The year that has just ended was a remarkable one in many parts of the world. Leaders and regimes which appeared strong and unassailable fell. Economies which seemed powerful showed their internal fault-lines. Men, women and families who felt that their livelihoods and savings were sustainable encountered the drama of a new precariousness.
2011 was a year of change. In many parts of the world, change was the fruitful expressions of ordinary citizens to attain a more just and truthful world, a world respectful of their aspirations and hopes for their children, which the traditional structures of power had failed to achieve. In many parts of the world huge non-violent movements emerged and provoked unforeseen change.
Certainly the power of modern communications contributed to enable true power to be exercised by those who had been systematically and deliberately excluded from power. It is a lesson for all of us that the fundamental aspirations of people for justice and truth can never be suppressed.
Pope Paul VI initiated the World Day of Peace to be celebrated on the first day of each civic year as a reminder to all of us that the peace which is desired by so many for their own hearts, their own communities and indeed for their world will only come when a logic of sheer power or interest or protection of personal or institutional position is replaced by a logic of integrity, honesty and truthfulness.
Pope Paul VI chose the first day of the civic year as a way of opening a dialogue between the message which comes from the Gospel of Jesus and the structures of the world. It was not an attempt to impose a religious point of view but to show how the content of the message of Jesus is one which can be understood by men and women of any worldview and be made real, for the good of the world.
Our society needs such dialogue between faith and life, between reason and faith.
A new situation now exists and this requires a change in the manner of interaction between Church and society. Faith in Jesus Christ cannot be imposed on any individual. When attempts are made to impose faith on a society then the originality of faith is inevitably damaged.
However this does not mean that faith has no contribution to the political or even the economic life of a society. There have been dark moments in the history of the Catholic Church which have been unveiled in recent years. Church leaders have over the years overstepped the boundaries of their legitimate mandate.
Certainly criticism or even rejection of the Catholic Church and what it represents is legitimate. But criticism is different from negative and cynical caricature of faith or spin. Caricature of faith does little to help build up the values in society that endure. By its very nature, spin, can turn into perpetual motion in which there remain few anchors around which to base values. A society which seeks only quick answers is the least apt to identify the values that endure.
John the Baptist announced something that was to be truly significant for human history. His movement created great interest and expectation among people of true faith and created anxiety in those who comprised the religious and political establishment of his day.
"She treasured what she heard but she also pondered what she had heard
and seen in the light of faith."
Yet the epochal event that takes place, as is recorded in today's Gospel reading, seems to be anything but world shattering. The story of Jesus' birth and his mission strangely does not make the chronicles of secular history. His birth goes unnoticed. It is not just the simplicity and lack of any link with power that strikes us, but the very isolation of the event. In Jesus, God takes up abode within our human history and history continues without even taking notice, except within a very small group of those who were on the margins of society. When the shepherds reach Bethlehem even those gathered around this child are puzzled by the news the shepherds bring. Jesus' identity can only be discovered through the eyes of faith. Mary is the one who shows what must be the reaction of the person of faith of any time in history regarding the identity of Jesus and his place in our lives and in our history. She treasured what she heard but she also pondered what she had heard and seen in the light of faith. Renewal of the Church always involves deepening and renewal of our faith and its relevance to our lives. Renewal of the Church must also enable its prophetic voice to stand out uncompromised by the culture of any day.
Eucharist is central to the Christian message. For the Christian, Eucharist is not an optional extra to leading a good life. Eucharist is the focal point for establishing what the good life means: it is a life of communion with Christ and communion with one another. A Eucharistic life-style is not just about outward piety; it is about the fundamental communion of love of the God revealed in Jesus Christ and how that communion of love should be the mark of the Christian community. In the Eucharist we are called to be sharers with the very life of God and then to be uncompromising witnesses to that love in our society. Like the shepherds as they return from Bethlehem we should go out from each celebration of the Eucharist glorifying and praising God through the way we live.
In Ireland the Columbans celebrate Eucharist on the first day of the new civic year, as a community of believers, open to work with men and women of different views confident of their faith that the God revealed in the humble birth of Jesus Christ is a God who cares day by day for the world he created.
We commend all those who are called to leadership in our world, all those who suffer and are alienated in any part of the world, all those groups who courageously work for justice and solidarity even in the face of violent opposition, to the God who will bless and keep us, who will allow his face to shine on us, who is gracious to us in our needs and who alone brings us his peace that endures.
Read more from other Columbans and their reflections. We thank the Columban Ireland website for their articles.