kilmore retained the tradition since it was introduced there by a Father Peter Devereux between 1751 and 1794. He had brought together some 13 carols, three of them from Waddinge’s collection. Two of the latter continue to be sung in Kilmore – “St Stephen’s Day Carol” and “Song for New Year’s Day”.

Not all of the carols from the Devereux collection are used today. Certain carols are assigned to particular days within the Christmas season. They are sung during Mass, either during or after communion time. The tradition is preserved, thanks mostly to the Devereux family, at least one member of which formed part of the group of Kilmore Singers. In more recent years this tradition has been passed on to another, younger group of six male singers, and the new grouping sing in Clonard church in Wexford town.

Today eight of these are sung, beginning with Mass on Christmas Day and ending on the Epiphany. The following are heard today:

A Mass-less Christmas

This carol by Luke Waddinge reflects the Penal Days of 1678 when there were no priests to celebrate the Christmas Mass This is our Christmas day, the day of Christ’s birth, Yet we are far from joy and far from Christmas mirth; On Christmas to have no Mass is our great discontent, That without Mass this day should pass doth cause us to lament.

The name of Christ-mass must changed and altered be, For since we have no Mass no Christmas have we; It’s therefore we do mourn, with grief our hearts are pressed, With tears our eyes do run, our minds and thoughts want rest.

REALITY DECEMBER 2015

Christmas Day The Darkest Midnight in December (“On Christ’s Nativity”) Christmas Day in Come (“Second Carol for Christmas Day”) New Year’s Day Sweetest of all Names, Jesus (“Carol for New Year’s Day”) To Greet Our Saviour’s Dear One (“Song for New Year’s Day”) Twelfth Day Jerusalem, Our Happy Home (“Song for Jerusalem”) Now to Conclude our Christmas Mirth (“Song for Twelfth Day”) A few other carols are sung only in years when the feast day falls on a Sunday 26 December This is St Stephen’s Day (“Song for St Stephen’s Day”) 27 December To Greet Our Saviour’s Dear One (“Song for St John’s Day”) 28 December Hail Ye Flowers of Martyrs (“Song for the Holy Innocents”) 29 December This Feast of St Sylvester So Well Deserves a Song (“St Sylvester’s Day”) Another carol is included among the Kilmore carols today, the so-called “Enniscorthy Carol” (“Good People all this Christmas Time”), although it did not originate with other carols in this collection.

HOW UNIQUE ARE THESE CAROLS? To understand where the carols come from, we need to realise that various local areas in postReformation England and Wales developed their own repertoire of carols. They created songs that were often sung to local popular tunes of the day, and that aimed to increase the fervour and piety of local Christians.

This tradition lives on today in the general Peak District, and in the Derbyshire and Sheffield regions, although not confined to these areas.

Often referred to as “Village Carols”, they will generally use part-singing and accompaniment with various types of brass, wind and string instruments. Many of these Village Carols are published and serious research is taking place regarding their use and tradition. There is an important and growing archive of sound recordings in the National Sound Archive of the British Library. Every two years a carol festival is held in the lead-up to Christmas, bringing together newly recovered material as well as keeping alive an important heritage. Not unlike the Devereux tradition, many of these carols were to be found only in private family manuscript sources, and they are sung in a strong and robust style with roots in eighteenth century popular musical life.

Unlike the Kilmore music, which seems to have been associated solely with church and worship, many of the Village Carols in England came to be performed in pubs and the open air, as well as in homes and churches. It is important to note that the Kilmore carols seem to predate the Village Carols, at least as they have been handed down to us today, and the Wexford tradition witnesses to an earlier form of carol singing.

There is a custom in some parts of Wales today of holding a long vigil on Christmas Eve that ends with the morning service of the Church of Wales. It

is probably a survival of the pre-Reformation Vigil and Midnight Mass, but now in the vernacular rather than Latin. It is known as Plygain singing, and includes a long period of carolling, during which various local groups contribute old traditional carols, all in Welsh, numbering anywhere between 20 and 30. While the Kilmore Carols are not a borrowing from this, the similarities are such that they at least question if the Irish practice does not find some relationship to what we find in some parts of England and Wales. The Irish carols certainly bear witness to an earlier form of carols singing found on these islands.

CAN THEY BE ACCESSED? The words of the carols themselves (in PDF format), along with an important article by Joseph Ranson (“The Kilmore Carols”, published in 1949 in the local journal, The Past), can be found on the “Ask About Ireland” website. There is also a book written by Diarmaid Ó Muirithe (The Wexford Carols) which contains the music notation of the carols (with ornamentation) as

Christmas Day Carol

notated by the Irish musicologist and composer, Seoirse Bodley.

While some artists have recorded one or two of these carols, recordings of the wider collection are not that easily found. Nóirín Ní Riain recorded many of them in her CD, The Darkest Night, and she brings to her wonderful singing a lightly worn scholarly approach that lends them an inner freedom and gives access to their spiritual depth. Another singer, Caitríona O’Leary, brings her own lived sense of traditional singing, including sean-nós, to a recording of the entire collection, and produces a very different type of performance that is contemporary, as she makes use of the sensitive musicianship of Dónal Lunny and other instrumentalists and singers (Heresy Records label, The Wexford Carols). Both recordings can be found in Amazon, and that of O’Leary is also available on iTunes.

Dr Thomas Whelan is a member of the Spiritan Congregation.

He has doctorate in liturgy and degrees in music. He is currently acting President of the Milltown Institute.

by William Devereux

A Virgin Queen in Bethlehem, this day brought forth our Saviour, To our young King, we’ll praise and sing our victory for ever.

Hail! Sovereign Prince, our soul’s defence, oh! Welcome Heavenly Stranger.

Is there no inn or place for Him but in a stall or manger?

God’s own Son doth humbly come from heavenly high treasure, To teach proud man the way to Heaven is not by pomp or pleasure.

A Virgin Queen..

Ye Christians who would pity show to Christ in mean condition, To weep for sin which was the thing, you will hear of His affliction.

A Virgin Queen...

37

D EVELOPMENT IN ACTION

SAVING FOR A SUNNY DAY

BY BRIAN LOWNEY

38 Mahlet, the face of the 2015 Lenten campaign

When

we hear the word Ethiopia many thoughts and images come into our minds: Bob Geldof and the Band Aid/Live Aid campaigns; the famine experience common to both Irish and Ethiopian histories; the recent visit of President Higgins to Ethiopia or perhaps the Ethiopian Tourist Commission’s slogan: ‘13 Months of Sunshine’. We may now think of Mahlet, the 13-year old Ethiopian girl who featured on this year’s Trócaire Lenten Box. It is true that Ethiopia – like many countries in the Global South – has many sides, many complexities and many problems but as Trócaire’s focus country of the 2015 Lenten campaign Ethiopia has become more familiar to Irish people.

As a volunteer for Trócaire, I travelled to Ethiopia in 2014 to see for myself the great work and progress being made by local communities through the support of the Irish people. Trócaire works closely with local Ethiopian organisations and partners employing

REALITY DECEMBER 2015

local workers who have the knowledge of and insight into life and its challenges in Ethiopia. This cooperative approach ensures effective projects are carried out for the benefit of those directly involved on the ground. These people are some of the poorest, the most marginalised and the most neglected in the world.

It was impossible not to recognise the devastating effects of climate change on the lives of local Ethiopian farmers and their families. The scarcity of water and the common droughts seem to be on everyone’s mind. The rains simply do not fall as often as before or in sufficient amounts to grow the crops needed to survive. Stories of wells drying up, crops failing and livestock dying abound. In addition to their already demanding household chores women and young girls have to walk – often up to five miles each way – to collect water. It became clear that trekking through the countryside under the unkind Ethiopian sun was both time consuming and physically exhausting.

Faced with these stories it is easy to become disillusioned. However, when local communities speak of how Trócaire has supported various projects and how these projects have made life better for them, it is comforting to know that even a little can go a very long way. On our trip we visited rehabilitated wells where local people get clean water for their families, crops and livestock. We visited a soap making project where local women have received financial support and business training enabling them to produce an item of market value to sell.

One of the many Trocaire projects in Ethiopia

WINTER

The most impressive project we visited was perhaps also one of the smallest in appearance.

It was a micro-finance project. This project allows people to save money and it gives loans to smallscale farmers and their families for expenses relating to their farming or to the schooling of their children. The project demands, however, that people borrow and repay reasonable amounts within their means thereby ensuring its success. It was run from a one-roomed building with a desk and a few benches. In ways it was hard to believe how something so modest could have such a positive effect on so many people in the village. We spoke with a woman who challenged traditional customs to become the leader of this local micro-finance project.

She is hopeful of a better future. Thanks to this type of support as she was able to send her son to university, for example. This, she admits, is a huge achievement for someone like her who had not finished primary school. Even when the conversation drifted like this from farming, water or rain we were constantly brought back

to the lack of water. We commented on how it rains so much in Ireland in comparison. Her response: ‘Send us some!’

This lady was not asking for charity. This lady was not asking for handouts. She had borrowed and repaid her loans. She, like so many others in her community, was demonstrating what was possible when people who are born into a situation over which they have no control, are recognised for what they are: hard-working people who just need a hand up on their feet.

Once standing, they can manage themselves.

They know what they want and how to achieve it. All they need is to be given a level playing field.

This micro-finance project, supported by donations from the Irish people through Trócaire helped to level out the pitch for this community.

On a personal level, sitting in that slightly darkened room in a small village in rural Ethiopia listening to this lady talk of how, despite the many droughts and the lack of rains, she has been able to achieve so much, it was hard not to feel proud of the generosity of the many Irish

people up and down the country who have recognised this lady’s right to a fair chance; it was hard not to feel proud of being part of the Irish tradition of the Trócaire Lenten campaign.

And it was hard not to feel incredibly grateful for having the opportunity of seeing how much a difference the Trócaire Lenten campaign can make to a project like this one. This project was run by locals for locals who were helping each other in their day-to-day lives. They were saving for when the rains would fail. They were saving for a sunny day.

Ennismore Retreat Centre

7th February - €20 Passing on the Faith 3-6pm Breda O’Brien (Columnist with the Irish Times)

12th - 14th February Res.- €165 Non/Res. - €100 Lenten Retreat Lenten reflections with ‘Laudato Si.’ Archie Byrne OP and Benedict Hegarty, OP 18th February - €10 /Donation Lenten Evening of Reflection - Forgiveness- The key to peace on the Spiritual Journey (7.30pm) Martina Lehane Sheehan

ST DOMINIC’S

21st February - €20 Imaging of God: Soul and Symbol 3-6pm Dr Anne Francis 28th February - €20 New Spiritual Communities/ New Monasticism 3-6pm Dr Bernadette Flanagan 20th March - €20 “Interpreting the Signs of the Times: Through the Eyes of Faith”. 3-6pm Martina Lehane Sheehan 16th April - €55 “The Ecology Encyclical of Pope Francis” Fr. Donal Dorr

7th May - €55 Mental Health, Spirituality & Well-Being 10.30am-4.30pm Professor Patricia Casey & Martina Lehane Sheehan 8th May - €55 “Waking up the World” – Wisdom of Pope Francis 10.30am-4.30pm

Sr. Mary T O’Brien (Lecturer in Sacred Scripture)

ENNISMORE RETREAT CENTRE Montenotte, Cork, Ireland Telephone: 021-4502520 E-mail: ennismore@eircom.net

www.ennismore.ie

FBrian Lowney is originally from Killbegs in Donegal but has lived in Cork since 1999. He spent five years working in Tanzania mid 2000's before moving to Cork. Brian has a Masters in development studies.

He has travelled extensively across to world and visited many developing countries most recently, Ethiopia and Ghana.

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COMMENT REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ

THE CHRISTMAS STORY

THE CHRISTMAS STORY IS NOT MEANT TO EDIFY US OR NUMB US INTO SUBMISSIVENESS. IT IS A CALL TO CONVERSION FOR THE JUSTICE OF GOD’S KINGDOM. The birth of Jesus was the moment in history when a revolution was born. The infancy stories in Matthew’s Gospel present Jesus as a King, who is clearly perceived as a threat to the kingship of Herod. The Three Wise Men (rather unwisely!) inform Herod, the current king of the Jews, that they have come to worship the future King of the Jews. Herod is, understandably, alarmed and tries to neutralise this potential threat by massacring all the children under two years of age. Matthew makes no attempt to suggest that Jesus’ royalty was symbolic or metaphorical, or that Herod was paranoid or mistaken, and really had no reason to be afraid of Jesus. On the contrary, Matthew describes the Wise Men offering the baby Jesus gifts associated with royalty, gold, frankincense and myrrh. He presents Jesus as a real threat to Herod’s rule and therefore to Caesar’s rule, Herod’s boss. Matthew describes the beginning of a revolution.

KINGDOM OF GOD OR KINGDOM OF HEROD AND CAESAR? The early Christians also understood that they were living through a revolution. They lived, no longer in the Kingdom of Caesar, but in the Kingdom of God. Their allegiance was no longer to Caesar but to Jesus. Young Christian males refused to serve their time in the Roman army, as demanded by Caesar, declaring that they now served Jesus who demanded non-violence. Many

were arrested, imprisoned and some were executed as traitors.

The Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed was on a collision course with the Kingdom of Caesar, because its values were incompatible with the values of the Kingdom of Caesar.

So too, today, the Kingdom of God, to which we Christians have committed ourselves, is on a collision course with the values of the world we live in, where acquisitiveness and individualism create a society with gross inequalities, where some have too much (and use every means at their disposal to ensure that they keep the too much which they have) while others have too little (and have no possibility of getting enough), where some people are despised, rejected and marginalised by others, where power is used for self-interest or the interests of vested interest groups.

In many cities in Africa, you

can buy brand-name clothes and handbags in luxurious shopping malls, only a stone’s throw from slums which house a million people. In many countries, those in authority use their power to make themselves and their friends wealthy, with no concern for the common good.

In Ireland, we see the number of homeless people and families increasing month by month, growing queues at food kitchens, many children going to school hungry, while others live lives of conspicuous wealth. We have people who are unwanted, considered of little consequence, pushed to the margins.

THE SUBVERSIVE GOOD NEWS OF CHRISTMAS To live as a Christian now, is to be a subversive, a revolutionary, as it was in the early Church two thousand years ago. It is to refuse to accept the values of the societies we live in. We Christians

are called to reject a society where relationships are often corrupted by greed, possessive individualism, a quest for having rather than being, and the construction of an unbridgeable abyss between those who have and those who have not. We are called to replace it with a society which respects the dignity of each person, caring and sharing with each other so that the needs of everyone can be met, loving without counting the cost, reaching out to those who are unwanted, despised and marginalised, using power for the common good, and rejecting violence – a society over which God can truly rule. We Christians are called to live the revolution, not by taking up weapons, not by political manoevouring, but by living together a life of love, compassion and solidarity.

Christians are supposed to be prophets. Prophets challenge the way things are, and the attitudes and values that maintain them.

Christians seek to build a new society, built on different values, with different economic, social and political structures which reflect those values. This revolution is achieved not by violence but by the witness of the way we live together as a community.

But prophets today are silenced by seducing them with the comforts of modern day life. To be a prophet requires us to constantly challenge our own attitudes and values, which are always at risk of being co-opted or corrupted by the societies we live in. The Christmas story is a call to conversion.

41

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE MY DESERT ISLAND BOOK AN EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN AN UNUSUAL LANGUAGE BRINGS THE WORD OF GOD TO LIFE IN A STRIKING NEW WAY.

BY FR JAMES GOOD

After

42

many years of reading, I have at last found the book that I would like to have with me if it ever came to pass that I was abandoned alone on a desert island. Down the years, I felt several times that a suitable candidate was appearing, only to be rejected when I considered that my desert island experience might be a lengthy one.

Now at last I have found the book which brings 100% certainty with it. Its title does not give much evidence as to the wealth inside its covers: it is called Da Jesus Book.

The foot of the title page adds simply: “Hawaii Pidgin…..New Testament,” It is when you open the cover that the real treasure is unfolded. Pidgin language is found all over the world in different forms. It arises when peoples using different languages try to do business with one another. The resulting language has relatively few words, bad grammar and bad spelling, but it serves its purpose. It is said that the word “pidgin” comes from the Chinese pronunciation of the word “business.”

Some people may feel that the ordinary translation of the Gospels and letters that make up the New Testament should be adequate. But compare the pidgin version to the translation we are accustomed to: “Had Jesus mudda stand by da cross wit her sista, an Mary, Clopas Wife, an Mary from Magdala. Jesus REALITY DECEMBER 2015

wen see his mudda standing dea, wit one guy he wen teach, da one he plenny love an aloha fo. (Dass was me, you know.) So Jesus tell his mudda, “Look, May, dis yoa boy now.” Den Jesus tell me, “Look!

Make like her yoa mudda now.” An I wen take her to my own place dat time.”

Now compare the traditional translation: “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen. When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold they son. After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother.

And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.”

There is a simplicity and immediacy in the pidgin version that is not in the English. No son – in the circumstances – would address his mother as “woman.”

The presence of an occasional local word (here aloha, meaning “caring”) adds spice to the translation.

Another example from John 11:23-27: “Jesus tell her, “Yoa brudda goin come back alive again.” Marta tell him, “I know dat he goin come back alive, bumbye wen all da mahke guys goin come back alive, an dis world goin pau.”Jesus tell her, “I da Guy dat make peopo com

back alive an stay alive fo real kine.

Whoeva trus me goin come alive no matter dey mahke. Whoeva stay live for stay live fo real kine an trus me, dey no goin mahke inside, eva! You believe dat, Marta?” She tell him, “Yeah, Boss! I trus you, dat you da Christ, da Spesho Guy God Wen Send. You God’s Boy, da Guy dey wen tell us goin come inside dis world.”

The more traditional version reads: Jesus said to her: Thy brother shall rise again. Martha said to him: I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live, and everyone hat liveth and believeth in me shall not die forever.

Believest thou this? She said to him: Yea, Lord, I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of the living God, who art come into this world.

Can you imagine the whole New Testament written in that hilarious English? It is actually a correct, professional translation of the original Greek in which the whole of the New Testament was written.

I could imagine myself spending many happy years in my desert island, find the real Jesus in Da Jesus Book, and at the same time breaking the surrounding stillness with many a raucous laugh. Even the two short lists of words (Hawaii and English) at the back of the book

Da Jesus Book is published by Wycliffe Bible Translations, Orlando, U.S.A.2013.

would keep me going for years.

Here are just a few: Apostle: guy Jesus Prostitute: one wahine (girl) who fool aroun fo money.

Saints: peopo dat stay all out for God Scribe: smart guy dat teach da Rules from God Holy: hundred percent fo God, spesho fo God Son of God: God’s Boy Sin: do bad kine stuff And a final bonus: I had never before seen a proper version of the notice Pilate put on the top of the cross of Jesus. Yet I find it here as it must have appeared on Good Friday – not just the meaningless abbreviation INRI which we always find, but the full text as St. John’s gospel tell us (in pidgin!): Pilate wen tell da army guys to make one sign an put um on top da cross. Da sign say, “Jesus from Nazareth, Da King fo da Jews.” Dis sign, plenny Jews wen read um, cuz da place dey wen kill him stay near Jerusalem town. Da army guys when write da sign in three language: Hebrew, Greek, an Latin.

Of course, having been reared in Cork City, I speak with a Cork accent, and my Hawaii New Testament does the same: dis, dat, da, dey, dass, dea, den------You understand um?

Fr James Good is a priest of the diocese of Cork and Ross. He taught philosophy for many years in UCC and then spent time as a missionary in Africa.

SECO O

GOD’S WORD THIS SEASON DECEMBER

06

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

JOHN THE PROPHET DECEMBER There are two main parts to today’s Gospel. The first is a little summary of John’s teaching. Luke AY ND presents three groups of THIRD SU OF ADVENT people who ask John for guidance. The first are ordinary Jewish people. John tells them to share what they have – clothing and food especially – with those who have nothing.

This is a reminder of the old Jewish idea of the covenant that binds the members of the community of Israel to one another. The next group are tax-collectors. In the world of Jesus, tax collecting was farmed out as a private business, and the tax farmers never missed an opportunity to cover their ‘running costs’ plus a generous profit. John’s advice would probably have put a lot of them out of pocket – exact no more than the rate. The third group are soldiers of the occupying army and the advice they get is equally straightforward: no intimidation, no extortion, be content with your pay.

John’s preaching rouses questions and

INTRODUCING JOHN THE BAPTIST Like a good historian, St Luke begins his story by placing it in the political and social world of its time. He names the people who controlled the levers of political power, beginning with the most important, the Roman Emperor, then the local rulers of Palestine and the priestly aristocracy of Jerusalem. Into this world, steps a wild man, John the Baptist. Luke summarises John’s preaching with a passage from the Book of Isaiah, spoken originally to Jews exiled from their homeland. The exile is over, and God is coming to meet them to bring them safely home.

Today’s liturgy today does not present John as a forerunner of Jesus. That will come next week. John is, in his own right, a prophet, a messenger of salvation, bringing a word of hope. The good news for today is the God

who is coming is a saving God. Salvation is a key-word in Luke’s Gospel. It will not come at some remote time in the future. It is coming ‘today,’ and especially for people who often feel they have no claim to this kind of salvation, like Zacheus, the hated tax-collector who made room for Jesus at his table or the dying thief who hung beside him on the cross and who heard the words, ‘today, you will be with me in paradise.’

On Tuesday, we begin the Holy Year of Divine Mercy. Let’s prepare for it by beginning to flatten the obstacles in our hearts that might prevent us from being open to the coming of a merciful God.

Today’s Readings Baruch 5:1-9, Phil 1:3-6, 8-11, Luke 3:1-6

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13

this is the second part of our Gospel. Could John be the long-expected Messiah who will wrest the leadership of Israel from decadent puppet-kings and corrupt priestly families and bring in a new age of salvation? John tells them another person more powerful than he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

There is another side to this figure however.

‘His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor.’ This image is drawn from agricultural work. After the harvest has been gathered in, it was threshed to

remove the corn from the tough hard ear.

Then it was shaken into the air with a large fan-like tool so that the breeze could carry away the worthless chaff. This is an image of judgement: the valuable grain will be gathered in, while the chaff is burned ‘in a fire that never goes out.’

Today’s Readings Zeph 3:14-18, Phil 4: 4-7, Luke 3:10-18

GOD’S WORD THIS SEASON ELIZABETH THE PROPHET As we draw closer to Christmas, the liturgy begins to tell the story of the birth of Jesus. Today FOURTH SUNDAY we read the Visitation OF ADVENT story. This is not just an account of two cousins meeting and sharing their joy that they are soon to become mothers. There is that side to it of course, but it also tells of a meeting of another sort. This is also the meeting of Jesus and the one who will be his herald.

Elizabeth can be the forgotten figure in the Visitation story. Today’s liturgy focuses its attention on her. Elizabeth’s child moves

at the sound of Mary’s greeting. At that moment, she is filled with the Holy Spirit.

This phrase is used for prophets in the Old Testament, so it is Luke’s way of saying that Elizabeth takes her place among the women prophets of Israel. She returns Mary’s greeting with a word of congratulations (a ‘beatitude’ because it begins with the words ‘blessed are you …’) that praises both Mary and her unborn child. Elizabeth declares Mary ‘blessed among women.’ That phrase appears in the Book of Judith, declaring Judith who delivered Israel from its enemies as ‘blessed among women.’ Elizabeth also realises the importance of the baby that Mary carries.

She is the first person to address him as ‘Lord.

’ This is the title of the risen and glorified Christ. Elizabeth declares Mary blessed yet a second time because ‘she believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’

As you pray over this Gospel, remember parents who preparing for the birth of a child especially those for whom pregnancy and birth have been difficult.

THE BIRTH OF JESUS DECEMBER There are three Mass texts and sets of readings for Christmas Day. The first Mass of Christmas CHRISTMAS DAY came at the end of a long vigil of prayer and readings from scripture and was celebrated at midnight. It is now often celebrated earlier in the evening, and its

Gospel is Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus.

School nativity plays usually emphasise how the hard-hearted inn-keepers of Bethlehem turned away a poor couple in their hour of need. Luke says nothing about this. Inns were crowded places without privacy: travellers slept in a large open space with their bedrolls on the floor. A woman about to have a baby would hardly want to deliver her child in a crowded public space, and might have

sought privacy in a corner space where the animals were tethered. Luke tells of the birth in one very short verse. Mary delivers her child, wraps him in strips of linen cloth, and lays him in the manger.

The second Mass was celebrated just as dawn was breaking. Its Gospel tells of the visit of the shepherds to see the child. They become the first to spread the Gospel of the saviours’ birth. The third Mass was celebrated later in the morning. The Gospel chosen for it is taken from the first chapter of the Gospel of John – it is also used on the Second Sunday of Christmas – see 3 January.

A poem by the English poet, John Betjeman, catches the truth of Christmas. He runs through familiar things especially the cheap presents we sometimes give to one another, “the hideous tie, so kindly meant.” But Betjeman was a believer and asks “is it true, and is it true, this most tremendous tale of all?” that “God was man in Palestine, and lives today in bread and wine.”

DECEMBER

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Today’s Readings Mic 5:1-4 Heb 10:5-10 Luke 1:39-44

Today’s Readings Midnight Is 9:1-7 | Ti 2:11-14 | Luke 2:1-4 Dawn Is 62:11-12 | Ti 3:4-7 | Luke 2:15-20 Day Is 52: 7-10 | Heb 1:1-6 | John 1:1-18

REALITY DECEMBER 2015

A LOST BOY DECEMBER This story in today’s Mass is only found in Luke’s Gospel. Ancient history writers often included a story about the early days THE FEAST OF of their hero in the belief HOLY FAMILY that ‘the child is father to the man.’ Luke shows us Mary and Joseph as faithful Jews going up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Passover. The journey

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would have taken almost a week, they spent another week celebrating the feast and then another week going home. Three weeks without earning plus the need to provide for meals and accommodation was a challenge to ordinary folk Luke. To do it faithfully each year was a mark of outstanding piety.

As the family assembles on the first evening of the return journey, there is consternation: the boy is missing. He may have teamed up with other lads, but a search reveals no sign

of him. After a night of restless sleep, it is a day’s journey back to Jerusalem. On the third day, they find him, sitting among the teachers. Teachers and their students often used the arcades of the temple for study. This boy is not over-awed by his surroundings nor by the learned teachers. What Luke wants to show is how Jesus is already seen a wise teacher even at the age of twelve. A Jewish boy becomes ‘bar mizvah’ or obliged to study the law and to keep the commandments after his twelfth birthday.

Understandably, his mother was not impressed! It has cost her and Joseph two sleepless nights and long days of searching, so they were ‘overcome’ (the original word means something more like ‘panic stricken’) when they saw him. His answer brings them little comfort – ‘did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?’ It will be many long years before he resumes ‘his father’s business.’ In the meantime, he will grow in wisdom, get taller and find favour with God and ordinary mortals.

Today’s Readings 1Sam 1:2-22,24-28 I Jn 3:1-2, 21-24 Luke 2:41-52

PITCHED HIS TENT AMONG US JANUARY Two G osp els , M ark and John, do not have accounts of the birth of Jesus. John’s Gospel opens SECOND SUNDAY with a majestically flowing OF CHRISTMAS meditation on how ‘the Word was made flesh’ and dwelt among us. This might originally have been a poem or hymn intended to be sung at an early liturgy of the community. It echoes another book in the bible, Genesis, the very first one, that begins with an account of creation. John takes the opening words of Genesis ,” In the beginning.” Genesis saw creation as shaped by the word spoken by

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God – e.g. when God says, ’Let there be light’, the primal darkness is suddenly illuminated by a burst of light. John identifies that Word as a person, Jesus. Now that he has come among us, our world is dramatically changed.

We usually say, in the Angelus, for example, that the Word “dwelt among us.” Literally, it is "he pitched his tent among us." The fragile, frail flesh of a human body, indeed of a child, has become the tent where God dwells. But the word ‘tent’ would also remind a devout Jew of the ‘tent of meeting,’ the forerunner of the temple, which Moses pitched in the desert and where he met God. The darkness of sin and unbelief may struggle to overcome the fragile Word, but it

will not succeed. This Word who has become flesh is the son of Mary. The Jews believed that human beings would never be able to see God. Even Moses had only managed to catch a glimpse of God’s back as he stood huddled in a cleft of the Holy Mountain of Sinai. It is Jesus, the only Son who was from the beginning nearest the very heart of God, who has made him known by taking on a human body like ours. This is the deepest mystery of Christmas.

Today’s Readings Is 62:1-5 1Cor 12:4-11 John 2:1-11

God’s Word continues on page 46

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GOD’S WORD THIS SEASON someone more powerful than he on the way whose sandals John is unfit to untie – this was a task normally reserved for a slave.

The second part of the reading describes the baptism of Jesus and its aftermath. While Mark and Matthew place the opening of the heavens at the actual moment of the baptism, Luke instead places it later, while ‘Jesus was at prayer.’

Luke has a particular interest in Jesus’ prayer and shows him praying at the most important moment of his life, before calling the twelve, for example, before his passion and again on the cross.

When we say, ‘the heavens opened’ we usually

mean there was a heavy rain shower. For Jews, it meant that the barrier separating the earthly world from the heavenly was opened for a moment. ‘The Spirit descended on him in bodily shape, like a dove.’ In the Old Testament, the Spirit descended on prophets to mark them out as God’s servants. The heavenly voice declares that this man on whom the Spirit rests is not simply another prophet: he is the Son, the Beloved, on whom God’s favour rests.

AN ABUNDANCE OF WINE The situation in today’s Gospel is a very ordinary one – a village wedding to SECOND SUNDAY IN which everyone has been ORDINARY TIME invited. That includes not 46 just the immediate family and neighbours of the bride and groom, but ‘friends of friends’ like the disciples Jesus brings along with his family. Cana is just about three or four miles, from Nazareth, so it is not unlikely that either bride or groom were relatives of Jesus and Mary. In the Middle East, hospitality is an important virtue.

Being niggardly with food and drink was shameful: it marked people off as mean. Being generous on the other hand increased the honour and reputation of families or individuals. Unexpected guests could

easily strain the resources a family had laid by for the occasion, and that is where our story begins.

The mother of Jesus has spotted that the wine is fast running out and realises how shamed the young couple and their families will be by such a disaster. John never calls her Mary but always ‘the Mother of Jesus.’

This is a miracle story, but John takes care not to use that word. He prefers the word ‘sign.’ At the end, he tells us that this was the first of the signs given by Jesus. Sign is different from miracle, because it points to something more mysterious. Miracles like this are ‘gift miracles.’ A marriage feast was one of the signs of the Kingdom of God. God would never be niggardly at the wedding feast of the Kingdom. The jars could hold between 120 and 180 gallons: for us, that is between 500 and 800 litre bottles of wine!

The sheer abundance and quality of the gift is what counts. It is a moment of revelation in which Jesus lets his glory as God’s Son shine through at a village wedding. Abundance is a key to the Gospel of John. Jesus the vine produces fruit in abundance (John 15).The crowd is fed with an abundance of bread and fish so that there are twelve baskets of leftovers (John 6). The fishermen who caught nothing soon find their nets stretched to breaking point (John 21). All these are ways of showing the truth of what Jesus says: ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full’ (John 10:10).

YEAR OF GOD’S FAVOUR JANUARY Today’s Gospel is a bit complicated. It begins by giving us the opening words, addressed to someone called THIRD SUNDAY IN ‘Theophilus’ – a name that ORDINARY TIME literally means ‘friend of God’.

Theophilus may have been a real person to whom Luke dedicated his Gospel, but every reader is a ‘Theophilus’ a ‘friend of God.’ Luke then jumps to a story about the adult Jesus and his first sermon in his home town. This is a long story and it will be continued next Sunday. It takes

place in the synagogue during the Sabbath morning service. The highpoint of the service was the reading from the Law, followed by a shorter reading from one of the prophetic books. Being invited to speak at the service was an honour. The congregation was probably expecting a sermon from this local boy in whose fame family and neighbours basked. When he begins to read, he does not read the chosen lesson for the day, but reads two sections from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 61:1-2 and 58:6). They speak about a mysterious figure, empowered by the Spirit, ‘to bring Good News to the poor’, to proclaim liberty to captives, restoration of sight to

the blind and a year of God’s favour.

The year of God’s favour was probably the jubilee year that took place every forty-nine years. The land was rested, as no new crops were planted or harvested. Debts were cancelled and people, who had been forced to sell their land because of debt, were entitled to reclaim it. Our ‘Holy Year of Mercy’ echoes the biblical jubilee year.

THE HEAVENS OPENED Today’s feast marks the end of the Christmas season. It also has echoes of Advent when we first encountered BAPTISM OF John and his baptism. There THE LORD are two parts to the reading.

The first describes the feeling of expectancy that gripped the people. John the Baptist was a fresh voice that rang out with authority. Could he be the Messiah they expected to throw off the yoke of Roman oppressor and restore the ancient Kingdom of Israel? John is quick to dampen their expectations. There is

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REALITY DECEMBER 2015

Today’s Readings Is 40:1-5, 9-11 1 Ti 2:11-14 Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

Today’s Readings Is 62:1-5 1 Cor 12:4-11 John 2:1-11

Today’s Readings Neh 8:2-6,8-10 1 Cor 12: 12-30 Luke 1:1-4, 4:12-21

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THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER 10, DECEMBER 2015

JUST ONE OF US Today’s Gospel continues the story of Jesus’ sermon in Nazareth we began reading last Sunday. It begins by recalling the words at the end of last Sunday’s Gospel – ‘this text is being fulfilled today, even as FOURTH SUNDAY IN you listen.’ Luke does not tell us exactly what Jesus ORDINARY TIME said in his sermon: we will learn that as we follow Jesus the preacher throughout the rest of this year.

This preacher has a gift for weaving words that win over his hearers.

As often happens when local boys have done well, some of the neighbours are only too eager to recall his very ordinary origins: he is just one of themselves.

Jesus senses that feelings are turning against him. He quotes the proverb, ‘Physician heal yourself.’ They have welcomed him because they were expecting him some act of prophetic power. He is not surprised by the rejection. That always happens to prophets, especially when they do not work miracles for their supporters. During a long draught, Elijah did not provide miraculous food for Israelites, but for a pagan widow and her son in a foreign town. Elishah did not cure lepers in Israel, but he did cure Naaman, a Syrian general.

This talk of divine favours for foreigners is the last straw. They rise up in anger, intending to push him towards a cliff edge, intending to throw him over and leave him to die. In the disorder, Jesus manages to slip away from the crowd and withdraw

JANUARY

SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 8 ACROSS: Across: 1. Cherub, 5. Sombre, 10. Poached, 11. Recipes, 12. Dodo, 13. Ghana, 15. Hull, 17.

Ave, 19. Shrine, 21. Otters, 22. Gregory, 23. Glower, 25. Eluded, 28. Log, 30. Obey, 31. Canal, 32.

Esau, 35. Iron Age, 36. Wyoming, 37. Assist, 38. Yahweh.

DOWN: 2. Hoarder, 3. Ruhr, 4. Buddha, 5. Serene, 6. Mock, 7. Rapture, 8. Spades, 9. Psalms, 14.

Avignon, 16. Angel, 18. Style, 20. Err, 21. Ore, 23. Gloria, 24. Ocelots, 26. Despise, 27. Drudge, 28.

Lament, 29. Galway, 33. Sari, 34. Tosh.

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ACROSS 1. An odd era to have deeply loved someone. (6) 5. Domesticated South American eventoed angulate. (6) 10. Hotel and salad. (7) 11. Non-professional. (7) 12. The bird of peace. (4) 13. A French cap. (5) 15. Vegetable known as lady's fingers. (4) 17. A piece of turf. (3) 19. Lower garment worn by Indonesian men and women. (6) 21. Tending to hang. (6) 22. Small round boat of Ireland and Wales. (7) 23. The most famous example can be found in Turin. (6) 25. Handy and helpful. (6) 28. Bowl-shaped pan used in Chinese cooking. (3) 30. It's a deadly sin. (4) 31. King of Israel who killed a giant. (5) 32. Rebuff, ignore or spurn disdainfully. (4) 35. Struck a surface to attract attention. (7) 36. Not made or caused by humankind. (7) 37. Talk on a religious subject during Mass. (6) 38. Colour associated with bishops. (6)

DOWN 2. Bring to the proper place or recipient. (7) 3. Old measure of area and a crucifix in a medieval church. (4) 4. Openly refuses to obey. (6) 5. Became less intense, a storm or fire perhaps. (6) 6. Talk to God. (4) 7. Thorough medical examination. (7) 8. Brassicas and Scandinavian nationals. (6) 9. Agreement between nations. (6) 14. The last Russian royal family. (7) 16. A diamond as taken from the ground. (5) 18. Make something holy by saying a special prayer. (5) 20. The Supreme Being. (3) 21. Common viral illness. (3) 23. Tall, swift slender dog. (6) 24. Bring back to normal condition. (7) 26. Ceremony for celebrating and remembering the life of a person who has died. (7) 27. They are applied to people, containers and products. (6) 28. A prison officer. (6) 29. Abduct someone and hold them captive. (6) 33. Remove a substance from the surface of a liquid. (4) 34. Rats in the sky at night. (4)

Entry Form for Crossword No.10, December 2015 Name:

Today’s Readings Jer 1:4-5. 17-19 1Cor 12:31-13:13 Luke 4:21-30

Address: Telephone:

All entries must reach us by December 31, 2015 One €35 prize is offered for the first correct solutions opened. The Editor’s decision on all matters concerning this competition will be final. Do not include correspondence on any other subject with your entry which should be addressed to: Reality Crossword No. 10, Redemptorist Communications, 75 Orwell Rd., Rathgar, Dublin 6

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