Fr. David Sherry
District Superior of Canada

Dear Reader,

In 2015, the veteran broadcaster Gay Byrne, now retired from his many years of corrupting Irish life via The Late Late Show, recorded an episode of his new programme, The Meaning of Life. His guest was Sir Stephen Fry, actor and atheist. What would he say, Byrne asked, if after death he discovered that he was wrong and that there was indeed a God? Fry grew angry: “I would say ‘How dare you! How dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault. It’s not right. It’s utterly, utterly evil. Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?’ That’s what I’d say.”

That’s what he said. But tell me, Stephen, why the anger? How can you be angry with someone who doesn’t exist?

Surely you can’t blame a non-person for something? Ever been angry with the yeti? The tooth fairy perhaps? I have an idea. Could it be, could it possibly be that it’s not that God does not exist, but that you do not want him to exist?

The interview continued. Byrne: “And you think you’re going to get in?” Fry: “No, but I wouldn’t want to. I wouldn’t want to get in on his terms.” He calms down and smiles. “Now if it was Pluto, Hades and the twelve Greek gods, then I would have more truck with it, because at least they didn’t pretend not to be human.”

An atheist on the western front in 1918 writes this about the same God who apparently didn’t exist.

O universal strength, I know it well,
It is but froth of folly to rebel;
For thou art Lord and hast the keys of Hell.
Yet I will not bow down to thee nor love thee,
For looking in my own heart I can prove thee,
And know this frail, bruised being is above thee.

Self-sufficiency above God. Pride. “I will not serve a God who doesn’t do things my way.” Hatred of subsistent Good. Sin brought to its logical and diabolical conclusion. Hell.

If the world is not to continue to suffer the consequences of the hatred of God, and the deepest hell on earth, we must convert. Dependence on God. Faith. True Humility. Charity. The way? Penance. Christ and His Blessed Mother.

Fr. David Sherry