Scottish Catholic Observer

Around 140 people gathered for the second New Movements and Communities Conference in St Mirin’s Cathedral Hall, Paisley, on November 5 to listen to Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick Diocese.

A theologian and Pontifical Advisor, Bishop Leahy spoke on the subject of the ‘identity and mission of the family today.’

Bishop John Keenan celebrated Mass at the conclusion of the conference, and he said it was a joy to welcome all 23 groups, adding that they were ‘breathings of the Holy Spirit’ which refresh and bring life to the institution of the Church.

Bishop Leahy gave two talks on ‘Dreaming Big’ and ‘Living the Reality,’ two aspects of family life which are particularly needed in today’s world. We need to do both, he said: to ‘dream big’ and yet also to acknowledge and address issues of family life in its day-to-day reality.

In his first talk, Bishop Leahy quoted Pope Francis who said: “When you lose the capacity to dream, you lose the capacity to love.” He went on to describe how the nostalgia for family, which we often see more freely expressed at Christmas, is deeply rooted in every human heart. It is embedded into our DNA because ‘family’ is God’s big dream for us. He reminded listeners that the Bible is full of families, births, love stories and family crises.

Moving onto the New Testament, the bishop said the dream of Jesus is revealed the night before he died when he prayed: “Father may they all be one as you and I are one” [John 17;21]. He pointed out that dream in the mind of the Son of God is ‘a very high ideal; nothing less than that the family of humanity will mirror on earth the life of the Trinity.’

But is it too idealistic to expect that we as ordinary families should reflect ‘Trinitarian’ loving and mutual giving, he asked.

In his second talk, Bishop Leahy acknowledged that in reality, marriage and family life can be difficult at times, yet the Holy Spirit is there especially at those times. As Pope Francis said in Mexico: “It is true that living in a family is not always easy, and can often be painful and stressful but, as I have often said referring to the Church, I prefer a wounded family that makes daily efforts to put love into play, to a family and society that is sick from isolationism or a habitual fear of love. I prefer a family that makes repeated efforts to begin again, to a family and society that is narcissistic and obsessed with luxury and comfort.”

Bishop Leahy went on to argue that the wounds and sufferings experienced in family life are linked with the sufferings of Christ. For, he explained, within 24 hours of praying His ‘family dream’ for humanity—‘may they be one’—Jesus was experiencing the greatest abyss of all: “the apparent fracturing of his relationship with God when He, the Son of God, cried out ‘Why?’ to God the Father!”

It was from this suffering of Christ that Augustine said that the Church, the new family, was born. And so we can trust that in every suffering, Christ is present.

“It’s a question of recognising the face of Jesus crucified in the difficulties we are living through or those around us, calling him by name in the bewilderment we can be faced with and then, with him, going beyond the wound, moment by moment,” Bishop Leahy said.

He encouraged the members of the lay movements to see glimpses of the resurrection breaking through in moments of tenderness, goodness, and consolation, and he said that this means there is always hope. In fact Pope Francis calls the family ‘a workshop of hope.’

As well as the talks, there were inspiring testimonies from four married couples. They talked about raising children, making time for prayer and having meals together, recognising that every child is different and that boys in particular sometimes need direction from their father. The couples were very honest, acknowledging that arguments can happen and family life can be hectic at times, and that as parents, they often sense their own frailty, but despite all this, the renewed faith and prayer that they have experienced through their Movements, bring them strength.

There were many humorous moments as the audience could identify so readily with the situations they described. The couples also expressed how much they had learned from their movements, as well as the example of others. They also described some of the ways in which as a family they were able to have an impact on the lives of those they meet in everyday life, and through serving in the Church at diocesan level.

Afterwards people remarked on the happy family atmosphere, how they had immediately felt ‘at home’ even though they had only met for the first time, and described the joy and relief they felt in realising that they were ‘not alone’ in trying to bring up their family in the faith.

Others said that they felt a ‘tremendous hope’ and the ‘presence of the Holy Spirit.’ Overall, there was a sense of renewed desire to live out the ‘Big Dream’ knowing it was God’s Dream, a renewed faith in the resurrection power of Christ and a willingness and confidence to continue to see our families in Scotland as ‘workshops of hope.’

The day ended with Mass in St Mirin’s Cathedral, with Bishop John Keenan as the main celebrant, where he looked forward to joining again with Bishop Leahy and the New Movements for the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, in August of 2018.

Everyone is hoping that the ‘dream’ that Pope Francis himself may attend this meeting, may become a very happy reality.