Contact Us

The Association may be contacted through its Secretary,

Peter F Durnin, KC*SG, KM, GCHS, "Rosaire", Moneymore, Drogheda, Co Louth. A92 RF6F

email: secretary@papalorders.ie

Search

Peace Mass in Clarendon Street Dublin (Homily)

Peace Mass in Clarendon Street Dublin
Extract from archbishop Martin's homily.

Nonviolence: A Style of Politics for Peace is the title of Pope Francis’ Message.  A politics for peace belongs not just on the global level.  We need a politics for peace in every country and in every locality.  There is no part of the world which is not marked by brokenness.  Here in Ireland there is the brokenness caused by homelessness but there is also the brokenness caused by hopelessness in so many forms.  A situation of brokenness will not be resolved by a politics of brokenness.  Certainly politics must involve a plurality of approaches and cherish difference, but there must also be an overarching culture of national purpose.

Our homes and schools must become the real seedbeds for nonviolence.  Young people must learn the call to service from an early age and learn that divisions can be overcome and that tolerance and respect, but also patient understanding and mercy, are the strong weapons for relationships that endure, in the personal as well as in the social and political sphere.

But behind the doors of families there is also often physical violence and sexual violence.  Some act as if human sexuality is just about personal satisfaction, whereas it is about a love, tenderness and a mutual respect which enriches human relations, and indeed can reflect the lovingkindness of our God.  The upcoming World Meeting of Families which will be held in Dublin in 2018 must place at its centre a renewal of the power of families to be places where love and sharing, peaceful relations and reconciliation can be practiced and learnt.    

The Church herself must witness to the fact that the God revealed in Jesus Christ at this Christmas season is a God of mercy who reaches out to all and from whose love and care no one is excluded.  The Church must rediscover a language which reaches out to those who fail not through the violence of humiliation and condemnation but through the tender embrace of mercy and forgiveness.

Finally the Church must learn to announce Jesus Christ as the source of hope, for those to whom hope does not come easy. The Church celebrates this morning also the Feast of Mary, Holy Mother of God.  It recalls the Motherhood of Mary, the attitude in which Mary accepted the call to be mother to the one who would bring lasting peace and challenge all of us to be men and women of peace in our times and for our tomorrow.  Peace is fundamentally a gift of the God of Peace to whom we raise our prayer today for all victims of violence and for all who work for the promotion of peace.