Fr. John Ryan

 

TWENTY FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

26th AUGUST

The bones of the dialogue in the Gospel today are: Lord, open to us. I do not know where you come from. We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our streets. I do not know where you come from.
In this it is possible to see the importance of following Jesus. Having heard what he has to say, we make our choice and then we have to live with the consequences. Will the Lord say I do not know where you come from to modern Ireland? More and more it seems yes - or at least on the public airways that is the impression given.
Two instances come to mind to illustrate this - the first is a report on the evening news programme on Radio One. The day after Reek Sunday, the annual day when pilgrims climb Croagh Patrick, a reporter was interviewed about his experience of the day. He had climbed and spoken to a number of pilgrims he met on the way. Throughout the interview there was a continuous dismissal of the Christian importance of the day and a diminution of the faith aspect of the climb, even though those interviewed by him and heard on the broadcast all referred to their faith in some way or other. For him, however, it seemed more fascinating that it was a place of pre-Christian, pagan relevance and he could recognise (how, I don't know) in his fellow climbers a return to our Celtic pagan roots. This seemed to be ok and even, to use a modern term, cool whereas the Christian, patrician element was just not relevant at all. This even when the Eucharist is celebrated every hour at the summit of Croagh Patrick on the day in question. At no time was he questioned regarding this particular attitude.
It seems to be cool to be pagan or cool to be 'spiritual' once it isn't Catholic. They have heard him teach in the streets but they haven't listened. Will Jesus say I do not know where you come from?
Then there was the great phone-in show - on the Joe Duffy show the topic for discussion and complaint was the behaviour of Irish people in holiday resorts such as Santa Ponza. It seems that the Irish are proving to be embarrassing to their own in the resorts of Europe. Drunkenness, promiscuity, general loudness were all decried by people ringing in, with the most graphic image given being the 29 year old woman who brought her children to the pool at the hotel they were staying in one morning only to find two Irish couples having sex in the pool. There was also an account of an Irish girl having sex with a barman - behind the counter, while the bar was still open for business. Is this the norm? Going by the amount of calls it seems to be a common way of approaching holiday time by a lot of the Irish. The sixties and seventies liberal cry for sexual freedom has a lot to answer for. There is a massive difference between sexual freedom and the flagrant misuse of the gift of our sexuality. There is something radically wrong when people treat each other as objects and the other is simply a means of gaining pleasure. It does not tie in with Jesus' understanding of the other as gift and the wonderful dignity we are called to as children of God, made in his image and likeness. Will he say to those who seem to have lost all sense of dignity and respect for themselves and other, I do not know you.
What amazes me though is the inability (or is it unwillingness) of the 'great' liberal commentators to make the connections that go a long way to explaining why such a major part of our society seems to have gone down the fast track to self-destruction.