Commentary
 

Catholics Becoming Trapped By Illusion To Control Future, Seek Superstitious Practices, Irish Primate Says At Shrine http://www.catholic.org/printer_friendly.php?id=25136&section=Cathcom 8/23/2007Catholic Online KNOCK, Ireland (Catholic Online) – An increasing number of Irish Catholics are becoming trapped by today’s illusion to be able to control one’s life, said the nation’s primate, urging a return to trust in God .In a Aug. 23 homily at Ireland’s national Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Knock, Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh, primate of all Ireland, said that those who suggest that the Catholic Church is “an anachronism, a superstition of bygone days which has been rejected by intelligent Irish people have greatly overstated their case.” Archbishop Brady spoke on the theme "Following Christ in 21st-century Ireland" at the Mass of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the shrine, visited annually by more than 1.5 million pilgrims. Noting that “God is still active in people’s hearts,” the archbishop challenged “disturbing” practices, such as horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, tarot cards, and other acts of clairvoyance and mediums, to see into the future as an “illusion.” Such practices, he added, have “become a whole industry in Ireland,” on the Internet and television, by telephone and in newspapers. He pointed out that more and more Irish people are experiencing stress of “trying to bring a security to their lives that only trust in God can give … to control a future that is ultimately in God’s hands.” Yet, he added, the volatility if international financial markets, the uncertainty of house prices, the fluctuations in the credit, the impact of climate change on the environment and increasing desire to keep up with current fashion all point to the drive for control being “an empty pursuit.” “The truth is that more and more Irish people are becoming trapped by the illusion of being able to control their future completely. They are putting their trust in an illusion, in things that will not satisfy,” he said. The “increasing reliance of people on practices which claim to unveil the future,” he said, puts too many on the path to “colluding with an illusion, promoting a fiction.” “Underlying this trend of future telling is a fear of the future. It is a symptom of the insecurity that lurks behind the seeming confidence of modern Irish culture and life,” Archbishop Brady said. “It is evidence of the failure of a life without God to address the deepest needs of the human spirit.” Many who are claiming to “set Ireland free from the shackles of religious faith in recent years” are silent in the face of realities of today’s nation, he said, point to increases in drug and alcohol abuse, suicide and violent crime, pressure “to work and consume” and worry about financial and future security. “It is not religious faith which is leading people to stress and despair; it is those elements of the new Ireland which are increasingly empty of meaning,” the archbishop stressed. “The land of saints and scholars has become better know as the land of stocks and shares,” he said. “Tragically it has also become a land of increasing stress and substance abuse. And all of this has occurred as the external practice of faith has declined.” The answer, the Irish primate stated, is “Jesus – the way, the truth and the life.” It requires keep our lives focused on Christ in the midst of “an increasingly secular, sometimes hostile culture,” declining church attendance, fewer vocations, restructuring of parishes and loss of church resources that were taken for granted for so long, the archbishop said. He noted that it is appropriate at the Marian shrine to remember the example of Mary as “the perfect disciple today.” “She constantly reminds the church here on earth that nothing is impossible to God, to trust that, in spite of the twists and turns of human history, God’s promise will be fulfilled,” Archbishop Brady said. “Mary,” he said, “reveals to us the essential virtue for those who wish to follow Christ in the Ireland of the 21st century. That virtue is trust.” “Trust in the power of God to do all things. Trust that the word of God is still alive and active in his church in spite of the many earthly challenges which confront us in human terms. Trust is the opposite of fear. Trust is the fruit of perfect love, because perfect love casts out all fear,” he said. He concluded his sermon acknowledging that the confidence of Catholics has been shaken. “But we have not been left abandoned. The truth of Jesus remains the same yesterday, today and forever! Our challenge is to bear witness to that truth more authentically, more convincingly, more faithfully.” He called upon the intercession of our lady of Knock to comfort “the pilgrim people of God.”