In the homily, Bishop of Lismore Greg Homeming spoke of poet and shoemaker Hans Sachs, who featured in Richard Wagner’s 1868 opera Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg.
‘At a certain point, Hans Sachs has a monologue, an extraordinary aria, which he sings alone,’ Bishop Homeming said, before quoting the lyrics: “Madness, madness, everywhere there is madness.”
We all have one thing in common: we have Jesus Christ, and he’s the light that has come into the darkness.
‘We are at a time in the world where we could all say with him, “madness, madness”,’ the bishop observed. ‘You don’t have to look very far. It is everywhere. Anyone who can think, “I can make peace by bombing people until they’re totally obliterated”—that is absolute madness.’
Instead, we are called to live in such a way that ‘madness gives way to light’, Bishop Homeming said. ‘We are called to experience the darkness and in that darkness be light.’
Exploring what that might mean, he observed that all those gathered at the prayer service were there ‘because we all have one thing in common: we have Jesus Christ, and he’s the light that has come into the darkness.
In the midst of a world full of madness, there are only two possibilities given to us … God and love.
‘I think at this time more than ever, this is something which we must take to heart, because in the midst of a world full of madness, there are only two possibilities given to us,’ he said.
‘The first is we must look to God, and for us that means look to Jesus Christ, to walk with him and stand with him. And the other thing which madness calls forth through us is love. Two things: God and love.’
The service was the initiative of the Bishops Commission for Christian Unity and Interreligious Dialogue. After the service, the bishops and guests shared a meal.