Many of us may be tempted to look back on the year and decade which has just slipped by with deep regret as at a time when our country stumbled deeper and deeper into moral nihilism. We might also justifiably be looking with trepidation at the course this moral implosion will take in the year and decade to come. But such regret and trepidation bespeak a learnt fear which is one of the greatest obstacles in the way of the re-evangelisation of Ireland. In October of 1995 Saint John Paul II gave a now famous address to the UN General Assembly. On that occasion he spoke words which we would do well to hear again as we begin a new year, and new decade:
In order to ensure that the new millennium now approaching will witness a new flourishing of the human spirit, mediated through an authentic culture of freedom, men and women must learn to conquer fear. We must learn not to be afraid, we must recover a spirit of hope and a spirit of trust … [and] regain sight of the transcendent horizon of possibility to which the soul of man aspires.
Despite all that has happened, and threatens to happen in the near future, it is imperative that we Christians “learn to conquer fear”. How often we see those words “Do not be afraid” repeated throughout Sacred Scripture. Believe it or not, all together some form of “Do not be afraid” is repeated 365 times throughout Scripture! Once for each day of the year we have just begun!
Fear and pessimism produce paralysis. As Pope Francis graphically puts it in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium:
One of the more serious temptations which stifles boldness and zeal is a defeatism which turns us into querulous and disillusioned pessimists, “sourpusses”. Nobody can go off to battle unless he is fully convinced of victory beforehand. If we start without confidence, we have already lost half the battle and we bury our talents. While painfully aware of our own frailties, we have to march on without giving in, keeping in mind what the Lord said to Saint Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).
As Christians the conviction that the grace of God is “sufficient” for us has to be transformative for us: we work on the basis of guaranteed victory both in our personal struggles, as well as the battle to transform Irish society. In that vein, I would like to wish all our readers a very happy – and fearless – new year.