"Always have your answer ready" (1 Pt 3:15)
6th Sunday of Easter
Knock Shrine
10 May 2026
My friends,
“Always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you have. But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience.”
My friends, this advice from our second reading today is a real word of encouragement to be assured and confident in sharing our faith and trust in Christ Jesus, Our Lord.
Just this past week a columnist in a national newspaper expressed delight in the reduction in the number of Catholic Church weddings in Ireland. It seems a rather perverse sense of satisfaction that Christianity in its Catholic expression, is a bad influence on society. As a worldview it is representative of an ideology which has elevated individual choice to the status of an absolute value – to the detriment of so many other important dimensions of our shared life in community.
My friends, we are blessed to be gathered in faith at the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock, a centre of Eucharistic Devotion and Prayer. We have come away from our own places, on pilgrimage, to this centre of sanctity, to renew and deepen our life in Christ.
When we return from here to our homes and work, we hope that our time here will radiate into all the dimensions of our lives and indeed those who share our journey.
If we reflect awhile on our experience as a disciple of Christ in Ireland today, we acknowledge that the context for Catholic faithful have changed greatly in a generation or so. Much of that change is welcome. Much of it was the result of sin and failure within the Church to which the Church has responded with great commitment to ensure people young and old are safe in Church environments. However, what emerged as a Church issue, we now realise that it is an issue at the heart of many families and needs to be addressed. Sadly, social agencies dealing with abuse and violence in families are overwhelmed and urgently need greater support and investment.
Meanwhile, observing the social commentary on the place of the Catholic Church and other churches in society, there seems to be a dual narrative unfolding. In one narrative we sense that a great many people appreciate the continued contribution of the Church to the cohesion and wellbeing of society, whereby the Church seeks to be both a teacher and practitioner of Christian values.
The other narrative is one that is reflected in the perspective of the columnist I mentioned which is the sooner we are rid of all semblances of our Catholic religious heritage the better our future. Such a view pervades a significant amount of social commentary. It is a source of hurt for so many good people that their bona fides are not respected.
On a political level so many people of faith are dismissed as right wing and reactionary to the point of being dumb and backward. It represents an intolerant liberalism that belittles and disempowers a significant cohort of believers, young and old. It is a subtle underlying social group think that we are not addressing in public discourse. It leaves many ashamed and embarrassed to publicly profess the importance of their Catholic/Christian faith.
“Always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope you have. But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience." (3 Pt 3:15)
My friends, we live in hope, we are in need of hope. Our times are fragile politically and socially. Signs are emerging of great strain being felt in families and personally also. A new kind of poverty and powerlessness is being experienced. Too many homes are like powder kegs and the transfer of this trauma to schools is camouflaging the underlying pressure. We are deeply indebted to the leadership and pastoral care in our schools.
It is difficult to be confident that those in political, social and financial leadership are fully cognisant of the underlying strain of our social institutions. A national forum is necessary and urgent if we are to find share initiatives to confronting the impending fragmentation that awaits us. Our model of social formation has been the promotion of individual aspiration to the exclusion of other considerations. We are in great need of recalibration of our social, political and economic objectives. The ‘soul’ of the nation is in turmoil. It would be tragic if our political correctness precludes us from addressing the spiritual malaise in our midst.
Let the words of Peter serve as encouragement and inspiration – to be clear on the source of hope – to share it with courtesy and respect always with a clear conscience.
