‘ANATHEMA SIT’

A joke I tell my priest friends who know Latin goes as follows:  If I ever get a dog I’ll call him ‘Anathema’ so I can shout out regularly ‘Anathema –sit’!  The words mean  ‘be cut off’ ,  ‘you are excommunicated’ or ‘ you  can  no longer belong to this community’ and were used by the church from the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century up until Vatican II to those who had committed a serious sin. The refusal of  Holy Communion to Catholics by some American bishops is a modern attempt to bring it back.  I never had much time for the idea.  Firstly, my own godmother, Una Quinn, was excommunicated.  My mother’s cousin, she had fallen in love with an American sailor here at the Derry base.  He refused to ‘turn’ on principle and, as his ship was leaving in a few months, they  married civilly in the Guildhall.  I am not condoning what she did but from today’s standpoint it seems harsh.  Many had their names read from the pulpit all over Ireland during those cruel times.   Being excommunicated meant being cut off from the sacraments – and therefore doomed to hell.  Can you imagine the pain? I do not know how I could have survived as a priest in such a church. So much for the yearning ‘if only we could turn the clock back to the good old days.’

But God has a sense of humour.  It was the same church of St. Eugene’s Cathedral where decades later I began my priestly ministry.  Perhaps we are paying the price today for such a heavy handed use of authority in the past for I believe that such things  entered the psych of the Irish  people so subservient  for so long until, as the little boy in this story shouted, ‘The Emperor has no clothes.’

The second reason I have difficulty with the concept of  excommunication – in whatever from it takes -is that it seems  to contradict what Scripture teaches about God’s mercy and how he loves us even in our sins.  Look at the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Prodigal Son and we are told of a God whose love never ends even in our waywardness and sin.  In last Sunday’s gospel you may have  heard  how Jesus still loved Peter inspite of  his betrayal – indeed offering him the opportunity to unburden his guilt by professing his love three times and in so  doing wiping out  the three previous denials.  To be loved in our goodness is natural and  does not make any  great demand but in the three examples I mention  we see what God’s abundant generosity and grace are all about.  That is the God I believe in and, from what I have seen so far, the one it seems our new Pope Francis believes in as well.

Some Thoughts:

[reflecting on the tension in  Korea]

‘what the world needs today is not guided missiles but guided morals’

the man of integrity walks securely…[Proverbs 10:9]

………………

‘’Live life by its breadth not by the length …

Be alive to joy , kindness,

purity,  poetry, music,  dance,

nature, stars, God, and eternal hope.

Life is what we are alive to.’’

JOKE

A little boy was waiting for his mother to come out of the shop. As he waited, he was approached by a man  who asked, "Son, can You tell me where the Post Office is?"

The little boy replied, "Sure! Just go straight down that street and turn to your right."

The man  thanked the boy  and said, "I'm the new priest here.
I hope I see you at Mass on Sunday. I'll show you how to get to Heaven."

The little boy replied with a chuckle. "Come on Father ,you don't
even know the way to the Post Office!"

 Feedback welcome: paddy@okanes.org