Why was Year of Mercy such a disappointment?
The Year of Mercy ended about 18 months ago. It brought blessings to many families and parishes.
But, as far as we can judge these things, it was a failure for the Church in Ireland; it did not bring the renewal of faith and hope we might have expected.
It did not result in great numbers of lapsed Catholics returning to Sunday Mass, the supreme moment and celebration of any true conversion.
Few families returned to family prayer, to worshipping God as a little community of faith. The standard of preaching, generally low, did not improve much.
Nor was there a renewed zeal for evangelisation among either clergy or laity, for a reaching out to lapsed Catholics and to those who have not heard of Christ.
Many of our Catholic institutions and agencies continued along the beaten track, operating according to a greatly diluted sense of what it is to be Catholic and showing little commitment to the mission of the Church.
In terms of deeds of mercy, we saw increased suffering due to family breakdown, a corruption of politics never before seen in Ireland, even under English rule, and ruthless violence on our streets.
Not interested
So what went wrong? Many reasons for the lack of fruits could be given, but one stands out: the Church naively offered mercy to people who saw no need for it and, as a result, had no interest in it.
Their complacent indifference was based on the view that life is just about having a good time, combined with a vague belief that death is the end or, if there is a heaven, we're all going there.
But where did this weird view come from? The complacency is due to powerful factors in our consumer culture but also to serious failures by the Church to confront those factors and expose their errors.
Despite all this, people still need God's mercy, whether they realise it or not. The big issue for the Church, then, is how to awaken in them a desire for it.
God's greatest mercy to us is the gift of salvation, union with himself. It is our perfect fulfilment as human beings, the life of eternal happiness, heaven.
The question of heaven, however, is not just about what happens when we die. It should be every person's most basic concern here and now, as we decide how we live, as we try to make sense of our lives, to confront the meaning of life.
Taken for granted
This is a concern that should be kept constantly before us. But for decades the Church has taken for granted people's faith in eternal happiness, in heaven, largely failing to nourish that faith.
Indeed, since the middle of the last century, it has played down hope of heaven in favour of notions like 3rd world development, justice and peace, building a better world, helping people achieve their "full potential", and so on.
Some of these are important matters and need attention. But the Church's neglect of heaven has been catastrophic. People who forget where they are going, or lose interest in getting there, squander their precious time and end up lost.
Even young children can be taught to have heaven as their primary goal in life - isn't that what we are telling them with stories where the characters live "happily ever after"?
But there also has to be an openness to receive the gift of mercy and eternal life, coming from awareness of our sins and repentance, a serious turning away from sin and towards God who is revealed to us in the mystery of Jesus.
Repentance, of course, raises the issue of judgment. Mercy can be accepted or rejected, and that is a judgment we bring on ourselves. But to proclaim heaven without calling on sinners to repent is to offer fake mercy.
Example of Jesus
Jesus set the example. Throughout his ministry he proclaimed the coming of God's kingdom, salvation, the hope of heaven.
But from the beginning he also called on people to obey the commandments, to repent of their disobedience to God. This was central to his preaching and his parables.
After his resurrection he sent out his Church with the same mission: to preach to all nations "repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Luke 24,47).
Repentance and judgment run right through the preaching of Jesus, the gospels and all Catholic teaching.
Every person on earth faces divine judgment. All speech about God is inadequate, including our way of talking about judgment. But we cannot ignore the truth that we have an essential role to play in our own salvation.
God's respect for human freedom means that he expects our cooperation. To think we will be saved without any effort on our part is the sin of presumption, a sin against hope in God.
To fulfil its mission today the whole Church, all its members, leaders, projects and agencies need to make radical changes in order to refocus on the great task of proclaiming repentance, opening the way to hope and the joy of salvation.
But, as far as we can judge these things, it was a failure for the Church in Ireland; it did not bring the renewal of faith and hope we might have expected.
It did not result in great numbers of lapsed Catholics returning to Sunday Mass, the supreme moment and celebration of any true conversion.
Few families returned to family prayer, to worshipping God as a little community of faith. The standard of preaching, generally low, did not improve much.
Nor was there a renewed zeal for evangelisation among either clergy or laity, for a reaching out to lapsed Catholics and to those who have not heard of Christ.
Many of our Catholic institutions and agencies continued along the beaten track, operating according to a greatly diluted sense of what it is to be Catholic and showing little commitment to the mission of the Church.
In terms of deeds of mercy, we saw increased suffering due to family breakdown, a corruption of politics never before seen in Ireland, even under English rule, and ruthless violence on our streets.
Not interested
So what went wrong? Many reasons for the lack of fruits could be given, but one stands out: the Church naively offered mercy to people who saw no need for it and, as a result, had no interest in it.
Their complacent indifference was based on the view that life is just about having a good time, combined with a vague belief that death is the end or, if there is a heaven, we're all going there.
But where did this weird view come from? The complacency is due to powerful factors in our consumer culture but also to serious failures by the Church to confront those factors and expose their errors.
Despite all this, people still need God's mercy, whether they realise it or not. The big issue for the Church, then, is how to awaken in them a desire for it.
God's greatest mercy to us is the gift of salvation, union with himself. It is our perfect fulfilment as human beings, the life of eternal happiness, heaven.
The question of heaven, however, is not just about what happens when we die. It should be every person's most basic concern here and now, as we decide how we live, as we try to make sense of our lives, to confront the meaning of life.
Taken for granted
This is a concern that should be kept constantly before us. But for decades the Church has taken for granted people's faith in eternal happiness, in heaven, largely failing to nourish that faith.
Indeed, since the middle of the last century, it has played down hope of heaven in favour of notions like 3rd world development, justice and peace, building a better world, helping people achieve their "full potential", and so on.
Some of these are important matters and need attention. But the Church's neglect of heaven has been catastrophic. People who forget where they are going, or lose interest in getting there, squander their precious time and end up lost.
Even young children can be taught to have heaven as their primary goal in life - isn't that what we are telling them with stories where the characters live "happily ever after"?
But there also has to be an openness to receive the gift of mercy and eternal life, coming from awareness of our sins and repentance, a serious turning away from sin and towards God who is revealed to us in the mystery of Jesus.
Repentance, of course, raises the issue of judgment. Mercy can be accepted or rejected, and that is a judgment we bring on ourselves. But to proclaim heaven without calling on sinners to repent is to offer fake mercy.
Example of Jesus
Jesus set the example. Throughout his ministry he proclaimed the coming of God's kingdom, salvation, the hope of heaven.
But from the beginning he also called on people to obey the commandments, to repent of their disobedience to God. This was central to his preaching and his parables.
After his resurrection he sent out his Church with the same mission: to preach to all nations "repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Luke 24,47).
Repentance and judgment run right through the preaching of Jesus, the gospels and all Catholic teaching.
Every person on earth faces divine judgment. All speech about God is inadequate, including our way of talking about judgment. But we cannot ignore the truth that we have an essential role to play in our own salvation.
God's respect for human freedom means that he expects our cooperation. To think we will be saved without any effort on our part is the sin of presumption, a sin against hope in God.
To fulfil its mission today the whole Church, all its members, leaders, projects and agencies need to make radical changes in order to refocus on the great task of proclaiming repentance, opening the way to hope and the joy of salvation.