THE ARCHBISHOP OF Dublin Diarmuid Martin will say tonight that Ireland is becoming increasingly ambiguous in its understanding of God, with some people wanting to banish him entirely from the public sphere.

In the notes to his Christmas homily, to be delivered tonight at St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, Martin says that there is a mix in Ireland of people of deep faith and people who want to remove God from the public life of the country.

“We live in an Ireland which is becoming increasingly ambiguous in its understanding of God,” says the Archbishop.

Alongside men and women of deep faith and commitment there are those who wish to build their future and future of our society by removing God from the public square.

There are those who are too busy to pay much more than lip service and outward cultural adherence to God.

There are those who struggle with the very idea of God, because of the harshness of the world we live in and the mystery of evil.

There are those who are angry with God and with the Church or indeed are angry with God because of the Church.

How many times do I hear the phrase: “I am just hanging in there by the tips of my fingers”.

A defenceless child

The Archbishop goes on to question why people would be unsettled by a God who “appears as a defenceless child”.

What is it with a defenceless child that upsets?  Some would wish to banish the God who appears in a crib off our streets?

A God, who appears as a defenceless child, is not the angry, arrogant and judgmental God that we might have been taught about in school.

A God who appears as a defenceless child breaks out from the categories of those who think only in cold rationality.

Martin questions those who think they can brush away the birth of Jesus as a “fairy-tale-like story” and others who approach the story with cold rationality and think “there is no way this could have happened”.

His speech calls for people to adopt the sense of wonder of a child in searching for their faith.

People, Martin says, need to realise that mercy means “stripping ourselves of what is intemperate and superficial and rediscovering the sense of simplicity which we uniquely feel this evening.”

“In the name of God”

Martin also makes reference to next year’s memorials for the 1916 Rising and urges people to rediscover the ideals of Proclamation which was written “In the Name of God.”

Those ideals he says will help people to build “structures of justice and integrity at the service of all those who have been rendered defenceless by our self-centredness or indifference.”

Read: Archbishop: ‘Baptising children simply to be able to attend a specific school is an abuse of baptism’