The venerable poet’s words remain an effective
description of the religious sphere in the West, where only 14% of Irish
Catholics celebrate Mass and 17% of German Christians go to church. In my mind,
fresh ways to nurture spirituality are desirable today because, after two millennia
of traditional acceptance, we might be witnessing the death throes of
institutional Christianity. Sadly, many believers have lost faith in
sacramental life, which is reflected in the way people live, behave, communicate
and prioritize their activities. Many diverging objectives drive the current
way of thinking, search for happiness and possibility for hope. The same cannot
be said about other faiths, yet modernity eroded the foundations that made
Christianity a vibrant force of change for seventeen centuries. Notably, materialism
has replaced the intangible, dogmatic virtues of “faith, hope and love” with more
acceptable categories of reason, money and power.
Despite this, the personal freedom
remains to chart our own course for each person must define his relationship
with the divine. Six millennia ago, Mesopotamian paganism offered a profusion of
more than two-thousand gods. The influence of polytheism was hard for monotheism
to eradicate, though eventually man could not accepted the absurdity of capricious
celestial beings. The idea of “One God” finally triumphed, yet today a new
paganism is emerging. Man might have forgotten his ancient deities, but now he
worships new ones without even bending a knee. Most commonly the human
condition remains a lonely journey through doubt and despair, along which dreams
are shattered one by one. The time when we can love and help others is as short
as it is precious. May we remind our friends that each of us is carving a
stone, erecting a column or cutting a piece of stained glass in a construction
of something much bigger than ourselves.
