30.12.2008
These Negative Attitudes Must Be Challenged - Archbishop of Dublin's New Year Message
In his new year message the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr John Neill acknowledges that a "sense of uncertainty is all around us as 2009 begins." Continuing he says, "Uncertainty and insecurity are closely bound together and the economic indicators offer more of the same week by week. As we face into a new year, these negative attitudes must be challenged."
The full text of the Archbishop's New Year Message follows.
The Archbishop continues "In the uncertainty that is part of life today we need to be reminded that there are things that endure...It is a sad situation when the so called “happiness index” is more about security and wealth, than about love of God and love of neighbour, more about the passing phases of the economy than about the enduring love of God."
Concluding the Archbishop says, "My prayer is that 2009 may be an opportunity for recovering something that can be trusted because it is grounded in God’s purposes rather than in the very weak value systems which we have constructed. In this way, we may begin to grasp hope, in place of the despair being offered all around us."
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Looking forward is always more hazardous than looking back. We can imagine the future, we can guess at it, and we can even try to control it. But at the heart of the future there is always a sense of uncertainty. That sense of uncertainty is all around us as 2009 begins.
Uncertainty and insecurity are closely bound together and the economic indicators offer more of the same week by week. As we face into a new year, these negative attitudes must be challenged.
It is in the middle of a confused, uncertain and insecure world that God’s message in Jesus Christ still speaks clearly. God’s message in Jesus was and still is a message of the value that God places on each person and our responsibility to show love to one another in a manner that has nothing to do with material values or wealth. It is a message of a world where there is enough for all, but where we have a profound duty to ensure that it is shared by all. It is a message that asks huge questions of the economic systems that cause and perpetuate human suffering on a massive scale. It is a message that at the end of the day, it is God’s world and not ours.
In the uncertainty that is part of life today we need to be reminded that there are things that endure. Those that can live without this world’s securities are those who have glimpsed something of the love of God, and discovered God’s power to bring light in places of darkness. It is a sad situation when the so called “happiness index” is more about security and wealth, than about love of God and love of neighbour, more about the passing phases of the economy than about the enduring love of God.
My prayer is that 2009 may be an opportunity for recovering something that can be trusted because it is grounded in God’s purposes rather than in the very weak value systems which we have constructed. In this way, we may begin to grasp hope, in place of the despair being offered all around us.