The Notebook
Fr Conor McDonough
An awful lot has happened in the Church since the World Meeting of Families just two short weeks ago. When that fact is combined with the muted response to the event itself on the part of many Irish people, there is a danger that believers who participated joyfully in the event might lose sight all too quickly of what actually happened, and forget to unpack the many rich experiences it offered.
For me, the highlight was the Festival of Families in Croke Park (viewable now on RTÉ Player and on YouTube). What a night it was!
The family testimonies were extraordinary and extraordinarily diverse. Former Galway GAA player Alan Kerins kicked off the ceremony with a brief but powerful witness to the value of three families: his sporting family, his colleagues in humanitarian work and his own family, tried and tested by the sickness of his little son, now thankfully in perfect health.
A family from Mumbai spoke about social media as both a gift and a challenge, an Iraqi family talked about the difficulties of living as refugees, and Missy Collins, a veteran voice in defence of Travellers and their rights, spoke about family as a support structure.
Most moving, for me, was the testimony of Damien and Mary Richardson, a couple who overcame serious addiction in young adulthood and now have nine beautiful children and a foster child.
These families showed, each in their own way, how Faith in Christ can provide unbreakable resilience in the face of all kinds of setbacks and tragedies.
Moving
How moving it was to hear the Holy Father quote and honour the testimonies of each of these families. These families had each doubtless known moments of helplessness and despair. As the Pope honoured them, and as we applauded their perseverance, I felt we were honouring and cheering on all families.
As for the music on the night, it far outstripped my expectations and provided some unforgettable moments, not only from great professionals like Andrea Bocelli and Celine Byrne who lifted the roof with Schubert’s Ave Maria, but also from amateur groups like the High Hopes choir, made up of homeless men and women, whose heartlifting song led the whole stadium to shine the lights of their phones in a gesture of love and respect.
I think my favourite musical moment, though, was the Leonard Cohen song that was sung by Patrick Bergin [pictured] as Pope Francis greeted the crowds in Croke Park: “Ring the bells that still can ring/Forget your perfect offering/There is a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in.”
If the humbled Irish Church needs a slogan as its institutions crumble and its mission becomes ever more urgent, there it is.
Opportunity well spotted!
During the World Meeting of Families the staff and volunteers of the Dominican-run St Martin’s Magazine distributed thousands of free promotional copies.
One such distributor was moved by an apparently Gospel-hungry young man who asked for a few dozen copies, and innocently handed a bundle over to him.
The same fellow was later selling them outside Croke Park for “only a euro each”!
The Lord did tell us to be “as cunning as serpents and as innocent as doves” (Mt 10:16): it’s good to see both virtues alive and well in the Church!
More to Riverdance than meets the eye
When I saw that Riverdance was on the programme in Croke Park, I had mixed feelings. “It’s just a dance,” I thought, “surely we need a meatier fare than that?”
But as it was performed it struck me that this dance is in fact deeply instructive. Think about it: the female dancer appears on her own, with her particular melody, then the male dancer on his own, literally dancing to a different beat, footloose and brash.
When the woman reappears, a modification of both styles is necessary.
The masculine and feminine dance unite to form one shared movement, and the two have become ‘one flesh’, no longer on their own, but now a pair at the heart of a broader community (the dozens of other dancers who share the stage). In other words, Riverdance, like traditional courtship dances all around the world, gently teaches both the difference of the sexes and their complementarity in the union of marriage. A dance is never just a dance!