Fr. John Ryan

 

PENTECOST

27th May 2007

 

It is 9.30am on Saturday morning. There is a special Morning Ireland programme on the radio discussing the situation after the election. Not all the seats are filled yet - some counts re-commence this morning. It looks like a Fianna Fail led government again with Bertie Ahern Taoiseach for a third term.
One of the focal points of discussion seems to be the surprise fall in the left vote and the commentators are trying to analyse why this has happened. One of the reasons given is that the younger voters (late twenties and early thirties -especially those living in the commuter belt) held with the outgoing government (well the Fianna Fail part of it anyway) because they trust them to continue the economic success we have enjoyed so long. They were not interested in the alternative left positions and don't seem to be focused enough on quality of life issues at this stage.
No doubt the analysis will continue today, tomorrow and for days to come. The negotiations for the formation of a new government will begin in earnest when the last seat is filled. We will get back to normality with the promise-filled electioneering over and the wider picture of the world will be presented to us again by the media, or at least, what they deem to be the wider picture!
In the midst of all this we have been celebrating the Easter season and have reached the Feast of Pentecost, the great feast of the Holy Spirit and the marking of the beginning of the Church, the Spirit-filled People of God. In the light of the Easter and Pentecostal message there is no need for us to turn left to find the quality of life which so many political commentators are so concerned for in the light of the demise of the left. The person of Jesus Christ calls us to real quality of life - I came that you may have life and have it to the full - in living by his command of love we attain a quality of life that worldly manifestos and contracts cannot give. The contract which matters, the covenant with the people that makes the greater difference is the covenant with the crucified and risen Christ and with his Spirit, the Advocate sent by the Father after Jesus had returned to him.
True living of the Gospel brings quality of life. It allows us to become detached from the trappings of the world while living in the world and motivates us to reach out to those without and come to their aid so that they too can share in the riches of Jesus Christ, if the political commentators wish to see a true quality of life in this wonderful country of ours then I would suggest that they might offer a prayer today for all our politicians asking the Lord to soften the hearts that have shut his message out and allow the Spirit of God to speak, allow the Spirit of God to lead guide and inspire us away from a culture of selfishness, greed and individualism that has steadily crept in and taken over as God has been pushed to the peripheries.
We, the People of God, can be a driving force for that change. Open to the Spirit, the faith community can let the left, the right and the centrist see that the great manifesto of Christianity can make the crucial difference.