11.11.2019
‘The Truth Will Make You Free’ – Remembrance Sunday in St Patrick’s Cathedral
“There is no room for neutrality in the conflict between truth and falsehood,” the congregation at the National Service of Remembrance in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, heard yesterday (November 10). Delivering his sermon on Remembrance Sunday, Canon David Oxley said that we had been forcibly reminded of the importance of truth and honesty in public discourse in recent years.
“The cynical disregard of truth, the deliberate manipulation of information, the poisoning of the well of knowledge, has become endemic at the highest levels and has proved corrosive and destructive of our society,” he stated. “Social media and computerised wizardry may make this easier to do – so speaks the Luddite – but the motivation to deceive comes from within the darker corners of the human heart, where greed, lust and hatred fester.”
Speaking at the service which was attended by President Michael D Higgins and Mrs Higgins along with many veterans of past conflicts, Canon Oxley said that whatever about the politics of national neutrality, from a moral point of view it was hardly possible to remain neutral in the face of the evil represented by fascism. Many Irish men and women took sides and opposed Nazism in arms and their sacrifice was rememberd during the service, he stated.
He added that St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, described the spiritual armour in which the Christian goes out to engage the power of evil whch includes ‘the belt of truth’. He also cited a Church of England prayer from 1940 for use in time of war: ‘Make faith to prevail over fear, and righteousness over force, and truth over the lie’. “There is no room for neutrality in the conflict between truth and falsehood. Truth is our King, and the truth shall make you free,” Canon Oxley concluded.
During the service, which was led by Dean William Morton in the presence of Archbishop Michael Jackson, President Higgins along with Lieutenant Colonel Ken Martin, President of the RBL Ireland, laid wreaths at the war memorial in the north transept. The Exhortation was read by Major Brian Duffy, Chairman of the RBL. Readings were given by the Polish Ambassador, H.E. Ms Anna Sochańska and the British Ambassador, H.E. Mr Robin Barnett CMG. Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan represented the government and Deputy Lord Mayor Tom Brabazon was present along with members of the diplomatic corps. There were many serving members of the Defence Forces from Ireland and overseas.
You can read Canon Oxley’s sermon in full here.
