We have just begun our Lenten liturgy. The Church entered into a special period of reflection on Ash Wednesday. It is a time of retreat and meditation before we come to the great period of Easter. We are asked to reflect on our own lives but also on the life of a man named Jesus as he begins to define his role in this world, who is he and how will he live his life. The story in the gospel today is that of Jesus being tempted in the desert by Satan. The temptations he faced are timeless…the seduction that the only things that matter are success, power, and status. These of themselves are not necessarily destructive but the reading of the gospel story warns us against giving them the central place in our lives. Over the past thirty years, Ireland has changed a lot, and is still changing – socially, economically and spiritually. People are struggling to adapt to new life styles and gain a healthy control of all the pleasures that attract and tempt them. In this turmoil of adaptation and change, alcohol is playing an ever increasing and dominant role. The Diocese of Raphoe, in partnership with the North Western Health Board, wishes to use this season of Lent to look at the way we are drinking, to look at the amount we are drinking and to look at the harm it is doing to all of us, as individuals and as a community. IRELAND’S DRINKING PROBLEM Ireland has always had a drinking problem but the bulk of those problems were confined to middle age and older males. The problems remained largely within the confines of family, privately wreaking their havoc and imprinting hurts that carried on into the next generation. But the nature and extent of the problem has changed. As Ireland has developed economically and grown more sophisticated and cosmopolitan, the patterns and amounts of drinking have shifted and increased. The age range of those who now drink has expanded to include the vey young; the gender difference has largely disappeared and the frequency of heavy drinking occasions has multiplied. We have grown very fond of drinking and drunkenness has become widespread. The amounts of alcohol we are now consuming affects us physically, mentally, socially, financially and all these affect us spiritually. There is a continuum of problems. These range from a once-off problem like a fight or a fall to recurring problems like marriage difficulties and financial difficulties, extending on to alcohol dependence and chronic illness. The more often we take too much drink, the more often we run the risk of harming others and ourselves. Recent studies have shown that 1 in 4 people attending our hospital A/E departments are there because of alcohol. It can no longer be denied that the deepest damage done by too much alcohol is to families. Children of problem drinking parents are particularly vulnerable. Physical neglect still exists but greater by far is the emotional neglect. Marriage counselling services inform us that 1 in 4 of their workload is down to too much alcohol. An even higher reportage comes from the legal services. They report that 34% of their clients cite alcohol abuse as the main cause of their marital problems. Alcohol has also been identified as one of the main risk indicators in relation to teenage pregnancy. Excessive drinking increases the risk of drunkenness, fights, assaults and violence. In the year 2000 alone there were almost fifty thousand people charged with offences relating to street violence. And these offences were committed by adults! Of particular concern is the increase in intoxication in public places by teenagers, which increased by 370% since 1996. Alcohol also plays a very big part in admissions to psychiatric hospitals and perhaps saddest of all it often plays a significant part in suicides, which, as we all know, have increased greatly, especially among the young. Statistics could go on and on but even from the few quoted above it is obvious that there are many parents in this county who are very worried about their children’s drinking and there are many children who are worried about their parent’s drinking. Jesus, in a powerful statement reminded us why he had come into this world: “I have come so they may have life and have it to the full” (Jn. 10:10) In the tourist brochures, advertising this land and people throughout the world, we are portrayed as a life-loving people. We are characterised as a vibrant people. There is some truth in that. We do seek to enter life. We like to talk, to write, discuss, question, wonder about the nature of it all. Often this aspect of our character is enhanced and enriched by our drinking. But too often the balance is lost – the talk, the exploration of ourselves and our world is swamped by drink. Culturally we seem to have lost our balance. Drinking has almost become the centre of our culture and as a result our lives are reduced and diminished. “THE WISDOM OF OUR LENTEN PENANCE” Lent is the time in the Liturgical year when we are called upon to fast and abstain. The fasting and abstinence is partially in solidarity with those who are without the food and drink that sustains life. It is also a space that allows us to think about who we are and who we wish to be. In the words of the prophet Isaiah; “this, rather, is the fasting that I wish; releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke”. (Is. 58:6) Our fasting and abstinence is not to flagellate and deny ourselves but rather to enable and help us to enter and engage in life more fully. The wisdom and the grace of this liturgical season challenges us to throw off any yoke that threatens to enslave us. It is now only too clear that in the amounts and with the frequency that we drink, alcohol has already become one of those yokes. “OFF DRINK FOR LENT” It was for long a tradition in Ireland that during the weeks of Lent people abstained from drinking alcohol. It was a good and wise tradition then and is equally so today. We would appeal to all, old and young, to revive this tradition. It will be good for us individually and it will be good for us as a community. In itself it will not solve all the problems. Some of us will find that we cannot stay without it; some of us will find that without drink we will become edgy and restless; some of us will miss it for a time and then discover we have time to do other enjoyable things that we once did. It will certainly feed back to us how important or otherwise alcohol has become in our lives. If this old and wise tradition is considered too harsh and difficult then we would appeal to everyone, at least to reduce the amount and the frequency of drinking, during these forty days of prayer and penance. May this effort win grace for ourselves, strength for the weak, happiness for our families and a blessing from God upon our children and youth. +Philip Boyce Bishop of Raphoe ends |