Bishop Donal McKeown Christians must resist the temptation to be harsh and judgemental, Bishop Donal McKeown has said.
Speaking at the weekend, he likened some of the secular behaviour in modern Ireland to that of the religious hypocrites at the time of Christ.
“Our secular world is very prone to precisely that Pharisaic desire to label people as believers or heretics when it comes to the new orthodoxies about sexuality, immigration or wealth.
“The last thing that Jesus’ followers should be doing is adding to the fragmentation and antagonism. In fact, both Jesus and St Paul were condemned for going not merely to the pure but to the pagans.
“The uncomfortable mercy of Jesus for the outsider is more important than the false security of human certainty,” Bishop McKeown said.
He warned that “the holiness and effectiveness of the Church’s witness is measured not just in time spent in church but in how our prayer life sends us out to venture into alien territory”.
“Faith affects our heads, our hearts and our hands. God so loved the world that he sent his only Son.
“A Faith that is overburdened with building walls to exclude others is less than authentic. Jesus calls me to examine my own conscience and not just to judge that of others,” Bishop McKeown said.