Thirtieth of Year A
October 2011
Up to the nineteen seventies or eighties Ireland was a very very Catholic country.
Yet we have all seen, in the reports which were sparked by the emergence of child abuse scandals, that something was very wrong in Irish society. The faults of the Catholic Church have been much publicised but this was only the tip of the iceberg highlighted by the media. The problem went much deeper. At Government, Church and family levels, where injustice and abuse were concerned, the norm was ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.’
Yet Ireland was deeply Catholic to the extent that being Irish and being Catholic were synonymous. Ireland was so deeply involved in being Catholic that I think it missed being truly Christian. I think that the fall away from the Catholic Church in Ireland as in France, Germany, Austria etc. is not so much due to the scandals as to Catholics realizing that they can qualify as good Catholics and yet not be good Christians.
Many people have fallen away from, and continue to fall away from, institutionalised Christianity but that does not necessarily mean that they are not Christian in the basic sense of the word - that is loving God and ones neighbour.
In Jesus’ time Judaism amounted to strict adherence to a code of actions and observances as a means to salvation. It is said that there were 613 precepts in the Old Testament, together with many hallowed customary practises. These precepts and practices were often abusive and unjust especially towards the poor, the sick, the handicapped and anyone who happened to fall foul of these precepts, which at that time included the vast majority of Galileans. Jesus of Nazareth largely ignored these precepts and focused on God and his neighbour. This is the main reason why he was in constant conflict with Pharisees, Sadducees and temple priests who although they were good Jews were not necessarily good people.
This is the message of today’s Gospel reading.
The one distinctive mark of our Catholic Christianity must be our concern, care , support and love for each other.
Our pre-Vatican 11 Catholic church was loaded with other distinctive marks of our Catholic identity. Yet this approach has been found seriously wanting and Catholics have voted, and continue to vote, with their feet.
Loving God is something very difficult to pin down - how do you know you love someone you have never met or seen. The one litmus test for knowing if I love God or not is my attitude to my neighbour. By neighbour the Bible means anyone of any race, colour, age, nationality, language, economic or social status that I meet. How I treat all of these (and not just some) will tell me if I love God or not, for as far as I and you are concerned, and for all practical purposes, my neighbour is my God.
Let us now sit quietly for a moment and try to decide if I really love God or not.