This time last year, many of us were looking at the fiasco called Y2K and asking ourselves: what was all the hype about? Promises of fantastic parties and exciting celebrations never materialised. Like the Millennium Bug, the festivities and jubilee just did not bite! As the year progressed I met so many people who said it was just an annus horribilis. The reality didn't live up to the joyful expectations and the feeling of anti-climax coloured the ordinary events of the year with its particular brand of gloom. Maybe that is why the opening days this year were a more humble event. The whispered wish of a happy 2001 was preferable to the command to party that we endured for 2000. The wish for happiness was simpler and more sincere. The greeting recovered its intended meaning.
As the churches take their early steps into Ordinary Time again, we encounter Jesus telling us that He has come "to bring the Good News to the poor". (Luke 4:14-21.) This week I sat back and thought about how this familiar quotation has been Y2Ked by Christians. This joyful proclamation of the purpose of the Incarnation is often treated as an antiphon or as an end in itself rather than a call to do something practical. I even remember as a child how we sang a lively version of these words: "And go tell everyone, the news that the Kingdom of God has come." Have we as Christian churches done that at all? Or have we hyped the words and let their message fall into a flat failure?
I find it a great source of personal frustration that we spend more time on the externals of the Christian message than we do on the fundamentals. Counting our declining attendances; co-ordinating the colours of the sanctuary flowers; studying Rahner and attending seminars on manufactured spirituality: all seem to occupy so much of our time. Inside our church doors we find posters offering new courses and lectures to boost our flagging morale. Outside the same doors there is a world in chaos that simply needs to hear the positive affirmation of the Good News to the poor that Jesus was speaking about.
In post-Christianised Ireland there are many who have lost so much of their self-esteem. Hundreds of young men are likely to hang themselves in the coming months. These are individual tragedies - but, as Stalin said, "Any death is a tragedy, but a million is a statistic!" Swathes of the population will drink themselves into a stupor, then go to bed convincing themselves that they had a great time. Our prisons will continue to fill with the untouchables of our polarised society. Our neighbours will continue to waste their emotional energy in the drama of fictional soap-opera plots and tasteless chat-shows. All in all, we still have the poor with us, just as Jesus promised us we would!
The authentic simplicity of greeting 2001 has much to teach us. The simple optimism of our belief that God loves each one of us, uniquely and individually, must be stated more publicly and confidently. It is on the bedrock of this loved individuality before God that we can build stronger walls of self-esteem. If the John 3:16 of the football stadium was announced some outsiders could develop a positive optimism for life. There are many out there who need to hear and know this, people who might be fortified by the faith and example of those of us who still believe. That would be bringing the Good News to the poor, instead of just singing about it!
F. MacE.