Press Releases01 Jun 04

'Moving beyond fear' - address by Bishop Michael Jackson

'MOVING BEYOND FEAR'

Bishop Michael Jackson's address
at a united service of prayer and thanksgiving
Rathmore Hill, Clogher

Sunday, 30th May 2004

One of the phrases which I hear repeatedly these days is: The Spiral of Silence. In its own way it is as alarming to me as that phrase of Seamus Heaney when he describes our part of the world as ?the land of the nod and the wink.? The inscrutable character of silence, the way in which its potential to with-hold and to destroy can deprive everything else of its active meaning ? none of this is unfamiliar to any of us who try to do good in a climate of deep suspicion, thinly-veiled antagonism and outright intimidation.

The Spiral of Silence has as its opposite number Dealing with Difference. Yet it too has its complications. Am I to expect that others will deal with my difference from them without my struggling with them to deal together with our differences from one another? Is the language of struggling what we really want to be using or do we not want to be getting beyond that sort of vocabulary, mindset and understanding of what life is for? Are there not indeed real differences and what is the point of sweeping them under the carpet?

Many things live in tension. Sometimes this tension is what helps new things to happen. But something, someone has to supply the energy which gets us beyond this tension. The mighty rushing wind, the still small voice of calm, the wind which blows where it wants to, not where we want it to blow ? all of this is vital to the operation of the Holy Spirit. It is through the action of the Holy Spirit that difference loses its threat, its risk, its hatred and becomes liberating, enriching, empowering. It is through the willingness to live in the Holy Spirit that we overcome our fear and the fear of others. Because it is this fear, which too often speaks in words of insult, which fuels the spiral of silence. And it turns us into enemies of our God. It turns us into enemies of one another. It prevents us from acknowledging and loving the stranger already in our midst.

The Spirit of Difference is the very opposite of the Spiral of Silence. The Day of Pentecost is the very opposite of that sad picture of downcast departure by Adam and Eve from the Garden of Delight. Can?t you just hear the silent accusations spiralling downwards into silence, hardening into disappointment, bedding down into recrimination? The Day of Pentecost shows us people of different nations speaking each in his and her native language, not competing but communicating. Their vision is the declaration of the wonders of God to others in the others? language. This is a vision of giving as receiving, of receiving as giving. People of Pentecost can now only go forwards.

This afternoon we come together to share our vision, to give in the spirit in which we receive, to recognize the spirit of difference and also the spirit of solidarity, the Spirit of Truth and also the Spirit of Love. We do so in the spirit of Patrick and Macartan, who knew the command of God and the gift of God: the perfect love which casts out fear, the authority which seeks to serve.