Br. Finbarr reflects on the ultimate hypothetical question

Br. Finbarr Murphy, from the De La Salle College Waterford Community, has reflected on the ultimate hypothetical question - What if Jesus had not risen from the dead?

For all his earthly fame and popularity, Jesus would have been forgotten within a few generations.

The eleven Apostles would have disappeared from the public scene to avoid prosecution and death. St Paul? We would never have heard of him!

What about our own St Patrick? There would have been no Pope to send him to our shores!

At the socio-economic front, slavery would have prevailed, unchallenged. Despite the grand theories of Human Rights, les droits humane, slavery stubbornly prevailed until the mid-19th Century. (Our own  St Scubilion left his mark  on the social history of Madagascar where he's remembered as the Catechist of the Slaves). 

As for marriage - this foundational institution was largely pollyiamous, everywhere. Put simply, a man married as many women as he could afford. For was it not a matter of basic survival for many women?

Imagine for a moment an Ireland without the benefits of literacy, monasteries and convents. Remember how we Irish saved civilisation in Charlemange's Gaul and beyond, through the missionary efforts of Columban, Killian and others.

The civilisational influence of Biblical faith has inspired the fine arts over two millennia. Just consider the skills of writing culminating with Gutenberg's printing press, and add to this Michaelangelo, and a host of musical composers, classical painters, poets and architects  - without forgetting some great educators from Saints Thomas Aquinas, Dominic, Ignatius, De la Salle...

Europe without the civilisational, transformative power of the Gospel, the news that's always good; the news that can never be overcome by the triple S of our ubiquitous, commercial media i.e. sensation, sport, scandal.

Ireland and Europe without the civilisational biblical narrative? Marriages would have remained largely pollygamous. The big question arises: Genetically speaking, would we be here at all?