CHRISM MASS 2009

ST ANDREW’S CATHEDRAL, GLASGOW

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ

Last Friday I had the privilege of participating in the Episcopal silver jubilee Mass of the Archbishop of Liverpool, an archdiocese that shares with us and Belfast (Down and Connor)  membership of what is called the “North West Triangle”. Each year church leaders from these three cities come together in one or other of them. We have much in common, not only our histories, but the development of our cities at the time of the industrial revolution and the problems faced in the post industrial era.

All three cities show signs of historical social deprivation and all are struggling to overcome what, in our context, we have called “transcending poverties”.  By that one wants to state that poverty is not just a physical reality but also a cultural and spiritual one. 

A conference was held recently in the City Chambers, bearing the title “Poverty Truth Commission” I was invited to attend along with other community leaders. We heard from people who struggle daily in facing the consequences of poverty within their own extended families and communities.

One presentation was very deserving of mention. A group of young people from Ruchazie, in an ecumenical endeavour supported by St Philip’s Parish there and its parish priest, visited Malawi and reported on how they recognised the difference between relative poverty such as we experience in our urban environment and the absolute poverty which exists in many areas of Africa and elsewhere in the world.

However they commented on the joy they had experienced among those who own so little and came home with a new understanding that what was needed was above all the creation of communities, the sharing of common endeavour and the contributing to one another’s support and betterment.

This is of course a vision which is diametrically opposed to our culture which stresses an aggressive individualism, and, in the absence of attainable worldly goods the seeking of a false euphoria fuelled by alcohol and drugs, with the concomitant social evils of prostitution, violence and theft.  These are symptoms of a malaise at the heart of our society which does not lack good people nor noble intentions nor indeed persons in the political field who are dedicated to the task of improving the lot of so many of our fellow citizens, and all this without forgetting the needs of the wider world, needs which we have ourselves as a Church addressed in the course of this Lent with our almsgiving.

In that increasingly recognised as prophetic document Gaudium et Spes, the Fathers of the Council stated: “This Council can provide no more eloquent proof of its solidarity with, as well as its respect and love for the entire human family with which it is bound up, than by engaging with it in conversation about these various problems.”

The leading sentence in the section described as Introductory states: “To carry out such a task, the Church has always had the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel. Thus, in language intelligible to each generation, she can respond to the perennial questions which men ask about this present life and the life to come, and about the relationship of the one to the other. We must therefore recognize and understand the world in which we live, its explanations, its longings, and its often dramatic characteristics.”

Undeniably since the Council there has been an increasing awareness of our global situation. Unrestrained consumption of fossil fuels and the consequent imperilment of the environment are ultimately rooted in a selfish and unbridled capitalism, the further dramatic consequences of which we have witnessed recently in the collapse of international financial institutions.

Time does not allow me this morning to quote extensively from this Council document which I suggest we should all revisit. However there are one of two other statements, which in their confident expression are worthy of quoting in this context:

“Although the world of today has a very vivid awareness of its unity and of how one man depends on another in needful solidarity, it is most grievously torn into opposing camps by conflicting forces. For political, social, economic, racial and ideological disputes still continue bitterly, and with them the peril of a war which would reduce everything to ashes. True, there is a growing exchange of ideas, but the very words by which key concepts are expressed take on quite different meanings in diverse ideological systems. Finally, man painstakingly searches for a better world, without working with equal zeal for the betterment of his own spirit.”

Of course the document wisely reminds us that “while earthly progress must be carefully distinguished from the growth of Christ’s Kingdom”, nonetheless, “the earthly and the heavenly city penetrate each other”.  While this may be  a “fact accessible, perhaps to faith alone”, it is by “pursuing the saving purpose which is proper to her, the Church not only communicates divine life to men, but in some way casts the reflected light of that life over the entire earth.”

Gaudium et Spes continues: “This she does most of all by her healing and elevating impact on the dignity of the person, by the way in which she strengthens the seams of human society and imbues the everyday activity of men and women with a deeper meaning and importance" (Gaudium et Spes, 40)

These words reiterate an important statement in the earlier document on the Church, Lumen Gentium, when speaking of the universal mission of the Church’s members: “Because the very plan of salvation requires it, the faithful should learn how to distinguish carefully between those rights and duties which are theirs as members of the Church, and those which they have as members of human society. Let them strive to harmonize the two, remembering that in every temporal affair they must be guided by a Christian conscience. For even in secular affairs there is no human activity which can be withdrawn from God’s dominion.”

I still have in my mind the memory of that event which I described at the beginning of this homily. I have not seen in these islands for a very long time such a long procession of priests and bishops as attended the silver jubilee of the Archbishop of Liverpool.

They encircled the whole congregation as they made their way in that great rotunda which is Liverpool Cathedral to the central altar. In the main they were secular priests, though they were accompanied rightly by clerical members of religious congregations and institutes of apostolic life.

The main body of priests was, however, what we so often describe as secular.  That reference gives us pause for thought since so often we hear today that the Church has as its adversary secular society.  This is of course not true.

There are secular societies which manifest a greater attachment to religion than does our own country, for example, the United States. The secular world is the field in which we have to plant the Gospel. It is the space in which we build, on faith, the Kingdom of God. 

Our real adversary is the mentality best described as secularist, which in its philosophical form was described by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council as “an ominous doctrine”. It attempts to build a society with no regard whatever for religion, and which attacks and destroys the religious liberty of its citizens.

We, your bishops, have been concerned to expose recent proposed legislation which is conceived in this manner.  A leading Scottish Catholic philosopher has recently been expressing his concerns, quoting a statement by the theologian Jaroslav Pelikan that “the road to Rome has often been the road to the synthesis of faith and intellect which appeared impossible anywhere else.”  Professor Haldane notes, “that road has not yet been closed but is increasingly less well-known.”

He says: “Secular society offers no unifying vision, no deep cultural perspective, no distinctive personal or social values, no enabling conception of the human condition.”

Dear brother priests, I have said enough to underline how important is our task as teachers and leaders within the Catholic community and as such within the community we serve. When today we renew our commitment to priestly service we renew the commitment to read the signs of the times, to hear what our Holy Father Pope Benedict and the bishops have been saying, and to detect the perhaps unspoken questions in the hearts of so many of our faithful parishioners.

How better can I conclude than by repeating again those words we heard in today’s sacred readings, the words of the Prophet Isaiah reiterated by Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth, at the same time understanding their transcending significance in addressing the physical, cultural and spiritual needs of the people whom we have been ordained to serve: “The spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for He has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.”

Amen