NEVER ALONE

Made into a people

When Pope Benedict visited his native Bavaria last year, the theme of his visit was: “The believer is never alone”. We are the Body of Christ, called to live and worship as a community. God “willed to make women and men holy and to save them, not as individuals without any bond between them, but rather to make them into a people who might acknowledge him and serve him in holiness”.

The culture of Ireland does not take religion as seriously as it used to do. Faith is not as visible in society as it was. Even though more people go to church every weekend than attend sporting events, that is not reflected in the way our society presents itself or perceives itself. There is, of course, heated debate about controversies and personalities, but little if any serious, reverent reflection on the awesome mystery of God. Religion may enter the public forum only if it is prepared to present itself as another aspect of the social, economic, political mix, part of the cut and thrust that makes up society. Faith is more than that. “The Church must speak of many things: of all the issues connected with the human being, of her own structure and of the way she is ordered and so forth. But her true and… only theme is "God".

The believer can feel alone when it comes to expressing his or her beliefs in any public way, and may even be led to feel that it is inappropriate to do so at all.

The theme of the Pope’s visit to Bavaria was not that the believer should not feel alone or should not act alone, but that the believer is never alone. We are part of a community of faith, the Body of Christ. That community is being built by God. We are sons and daughters of God the Father; we are brothers and sisters of Christ; we are filled with the Holy Spirit. The challenge is to be live as who we are. We are not alone, but our great weakness is that we think of ourselves as alone.

Strengthening our awareness that we are never alone?

We find that community in the celebration of the Eucharist. We come, admitting to God and to one another that we are weak and sinful, all of us in need of the same forgiving love. We come to listen to the Word in which God speaks to us and to meet the Word who became flesh and lived among us. We proclaim that we live by faith in the same Lord. We receive Christ who is the goal and meaning of our lives. This is not just a matter of ‘saying my prayers’. We are God’s family praising and thanking God together. We are sent out from Mass, not just as individuals but as God’s people, to bring good news to one another and to the world.

We find that community in families. Marriage is a sacrament, a sign and instrument, of the love between Christ and the Church – a love of mutual and unreserved self-giving. That love is the context in which all members of the family, husband, wife and children, grandparents, aunts uncles and cousins, can grow as God’s people. There they find the building blocks that can help them bring a deeper sense of community to a society that risks becoming increasingly anonymous and leaving many people isolated. It is all the more necessary for Christian families to know that they are part of a wider community of faith.

We find that community in Catholic schools and colleges and in the whole field of education. A Catholic school is meant to be a living part of a community of faith, part of the effort of the whole Church and of each member to hand on “to all generations all that she herself is, all that she believes”. Education is not first of all a matter for the State. Education is done by parents, families and communities. In their schools they share not just skills and knowledge but a vision of life. They communicate what Pope John Paul called the wonder and amazement at human dignity which is called the Gospel. In enabling the community to do that, teachers and schools have a role of unique importance.

We see the need for that community when we think about the severe lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. That lack forces us to ask what is wrong with the life of our faith community that it does not produce and encourage and foster vocations. We need to pray and to work for vocations. But the fundamental question is not what we need to do, but what we need to be if our parishes are to bear the fruit of religious vocations.

We see the need for that community when we watch western society become increasingly secularised. This does not mean that we should be opposed to scientific and technological advance or to the growth of affluence. It means that we should recognise that the meaning and purpose of every corner of life, every aspect of society is found in the Word through whom all things were made and who is drawing all things to himself ( Jn 1:3, 12:32 ). In the past, the Gospel permeated all of society. In the complex world of today, it can only do so if all believers see their lives in its light. Otherwise we will become like “the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing “ ( Mk 4:18,19 ).

We see the need for that community when we look at all the ways in which we, and the whole human race, fail to live as a family. We need to ask first of all whether our parish is really a ‘welcoming family home’. Do the young, the sick, the new Irish, the new arrivals really feel welcomed and at home among us? Are we conscious that our half-heartedness, selfishness, dishonesty, violence, holding of grudges hurt the community and make it a less credible witness to the Gospel? Do we love the people living in areas plagued by violence and drugs as we love ourselves?

The community to which we belong, in which we are never alone, is founded on the Good News. It looks to the fulfilment of every hope and the overcoming of every evil. It would be a tragedy if our lives failed to help people, including ourselves, to believe God’s promise and to understand that it is everything that our hearts long for. Pope Benedict said to the Irish Bishops: “So often the Church’s counter-cultural witness is misunderstood as something backward and negative in today’s society. That is why it is important to emphasize the Good News, the life-giving and life-enhancing message of the Gospel (cf. Jn 10:10)”.

VATICAN II, Lumen Gentium, 9.

BENEDICT XVI, Address to the Roma Curia, 22 December 2006.

Dei Verbum , 8.

Redemptor Hominis, 10.

JOHN PAUL II, Catechesi Tradendae, 67.

BENEDICT XVI, Address to the Bishops of Ireland, 28 October 2006.

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