Bishop Donal McKeown Every generation is prone to blindness to injustices, the Bishop of Derry has warned.
In his homily for Divine Mercy Sunday in St Eugene’s Cathedral, Dr Donal McKeown warned that “there is a widespread narrative that the past was full of outrageous mistakes and that we must consign those attitudes to the dustbin of history.
“The other part of that story is that we are wise and sensible today. So how dare anyone condemn how we modern liberated people deal with situations?
“But,” he said, “in every generation, there is a real temptation to blindness in that we are tempted and encouraged to take as normal and sensible some attitudes, actions and laws that the next generations will mock as outrageous.”
He insisted that “mercy and forgiveness are not about forgetting the past or drawing a line under it…that applies in our personal lives as well as in our local politics.
“A wise man wrote recently that sin is inexcusable but forgivable. Mercy enables us to forgive and to remember – not merely to forgive and forget.
“God’s grace enables us to tell a story about our lives that takes the rubble of the past and makes it into a foundation for the future – not into a pile of rocks to throw at others or with which to gash ourselves,” he said.