Reality Summer 2016

THE RESILIENCE OF ALEPPO

JULY/AUGUST 2016

WHO CARES FOR THE CARERS?

THE SOMME 1916 –2016 REMEMBERING THE CENTENARY

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

THE OLYMPIC GAMES ARE THE OLYMPIC GAMES AN ICON OF WHAT SPORT CAN MEAN AT THE HUMAN, COMMUNAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL?

www.redcoms.org Redemptorist-Communications @RedComsIreland �2.00 �1.80

SUMMER

Ennismore Retreat Centre

22nd – 24th July Res. €165–Non/Res. €100 Prayer & Healing Retreat Fr John Keane 28th Aug – 1st Sept Res. €420 –Non/Res. €300 Conference with Edwina Gateley “Call to Personal and Global Transformation” 10th September - €55 10.30am – 4.30pm The Spirit of Leadership - from Ego to Spirit.

Empowering Ourselves to Lead with greater Self-Awareness, Discernment, Compassion and Intuition Patrick Sheehan MA Psych. IAHP

ST DOMINIC’S

25th – 27th November Res. €165–Non/Res. €100 Advent Retreat: “Endings and Beginnings” Fr. Joe Kavanagh OP

New Double CD Beyond Mindfulness: Meditation and Soothing Lyrics.

Pat and Martina Lehane Sheehan

Ennismore Retreat Centre is set in 30 acres of wood, field and garden overlooking Lough Mahon on the River Lee. It’s the ideal place for some time-out, reflection and prayer.

For ongoing programmes please contact the Secretary or visit our website Tel: 021-4502520 Fax: 021-4502712 E-mail: ennismore@eircom.net www.ennismore.ie

(For Sale in Ennismore, Veritas and other Outlets)

Beyond Mindfulness comprises of a Morning, Midday, and Evening Meditation.

There is a short introductory talk preceding each Meditation.

The Scriptural Dimension, combined with the soothing lyrics will create a unique and beautiful experience of contemplation.

You will find yourself more attuned each day, not just to The Present Moment, but also to the ‘Presence’ in the Moment.

This CD is a response to requests from listeners of Pat and Martina’s previous best selling CD entitled ‘ Soul Space.’

Available from Ennismore, Veritas & other outlets Double CD – Only €14.99

IN THIS SUMMER ISSUE FEATURES 12 HIGHER, FASTER, STONGER The Olympics continue to be an icon of what sport can mean at the human, communal and international level

By Dr Kevin O’Gorman

19 THE SOMME The centenary of a battle in which more than 3,500 young Irishmen, Unionist and Nationalist, died and thousands more were injured

By Philip Orr

24 TOM KETTLE: PEACEMAKER WHO DIED IN BATTLE Barrister, professor, Member of Parliament and poet, his life was cut short at 36

By Donal McMahon

12

26 JULIUS NIEUWLAND AND THE QUEST FOR SYNTHETIC RUBBER How a Belgian Catholic Priest found the solution

By Susan Gately

28 THE MYSTIC WHO REMEMBERED Blessed Maria Celeste Crostarosa, first Redemptoristine

By Sister Gabrielle Fox OSsR

32 THE FIRST PILGRIMAGE TO KNOCK Six months after the apparitions, men of the Limerick Archconfraternity made the first pilgrimage to Knock

By Brendan McConvery CSsR

19

32

36 SUPPORTING PRIESTS EMOTIONALLY AND SOCIALLY

OPINION

REGULARS

As pastors, priests care for the bereaved, the sorrowing, the depressed, but who cares for the carers?

By Professor Patricia Casey

11 GERARD MOLONEY CSsR

04 REALITY BITES

18 DAVID O'DONOGHUE

07 POPE MONITOR

31 CARMEL WYNNE

08 FEAST OF THE MONTH

40 RELIEF IN ALEPPO A report on the Syrian city of Aleppo, a place that has seen much conflict over recent years

By Eoghan Rice

42 PETER McVERRY SJ

09 REFLECTIONS 43 GOD’S WORD

REALITY BITES ROCK CONCERT IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL VATICAN CITY

A PRIVATE GIG

The lead guitarist with the Irish band U2, David Evans, The Edge, has become the first rock star to play in the Sistine Chapel, a venue he described as “the most beautiful parish hall in the world.” He sang four songs for an audience of 200 doctors, researchers and philanthropists attending a conference at the Vatican on regenerative medicine called Cellular Horizons.

Backed by a choir of seven Irish teenagers, and wearing his trademark black beanie cap, he played acoustic guitar and sang Leonard Cohen's "If it be your will," and three U2 songs "Yahweh", "Ordinary love" and "Walk on".

The Edge’s father died recently from cancer

4

and his daughter has overcome leukemia, and he is on the board of foundations working for cancer prevention. He joked with his audience, telling them he was stunned when asked to play in the chapel. "Being Irish, you learn very early that if you want to be asked to come back it's very important to thank the local parish priest for the loan of the hall," he said.

He then thanked Pope Francis and other Vatican officials "for allowing us to use the most beautiful parish hall in the world." He described Pope Francis as the people's pope.

“He's doing an amazing job and long may he continue," he added.

'The Edge' with Bishop Paul Tighe

CHANGING FACE OF IRISH WEDDINGS DUBLIN

I DO, I DO, I DO, I DO, I DO

Most Irish couples still prefer a traditional church wedding, but as regular church attendances decline, there is an increasing demand for non traditional weddings. About 28% of Irish marriages in 2014 were civil ceremonies. Apart from the commonest form, a brief civil ceremony in the local registry offices, an increasing number of groups and individuals are offering more ceremonial forms of celebration. The Humanist Association of Ireland, for example, provides information on its website how to go about booking a humanist or non religious celebrant for a wedding, baby naming ceremony or funeral. “Typically you can expect a guideline fee in the region of €450 [for a wedding] where the celebrant lives close to your venue,” it says. This is in addition to the charge for the hire and decoration of the venue. There are more than twenty authorised Humanist celebrants in Ireland. The Spiritualist Union of Ireland also makes its 26 officiants available to non-members, who may either use its premises or invite an officiant to preside at the ceremony in a place of their choice. Their usual fee is about €400. "Pagan Life Rites” website advertises a range REALITY SUMMER 2016

of ceremonies, stating that “twelve Priestesses and Priests belonging to its religion registered by the Office of the General Register as legal solemnisers of marriage” in February, 2016. It claims that its marriage or “Handfasting” ritual “is a continuation of Ireland’s indigenous wedding rite.” a custom it claims was first recognised in Brehon law. The fees vary from €150 to €400,

depending on travel. Another website “Marry Me Ireland,” claims to be “Ireland’s only professionally accredited ‘celebrant organisation,’ and “offers “Non-Religious, Semi-Religious, Mixed Faith, Spiritual and Holistic” weddings and other ceremonies at prices beginning at €450. The Irish Institute of Celebrants offers training weekends to would-be celebrants.

N E WS

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty

MEMORIAL UNVEILED TO “VATICAN PIMPERNEL” VATICAN CITY

Gregory Peck, The Scarlet and the Black

THE UNKNOWN HERO

The Irish embassy to the Holy See and the Teutonic (German) College in the Vatican came together recently to honour the memory of an Irish priest who saved thousands of Jewish lives during the Second World War. Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty was not very well known in Ireland until comparatively recently. A film was made in 1983 about his work entitled The Scarlet and the Black, staring Gregory Peck. One of the collaborators in his work was the Irish folk-singer, Delia Murphy, wife of Dr Thomas Kiernan, Irish ambassador to the Holy See,

who made the embassy car available to move fugitives. The current ambassador, Emma Madigan, unveiled a plaque in the Teutonic College, recalling his diplomatic skills and his contribution to the resistance movement.

Prior to the ceremony, a seminar was held celebrating Mgr O’Flaherty’s lasting legacy of charity, courage and compassion. The Hugh O’Flaherty Memorial Society has erected a statue in his honour in Killarney, where his family settled when he was a child, and has instituted an annual humanitarian award in his honour.

PEACE PRIEST DANIEL BERRIGAN DIES AT AGE 94 NEW YORK PRIEST, POET, PROPHET The American Jesuit Fr. Daniel Berrigan, one of the most influential voices in shaping Catholic thinking about war and peace during the latter half of the twentieth century, died 30 April at the age of 94. His brother Philip, who was also a priest and a member of the Society of St Joseph, dedicated to working among AfroAmericans, shared his commitment to the antiwar movement.

The Berrigans gained international attention for their participation in the Anti-Vietnam War movement. In 1968, along with seven others, all Catholic, Philip and Daniel drenched 600 draft records in home-made napalm (a highly inflammable liquid used in the war) and burned them near the draft office in Catonvsille, Maryland. This was one of the most high-profile acts of civil disobedience and protest against the way in which their country was conducting the war. They issued a statement stating “we confront the Roman Catholic Church, other Christian bodies, and the synagogues of America with their silence and cowardice in the face of our country's crimes. We are convinced that the religious bureaucracy in this country is racist, is

an accomplice in this war, and is hostile to the poor.” They were eventually sentenced to three years in jail, but this was not the only time they were convicted for acts of protest. Dan Berrigan is probably the ‘radical priest’ mentioned in Paul Simon’s song, “Me and Julio down by the Schoolyard.”

Despite ruffling the feathers of many American churchmen, Dan Berrigan remained committed to his vocation as a Jesuit priest. He was a prolific writer and poet. He was also a respected commentator on the scriptures and retreat giver, giving expression to a spirituality that would eventually be called liberation theology.

5

The late Fr. Daniel Berrigan SJ

continued on page 6

REALITY BITES

6

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT

THEOLOGIANS AND CONGREGATION FOR DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

The league table for A-levels results in the 2014/15 academic year in Northern Ireland shows that Catholic schools have taken the top eleven spots on the list of schools. Last year, four of the top six schools had been state schools. Second level education in Northern Ireland is still divided among the strictly academic “grammar schools” and the more comprehensive “secondary schools,” but both types performed well. The top grammar school was St Dominic's on the Falls Road, where 94.9% of pupils received three passes at A-level. The top non-grammar was St Colm's High in Draperstown, where 88.1% achieved the top grades. Sean Rafferty, head of St Louis Grammar in Ballymena, suggested that the Department of Education should examine what makes these institutions so successful and learn lessons from them."If you take a look at the top 11 schools,” he commented, “they are all faith-based, and I think that says it all. It's a combination of community support and a buy-in from parents, a whole ethos of achievement: we don't accept second best and all the time strive for excellence." A commentator in the Belfast Telegraph which drew up the league tables said: “Whether you believe the highest priority for a school should be academic excellence or not, it is impossible not to be impressed at the consistently high performances of our top Catholic schools.”

The group of fifteen Catholic clergy and religious, which includes two bishops, several prominent theologians, writers and broadcasters, have written to Pope Francis and to the Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, asking for an open discussion about the Congregation’s procedures of investigating individuals accused of doctrinal error and calling for new approaches that better respect human rights, freedom of speech and accountability within the church community. The signatories include Bishops Patrick Power and William Morris of Australia, the American moral theologian, Father Charles Curran, Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry

to gay people, and theologian Sister Elizabeth Johnson. Five Irish priest members of religious orders were among the signatories, namely, Frs. Tony Flannery CSsR, Gerard Moloney CSsR, Owen O’Sullivan OFM Cap, Iggy O’Donovan OSA and Brian D’Arcy, CP. The letter called especially for an end to the secrecy of the process of the Congregation accepting anonymous reports, enforcing secrecy on people when they are told they are under investigation and a request that they be no longer be dealt with at third and even fourth hand, through bishops and religious superiors. The process must prevent the same people acting as investigators, prosecutors and judges. To date, the signatories have not received a response to their letter.

HANS KUNG, THE POPE AND INFALLIBILITY The Swiss theologian, Hans Kung, has issued a statement in which he outlines a reply he received from Pope Francis to his appeal on 9 March for a free, unprejudiced and open-ended discussion on the problem of infallibility. The controversy surrounding Professor Kung’s 1971 book, Infallible? An Inquiry, led to the loss of his ‘canonical mission’ to teach Catholic theology some years later. Pope Francis’s reply was conveyed though the nunciature. Dr Kung expressed his gratitude for the personal nature of the response (directly from Pope Francis, rather than through a secretary) and the warmth of the letter.

Pope Francis, he said, is “highly appreciative” of Kung’s suggestion of the need to discuss issues which infallibility raises in the light of Holy Scripture and Tradition in ecumenical dialogue with other Christian Churches and post-modern society. Looking forward to a renewed dialogue between the Churches, Kung concluded: “I am deeply grateful to Pope Francis for this new freedom and combine my heartfelt thanks with the expectation that the bishops and theologians will unreservedly adopt this new spirit and join in this task in accordance with the Scriptures and with our great church tradition.

BEATIFICATION OF IRISH JESUIT

© Copyright by artist Sean O'Sullivan

REALITY SUMMER 2016

Pope Francis has signed a decree recognising a miracle attributed to Fr John Sullivan, clearing the way for the beatification of the Irish Jesuit. Fr Sullivan was baptised and raised in the Church of Ireland faith of his father, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and he was educated at Portora School, near Enniskillen and at Trinity College. As the laws regarding mixed marriages in Ireland were less strict than they became with the passing of the Ne Temere decree in 1907, John Sullivan’s mother was a Catholic. After some years practising law, he became a Catholic in 1896 at the age of 35. He joined the Jesuits in 1900 and was ordained in 1907. He was noted especially for his dedication to the poor and sick, spending much time walking and cycling to visit those in need in the countryside around Clongowes Wood College, Co Kildare, where he taught from 1907 until his death. He is buried in the Jesuit church in Gardiner St Dublin. Many miracles have been attributed to his intercession. One alleged miracle relates to the cure of a paralysed 3-year-old but the miracle accepted for his beatification was the 1954 healing of a cancerous tumour on the neck of Delia Farnham of Dublin.

N E WS

POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS PAPAL DREAM FOR EUROPE “I dream of a Europe where being a migrant is not a crime, but a summons to greater commitment to help those in need. I dream of a Europe where young people" can lead a simple life and see that marriage and children are a joy, not a burden because there are no stable, well-paying jobs. The pope's dream of a rejuvenated Europe was expressed as he received the prestigious Charlemagne Prize on 6 May. The award is presented annually on the Feast of the Ascension by the citizens of Aachen to commemorate Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, to honour a public figure who has made a significant contribution to promoting European unity.

The ceremony to honour Pope Francis was held in the Vatican.

It was attended by distinguished European leaders, including King Felipe VI of Spain, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, as well as the heads of the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission and past recipients of the prize.

The mayor of Aachen, Marcel Phillip, told those assembled that "Pope Francis is a godsend for Europe." His perspective as a South American, whose relatives were Italian immigrants, and as leader of the Catholic Church, lets him see "clearly through the veil of affluence just how warped and ensnared in contradictions our continent is," the mayor said. In a Europe that has lost its bearings, "the values that we urgently need to rediscover and strengthen are essentially Christian values.

The pope said Europe needs to give birth to a "new humanism" built on including and integrating diversity, promoting respect and dialogue, and offering everyone an important role to play in working for the common good.

Pope Francis receives the Charlemagne Prize from Jurgen Linden, president of the Society for the Conferral of the Charlemagne Prize, during a ceremony in the Sala Regia at the Vatican

POPE FRANCIS AND TEENAGERS

On Saturday, 23 April, 100, 000 teens crowded into St Peter’s Square. The pope caught many officials off guard when he made an unannounced visit to the square.

After greeting several people, he placed a purple stole over his shoulders and sat down on an ordinary chair like the 150 other priests offering the sacrament of reconciliation. The Pope spent more than an hour in the square, and heard the confessions of 16 boys and girls. Taking to them later at a special Mass for the event, the Year of Mercy for Teens 13-16, he told them that happiness "is not an 'app' that you can download on your phones nor will the latest update help you become free and great in loving."

Genuine freedom, he told them, is priceless and comes from making the courageous decision to do good and not from the mediocre belief that happiness can be easily obtained through worldly possessions and fashion.

POPE WRITES TO PRISONERS Pope Francis has replied to a letter written to him by Italian prisoners, reminding them God loves them all personally. The detainees in Velletri prison, near Rome,had written to him and entrusted their letter to their local bishop to give to the Holy Father during his pastoral visit to Rome.

“Always be certain that God loves you personally,” the Pope wrote. He encouraged them to never allow themselves to be closed in by their past, but rather to transform the past “into a journey of growth, of faith and charity.” He asked them to “give God the possibility” of making them “to shine” through their experience, recalling that many saints throughout history “have achieved sanctity” in harsh and difficult situations. “With Christ,” he said, “all this is possible.”

He thanked them for thinking of him, and assured them that they, and others in similar situations, were often in his thoughts as well. He noted that during his Apostolic Voyages, he always tries to make a visit to local prisons. During the Holy Year of Mercy, he reminded them, there will be a special jubilee day for prisoners, and he assured them that on that day he would be “in communion” with all prisoners “spiritually and in reciprocal prayer.”

7

FEAST OF THE MONTH ST MONINNA OF SLIEVE GULLION July 6

th

8

From time to time Redemptorist missioners are transferred from one monastery to another within the country or sometimes to foreign parts. It happened then, that in the early summer of 1990, Fr Raphael Gallagher, the then provincial superior, asked me to transfer from Esker to Dundalk and continue our parish mission apostolate from there. Leaving my comfort zone in the west had its drawbacks, but the prospect of working on both sides of the Border during the Northern Troubles had an element of adventure in it. And sure enough, my work in Carrickmacross, Crossmaglen, Derry, Derrylin and elsewhere furnished me with that.

Another side of being posted to Dundalk gave fresh opportunities of exploring Early Christian religious sites associated not only with saints such as Patrick, Brigid and Colmcille, but with many lesser known ones that are much cherished within their immediate surroundings. One such person is saint Moninna of Killeevy on the slopes of the beautiful Slieve Gullion in South Armagh. Locating the 6th/7th century site of Moninna’s cell on the mountainside was simple enough; identifying the person who made it famous proved more problematic.

Tradition ascribes four names - Moninna, Darerca, Modwenna and Edana - to the foundress of Cell Sléibhe, the mountain cell that is anglicised Killeevy. The saint is said to have taken the boat to North Britain where under one of the above-mentioned names she is said to have founded several religious communities. If the same holy woman did all the works ascribed to her in Mediaeval Lives and hagiographical lore, she’d need to have lived for close on two hundred years. In view of this anomaly it must be conceded that two or more lives have been conflated. That granted, there is need to put a time and a date, a name and a face on the holy woman of Killeevy.

In so far as I can assess available data, she seems to have been a local girl in the early Christian period, who devoted her life wholly to prayer and good works. The Lives say that she received the veil of consecration from St Patrick, and in view of the date of Moninna’s death (given in the Annals of Ulster as 517 or 518 a.d), that assertion is within the bounds of possibility.

The place of her birth is given as Magh Cobha in Connaille Muirthemna, one of the smaller units of the old province of the Ulidia. Her people would have been Picts, like those of the neighbouring kingdom of Dal nAraide (Co Down). In broad terms, she opened her eyes each morning to the plain of Muirthemna, the Hill of Faughart, the Mountain of Gullion and the Cooley Hills.

The Lives say that before settling in Slieve Gullion Moninna already had a community of likeminded young women temporarily settled at Carlingford before moving to Faughart and ultimately to Killeevy.

It is also said that she was the first person to make a religious foundation at Faughart, but did not remain there because the locals were noisy and given to singing bawdy songs! Be that as it may, Moninna sought out for herself a quiet retreat in the more salubrious surroundings of South Armagh.

It is likely that Moninna settled here, and, in all probability, never left Ireland with the possible exception of a period of study at Rosnat, alias Candida Casa, in the Mull of Galloway, where St Ninian had founded a monastery at the end of the 4th century. In the generations following, it attracted large numbers of Irish students of scripture, both male and female, several of whom became monastic founders themselves.

Killeevy, where Moninna died, continued to rank among the more prominent communities of religious women throughout early Mediaeval Ireland. Despite a plundering raid by the Vikings of Carlingford in 923, it managed to survive, albeit in a weakened state. As late as 1477 when the papal nuncio and the archbishop of Armagh were involved in a ‘case of disputed rights,’ it was the abbess of Killeevy who hosted a peace conference. The mediaeval round tower and monastic buildings no longer exist but some remaining stonework identifies the site.

John J. Ó Riordáin, CSsR REALITY SUMMER 2016

Reality Volume 81. No. 6 July/August 2016 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960 Published by The Irish Redemptorists, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin 09 X651 Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org (With permission of C.Ss.R.)

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, Peter Maloney Photography 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, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin D09 X651 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.

When you have finished with this magazine, please pass it on or recycle it. Thank you.

REDEMPTORIST COMMUNICATIONS Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin D09 X651 Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Email: sales@redcoms.org Web: www.redcoms.org

Redemptorist Communications is a ministry of the Irish Redemptorist Province in which lay people and Redemptorists collaborate to communicate the Gospel message – to inform, inspire and challenge through pastoral publications and other media

REFLECTIONS Acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with Him, familiarly and with confidence and love, as to the dearest and most loving of friends.

ST ALPHONSUS LIGUORI

There is no peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.

DANIEL BERRIGAN SJ

Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.

JOHN WESLEY

Publicity's a cancer. It eats out a man - till there's nothing but a shell left.

PATRICK KAVANAGH

Mol an páiste agus molann tú an mháthair. (Praise the child and you praise the mother.)

IRISH PROVERB

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.

THOMAS MERTON

Judge not him who is guilty of fornication, if you are chaste, or you will break the law like him. For the one who said “Do not commit fornication” also said “Do not judge.”

When we learn to read the story of Jesus and see it as the story of the love of God, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves, that insight produces, again and again, a sense of astonished gratitude which is very near the heart of authentic Christian experience.

Like the Cross, its loftiest and most meaningful symbol, suffering is scandal for some, folly for others. For others still, it is the acid test of faithfulness, the golden key to perfection and union with Christ, the fertile seed of glory.

BLESSED COLUMBA MARMION

Anyone who would be perfect, must flee a thousand leagues from such phrases as: “I had right on my side,” “They had no right to do this to me,” “The person who treated me like this was not right.” God deliver us from such a false idea of right as that!

AMMA THEODORA, DESERT MOTHER

It's a sad man, my friend, who's living in his own skin and can't stand the company.

NT WRIGHT

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

I have been denounced by my fellow unbelievers for stupidity, betrayal, senility and everything you can think of, and none of them has read a word that I have ever written.

Those who try to make room for sex as mere casual enjoyment pay the penalty: they become shallow. At any rate the talk that reflects and commends this attitude is always shallow. They dishonour their own bodies; holding cheap what is naturally connected with the origination of human life.

It is not the task of Christianity to provide easy answers to every question, but to make us progressively aware of a mystery. God is not so much the object of our knowledge as the cause of our wonder.

ANTHONY FLEW

ELIZABETH ANSCOMBE

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

ABBA PAMBOS – DESERT FATHER

KALLISTOS WARE

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

9

Planning A

Wedding This Year?

Then this book is for you!

Your Wedding –

A guide to getting married in the Catholic Church

This popular book will answer all your questions as you plan your church wedding.

It provides an ideal starter to planning that special day and your marriage in the years that follow.

64 pages of guidelines and useful information — in full colour — for just €4.50 or £3.95 plus p&p

Redemptorist Communications

To Order: Just call us at 01 492 2488 to place your order or Buy online at any time using your credit card when you visit us at www.redcoms.org

G UEST EDI TO R I A L UP FRONT GERARD MOLONEY CSsR

STORM CLOUDS GATHER OVER RIO

For

those of us who love sport, this summer offers no end of thrills. In addition to the annual All-Ireland hurling and football championships, there is Euro 2016 in France, the first major soccer finals in which teams from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland will participate. Golf’s biennial Ryder Cup will see Europe, again captained by an Irishman, battling to retain the trophy on American soil.

But topping all else in size, significance and appeal are the Olympic Games, which begin on 5 August in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Olympics is arguably the greatest of all sporting celebrations, with more than 10,000 athletes representing almost every country on earth participating in 306 events in 28 sports over 16 days. Of course, the Olympics is also a major political event, with sporting bodies and governments investing extraordinary resources in trying to ensure their country finish as high as possible on the medals table. National pride is always at stake.

Inevitably, the Games have been used time and again for political purposes. From Hitler’s attempt to use the 1936 Games to demonstrate the superiority of the Aryan race, to the murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian gunmen in Munich in 1972, to the boycott of the Montreal Games in 1976 by African nations opposed to South Africa’s participation, to the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games and the Soviet Union’s revenge boycott of Los Angeles in 1984, the Olympics have seldom been simply about sport. At least, recent Olympics have been boycott free - but other problems remain.

One such problem is corruption. It is hard to prevent such a lucrative, global event as the Olympics from corruption. Reforms were introduced after revelations of widespread corruption surrounding the awarding of the 2002 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City. Last April it was reported that French police are

investigating the bidding process for the 2020 Olympics, a bid that was won by Tokyo.

Payments of around €1.5 million are alleged to have been paid into an account linked to a former International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) marketing fixer who was recently banned from athletics for life. Now it is being reported that French police are also investigating the bidding process for the Rio Olympics.

A second (seemingly intractable) problem is the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Nothing has done more to damage the integrity of the games (and of sport in general) than the revelations of widespread use of illegal substances by athletes to enhance performance.

For many people the Olympic flame lost its sparkle in 1988 after Ben Johnson was stripped of his 100 Metres gold medal when his post-race drug test indicated steroid use.

Almost 30 years later, the problem remains as challenging as ever. With so much at stake, and with little concern for their own long-term health, athletes are prepared to do whatever they can to boost performance. What is truly scandalous, however, is that some governments are prepared to facilitate the cheaters. Some months ago Russian athletes were banned from international competition by the IAAF after a World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) commission report alleged ”state-sponsored” doping in the country. The IAAF will meet in June to assess whether Russia has done enough to tackle its doping culture before being allowed to take part in the Rio Games.

Kenya, whose athletes dominate middle and long distance running, is in similar trouble.

Last November the IAAF banned its track and field athletes from international competition following allegations of systematic statesponsored cheating. More than 40 of its athletes have failed drugs tests since 2011.

In the last few weeks, WADA has suspended anti-doping laboratories in Moscow, Beijing, Lisbon and Bloemfontein. It’s a sign that those charged with cleaning up athletics are finally getting tough with countries that flout the rules.

But it also raises serious concerns about the effectiveness of current drug-testing methods, and whether the Rio Games will be any cleaner than those in the past.

A third problem facing the Rio Olympics is the Zika virus. Brazil is the country most affected by the mosquito-borne virus, which causes a severe birth defect that results in babies born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains. The state of Rio de Janeiro has (at the time of writing) recorded 26,000 suspected Zika cases – the highest of any state in Brazil. Some health experts have questioned whether it is advisable to bring half a million Olympic visitors into the heart of the epidemic. They fear it could facilitate the virus’s transmission in countries that have not yet been affected.

The Brazilian authorities and the International Olympic Committee have been playing down the health risks, and have pointed out that the Games will take place during Brazil’s wintertime when there are fewer active mosquitoes and the risk of being bitten is lower. Still, even if it is contained, the virus’s presence is bound to have an adverse impact on visitor numbers and the financial success of the Games.

We can only pray that Christ the Redeemer, who stands watch from his lofty perch over Rio, will protect those attending the Games, and reward those who perform with honest endeavour.

Gerard Moloney CSsR

11

C OVE R STO RY

12

REALITY SUMMER 2016

HIGHER, FASTER, STRONGER...

WHILE THE OLYMPIC GAMES ARE OFTEN EMBROILED IN CONTROVERSY, THEY CONTINUE TO BE AN ICON OF WHAT SPORT CAN MEAN AT THE HUMAN, COMMUNAL AND INTERNATIONAL LEVEL.

13

BY DR KEVIN O’GORMAN SMA

Like the problem of global warming, sport is experiencing an existential and ethical crisis of human making Continued on page 14

C OVE R STO RY

14

In

recent years, there has been widespread publicity about the problems in sport both on and off the field(s) of play. Issues of cheating and corruption Involving individuals and institutions have come to the fore, tarnishing the administration of games, ranging from athletics through football to tennis, threatening the reputation and records of sports men and women. A cloud of allegations, covering bribery, doping and match fixing, hangs over the horizon of sporting activity, so that athletes and administrators have to address a growing cynicism on the part of fans and commentators. Like the problem of global warming, sport is experiencing an

REALITY SUMMER 2016

existential and ethical crisis of human making.

Struggling to create an environment where exercise and enjoyment can be experienced in a safe and sustainable ethos, sport may even be said to be fighting for its soul.

A SPORT’S INDUSTRY? The importance of sport in society is more than symbolic. Sport is a substantial section of popular culture. The time dedicated to sport on television is testimony to the public interest in the activities, aims and achievements of sportsmen and sportswomen, both individually and collectively. The emotional involvement and financial investment by fans in following the

fortunes of their favourite players or teams is an indicator of sport’s importance. The phenomenon of consumption, coverage and commentary on the so-called sports industry is producing a growing literature on the part of psychologists and sociologists, ethicists and theologians.

This industry has assumed global proportions with the instant access to and availability of games and competitions at the touch of a button. Sport is not confined to the spectators present: it can even be extended globally. While a certain level of expertise and engagement is required to attract mass audiences, the publicity is potentially worldwide. This is also true of

sponsorship and advertising associated with particular sports and their contexts.

World Cup events in a range of sports – from athletics and cricket to rugby and soccer – ensure that coverage is maximised in terms of content and consumption. Above all sporting events, however, the Olympic Games stand out.

In the culture of sports, we can all unite, and if we can unite in sport, we can always get united in politics THE OLYMPICS The history of the modern Olympiads has been marked by both political and racial conflict. The 1936 Berlin Games was shrouded in controversy both in advance and ever since, symbolised by the triumph of the black American athlete, Jesse Owens, and the tantrums of Adolf Hitler. The next Games were awarded to Japan, but were overtaken by the outbreak of World War II. Post-war games have been dogged by political posturing and protests involving both domestic and international interests and issues, such as the ‘two Chinas’ question, the involvement of apartheid South Africa, and the Black Panther salute by two AfroAmerican athletes at the 1968 Games in Mexico. Following the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the United States led a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games. The Bejing Games brought together issues of China’s own internal record on human rights, the issue of Tibet and its identification as a new colonial power in Africa, especially its involvement in the crisis over Darfur.

However naive the dream Pierre de Coubertin for a modern Olympic Games as a ‘gentlemanly competition to bring out a transcendent fraternal best in the participants’ might seem to some, the hope of gathering sportsmen and women along with those watching into a global village, at least for a few weeks every four years, still

holds true. The five circles of the Olympic flag symbolise a period and place where all the countries came come together from all the corners of the globe to engage in a contest with the only gun being fired being the starter’s at the beginning of races!

SPORT’S APPEAL The global importance of sport lies in its international appeal. Transcending political and historical differences, it has, in the words of Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, the ‘capacity to engage huge crowds of people on a planetary scale, and to straddle geographic, social, economic and language barriers’. During President Obama’s visit to Cuba in March of this year, he attended a baseball game in Havana, an event which led a Cuban professor to remark that ‘in the culture of sports, we can all unite, and if we can unite in sport, we can always get united in politics’. While this may seem utopian, it underscores the universal appeal and ability of sport to attract people from all over the world in a common arena, whether as athletes, administrators or admirers. The Olympic Games have the capacity to do this on the grandest scale and greatest sporting stage.

The Olympic motto ‘higher, faster, stronger’ (altius, citius, fortius) expresses the excellence sporting activity aims at. The range of sports represented at this year’s Games in Rio de Janeiro is remarkable. The saying of Matt the Thresher in Charles Kickham’s nineteenth century novel Knocknagow, ‘for the honour of the little village’, assumes a greater significance at the prospect of participating in this Olympics. The ultimate honour of representing one’s country in a particular sport and marching behind the national flag continues to inspire people to become involved in undertaking arduous training regimes and to undergo the ultimate test against one’s peers. The communal and team dimension of representing one’s country, even in individual sports, is an important source of both motivation and satisfaction.

The prospect of participating in what is being promoted as ‘the greatest party in the history of sport’ is further incentive for competitors and fans going to Brazil from all over the globe.

SPORT AND VIRTUE Their Greek origins offer an invaluable vehicle for viewing the values inherent in sport,

The Obama family with Raul Castro enjoy a baseball game in Havana, Cuba

15

C OVE R STO RY

16

Any form of corruption between contestants robs sport of its worth and winning of its just reward

namely the virtues. The Greeks and other ancients analysed the goal of the moral life in terms of growth in the so-called cardinal virtues – justice and prudence, temperance and fortitude – around which other values could be connected. The virtues function by forming people to become excellent, good at the goal of human flourishing.

Human character is conceived and crafted in the context of community where example plays a critical role. Good example is the best teacher of virtue and the time honoured truth that goodness is its own reward. Habit is the hinge on which virtue hangs. Commitment to one’s craft or calling brings consistency by contributing to confidence which creates a REALITY SUMMER 2016

virtuous circle. ‘Practise makes perfect’ is the motto of more than the moral life.

The virtues represent the ethical cornerstones for engaging in and evaluating sport. Terms like ‘fair play’, ‘good sport’ and ‘a level playing pitch’ reveal the foundation for the flourishing of sport. Any form of corruption between contestants robs sport of its worth and winning of its just reward. Prudence plays its part in the judgement calls that sports men and women have to make both on and off the pitch or track. This is the realm of risk-taking which only experience tests and teaches.

Temperance is the practise and perception of the ‘golden mean’ which moves from one game or match to another. Sports people

learn to walk the line between too much and too little. Fortitude is the finding of courage through endurance which full-time athletes need to persist in their particular sport. The Olympic ideal of ‘higher, faster, stronger’ is indeed not for the faint-hearted.

In addition to the moral virtues there is the theological trio of faith, hope and love.

Many sports men and women are people of deep faith and their displays of blessing themselves at the beginning of races and matches and falling on their knees at the end are commonplace. Dedicating their attempts and achievements to God is a public profession of the role religion plays in their lives both on and off the pitch. Complementing courage

Many sports men and women are people of deep faith and their displays of blessing themselves at the beginning of races and matches and falling on their knees at the end are commonplace hope holds out the prospect of not only better performances but also prepares them for humility in victory and graciousness in defeat as this spiritual virtue helps them to see the success and surrender of sport in perspective. The experience of God’s love in their lives leads sports people to see their opponents as equally cherished children of the heavenly Father, treating them with respect

and relating accordingly in the contests they engage in with each other. Brought together by their common love for the game players are linked to a web of welfare for and with each other throughout the world.

Opening on August 5th, the Rio Games offer an opportunity for sports men and women which may be a once off occasion to exhibit their talents and training and test themselves against their peers in a particular sport. Complemented by the Paralympics, this is a vital year for sport to underline the true vision of sport and the virtues that underpin it. With the increasing threat and terror of violence the value of sport for international solidarity is intensified. May this year’s Olympics and Paralympics offer a spectacle of human athleticism and historical achievement that advance the aims of ‘Higher, Faster, Stronger’.

A member of the Society of African Missions, Dr Kevin O’Gorman currently lectures in Moral Theology at the Pontifical University, Maynooth. He is author of Saving Sport: Sport, Society & Spirituality (Veritas, 2010)

Personal Prayer Living in love with God John Trenchard is a popular spiritual guide and retreat-giver. Now in Personal Prayer he shares with the reader the richness and depth of his experience and understanding of prayer and its impact.

Using true examples, which illustrate the whole spectrum of the challenges we face in our personal prayer lives, Fr John offers clear and simple connections with scripture and meditation ideas which are reflective and inspirational.

€4.95 £4.50

Available now from

REDEMPTORIST COMMUNICATIONS call 353 - (0)1 - 4922488 or go to www.redcoms.org

COMMENT THE YOUNG VOICE DAVID O’DONOGHUE

LIGHT UP THE DARKNESS IN MY PATH TO FAITH

“HOW SHALL WE EDUCATE MEN TO GOODNESS, TO A SENSE OF ONE ANOTHER, TO A LOVE OF THE TRUTH? AND MORE URGENTLY, HOW SHALL WE DO THIS IN A BAD TIME?” THE WITNESS OF A PRIEST PROTESTING AGAINST THE VIETNAM WAR IN THE 1960s CONTINUES TO ECHO IN OUR CONTEMPORARY SEARCH FOR JUSTICE. Fr Daniel Berrigan SJ

18

I first happened upon Father Daniel Berrigan, who passed away in early May at the age of 94, during the tumultuous days of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The movement, protesting at poverty and economic inequality in the aftermath of the 2008 recession, captured imaginations all over the world. It seemed fuel to the fire for a young man such as my 15 year old self, slowly becoming aware of, and passionate about, social injustice. I trawled the news and opinion pages daily, as newspaper reporters began to catch up with this movement that seemed to have exploded out of nowhere to immense prominence. Some reporters greeted it with great alarm and embarrassment, thinking that such a movement must surely be a trifling, ephemeral thing, if it managed to slip past their all-knowing radar. Others, like former New York Times reporter and Presbyterian minister Chris Hedges, greeted the movement with great enthusiasm; and I greeted any new Chris Hedges column on the movement with similar joy. In June 2011 Hedges published an interview with this strange and sprightly old man, whom he described as “America’s Street Priest”, and who apparently voiced REALITY SUMMER 2016

strong support of the Occupy movement.

For my teenage self, this caused a moment of difficult mental calculation. In the headlong journey into social justice politics, I had come to assume that priests were a stiff and conservative force that wanted to preserve inequality and injustice. To me they were William Blake’s “Priests in black gowns/walking their rounds/ and binding with briars/ my joys and desires”. But a committed Catholic priest who was a radical advocate for social justice and peace totally disrupted my simple mental equation.

As I scrolled through Fr Berrigan’s words, they seemed to radiate off the page like light. He spoke in the self-assured and hopeful way that I now recognise as being drawn from an inner well filled with faith, reminiscent of biblical prophets like Amos and Isaiah, who spoke from difficult times but with the surety of coming justice and righteousness. I soon learned, adding again to my new understanding of what faith meant, that Father Berrigan was also prize winning poet. I sensed in the lyricism of his speech not only Scripture but flecks and tinges of Gerard Manley Hopkins and even Allen Ginsberg. Here was a man who looked as if his picture belonged on the dust jacket of the Beat and hippie literature I was

reading, and yet he wrote long and eloquent commentaries on the gospels and screeds against the Iraq War as well.

I first discovered Father Berrigan as a beautiful contradiction and, in essence, my process of becoming reacquainted with faith was a process of realising the contradictions I saw in this priest were not contradictions at all. I sat in the glow of his passion for social justice and his poetic words but only when I looked beneath the licking flames did I find the crackling, popping kindling that I thought I knew and had discarded: faith. Could that thing I had thought so inert and hollow, those words that rang through churches on a Sunday that no one in the pews seemed to pay much heed to, impel a man to such great deeds and beautiful words?

I spent years sifting through the source of Father Berrigan’s fire, and finding old and familiar tinder at its source. In the light of Father Berrigan, the darkness of the Gospel was illuminated for me and the words became more than a halfhearted “call and response” when a communion or baptism came around. Father Berrigan exposed me to the full gravity and potential of Scripture and at last I saw in the Bible not just a familiar document to be glanced over on my way to

the morning paper, but something that could be read alongside it, its words wrestled into a commentary on the injustice I saw on the front pages and in the headlines.

Discovering Father Berrigan was the first step in discovering a whole history and tradition I felt had somehow been hidden from me.

In media portrayals of a harsh and conservative church where did this cassocked man burning the draft cards that called young men to the Vietnam War fit in? Father Berrigan was the heir to a movement for Christian social justice and peace that extends from Christ himself all the way up to the likes of Father Peter McVerry in our own country, and he lit the way along this road for me. Something Father Berrigan said of his brother Philip and friend Thomas Merton, the monk and activist, is now true of the late priest himself: “Their presence is not erased. Their presence is purer and stronger. And their presence is victory over death. It is love. And in their presence I find strength”

David O'Donoghue is a freelance journalist from Co. Kerry. His work has appeared in the Irish Catholic, The Irish Independent, and the Kerryman. He is the former political editor of campus.ie and holds an abiding interest in all things literary, political and spiritual.

THE SOMM E 1916 – 2 0 1 6

THE COMMEMORATION OF

The Battle Of The Somme in ulster

1916 –2016

AS WELL AS MARKING THE CENTENARY OF THE EASTER RISING, 2016 IS ALSO THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME WHEN OVER 3,500 YOUNG IRISH MEN, BOTH LOYALIST AND NATIONALIST, DIED IN THE TRENCHES AND MANY THOUSANDS MORE WERE WOUNDED.

BY PHILIP ORR 19

Men of the 36th Division, shortly before going into battle.

THE S O M M E 1 9 1 6 – 2016

20 Troops in a communications trench on the first day of the Battle of the Somme

The

Somme Campaign of 1916, which ran from the start of July to mid-November, is notorious for the loss of life incurred on both sides. Close on half a million men became casualties in the French, British and German armies. Some British historians have argued in recent years that the Somme should be seen more positively as the big campaign that finally

thousands of young men during a dogged military stalemate.

THE IRISH AT THE SOMME Irish soldiers took part in the Somme campaign in various regiments. Some were experienced men who had served in the British armed forces all across the Empire in the pre-war years. There were Irishmen in

On 1st July, the 36th Division, which contained many men from the pre-war Ulster Volunteer Force, launched an attack at Thiepval as part of the ill-fated opening phase of the Somme offensive broke the morale and matched the manpower of the mighty German infantry. But such analysis does little to alter an abiding sense that this long series of bloody battles on the Western Front destroyed the lives of REALITY SUMMER 2016

several English, Welsh and Scots regiments.

Many more men emigrated to Australia, New Zealand and Canada only to return to Europe in uniform. However the most significant feature of the Irish experience of

the Somme was the fighting undertaken by the 36th Division during the first two days of the campaign, and by the 16th Division during the month of September.

On 1 st July, the 36 th Division, which contained many men from the pre-war Ulster Volunteer Force, launched an attack at Thiepval as part of the ill-fated opening phase of the Somme offensive. Despite making a breakthrough in a manner that no other unit did on that first day of battle, the division was pulverised and subsequently withdrawn from the line with 5,500 casualties. Between 3rd and 9th September, the 16th Division, which contained numerous Nationalist soldiers, fought with some success at Guillemont and Ginchy, but lost almost 4,000 men. The impact of these grim statistics of death were keenly felt in the days, weeks and months that lay ahead, as news filtered back to Ireland and families grieved.

The story of the 16th Division, unlike that of

21 Military Artist drawing of the Battle of Delville Wood, the Somme. July 1916

the 36th, would soon disappear from public view, along with much of the Nationalist wartime experience. As the twenty six counties of southern Ireland reached for a new post-colonial identity, the recent service of Irishmen in the British Army was best forgotten. Northern Ireland’s unhappy Nationalists soon sensed that remembrance of the First World War was being utilised as a foundation story for the new northern state, and was forever celebrated with flags and British military ritual in ways that went against their very Irish sense of allegiance.

Only in more recent years have harrowing stories of the Irish at the Somme been given a place in the official commemorative calendar of the Republic. And in the north, a number of community groups have worked hard to retrieve the story of men from communities like the Greater Falls in West Belfast who fought at the Somme with such regiments as the Connaught Rangers.

THE SOMME IN THE PROTESTANT MEMORY It is in Unionist circles within Northern Ireland, however, that the memory of the Somme is most revered. The narrative is especially important to Protestant working class communities – often referred to as Loyalists. The reasons for this are manifold, but it is clear that the deaths at Thiepval have always been seen as an esteemed sacrifice and a token of loyalty to Britain. Commemorating the Somme each year on the anniversary of the opening day of the campaign soon became a key ritual in Ulster’s calendar. The first day of July was the date of the Battle of the Boyne on the old, pre-Gregorian calendar, and many men in the 36th Division had known this when heading across no man’s land with fixed bayonets, shouting ‘Nor Surrender’ – a historic Unionist battle-cry. Thus the Somme became part of Unionist folklore.

In recent years, the ease with which travel

to the Western Front can be arranged has enabled many Ulster Unionists to make a pilgrimage to the grave of an ancestor.

Genealogy is also a much more rewarding and manageable hobby, so many people have been enabled to trace the exact story of a young man from their family or community who hailed from the back-streets of Belfast or a cottage in a rural village and who made the often fatal journey to the killing-fields of France. Within Loyalism, there has been a truly remarkable surge in commemoration, involving the creation of Somme memorials in working-class areas, the dedication of new Orange banners and the conspicuous presence of Loyalist bands who parade through Northern Ireland’s streets, dressed in meticulously accurate First World War replica uniforms.

At times, it seems as if the first day of July has superseded the famous ‘Twelfth’ in significance – the latter festival on 12th July

THE S O M M E 1 9 1 6 – 2016

22 A mountain of shell casings left over from the bombardment at the Somme

is still important, but the commemoration of the Somme speaks into people’s lives with a story that connects Unionism to popular British commemorative culture. There are not many people in Britain who care any

dead. By connecting with the memorial culture of poppy and cenotaph, Loyalists and Unionists are enabled to maintain a sense of connection to the ‘mainland.’

Also, it is clear that Loyalist communities

The dark, stirring story of the bravery, honour and suffering at the Somme, which is based on the lives and deaths of their ancestors, fits the bill as a truthful emblem for Loyalists in contemporary times longer for the Glorious Revolution of William III, which occurred, after all, in the late 17th century. However, remembering those who fell in Britain’s more recent battles is an enduring phenomenon. Britain’s 21st century wars in the Islamic world have led to an ever more visible emphasis on poppy flowers and ceremonies of public respect for the newly REALITY SUMMER 2016

have been hard hit by political, cultural and economic change. Unemployment has been a big problem, educational attainment has been poor and there is a gulf between the middle and working class, intensified by a school system that divides students at an early age and consigns working-class pupils to a form of educational ghettoization.

The Wiltshire Regiment attacking near Thiepval

Having been caught in a no man’s land of contested and evolving identities, many Loyalists now struggle with what the word ‘British’ means as a descriptor. And there is a lack of a ‘people’s history’ that tells them of their own everyday lives and that reflects their sense of marginalisation in a Northern Ireland where Nationalists and Republicans have made such remarkable gains. The dark, stirring story of the bravery, honour and suffering at the Somme, which is based on the lives and deaths of their ancestors, fits the bill as a truthful emblem for Loyalists in contemporary times.

REMEMBERING TOGETHER? The Somme centenary of 2016 is also an opportunity for Loyalists and Unionists to match the commemorative activity of Republicans, placing the story of the 36th Division alongside the Easter Rising as a sublime narrative of heroism and costly ‘identity-formation’. In that sense, it fulfils a

23 The devastating scene at the end of the battle

vital cultural and political need. In the years that stretch ahead, however, it will be important for Unionists and Loyalists to focus on other aspects of their pro-British inheritance in Ireland.

It is instructive to see how Australian historians have pointed out the danger for their country of an over-emphasis on Gallipoli as the ultimate Antipodean founding story for this modern age. They point out that invoking yet again this old, wartime tale of young men, under military command, who attack a foreign country many miles from home, is scarcely helpful practice for 21st century Australia. Quite simply, that kind of doomed masculine valour and costly bravado is not what is needed for the challenges of a multi-cultural nation which is having to adapt to geopolitical change on the Pacific Rim and – quite arguably – has still not been sufficiently remorseful for its own mistreatment of the aboriginal people.

In parallel with this analysis, it is also quite arguably the case that Unionism and Loyalism, when facing many challenges in the decades that lie ahead, must

come to recognition that the Somme narrative alone will not provide enough nourishment.

Ulster’s Protestants no longer face the kind of sustained paramilitary threat that once created a militarisation of the communal psyche in response.

In the future, Protestants will probably have to adapt to a bigger, stronger, highly educated Catholic presence in every aspect of daily life. In order to handle the political strategies of Republicanism, Unionists and Loyalists need to develop sagacity, independence of thought, diplomacy, and adaptability. They will need to engage in ‘bottomup’ capacity building, radical creativity and the subtle skills of negotiation alongside the famous Ulster virtue of stubborn courage. The ‘top-down’ command chain employed in military structures offers an unhelpful model.

Above all else, in a Britain which is now so utterly different from the imperial power that went to war in 1914, Unionism and Loyalism must find new ways of aligning itself with the daily life of a secular, contemporary Britain, not just its military

traditions and the reigning monarchy which is so respected in Ulster. As one Loyalist community worker recently expressed it in the presence of the author of this article, the important battle is now the one to get educational qualifications and after that the battle to get and keep a rewarding job. It might be added that there are other wider battles which lie ahead, including the fight to change a widespread, negative media image of the Loyalist community, in which they appear to the world as a benighted people, dedicated to an antique role as Britain’s agents of oppression in Ireland.

Good leadership will be needed in all these battles – rather better leadership, in fact, than that provided by the generals who kept on assaulting the German lines in the Somme Campaign at such a terrible human cost.

Philip Orr taught in Down High School. He is author of The Road to the Somme: Men of the Ulster Division Tell Their Story (Blackstaff Press: 2008) and of two dramatic productions around the theme of the Ulster Covenant and the 1916 Revolution.

THE S O M M E 1 9 1 6 – 2016

TOM KETTLE: PEACEMAKER WHO DIED IN BATTLE A LIFE THAT INCLUDED BARRISTER, MP, UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR, POET AND WRITER WAS CUT SHORT AT THE AGE OF 36 IN THE TRENCHES OF THE SOMME IN SEPTEMBER, 1916.

BY DONAL McMAHON

Two 24

of the 16 th Irish Division’s finest moments came with the taking of Guillemont (3rd September) and nearby Ginchy (9th September) during the battle of the Somme that lasted from 1st July to mid-November 1916. The four battalions of the Division’s 48th Brigade (the 7th Royal Irish Rifles, 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers and 8th and 9th Royal Dublin Fusiliers) were given the task of capturing Ginchy, the first two leading the attack at 4.45 p.m.

The handwritten entries in the 9 th battalion’s war diary (available online at www.nationalarchives.co.uk, pp.786-88) give us a vivid sense of the day-by-day unfolding of events. The diarist informs us that, in the first phase of the attack, the Munsters suffered “very heavy officer casualties”, while the RIR “reached the first objective with slight resistance and very few casualties”. In the second phase at 5.25 p.m., the 8th RDF “advanced to the second objective and gained it without encountering very serious opposition”, but the 9th “suffered very heavy officer casualties in doing so”. The ground gained was consolidated during the night and, on being relieved by British battalions, “the battalion marched back at about 5 a.m. [on the 10th] to Carnoy under the two remaining officers, 2nd Lieut. N. Hurst and 2nd Lieut. E. Dalton”. So ends the diarist’s account of the gruesome battle of Ginchy.

The only officer casualty recorded is Captain Murphy, the others (including 2nd Lieut. Thomas Kettle) being listed all together

REALITY SUMMER 2016

at the end of September. Emmet Dalton, later to serve with the IRA in the War of Independence, was just behind his twiceolder friend Thomas Kettle (36) when going over the top, and saw him suddenly wilt on being struck by a bullet. He died with Dalton’s crucifix in his hand in less than a minute. The diarist’s hand would continue to record the battalion’s achievements and disasters, but the hand that held the crucifix, the hand that had written so much and striven so hard to write well, was destined to write no more.

“Should that [i.e. not to come back] be God’s design. . .”, he had written to his wife on the 3rd September. Evidently, it was.

TOM KETTLE: POET AND ESSAYIST There being no known grave, the only memorial to Tom Kettle are the collective ones at Thiepval (Memorial to the Missing of the Somme) and Islandbridge, Dublin. However, the statue in Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green pays him ample tribute. The reduction of the representation to the head and shoulders, along with the slight but noticeable forward inclination of the head, powerfully evokes the idea of someone reflecting. The gaze then moves to the words, “Poet, Essayist, Patriot,” engraved underneath, before lighting on those oft-quoted final lines from the poem written “in the field, before Guillemont, Somme, September 4, 1916,” testament and final farewell to his daughter Betty, as well as, in one line (“And the dear heart that was your baby throne”), to his wife Mary:

Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor, But for a dream, born in a herdsman’s shed, And for the secret Scripture of the poor.

Let us consider, in the order given, the three roles played by Kettle. “We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry,” said Yeats in 1917.

PRIVATE POET, PUBLIC ORATOR It is not easy, in Kettle’s case, to separate the private poet from the public orator, such was his mastery and ease across various genres and forums. He did not publish a volume of poetry under his own name that would automatically entitle him to be called poet, good or bad. His very miscellaneous Poems and Parodies, published posthumously in December 1916, contains only four poems under the category “Personal”, too few to satisfy Yeats’s criterion. The name of poet may surely be allowed him on the basis of how well each individual poem illustrates his own, not Yeats’s, definition of poetry, and how well, with what skill, feeling and verve each is written, from the deeply personal (“To his daughter Betty, the gift of God”), the fiercely political (“The House of Lords: An Epitaph”), down to the serio-comical (“The Lost Ball”).

When we turn to Kettle’s prose writings, again it is quite difficult to separate the essayist from the patriot. The same deep thinker, the same moralist, the same highly

original stylist is found in both cases. But distinguishing between the personal and the public-political spheres, let us reserve the essay for that inner space one retreats to from the press of worldly affairs. The essay was first devised by the Frenchman, Montaigne, who retired from the world of politics as mayor of Bordeaux to a life of reading and writing in his library. Of Kettle’s essays in the Montaigne tradition we have many fine examples.

Though doubling as a book review, “The World of the Blind” floats free of its immediate occasion to offer us a marvellous insight into the world of those who cannot see. Kettle reviews a French book, Le Monde des Aveugles [The World of the Blind], by Pierre Villey, “one of the best-known Montaigne scholars”, despite being blind. Kettle writes, “It goes without saying that in this huge task [of editing Montaigne’s Essais] he had the aid of secretaries and friends, but, when all that has been taken into account, it remains an astonishing achievement.” He concludes: “We have been accustomed to speak of the blind leading the blind as a counter-sense. In M. Villey there enters a blind man who also leads the seeing.” Finding unpredictable subjects like this and making them vivid through one’s treatment of them has been the hallmark of the personal essayist since Montaigne. Kettle provides many other splendid examples we can only glimpse at here through their titles: “On Crossing the Irish Sea”, “On Saying GoodBye”, “A Man Troubled About Everything”, “November First : The Day of All the Dead”.

PATRIOT And so to the role of Patriot which, understood as serving one’s country well, includes, in Kettle’s case, the subsidiary roles of barrister, Member of Parliament (1906-1910), Professor of National Economics in UCD (1909-1916), and 2nd Lieutenant in World War I. In all these roles, Kettle “did the state some service,” by seeing that justice was administered in court, by campaigning for a National University (1908), old-age pensions, women’s rights and other reforms, and, noblest and costliest act of all, by risking, and losing, his life in military service.

the country was a welter of clamorous parties and movements all contending for supremacy.

Politics is not as it seems in clouded moments, a mere gabble and squabble of selfish interests, but it is the State in action. And the State is the name by which we call the great human conspiracy against hunger and cold, against loneliness and ignorance; the State is the foster-mother and warden of the arts, of love, of comradeship, of all that redeems from despair that strange adventure which we call human life.

Does not this wonderful peroration to “The Philosophy of Politics” show abundantly, in “soaring oratory” (his biographer J.B. Lyons’s words), the inspiring idealism of a fine young patriot- peacemaker?

He was eminently qualified for such a public role – necessarily involving much “quarrelling with others” – thanks to his experience in a succession of arenas from Clongowes Wood College school debates, the UCD Literary and Historical Society meetings, King’s Inns where he qualified as a barrister and the House of Parliament. Following in the footsteps of his father at the astonishingly young age of twenty-six, he served his constituents of East Tyrone for four years. Then there were the lecture rooms in UCD as Professor and, finally, recruiting platforms all over Ireland in 1915-16, promoting Redmond’s cause of the freedom of small nations. In spite of episodic spells of alcoholism, Kettle bore bravely his burden, immense as it must have been at a crossroads moment in Irish history, when

HE GAVE WELL The same compliment can be paid to Kettle as he paid in his poem to Parnell: “He gave, gave well.” In his poetry and essays, Kettle strove for coherence of thought and of faith and understanding, of word and action. In the social and political spheres, as patriot, politician and professor, he strove to restore peace among “warring” parties, whether men and women (the question of women’s suffrage), employers and workers (he chaired the Peace Committee during the Dublin Lockout of 1913), Home Rule supporters and separatists, National Volunteers and Irish Volunteers, Nationalists and Unionists, Irish people and English people.

The Ways of War (1917) contains three “Silhouettes from the Front”. In the second, a sentry keeps watch at night on the fire-step, a symbol of tireless fidelity to duty, to what he thinks is right. Kettle salutes him thus in the end: “He carried his pack for Ireland and for Europe.” So did Thomas Kettle and so too did sixty-eight more of his Dublin Fusiliers, seventytwo Munster Fusiliers, and all the fallen of the other regiments that September day in Ginchy near the Somme.

Donal McMahon taught English and French for many years in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth

25

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.

FR JULIUS NIEUWLAND AND THE QUEST FOR SYNTHETIC RUBBER THE APPEARANCE OF THE MOTOR CAR WITH ITS FOUR RUBBER TYRES IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY INCREASED THE DEMAND FOR RUBBER THAT COULD NOT BE SATISFIED BY THE PRODUCTION OF NATURAL RUBBER. ONE OF THE PIONEERS IN THE SEARCH FOR A SUBSTITUTE WAS A BELGIAN CATHOLIC PRIEST WHO TAUGHT SCIENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME.

BY SUSAN GATELY 26

The

life of the priest who discovered the key to synthetic rubber stretched across two centuries. Born in Belgium in 1878, Julius Nieuwland emigrated with his family to the US at the age of two, settling in South Bend, Indiana.

Close by was the University of Notre Dame, where Nieuwland studied Latin and Greek while his deep interest in botany developed.

At the age of fourteen he entered the Congregation of the Holy Cross. He planned to study botany, but instead switched to chemistry after he graduated in 1899.

STARTING WITH GAS Nieuwland's professor of chemistry at the Catholic University of America in Washington had two passions. One was the study of acetone, the other acetylene. "Nieuwland needed to give only one awed glance at the formidable equations and formulas involved in acetone work to make his decision - he decided to devote his attention to acetylene.

After all it had a simple enough formula C2H2," writes Ralph Wolf.

He began experimenting on acetylene gas.

His thesis "Some Reactions of Acetylene"

REALITY SUMMER 2016

attracted considerable attention in academic and industrial circles, since among other things, he had stumbled across a means of producing an extremely poisonous gas, later named 'Lewisite'. This would gain fame as a chemical warfare agent although Nieuwland never pursued the study of it: in fact, he had had to be hospitalised for some days after he was exposed to the compound.

In 1904, a year after ordination, Fr Nieuwland received his doctorate and returned to teaching at Notre Dame and to his experiments on acetylene. In 1906 he passed the gas into a solution of the chlorides University of Notre Dame

of copper and the alkaline metals, sodium and potassium. A gas was emitted but no solid or liquid resulted.

WHAT IS THIS? For fourteen years, Nieuwland kept returnig to this reaction. In 1920 he hit on the conditions to increase acetylene absorption.

Substituting ammonium chloride for the potassium and copper, he was able to increase the concentration of his copper catalyst.

Under the new conditions he obtained, to his great astonishment, a yellowish oil in addition to the gas he had noted before, according to Wolf. A year later he proved that the yellow oil was divinyl acetylene, a polymer of acetylene. Acetylene has two atoms of hydrogen and two of carbon. The yellow oil had six carbon and six hydrogens – or as Wolf puts it the"three acetylenes had joined hands." .

The new polymer was extremely unstable and dangerous. Left alone it would thicken rapidly into a jelly and then into a hard resin which blew up "without any encouragement."Nieuwland knew he was onto something. "Our interest was further

Fr Julius Nieuwland in his laboratory

stimulated in 1923 when treatment of divinyl acetylene with sulphur dioxide produced an elastic substance resembling natural rubber, though too plastic for practical use," he wrote.

One of his students, Thomas Carney, in his book, Synthetics and Smells: Memories of Father Nieuwland, described the melodrama surrounding the discoveries.

"For a while it was thought that the acetylene residue could be made into a marketable product. When the polymer was dissolved in a solvent and spread on a laboratory bench surface, the surface became impermeable to everything—acids, bases, solvents. A number of benches were coated with excellent results, at least initially. Then, bothersome things began to happen. The coated surface exploded. It was discovered that the polymer reacted with oxygen to form explosive peroxides that detonated with any sharp blow.”

AN ALLIANCE WITH INDUSTRY Meanwhile, unknown to Nieuwland, the Du Pont chemical company was trying to make synthetic rubber from acetylene, but without success. In September 1925 Nieuwland was billed to lecture on acetylene reactions at a symposium in New York. Listening in the

audience with mounting excitement, was a chemist from Du Pont who would later become its director. The two men met and so began a collaboration between the University of Notre Dame and Du Pont.

Shortly afterwards Du Pont chemists visited the university to learn about divinyl acetylene.

The discovery of the yellow oil was the essential first step and the key to the production of synthetic rubber problem. In 1931, a group of chemists succeeded in modifying Nieuwland’s polymerisation procedure to produce a practical synthetic rubber - neoprene. Resistant to sunlight, abrasions and temperature extremes, it became popular for cable insulation, telephone wiring and rug backing. Meanwhile Nieuwland continued his work as Professor of Chemistry at Notre Dame.

collecting trips, he carried a pistol, and according to reports, if the leaf or other part of the plant he wanted was out of reach, he’d simply pull out the pistol and shoot it down.

He used a .22 rifle to dispose of lab waste too.

The highly explosive polymer which resulted from his work could not be easily disposed of. Fr Nieuwland's solution was to place containers of the polymer on a pole behind the laboratories and then shoot them off. "The source of these periodic miniature explosions was a closely kept secret," writes Carney.

Nieuwland had a well rounded personality. He loved drama, music and literature and simple things - like a good detective or cowboy novel.

He enjoyed trips to the cinema and circus and Limericks or nonsense verses relating to science.

His confidence in science was strong, but he "never allowed his allegiance to scholarship to separate him from the realisation that God is the final cause of all things", writes James E. Murphy in a biographical sketch. "Not all the biochemists in the world can explain how the vegetable, with a sunbeam, a few quarts of water and some carbonic acid, can make a bushel of corn or a peck of potatoes," he once told a group of scientists.

On specimen collecting trips, he carried a pistol, and according to reports, if the leaf or other part of the plant he wanted was out of reach, he’d simply pull out the pistol and shoot it down

A HOTSHOT? In tandem with his chemistry, was his love for botany. For 25 years he was editor of the American Midland Naturalist and he gathered thousands of plant samples. On specimen

In 1936, while visiting friends in the lab of the Catholic University in Washington, Fr Nieuwland dropped dead. He was just 58. In 1996, he became the first Catholic priest to be inducted into the American National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Suan Gately is author of God’s Surprise - the New Movements in the Church, published by Veritas and is a regular contributor to Reality

27

THE RE D E M P TO R I STINE S

28

The Mystic

Who Remembered

BLESSED MARIA CELESTE CROSTAROSA FIRST REDEMPTORISTINE MARIA CELESTE CROSTAROSA, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF THE MOST HOLY REDEEMER WAS BEATITIFED ON 18 JUNE 2016. A SISTER OF THE REDEMPTORISTINE COMMUNITY IN DUBLIN OUTLINES HER LIFE AND VISION.

BY SR GABRIELLE FOX OSsR REALITY SUMMER 2016

Julia

Crostorosa was b o r n i nto a noble family in Naples, Italy on October 31st, 1696. Her father, Guiseppe Crostarosa was a magistrate in Naples, a position that allowed him to live at home with his numerous family. Her mother, Battistina Caldari was the complete picture of the Neapolitan woman. She was happy and dynamic, passionate and gentle and dedicated herself to the upbringing of her twelve children. It was in these surroundings that Julia grew up.

Her character was determined, energetic and strong. Once an idea or decision was sufficiently matured, she took action immediately and dominated the games of her siblings.

A PRECOCIOUS MYSTIC At five or six years of age, Julia began to respond to the love of God with childlike excitement and love. The ‘Lord spoke to her heart,’ as she put it later in her autobiography. After a time she was attracted to the frivolity of chatter and songs of the servants in the house, and for two years

with Our Lord, Jesus Christ. Her elderly Dominican confessor guided her spiritual journey, but he was transferred to another community. She began to go very frequently to confession, and her mother became suspicious! She discovered that the new confessor was a young man for whom her daughter had developed an attraction!

A more suitable confessor was soon found, needless to say.

Julia shared the exuberant temperament of her Italian genes and culture. The glaring brightness of the Italian sunshine provides her with an allegory of Christ the Son of God. No more than any of us is, she was not born holy but became gradually transformed into the likeness of Christ.

OFF TO THE CONVENT Her story continues. At the age of twenty-one, Julia entered a Carmelite monastery in Marigliano near Naples, taking the religious name of Maria Celeste. There she lived a life of deep prayer, until its suppression five years later.

A deep inner life of meditation and contemplation started when she was twelve years old, or as she called it, ‘a secret companionship’ with Our Lord, Jesus Christ followed this shallow life style.

She was 11 when she made the first big decision to change her behaviour, carrying it out with a strength beyond for her age. A deep inner life of meditation and contemplation started when she was twelve years old, or as she called it, ‘a secret companionship’

She tells the story of her entrance in her own words: “I was taken to visit a servant of God in the district of Marigliano, nine miles inland from the city of Naples, where there was a monastery of nuns of the reform of Mother Serafina of Capri. I was brought along with my mother

and one of my older sisters, who greatly desired to become a nun.

When I arrived at the monastery, I was received by the Superior with much joy and courtesy, and she asked me if I would like to remain in their company in this monastery. I immediately replied that I would be only too happy to stay and embrace the religious life. With great determination, I remained in this monastery, together with my other sister, after a long altercation with my mother, because she had not gained my father’s consent for me to remain. But in the end, we persuaded her and she consented on the understanding that, if our father was not pleased with our decision, she would return again to bring us home. But you, Lord, so disposed my father’s heart that he was pleased and confirmed our decision.”

A NEW CONVENT, A NEW ORDER When the convent in Marigliano was closed down some five years later she went to the convent of Scala, a small town in the hills above Amalfi. Living the gospel at a profound level, Celeste had a series of revelations, which ultimately led to her founding of the Redemptoristine Order, with its distinctive deep red habit and its own rule. At the heart of the Rule, was the vision that inspired Celeste: the community and each individual sister was to become a “living memorial” of the life of Christ in the mystery of salvation. Even the red and blue colours of the new habit were to be a daily reminder of that.

Celeste’s inspiration set in motion events that were extremely painful for her. Fr

Thomas Falcoia, a servant of God in his own way, had been influential in her move to Scala, but as spiritual director to the nuns of that community, he was destined to cause havoc in her life. On hearing of the ‘New Rule’ he severely reprimanded Celeste, telling her that it was a product of her imagination and the consequence of her pride.

He ordered her to burn the rule and to be deprived of Holy Communion for two months.

At this point in the story, Fr Falcoia invited another priest to preach a retreat to the sisters.

His name was Alphonsus Liguori.

Like Celeste, he was a Neapolitan, just one month older than she was. Initially sceptical about Celeste, as he got to know her he found her account of her revelations credible. He was less prepared to believe her when she told him she saw him, in God’s plan, as the founder of a male branch of the order, devoted to preaching the message of redemption. With Alphonsus’ encouragement, the sisters accepted the new rule with the red and blue habit on the feast of Pentecost, the 13th May 1731.

DEPARTURE FROM SCALA Fr Falcoia continued to interfere in the affairs of the monastery.

Some of the men who were attracted by Alphonsus initial attempts to found the new missionary community did little to improve matters.

Maria Celeste was imprisoned for a time in the attic of the monastery, where even her two siblings, Ursula and Giovanna also members of the community, were fobidden to speak with her.

Finally, Celeste was presented

29

THE RE D E M P TO R I STINE S

with an ultimatum: either accept Fr Falcoia as her sole spiritual director or leave the community.

Her elderly father, now bedridden, sent his son Giorgio, a Jesuit priest and theologian to intervene.

He was only allowed communicate with his sisters in the confessional, and he advised Celeste that in conscience that she could not submit to these conditions.

The Crostarosa sisters were expelled from Scala. After years of wandering, and living in other religious communities, they made their way to Foggia. There Celeste founded a community living under the revealed rule.

She died there on September 14th 1755.

30

CELESTE THE WOMAN The spiritual journey of Celeste was favoured with many mystical experiences.

She was a strong woman, determined and energetic, of profound integrity and interior freedom, who always defended

The present Redemptroristine community in Dublin

Majella. She died just one month before Gerard, who had an intuition of her death.

St Gerard encouraged his niece and other young women to enter the religious life in Celeste’s monastery.

CELESTE’S SPIRITUALITY AND ITS MESSAGE Celese’s spirituality is so simple yet so profound. She held a ‘fixed gaze’ on the face of Christ especially in the context of the Eucharist, which gradually transformed her so that Christ, became flesh in her - the Spirit within prayed with sighs too deep for words. One of the

She was a strong woman, determined and energetic, of profound integrity and interior freedom, who always defended the rights of conscience the rights of conscience. She was intelligent, with great intuition and understood the urgent needs of the society of her time. But Maria Celeste was above all a mystic who lived in deep communion and prayer with Christ.

In addition to her friendship with Alphonsus, Celeste was also a close friend of St Gerard REALITY SUMMER 2016

principle marks of the spirituality of Celeste is the ‘Viva Memoria,’ that is the call of each person to be in himself/herself a true and authentic living image of Christ, called to reflect and make Him present in our thoughts (having the mind of Christ), - conscious that each word must speak of Christ and in our attitudes to all, especially those who exist on the

margins and periphery of life in our world today.

Each one of us can find inspiration in Celeste and her mission is a topical one. This is especially true of women who have a strong sense of their own dignity. They can find in her a companion as they search for new forms which help them to express and realise better the dignity of woman in the Church and in society. She would identify with the words of Rosemary Ruether:‘whatever denies, diminishes or distorts the full humanity of women’, is to be appraised as non-redemptative, and must be presumed not to reflect an authentic relation to the Divine. The positive principle is also affirmed: ‘what does reflect the full humanity of women is of the Holy, reflecting the true nature of things and the authentic message of salvation.’

Her’s is a spirituality of everyday life, lived in communion with Christ, the Redeemer. It should radiate and go forth from us, imparting a contemplative dimension to the reality of the life of every Christian.

Contemplation does not mean flight but rather commitment to finding the presence of the God of love in each event of every day.

Contemplation is the response to a call: a call from him who has no voice, and yet who speaks in everything that is, and in the depths of my own being: for we ourselves are words of his.

Celeste invites us to understand that we are coresponsible together with Christ in giving real hope and genuine human dignity to each other, especially to those who feel oppressed. She was convinced that there is no Christian community, and much less any religious community, if we are not living the transparent memory of Christ, the Saviour. Her desire for us all was that we make Christ present in our world.

SPIRITUALITY IN DIALOGUE WITH THE WORLD Celeste calls us today into dialogue with the world.

The call is to ever deeper communion with God, but at the same time actualised and demonstrated most effectively in our communion with others, in a mission that stems from listening to their needs and involves every dimension of existence but especially to the abandoned and the poor.

Redemptoristines today are spread throughout Europe, USA, Canada, Africa, Asia Australia and South America, continuing to live the charism of Maria Celeste and trying to be credible living witnesses of his love.

A native of County Tipperary, Sr Gabrielle Fox OSsR was prioress of St Alphonsus Monastery, Drumcondra, Dublin.

COM M E N T FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS CARMEL WYNNE

HOW GOOD ARE YOU AT HONOURING YOUR FEELINGS?

IT IS SAID THAT WE ARE USUALLY AWARE OF ONLY A SMALL FRACTION OF WHAT IS GOING ON WITHIN US. ONE STEP TOWARDS SELF-AWARENESS IS BETTER AWARENESS OF OUR FEELINGS. How good are you at honouring your feelings? If someone asks you how you are, do you give the standard Irish reply, “Fine”?

No matter how unwell or sad or lonesome you feel, if someone asks “Is anything wrong?” do you answer “Nothing”?

There are times when we are mercifully disconnected from strong emotions. A friend who had just returned from visiting her mother in the hospice told me, “I know I should feel sad but I feel nothing. I’m so emotionally numbed, so shut down, so dead to my feelings that I can feel the tears well up behind my eyes but I can’t cry”.

Someone who feels sad, afraid and upset can bury those feelings to lessen the pain, but the body will show that distress. You don’t have to be an expert in body language to tell what a person is feeling. There is something about a stiff body, tight jawline and sad eyes that tell of upset, sadness or repression.

It would be foolish to believe that you can know exactly how someone feels from watching body language. Crying, for example, can be an expression of sadness, happiness or manipulation. Tears can be a genuine outpouring of grief; they can be caused by an overwhelming feeling of happiness or they can be used as a tool to pull at the heart strings so the manipulator gets his or her way.

honour our emotions, “What am I thinking. What am I feeling?”

I’m not suggesting that we should all go around in an introspective daze. But I am saying that it is important that the next generation benefit from the psychological insights that inform us that it is wrong to tell young boys that men don’t cry. It is insensitive to suggest that hormonal teenage girls dealing with the roller coaster of adolescent emotions are drama queens.

People who disconnect from their feelings lose the ability to sense when something isn’t right.

You can feel bad in a good situation.

You can feel good in a bad situation.

But if you are not aware of the difference, you can’t tell if your life is happy or sad, stressful or rewarding.

Some sceptics may scoff at the idea that we need to listen to our feelings. They will argue that feelings cannot be trusted and they are right. Even though feelings can be deceptive they contain subtle messages that need to be heeded.

Many of us who were brought up with the fear of becoming a slave to our emotions are now exploring the benefits of emotional intelligence, mindfulness and holistic living. In this age of expanding knowledge of how our brains work we are learning that everything we do is experienced by our whole self – mind, body and spirit.

Being emotionally intelligent is now seen as a far better predictor of success in life than high academic achievements. One of the benefits of the current popularity of

practising “Mindfulness” is that practitioners experience the interior silence which leads to awareness of this mind, body and spirit interconnection.

Family therapist and psychologist Virginia Satir used to ask her patients “Does it feel good to live in your family right now?” In her work with troubled families, she found that living together was something that people simply took for granted. If there was no visible family crisis, it was assumed everyone was satisfied with the situation.

How would you answer her question? Would you reply “Okay”, in the belief that there is wisdom in the old saying, never use two words when one will do. Could you answer truthfully?

Let’s admit that in all of our lives there are times when we know that we don’t know how we feel. We don’t know what to do or where our relationships are going. These are the occasions when we most need to stop what we are doing and give time to two questions that

People who grew up in a family, where being stoical was touted as a virtue, often feared becoming over-emotional. If their family values said it is safer to bury your emotions than express them they cope with life to the best of their ability. Neither happy nor unhappy they act as if everything is all right all the time when in reality it is not.

It is said that we are only aware of a tenth of what is going on in us. Are your family relationships harmonious and fulfilling or tense and fraught?

Do you feel uplifted and happy after family occasions or do you leave feeling upset, criticised and misunderstood?

When you connect with and honour your feelings you cannot act as if things are okay when they are not.

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

31

F E AT U R E

THE FIRST PILGRIMAGE TO KNOCK

32

© Image courtesy of Peter Maloney Photography and A&D Wejchert Architects

THE FIRST ORGANISED PILGRIMAGE TO THE SHRINE OF OUR LADY IN KNOCK WAS BY THE MEN OF THE LIMERICK ARCHCONFRATERNITY. IT TOOK PLACE BARELY SEVEN MONTHS AFTER THE APPATIONS. TO COMMEMORATE IT, THE PILGRIM ICON OF OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP WILL VISIT KNOCK THIS AUGUST.

BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR REALITY SUMMER 2016

The

first organised pilgrimage to Knock, Co Mayo on the weekend of Passion Sunday, March, 1880, was by the men of the Holy Family Confraternity, attached to the Redemptorist Church in Limerick. Less than seven months previously, an apparition had been seen on the gable wall of the County Mayo parish church. News of the apparition had spread quickly, and there was a growing curiosity among

Badges from the Archconfraternity's pilgrimage

the devout to hear the latest on the Knock events.

The Confraternity of the Holy Family had been founded in the Church of Mount St Alphonsus in 1868. At this time, its spiritual director was a Belgian Redemptorist called Fr Henry Berghmann. Having grown up in a culture where pilgrimages to holy places were part and parcel of Catholic life, he raised no objections when some confraternity men proposed a visit to Knock. His superiors exercised a little more caution in not permitting him to accompany the pilgrims. There is no doubt about Fr Berghmann’s interest in the pilgrimage, however. He preserved cuttings on the pilgrimage from the Munster News (24 March, 1880 along with his own comments on it, in one of his notebooks. It is this source that we are indebted for the account of the confraternity pilgrimage.

LIMERICK MEN ON TOUR Fifty men signed up for the pilgrimage. An advance guard went ahead and made arrangements for a meal in Tuam, transport to Claremorris where they were to spend the night, overnight accommodation and transport to Knock. In the age of the telephone and internet, such arrangements can be done in minutes but it required on the ground planning in 1880.

After an early Mass on Saturday, 13 March, the pilgrims made their way to the station where friends and fellow-confraternity men had gathered to see them off. One of the well-wishers, a Mr Liston of Boherbuoy, was most anxious to travel, but could not afford the price and his sight was so weak that, according to Fr Berghmann’s note, ‘he could not tell a penny from a half-crown.’

An on the spot collection among his confraternity brothers raised his fare.

For a group of mainly working-class men in the latter decades of the nineteenth century, a

relatively long journey by train origins of the apparition and the blessings it has entailing two nights away from brought to our land.” After Mass, they spent some home was something of an time in private devotions and sight-seeing until adventure, but it was a prayerful mid-day, when the formal act of their pilgrimage one. As the train left Limerick early took place. They formed in procession, headed on Saturday morning, they began the by the special banner they had brought, and rosary that would punctuate the stages each man wearing his confraternity medal and of their journey. Approaching Cratloe, they sang chain, they preceded to the main Mass in the the Litany of Our Lady. More hymns and prayers Church, celebrated by Archdeacon Kavanagh, the followed until they reached Tuam, the end of parish priest. At the end of Mass, the archdeacon the railway line. The advance party met them, addressed the congregation and formally and brought them to dinner, after which they welcomed the men from Limerick. They then visited the Cathedral and admired the memorial formed in processional order, with their leader, statue in honour of Archbishop John McHale, the James O’Meara, carrying the banner, and the “Lion of the West.” McHale was a very popular choir accompanying the archdeacon at the rear. figure among the Irish Three times around laity, due to his strong the church the criticism of Britain procession went, during the Famine. singing the litany and Nine side cars and assorted hymns. At other conveyances the end of the third brought them the circuit, they placed sixteen miles to their banner at the Claremorris, where place the archdeacon lodgings had been had identified as found. It was by where the apparition now eight in the had been seen. They evening, but before re-entered the chapel retiring for the night, in processional order, a meeting had been and in the sanctuary, arranged in one of solemnly presented the lodging houses. the banner to the A Claremorris boy, archdeacon. For a Patrick Hill, a witness St Patrick's Banner presented by the men of the long time, it hung to the apparition, Limerick Archconfraternity in the church, but it was introduced to is now in the Knock the group. A native of Claremorris, he had been Shrine Museum where conditions are better for staying with his aunt in Knock, the previous its preservation.

August, helping to bring home the turf. The By now they were ready for dinner: after the meal, men were impressed by the way in which gave some of the older men took a rest, while the others an account of what he had seen and how ready went about their private devotions. In the course of he was to answer their questions. After that, an the afternoon, four men claimed that, while they early night was called for, as they were to leave for were kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament, they Knock the following morning at 7 am. had seen a repeat of the original apparition, or as some suggested, they had been given an apparition THE PILGRIMS’ DAY IN KNOCK of the Holy Family. The day was brought to an end The pilgrims reached Knock before 9 am. and with the celebration of benediction. The villagers immediately went to the site of the apparitions turned out to bid them farewell with bonfires along at the gable wall of the church. “On every side is the road and when they reached Claremorris, they displayed overwhelming evidence of the divine were met by the local brass band.

33

F E AT U R E

On Monday, they left for Limerick after Mass, applauded by the townsfolk of Claremorris and they sang hymns as they passed through the villages of Milltown and Ballindine. In Tuam, they made Archdeacon Cavanagh, another visit to the P.P. of Knock cathedral, but this time, they decided to call on Archbishop McHale.

“One of our body introduced the deputation and humbly hoped that his Grace would excuse them for trespassing upon him at such an hour. But they ventured to do themselves the honour and they now asked them to favour them with his blessing.” To their delight, the ninety-one year old Archbishop welcomed them warmly and spoke admiringly of their native city.

The return journey was as prayerful as the outward journey. It was late in the evening before

they reached Limerick. Another large crowd was waiting to welcome them, including the members of the Monday night division of the confraternity, returning home after their meeting.

THE SECOND PILGRIMAGE FROM LIMERICK The report ends with the remark that, “when the summer comes, we trust even a larger number may again attend the holy shrine, and we hope too that the beloved rector, Fr Berghmann may be able to accompany them on their visit.” Six hundred pilgrims left Limerick by train on 30 May, and although accompanied by several priests, Fr Berghmann was not among them, since, as The Nation newspaper reported, “it was contrary to the rules of the Order.”

According to the Cork Examiner (3 July 1880), it was a less successful event than the first one.

The pilgrims travelled all night by train via Athlone, reaching Ballyhaunis in pouring rain that continued all day. The transport provided was insufficient, so many had to walk six miles

Friends of

St. Therese

Pilgrimages 2016 PILGRIMAGE TO THE DIVINE MERCY SHRINE, KRAKOW 15th-22nd September 2016 8 days £599/€779

MALTA In the footsteps of St. Paul 25th October-1st November 8 days £599/ €779

Phone Danny: N.I 02890245547 Mobile: 075414908666 (R.O.I. code 0044)

in the downpour. After a long night of fasting in order to receive communion, they were ready for breakfast after Mass. Although the meal had been ordered and paid for in advance, neither the quality nor quantity of food were sufficient for the hungry pilgrims. The reporter commented that ‘in future we would suggest that every pilgrim should go provided with sufficient food for the day and pay nothing in advance for breakfast and dinner.” The procession was held at noon in the continuing heavy rain. Those who had to walk back to Ballyhaunis for the train missed benediction and the presentation of a picture of Our Lady of Sorrows to the shrine. The pilgrims reached Limerick at 2.30 the following morning, probably wet and very hungry, but they were a sign that Knock was beginning to attract the Irish faithful in large numbers.

Brendan McConvery CSsR is editor of Reality and author of The Redemptorists in Ireland 1851-2011.

Goodbye

to Pain!

The

BIOFLOW MAGNETIC BRACELET is natural, inexpensive... and works!

It consistently relieves arthritis, migraine, high blood pressure,tinnitus, cramps, gout, MS, ME, asthma, fatigue, insomnia, PMT, giddiness, and many other complaints.

If it doesn’t help you, we’ll refund your money.

For weight loss, we have seaweed-based

SLIMMING PATCHES

100% natural, and a reliable and proven way to lose 8-16 lbs in a month ...and the weight lost stays off !

Free details / more information on any of the above

Montpelier Products Vicarstown, Co Laois Tel: (057) 862 6896 Estd 1996

a n e v o N 14th Aug. ‘Business Ethics’ 3.00pm Most Rev. Bishop Michael Smith, D.C.L., Bishop of Meath (Meath Diocesan Pilgrimage) 8.30pm Mr. Noel Smyth Workshop 12 noon & 6.00pm 12 & 6pm Mr. Noel Smyth, Businessman and Solicitor, (Business Ethics)

‘ Merciful like

15th Aug. ‘Mary – Icon of God’s Mercy’ 3.00pm REDEMPTORISTS. Fr. Michael & 8.30pm Cusack, CSsR Workshops Fr. Seamus Enright, C.Ss.R 12 & 6pm (Story of the Icon of Perpetual Help) 16th Aug. ‘Compassion for people with addictions’ 3.00pm Sr. Maud Murphy, Sister of St. Louis and native of Knock Workshop Sr. Maud Murphy 12 & 6pm (Mercy and healing for people with addiction) 17th Aug. 3.00pm & 8.30pm Workshop

‘Forgiveness and Healing’ Rev. Ruth Patterson, Director of Restoration Ministries Rev. Ruth Patterson (How to forgive)

18th Aug. 3.00pm & 8.30pm Workshop 12 & 6pm

‘Merciful like the Father’ Fr. John Harris OP Fr. John Harris (Sacrament of Reconciliation)

’ er

the Fath

19th Aug. ‘God’s Word of Mercy’ 3.00pm Dr. Jessie Rogers, Lecturer in & 8.30pm Biblical Studies, St. Patrick’s Maynooth Workshop Dr. Jessie Rogers 12 & 6pm (Where to find Mercy in the Bible) 20th Aug. ‘God’s Love in Family Life’ 3.00pm Most Rev. Bishop Philip Boyce, (Raphoe Diocesan Pilgrimage) 8.30pm Breda O’Brien, Journalist Workshop Breda O’Brien 12 & 6pm (The Joy of Love) 21st Aug. ‘Mercy at Knock’ 3.00pm Most Rev. Kevin Doran, D.D. Bishop of Elphin (Diocese of Elphin) 8.30pm Fr. Richard Gibbons, Rector, Knock Shrine Workshop Mr. Gerard Smyth, St. Vincent de 12 & 6pm Paul Society (Feed the Hungry, Shelter the Homeless) 22nd Aug. ‘On the Mission of Mercy with Christ’ 3.00pm Fr. Richard Leonard, S.J. & 8.30pm Workshop Fr. Richard Leonard, S.J. 12 & 6pm (God’s Mercy in Film)

www.knockshrine.ie/novena-programme-2016/

IRELANDÊS NATIONAL NOVENA IN HONOUR OF OUR LADY OF KNOCK Further information from: Knock Shrine Office, Knock, Co. Mayo, Ireland

t: (094) 9388100 e: info@knock-shrine.ie w: knockshrine.ie

P RI E STH O O D

SUPPORTING PRIESTS EMOTIONALLY AND SOCIALLY

36 AS PASTORS, PRIESTS ARE CALLED UPON TO CARE FOR THE BEREAVED, THE SORROWING, THOSE SUFFERING FROM DEPRESSION OR THE LOSS OF DIRECTION IN THEIR OWN LIVES, BUT WHO CARES FOR THE CARERS?

BY DR PATRICIA CASEY

Priests

are the shepherds of their flocks. They have to confront the terrible tragedies that befall people and minister to them in incomprehensible circumstances. They witness raw suffering and work with people at their most vulnerable. So, who is pastor to the pastors? Who looks out for them and helps them to cope?

There has been significant publicity recently about priests who died by suicide. After all it is believed that religion protects against suicide because it provides a sense of hope, fulfilment and meaning. Yet sadly some feel cut off from that hope through illness or circumstances

REALITY SUMMER 2016

PRIESTS AND HAPPINESS: RESEARCH FINDINGS The work of Father Stephen Rosetti in 2011, a US based clinical psychologist, has shown that the health of priests was slightly better than that of the general population of males in terms of depression, anxiety and stress induced headaches or aches and pains.

Nevertheless, Rosetti found that 46% sought professional psychological help.

As Rosettei identified, the benefits of help-seeking were that “they……bring a level of faith and trust to therapy which is important”. He also commented that “their faith opens them up to a deep level of divine healing. Plus the presence of their Christian spirituality brings a depth of healing of which

the science of psychology has only begun to become aware”. In other words, those who are ordained or members of religious orders, they are enriched by factors that have an impact on the therapy over and above those available to most lay people.

In a later paper (2013) Rosetti identified the elements that increased or diminished happiness generally among priests. These were inner peace, the priest’s relationship to God, a positive view of celibacy, his relationship with the Bishop and celebrating the Sacraments for the People of God. Interestingly, personal piety was not identified. In the same study, he identified the features that decreased happiness and these included narcissism (extreme egos) and dealing with problems

alone. These studies are useful because they might guide bishops and others responsible for the welfare of priests in identifying those who are vulnerable.

isolation with many priests living in singlepriest parishes and having no comradeship with clergy in neighbouring parishes. The dwindling number of priests suggests that these problems will not be easily or quickly resolved.

A further issue relating to the Irish situation is that the country has become less supportive, and, in many instances, increasingly hostile to religion in general and clergy in particular THE IRISH SCENARIO There are a number of demands being placed on the Irish clergy that they have not heretofore witnessed. The first is that their workload is increasing. The number of calls to individual parishioners, the number of school visits, etc. has dramatically increased.

A further issue relating to the Irish situation is that the country has become less supportive, and, in many instances, increasingly hostile to religion in general and clergy in particular.

This antipathy relates in particular to the perceived relationship between priests and child sexual abuse. Finally there is increasing

PROBLEMS As well as loneliness many priests feel overwhelmed by th e p a sto r al an d administrative demands that are placed upon them at parish level. Thus they feel burnt-out and overwhelmed. Those working in parishes where church attendance is low are likely to feel demoralised. Some may tip into a depressive illness, not just ordinary sadness but the condition that requires treatment, sometimes with medication and that may tragically end in suicide if not appropriately managed. In an attempt to stave off these unpleasant emotions, some priests resort to alcohol and over time it may become a problem in itself.

The transition from seminarian to priest may be a stressful time. Caring for souls involves wide pastoral responsibilities,

spanning the spiritual, psychological and interpersonal wellbeing of their parishioners.

This is onerous especially if the newly ordained man is in a parish whose parish priest is not sensitive to the needs of young curate. A mentoring system is available for some but for others it is assumed that the Parish Priest will offer this. Ideally, mentoring should be more structured with a person of the priest’s choosing providing the advice and guidance needed during the first year.

PEERS, PEOPLE AND PARENTS Burnout, alcohol abuse and demoralisation do not have to be the inevitable outcome of working pastorally in difficult times. There are simple yet positive steps that can and should be taken at local and diocesan level to attenuate these.

Support from one’s peers is probably the most important and least valued. Meeting fellow priests socially will allow concerns or problems at parish level to be discussed and sharing the insights into possible solutions can be of enormous assistance. There is evidence that men use avoidance as a way of coping. So turning a blind eye or actively avoiding the issue in the belief that it will go away stores up problems. A good relationship with peers can obviate this if, buttressed by solid advice, the difficulty is confronted and positive steps taken to resolve it. Indeed the scientific literature on coping behaviours suggests that the benefit of support from others stems from providing practical solutions rather than from emotional sharing.

When there is a formal, diocesan peer group established by the bishop, this should be used in a similar manner to confront problems arising at a diocesan level. This will allow the priests to have a voice.

In addition to peers, friends inside and outside the parish, bring different insights to problems. Non-clerical friends can assist priests in identifying and responding pastorally to the problems of the people in the pews with a perspective that is likely to be very different from clerical friends. But friends are more than advisors. At a human level we all need to be cared for, valued

37

P RI E STH O O D

38

and respected and priests are no different although sustaining friendships when one’s life is bedevilled by regular moves can be problematic. The priests relationship with his own family is the most important as it is for anybody.

There is a distinction between peers, friends and confidants and not every peer or friend has attributes that mark out a confident.

These include integrity, an appreciation of the necessity for confidentiality and the psychological insight to accept the boundaries and limitations of that role. Yet every priest needs a person to whom he can unburden himself and share his fears and hopes. For many this confidant is likely to be their spiritual advisor. This person is the lightening rod for the priest’s fears, frustrations, emotions and doubts.

Many priests have difficulties with various aspects of the priesthood – celibacy, loneliness, the 24/7 demands of the priestly vocation, with certain Church teaching and with the style of leadership of the local Bishop, etc. All of these require a spiritual advisor who will assist in managing these in the context of the priestly ideal.

At a more pedestrian level, people need hobbies outside of their work and priests are no different in this regard. Thus, having outlets that might include playing golf, playing cards, cooking, travelling, pilgrimages, etc. are crucially important. But holidays should be diverse and not confined to religion-related activities. Also, during the working day carving out time for oneself is a priority.

The transition from seminarian to priest may be a stressful time STRESS, BURNOUT, DEPRESSION – WHAT ARE THEY? Stress is a general term to describe feelings of persistent tension and pressure. It may be a condition in its own right, it may be a symptom of another mental health disorder such as depressive illness or it may be a short term REALITY SUMMER 2016

appropriate response to a difficult situation. If it persists a doctor should be consulted for advice on managing it.

Burn-out, on the other hand, is the end result of chronic stress. It is a state of mental and physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It was identified in the 1970’s and it was found particularly among those in the pastoral professions. The poem by WB Yates “The old priest Peter Gilligan was weary night and day for half his flock were in their beds or under green sods lay” captures burnout in a very powerful way. You feel drained, tired, exhausted and simply cannot carry on. You may sometimes have physical symptoms such as headaches, tiredness, aches and pains, emotional symptoms (particularly of feeling overwhelmed and trapped) with low motivation and a cynical and negative attitude to life.

Finally, depression is a word to describe low mood and sadness. Depressive illness is a condition that is more than just normal sadness but is also a cluster of symptoms including low mood, lack of enjoyment in life, feeling slowed up, having sleep, appetite and concentration disturbance and sometimes panic attacks.

Feeling of hopelessness and helplessness may lead to suicidal thoughts. This condition requires referral to a general practitioner in the first instance and if it is severe, to a psychiatrist.

Medication may be necessary. Sometimes priests with depressive illness believe that it is indicative of an underlying spiritual uncertainty and seek help exclusively from spiritual sources. This is not likely to be helpful since the depressive perspective that engulfs the person will influence their view of the world.

The role of others, be it family, peers, parishoners or the parish priest in encouraging professional help-seeking when these problems arise cannot be over-emphasised. Clearly practical help and therapy may be beneficial but account must also be taken of the personality of the priest and whether his innate threshold for stress is so low that he is unsuited to the demands of the priesthood.

CONCLUSION Priests are humans with similar needs and aspirations to everybody else. They are also unique because of their vocation to a pastoral and spiritual way of life, which is celibate and mobile. Most do not have any mental health problems but when they do arise every priest should remember the following key words “confidants”, “peers”, “spiritual advisor,” “help-seeking,”“ bishop” Dr Patricia Casey is Professor of Psychiatry at University College and the Mater Hospital Dublin.

Are you enjoying this issue of Reality?

Would you like to receive Reality on a regular basis?

L ANNUATION* P I SUBSCRNLY O

€22/£18

Taking a subscription ensures Reality magazine is delivered to your door every month instead of calling to a church or a shop in the hope that you will find it there.

Each issue is packed with articles to inform, inspire and challenge you as a Catholic today.

A one year subscription to REALITY magazine is just €22 or £18 No extra charge for postage and packing



HOW TO ORDER: Phone 01 492 2488 • Email sales@redcoms.org • Online www.redcoms.org Post Complete the order form below and return it to: Redemptorist Communications, 75 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6 ORDER FORM:

Yes, I would like to subscribe to REALITY.Please send me a copy of ‘VISITS TO THE BLESSED SACRAMENT’ PAYMENT DETAILS | Please tick

OPTION A:

I wish to pay by credit card

FREE!

With every subscription

one of the following options:

VISA

MASTERCARD

Valid from:

LASER

Valid to: CVC

OPTION B:

I wish to pay by cheque

OPTION C:

Existing account holders only:

PLEASE NOTE THAT CHEQUES MUST BE MADE PAYABLE TO “REDEMPTORIST COMMUNICATIONS”

I enclose a cheque for:

Please bill my account at the address below.

My account number is:

Name

Phone

Address

Email Signed

*SUBSCRIPTION RATES ARE: • €22 (ROI) • £18 (NI) • £25 (UK) • €35 (Europe) • €45 (International)

D E V E LO P M E N T I N ACTION

RELIEF IN ALEPPO FR. MICHAEL ZAMMIT OF THE JESUIT RELIEF SERVICES (JRS) RECENTLY VISITED IRELAND TO HIGHLIGHT THE SITUATION IN SYRIA. HE SPOKE TO TRÓCAIRE’S EOGHAN RICE ABOUT HIS RECENT VISIT TO ALEPPO, A CITY THAT HAS SEEN MUCH CONFLICT OVER RECENT YEARS.

Fr. Michael Zammit SJ

40

A child is rescued from under a collasped building in Aleppo

An injured boy stand outside of what remains of his home

REALITY SUMMER 2016

Fr.

Michael Zammit, Regional Director for Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) in the Middle East, visited Ireland in May to speak about the humanitarian crisis facing the Syrian people. Fr. Zammit arrived in Ireland just two weeks after visiting Aleppo, a city that has become well known to people around the world as a front-line city in the Syrian war. Although usually based in Lebanon, Fr. Zammit occasionally travels into Syria to monitor the impact of JRS’s programmes there.

“Before the war going to Aleppo was very easy,” he said.

“Now the road from Homs to Aleppo is cut-off because you have armed elements occupying the area, so you have to take a minor road going out to the east, then further north, and then back to Aleppo. It is the only road into the army controlled part of Aleppo in which around 1.5 million people live. Aleppo has been completely cut off, sometimes for two months at a time. That is an enormous strain on the people because supplies are not getting in and they cannot get out.”

The road into Aleppo offers

many visual reminders of war burnt-out cars and tanks litter the side of the road – but when he entered into the city Fr. Zammit said he was struck by the air of normality. People were going about their days as best they could and for a moment, he says, you could fool yourself into thinking Aleppo is a normal city.

His first reminder that this is not the case came when a vehicle carrying a badly wounded soldier sped by. It was, he says, “at the same time a vision of peace, of normality, and a very stark image of the presence of war.”

“Aleppo used to be a thriving, middle class city,” he says. “It was the industrial heart of Syria.

People had jobs. Nowadays you don’t have a proper electricity supply – people might have one or one and a half hours of electricity a day – you can’t run washing machines or keep a fridge. When I was there, electricity came on at night.

What happens then is that the whole family wakes up. People have showers, run the washing machines and when it’s over they have nothing. You have people who are used to a good standard of life and then all of a sudden

ALEPPO

DAMASCUS

because of the war it disappears.”

The water supply is often cutoff. Last year, people in Aleppo went three months without water. Food is also in very short supply. A key focus of JRS in Syria is providing food.

“Aleppo is divided into 40 zones for food distribution and JRS is in charge of one of the zones,” he says. “We are one of the two Christian organisations in distribution. It is very important that the church shows it is part of this immense work that is being done on a humanitarian basis.”

JRS provide 8,000 hot meals each day to people in Aleppo, as well as running a health clinic that provides primary care to approximately 2,500 people a month.

“In emergency situations the people who suffer most are those who suffer from chronic illness,” he says. “Syria had an excellent health system before the troubles began and now that is in tatters.”

JRS also provides psychosocial support for children in Syria, many of whom are deeply traumatised by what they have seen over the last five years.

JRS’s work in Syria is financially supported by Trócaire, the development and humanitarian agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Supporting the work of JRS is just one way Trócaire has responded to the crisis in Syria.

The organisation is currently providing relief to people affected by the war in seven countries: Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Greece, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia.

In the midst of all chaos that has become people’s everyday lives in Aleppo and throughout Syria, Fr. Zammit says he is draws hope and inspiration from the resilience of the people. Despite living through the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, they are determined to provide for their families and survive as best they can.

“It is incredible to see how people can be resilient,” he says.

“The wish to live is extremely strong. People who could have left have left. The people who remain are people who can’t leave or can’t find lodging elsewhere, but the people who are there live and live with a smile. It is incredible.”

Carrying of what is left of his belongings

41

Children share dinner at a refugee camp

Aleppo today

COMMENT REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ

CHERISHING ALL THE NATION’S CHILDREN?

IN THE HUNDRED YEARS SINCE THE EASTER RISING, WE HAVE BECOME A MUCH WEALTHIER SOCIETY, BUT ALSO A MORE UNEQUAL ONE. ARE THE POOR, THE YOUNG AND THE DISADVANTAGED PAYING A DISPROPORTIONATE SHARE OF THE COST OF RECOVERY?

42

The centenary of the 1916 rising raises fundamental questions about the direction in which our society is developing, one hundred years later.

“The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman.

The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien Government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past”.

Not only has the Irish Republic failed to provide “equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens,” but it has continued to foster the differences which divide “a minority from the majority.”

Over the past one hundred years, we have certainly become a much wealthier society, but also a much more unequal society. The “happiness and prosperity” which the proclamation resolved to pursue has not been available to many.

Even during the recent Celtic Tiger years, when some came to experience a lifestyle way beyond anything the leaders of the Rising could have dreamt of, others remained locked in poverty, homelessness and hopelessness.

During those Celtic Tiger years: •the number of homeless people doubled

REALITY SUMMER 2016

•the number of households on social housing waiting lists more than doubled •our prisons became more overcrowded than ever before •one in nine children still remained in consistent poverty; •thousands of poor families and homeless people lived in slum conditions in private rented accommodation which was unfit for human habitation.

•people continued to die prematurely because of poverty and to suffer unnecessarily from lack of access to appropriate medical services, such as cancer services, maternity services, cystic fibrosis services, services for stroke victims, psychiatric services.

“Solidarity” was a term that disappeared and was replaced by the term ‘individual responsibility.’ We were encouraged to grab a share of the wealth being created. Hundreds of thousands of people came into Ireland seeking employment in order to get a slice of that wealth and succeeded. Those who were left behind were considered lazy, wasters, and undeserving. The idea of sharing that wealth with

them seemed absurd. They were a drain on the country’s finances which could otherwise be put to productive use. Charity, not welfare, was the appropriate response to them.

The term ‘solidarity’ only came back into existence when the recession began and then it came to mean that the poor too must shoulder some of the burden!

While everyone experienced a reduction in income, those who took most of the pain were people who were already impoverished and marginalised.

•Despite the fact that a persistently high percentage of young people (19%) were neither in employment, education or training, welfare payments for young people were reduced to €100 per week and funding for youth services was cut by 30%.

• Fu n d i n g f o r t r av e l l e r education was cut by 86.6% and for Traveller accommodation by 85%.

•One in three children experienced enforced deprivation of basic items such as good clothing, heat and nourishing food.

•Every morning, 300 people

queue up at Br. Kevin’s food centre in Dublin for breakfast and over 500 turn up for dinner.

Br. Kevin has had to open a special area for families to bring their children to be fed.

•Many schools report children coming hungry to school each morning.

•8,000 children, who have been referred to the HSE with suspected abuse, neglect or welfare concerns, are still waiting to be allocated a social worker.

•Women’s Aid received more than 16,000 reports of domestic violence against women and almost 6,000 reports of abuse of children in 2014. Their funding was cut by 20%.

My image of Ireland is of four cars driving towards a destination called “more wealth.”

The people in the first three cars are focussed on getting their cars to go as fast as possible, so that they can reach this - unreachable - destination as quickly as possible.

But the fourth car is stuttering along, falling further and further behind the other three cars. No matter what they do, the people in the fourth car cannot get it to go any faster, indeed it is slowing down all the time.

But the people in the first three cars are so intent on getting to their destination as quickly as possible that they have forgotten about those in the fourth car.

A true republic would sell the four cars and buy a bus.

GOD’S WORD THIS SUMMER SEVENTY OTHERS Luke is the only Gospel JULY writer to tell us that Jesus sent out seventy (or seventy-two) disciples to TH announce his coming to 14 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME proclaim the approach of the Kingdom of God. Today’s Gospel falls into two parts - the commissioning the disciples, and their report of the mission’s success. This story looks forward to the mission of the Church after the resurrection. Proclaiming the Kingdom of the Messiah did not end with the preaching of Jesus. It continues into the time of the Church and Luke has devoted a book to describing it (the Acts of the Apostles) which is as long as Gospel itself.

The key to the Gospel are its opening words about the abundance of the harvest and the

fewness of the labourers. In the climate of Palestine, grain crops ripen in the late spring.

The harvest has to be gathered quickly before it is burnt up in summer heat. On small family farms, all hands were needed. On larger estates, labourers were hired each day to make up the labour force (see Matthew 20:1-16).

This note of urgency can be observed in the instructions given to the disciples. They are to travel light, unburdened by excess baggage.

Even essentials like a haversack or sandals are forbidden. They are not to stop along the way for casual conversation. They are to travel as defenceless messengers, trusting on the goodness of those who hear the message for food and shelter, ‘for the labourer deserves his wages’. Where they are made welcome, they will do exactly what Jesus does – eat the food put before them, heal the sick and

announce in simple words the approach of God’s reign.

When the messengers return, they report the astounding success of their mission.

Jesus replies that he has seen Satan ‘fall like lightening from heaven’. Luke is emphasising an important truth here – creation is no longer under the power of evil. The language of this verse is borrowed from the prophet Isaiah, who used it to describe the end of the evil Empire of Babylon: ‘How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!’ (Isa 14:12).

WHICH WAS NEIGHBOUR? JULY The opening lines of the gospel provide the setting for the parable of the Good Samaritan. Ranking 15TH SUNDAY IN commandments in order ORDINARY TIME of imp or t ance wa s common among teachers belonging to the Pharisee movement. Some took a rigorous line, holding that even the smallest commandment had to be observed in all its rigour. Others, like the great Rabbi Hillel of Galilee, who lived a short time before Jesus, took a more generous view. Hillel once told a prospective convert that the entire Law could be summed up as ‘do not do to another what is hateful to you. Everything else is commentary. Go and learn.’ In his answer to the lawyer, Jesus identifies himself with Hillel’s generous approach.

The lawyer, needing to score a point, presses on with a new question – ‘but who is my neighbour?’ Jesus refuses to go down the road of defining a neighbour. Instead, he chooses the path of story or parable that will lead the questioner to draw the obvious conclusion.

The steep road from Jericho to Jerusalem was about twenty miles long. Jerusalem is 3,000 feet above sea-level, Jericho 600 below, and the road passed through desert for most of its way. Robbers lurked in the wadis or desert ravines, waiting for an unsuspecting traveller.

Two people in quick succession come upon the injured man. Both belong to the temple hierarchy of Jerusalem. Levites were the priestly tribe who were consecrated by birth to the temple service. One branch, who could trace descent from Aaron, brother of Moses, had the right to offer sacrifice: the other Levites performed lesser tasks like lighting the lamps, stoking the fire and mounting the guard. The first to pass is a priest. If he were on the way to the temple, then he a dilemma: priests were forbidden to touch dead bodies, even of their nearest kin. If our priest arrived at the temple in a state of ritual impurity, he would lose his turn. The third passer-by is a Samaritan. Jews regarded them as dangerous renegades. Although they had their own version of the Law, they also once had a rival temple. Jesus’ audience would scarcely have expected to be taught a lesson

in neighbourliness by one of them, but it is this outcast who spontaneously responds with kindness to the plight of the injured man. He bandages his wounds, pouring on cleansing wine and soothing oil. He does even more. He takes him to an inn and looked after him. An inn in Palestine was usually a large courtyard with space to spread a bed-roll and stable a donkey or camel. Even then, his kindness is not ended. As he leaves, he gives the inn-keeper two days’ pay to provide for the needs of the injured man and promises to repay anything over and above that on his return.

Jesus now springs the trap of the parable on the lawyer: he has to choose the best example of neighbourliness from the three.

The hated word ‘Samaritan’ might have stuck in his throat. Like Hillel, Jesus simply says, ‘go and do the same yourself.’

03

10

Today’s Readings Isaiah 66:10-14 Galatians 6:14-18 Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

Today’s Readings Deuteronomy 30:10-14 Colossians 1:15-20 Luke 10:25-37

God’s Word continues on page 44

43

GOD’S WORD THIS SUMMER CHOOSING THE BETTER PART This very short Gospel tells a charming human story of hospitality and 16TH SUNDAY IN frustration. The two ORDINARY TIME sisters, Martha and Mary, are sketched in to the story in a lively fashion. Martha, the organiser, bustles around preparing a meal for unexpected guests. Feeding thirteen men with appetites sharpened by a day on the road would set a challenge to the best housekeeper. There is no doubting her frustration when, looking around for her sister to help, she finds her sitting among the men. Martha however infringes one of the basic rules of hospitality by involving a guest in a family squabble. Jesus’ reply is intended to soothe her. Note how he repeats her name and praise her bustling around. One of my scripture teachers once suggested that the

best translation of Jesus’ words to Mary (‘few things are necessary, indeed only one’) for an Irish audience might be, ‘look, we’ll just take a cup of tea in our hand!’

This little story never ceases to fascinate and even puzzle readers. Some find in Jesus’ remark, that Mary has chosen the better part, praise for the contemplative life of prayer over the active life. Another interpretation, for which we are indebted to women biblical scholars, is that the story reflects the situation of women in the life of Jesus and in the early church. Its key is in the first words we hear about Mary: ‘she was sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to him speaking.’ ‘Sitting at the feet’ of a teacher was a way of saying someone had become a disciple of a rabbi.

Mary, like other women in the Gospel story, has chosen to become a disciple of Jesus and the disciples’ first duty is to learn from the teacher. Jesus welcomed the discipleship of women. He did not send them off to the

kitchen, or expect them to keep their place apart from the male disciples. Luke may have included it in his Gospel as a reminder that women’s place in the church is not confined to making and serving meals. They are called first and foremost to be disciples, to sit at the feet of the Lord and to listen to the Word.

This is the better part and it will not, and cannot, be taken from them.

This story, however, is not a ‘put down’ of Martha. A church made up only of Marys might quickly lose its sense of mission, its care for the everyday humdrum tasks that need to be done. A guest might well be flattered by someone clinging to their every word, but they still need something to eat, even it is ‘only a cup of tea in our hand.’

LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY! Luke devotes a great deal JULY of time to the prayer of Jesus in his Gospel. Jesus is the best model of how to pray, as well as a great 17TH SUNDAY IN teacher of prayer. Today’s ORDINARY TIME Gospel combines both of these aspects: when the disciples see Jesus at prayer, they ask him to teach them how they should pray.

Jesus responds to their request by teaching them a prayer. We normally use the Our Father in Matthew’s form, so Luke’s version can seem strange. The differences are not really very great. Luke’s form is shorter than Matthew’s more polished version, but it may be closer to what Jesus himself originally taught the disciples.

The prayer is followed by a short parable about a neighbour who won’t take no for an answer. A couple of details about houses in rural Galilee might make the parable clearer.

Only the very rich had separate bedrooms:

most families usually spread their sleeping mats on a raised platform in the living room, and curled up close to one another for a night’s sleep. When bed-time came, the family’s one lamp was extinguished. Relighting it from the embers of the cooking fire outside was a chore. The door was fastened with a heavy wooden bar and the key was an unwieldy object.

A visitor knocking after bed-time was unwelcome. Getting up to open the door meant clambering over sleeping children and babies, and opening the door in the dark was no easy task. One can imagine Jesus’ hearers smiling at the stupidity of a neighbour, who would bring such chaos and expose himself to gossip. But this man is not easily put off. His incessant knocking will awaken the children, not to mention any dog or neighbour within earshot. With a bad grace, the man of the house gives him a loaf, not for friendship’s sake, but just to get rid of him.

The third part of the Gospel takes keywords from the parable and makes them an

instruction on prayer. Prayer is asking; it is searching: if necessary, it is even banging the door until God hears you. Since this homely parable, although true to life, runs the risk of presenting God as a grudging giver, Jesus adds two little examples of fatherly concern that hark back to the opening word of the prayer – Abba – the intimate word for addressing one’s father. Fathers don’t play dangerous games with their children, giving them stones instead of bread, or dangerous snakes or scorpions for eggs or fish. The message is clear – if we call God Abba, then he will give us not just what we ask for but will even share the life of his spirit with us.

JULY

17

44

24

REALITY SUMMER 2016

Today’s Readings Genesis 18: 1-10a Colossians 1: 24-28 Luke 10: 38-42

Today’s Readings Genesis 18:20-21, 23-32, Colossians 2:6-14 Luke 11:1-13

EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY Most memb ers of the early Christian community were city 18TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME dwellers of the Roman Empire. Some were at the bottom of the social ladder as slaves and labourers. A very few may have been born closer to the top. Some of them were managing to climb the ladder by dint of hard work and ambition. This may be why St Luke devotes so much space to describing Jesus’ attitudes to wealth.

At the centre of today’s Gospel is a parable about ambition. It is introduced by a short and rather sharp exchange with someone trying to embroil Jesus in a family dispute about a will. According to Jewish law, the eldest son received double of what the other sons received from their father’s will.

Jesus gives a rather stern warning about

the danger of avarice of any kind. There is a similar warning in today’s first reading. For Jesus, wealth is dangerous, because it lulls the wealthy person into a false sense of security that life is made secure by what you own.

The tale of the rich land-owner is one of the more chilling parables of Jesus. Luke’s parables invite us to enter the inner world of the speaker by revealing his inmost thoughts through a dialogue between himself and his ‘soul.’ Jewish law would ordinarily have forbidden a farmer to go back over a field or a tree that had been harvested. Sheaves of grain or unpicked fruit belonged by right to the poor and the landless. Noticing that his barns are unable to hold this year’s bumper harvest, the landowner begins to talk to his “soul” or to ‘think out loud.’ He makes plans for the future. New barns are needed that will hold an even bigger harvest. On the proceeds, he will be able to retire, pay a steward to look after the running of the

farm and ‘eat, drink and be merry.’ This phrase is a borrowing from the Book of Ecclesiastes (8:15). He has omitted one vital element from his calculations however: no one knows how long a lease they have on life. This man is destined to die in the coming night and who will own the property then?

This serves as link to the opening challenge about inheritance rights and puts them into a different perspective. A similar challenge faces the prosperous Christians of Luke’s community, and today’s reader: how can a person become rich in the sight of God?

LOOK OUT To d a y ’s Gospel continues the theme of last Sunday’s. It is a rather complex little 19TH SUNDAY IN collection of different ORDINARY TIME kinds of sayings of Jesus.

It begins with a word of consolation and comfort to offset any sense of discouragement the hard word addressed to the rich fool may have struck in us. In the battle for possessions, the followers of Jesus ought to remember they are called to inherit the kingdom of God. With such a promise, it is possible walk the radical path that puts material possessions into a proper frame.

The move towards the first parable is rather abrupt. The disciples of Jesus are to be like servants waiting the return of their master from a wedding feast. The first disciples of Jesus believed he would return to them in a very short time. Luke seems more convinced that the second coming will not take place so soon. Genuine servants will

have a watchful attitude, ready to open if the Master returns unexpectedly. There is a twist in the parable: one might have expected the servant to welcome the master and serve his meal. In this parable, it is the master who puts on an apron and serves the servants.

Another example of watchfulness is the householder who has heard he is in line for a visit for a burglar: only a fool would take no precautions. The disciple of Jesus who believes his return is at hand but at an unspecified date, must learn to live with the same kind of watchfulness.

Peter’s question, ‘is this meant for us or for everyone?’ signals another change in direction. Jesus gives another example of two servants. One is faithful to the commission given him, caring for the household and treating his fellow-servants well. The other takes advantage of the apparent delay of the master to establish himself as a petty dictator.

He will be exposed however when the master returns unexpectedly, and demands an account of him. Luke probably intended to

aim this parable at leaders of the church in a particularly sharp manner. They are not placed in authority for the sake of their own ambitions but to be at the service of their brothers and sisters.

The final parable develops this idea a little further. One servant may understand perfectly well what is required of him, but due to laziness or thoughtlessness, never quite gets around to doing what is required. Another may have missed the point completely. The question is how will they be judged when the Lord comes? The Gospel ends with a powerful summary that needs little by way of comment: when a person has been given a great deal on trust, much will be expected of them.

JULY

31

AUGUST

07

Today’s Readings Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23 Colossians 3:1-5,9-11 Luke 12:13-21

Today’s Readings Wisdom 18:6-9 Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 Luke 12:38-38

God’s Word continues on page 46

45

GOD’S WORD THIS SUMMER CASTING FIRE ON EARTH Jesus has been preparing his disciples for what lies ahead when they reach Jerusalem.

Today’s gospel TH 13 SUNDAY IN can be divided into two ORDINARY TIME fairly distinct parts. In the first, Jesus gives expression to his deepest desires and in the second, he prepares his followers for the uncertainty and shaking of their faith’s foundations that lies ahead.

There are two clear images in the first section – the blazing fire cast on the earth and the unique baptism that lies ahead for Jesus. ‘I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it was already ablaze.’ This is a mysterious saying. St Luke uses the symbol of fire in two quite different senses. Sometimes fire is a symbol of divine judgment. At other times, it represents the Holy Spirit, e.g.

46 descending on the disciples at Pentecost

AUGUST

14

HOW MANY WILL BE SAVED? Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem, the place of death and resurrection. The question someone from 21ST SUNDAY IN the crowd asks him, ‘will ORDINARY TIME only a few be saved?’ has caused difficulties for many Christians down the ages. Many people were asking that question in the time of Jesus.

Notice, first of all, that Jesus does not answer the question in the way in which it is asked.

He simply advises the questioner to strive to enter by the narrow door. This suggests a crowd trying to crush through a narrow opening that will not admit every one. The parable that follows will put the question into a new light.

The language of the parable, about people knocking on the door after the master has locked it, recalls the parable of the Nineteenth Sunday. The Master of the house has got up and locked the door. The parable develops into an argument between the Master and

as tongues of fire. When a Samaritan town refuses to receive Jesus and his disciples, James and John wonder should they command fire to fall from heaven and consume them (Luke 9: 54). Jesus refuses the offer, but there are other places in the Gospel where he himself uses fire as a symbol of the coming judgment.

It is not a destructive judgment, however, but a life-giving one in which the fire of the Spirit will renew the face of the earth. He speaks, too, of a baptism he must receive, and how he is in ‘great distress’ until he has received it. Baptism here is not some kind of a religious ritual like the baptism of John.

The Greek word baptizo literally means to dip, submerge or even perhaps, to drown.

Jesus will be submerged in the waters of suffering and death in his passion. He must abandon himself to it totally, like a person being drowned in deep waters. The prospect is one that fills him with anguish and distress.

The second half of the gospel concerns the

AUGUST

21

REALITY SUMMER 2016

those who stand on the other side of the locked door and insist on their right to be admitted. Luke is suggesting they are Jesus’ Jewish contemporaries (‘we once ate and drank in your company, you taught in our streets’). That is not sufficient to guarantee entrance to the feast, for the Master does not know them.

Luke now draws an even sharper contrast.

Those who have failed to gain admission to

disciples. If Jesus is to face death, they must be ready to face division and opposition, even from their own families. That is the cost they must pay for following him. Jesus’ birth was announced by angels as the beginning of a new era of peace for people of good will: the old man Simeon glimpsed the other side when he said: “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed (Luke 2:34).” These divisions will be experienced even more painfully after his death by those who remain faithful to him. Families will be divided painfully over their allegiance to Jesus the Messiah.

Today’s Readings Jeremiah38:1-2, 4-6, 8-10 Hebrews 12:1-5 Luke 12:49-53

the feast will see the great figures of Israel’s history (e.g. Abraham, the prophets) at table.

To their surprise, the door will be opened to admit an even greater crowd, this time foreigners from the four points of the compass who will take their places with the ancestors of Israel at table. Only now are we getting the answer to the question asked at the beginning. The number of those who are saved will not be small. The feast is open to all nations, but those who presumed they were entitled to be there might find there is no place available. From the beginning of his Gospel, Luke has played on the theme of how the Kingdom of God as a gracious gift overthrows all our presuppositions and expectations. As Mary sang in her Magnificat, God puts down the mighty from their thrones and raises up the lowly, fills the starving and sends the rich away empty.

Today’s Readings Isaiah 66:18-21 Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13 Luke 13:22-30

THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER 6, JULY/AUGUST 2016

HOW TO BEHAVE AT A PARTY The setting for today’s Gospel is yet another of those AUGUST meals Luke loves so much. Omitted is a brief account (verses 2-6) of the cure of a man suffering from dropsy. If the Pharisees are watching Jesus to find something to criticise in his behaviour, they find it IN 22ND SUNDAY E in his Sabbath healing of this man.

M ORDINARY TI He is watching them too, however, observing their behaviour as guests. Seating at formal meals in Jesus’ day was rigorously observed. It made clear a person’s place in society.

To be placed near the host and the guest of honour was a mark of distinction. To have to yield your seat in favour of someone else was not just a momentary embarrassment, or the inconvenience of having to find a place as the table filled up. It also meant loosing face before friends and neighbours. The jostling of the guests for the best places draws from Jesus what looks like a piece of shrewd advice for a would-be social climber: it is better to be invited to move up a place than to move down, because you will probably go even further down than you deserve! Jesus’ words would have been familiar to his Pharisee critics as they echo similar advice in the Book of Proverbs: ‘Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told, "Come up here," than to be put lower in the presence of a noble’ (Prov 25:6-7).

It is rounded off with another echo of Luke’s constant theme that the Kingdom of God will radically change our social position: those with an exalted sense of their own importance will be humbled, but the humbled will be raised up.

If the advice about choosing a place at table is worldly and clever, the advice to the host about how to compile a guest list looks like social suicide! Social life for most people turns on the principal of reciprocity – you invite me, I return the invitation. Dinner parties provide excellent opportunities for networking your way up the social ladder. Jesus’ advice undercuts that: when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind – in other words, the excluded. This kind of social networking only makes sense in the Kingdom of God. This might also reflect the ideal of the Christian Eucharist when slaves sat down at table with masters, poor labourers with merchants. It is good training for the last great feast to which we are all invited, the feast of the kingdom of God.

28

SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 4 ACROSS: Across: 1. Gibbet, 5. Danube, 10. Templar, 11. Satanic, 12. Tang, 13. Mason, 15. Skye, 17. Tut, 19. Cleric, 21. Yanked, 22. Candles, 23. Alcott, 25. Silver, 28. Yam, 30. Spam, 31. Bolas, 32.

Unit, 35. Shih-Tzu, 36. Adamant, 37. Attila, 38. Stylus.

DOWN: 2. Immense, 3. Bull, 4. Threat, 5. Despot, 6. Nuts, 7. Bangkok, 8. Static, 9. Screed, 14.

Sundial, 16. Picts, 18. Oasis, 20. Cat, 21. Yes, 23. Assess, 24. Chariot, 26. Vanuatu, 27. Rotate, 28.

Yoruba, 29. Macaws, 33. Étui, 34. Mary.

Winner of Crossword No. 4 Assumpta Gray, 23 Broughton St, Dundalk

ACROSS 1. The highest peak in Turkey, possible resting place of 21D. (6) 5. Relating to apes or monkeys. (6) 10. Cutting tooth. (7) 11. The most populous country in Africa. (7) 12. The most extensive mountain range within Europe. (4) 13. Semi-nomadic people of Kenya and Tanzania. (5) 15. Flightless bird of South America. (4) 17. Head movement indicating assent or greeting. (3) 19. Birthplace of St. Francis. (6) 21. Former students or a school, college or university. (6) 22. European principality. (7) 23. Roman god of fire and metalworking. (6) 25. Traditional Japanese garment. (6) 28. The Supreme Being. (3) 30. Appendage or a human or animal. (4) 31. Skeletal components. (5) 32. Flat and smooth. (4) 35. Blade used by a surgeon. (7) 36. Declare public support for a candidate. (7) 37. Existing but not yet developed. (6) 38. Improve the hardness and elasticity of steel. (6)

DOWN 2. FInstructions for dishes. (7) 3. Dry biscuit for a baby. (4) 4. The apeman aka Lord Greystoke. (6) 5. Fictional sailor of the 1,001 Nights. (6) 6. The three wise men who visited Jesus. (4) 7. The first of the three Biblical patriarchs. (7) 8. Breakable container or sweets, small toys, or both. (6) 9. Japanese horseradish. (6) 14. Son of David and wife king of Israel. (7) 16. Child brought by 7D as a sacrifice to God. (5) 18. Assert that something is the case. (5) 20. An olde pub. (3) 21. Boat built by Noah. (3) 23. A small piece of luggage. (6) 24. Brazilian dance for two. (7) 26. The front of a coin. (7) 27. Snow leopards and Imperial weights. (6) 28. Drinking vessel with a stem and base. (6) 29. Disown allegiance to one's own country and reside in another. (6) 33. Part of a church that is shaped like a half-circle. (4) 34. The first human. (4)

Entry Form for Crossword No.6, July/August 2016 Name:

Today’s Readings

Address:

Ecclesiasticus 3:17-20, 28-29 Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24 Luke 14:1, 7-14.

Telephone:

All entries must reach us by August 31, 2016 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. 6, Redemptorist Communications, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin 09 X651

CHRIST COMMUNITY COMPASSION THINK ABOUT IT

M ST

REDEMPTOR I

ISSIONARIE S ISSIONARIE S

VOCATIONS WWW.REDEMPTORISTS.IE VOCATIONS@REDEMPTORISTS.IE

REDEMPTOR I

M ST

SIONAR IES MIS TS

EMPTOR RED IS