Reflection on the Logo for the Year of Evangelisation
Fr Damien McNeice

You may have noticed new brightly coloured banners in your Church throughout the diocese of Dublin, bearing the logo for the Year of Evangelisation. You may be wondering where does it come from and what does it signify?

The design is the winning entry from a competition among students in the National College of Art and Design. They were invited to create a logo for our Year of Evangelisation based on a passage from the Gospel.

The winning design, by Rebecca Roughneen, is an image inspired by the story of Christ calming the storm, which appears in the Gospels of Mark [4:35-41], Matthew [8:23-27] and Luke [8:22-25].

Both St. Mark’s and St. Luke’s account of the calming of the storm begin with Jesus inviting his disciples to “cross over to the other side” of the lake of Tiberias, also known to us as the Sea of Galilee. The Year of Evangelisation challenges us to ask ourselves: to what “other side” does God want to lead me in my life? To what “other side” does our parish or our Church need to move?

Mark goes on to say that the disciples took Jesus, “just as he was” with them in the boat. This again is a challenge of this Year of Evangelisation, for us to get to know just who Jesus really is and not for us to make Him in the cosy image and likeness of our own presumptions and limited vision.

The Church has been symbolised from ancient times as a boat, as the barque of the apostle Peter. Part of this imagery comes from the story of Noah’s ark saving him and his family from the Flood, but it comes mostly from this Gospel story. The Church and we as individuals and families can find ourselves tossed about by the rough waves of crises and difficulties, some beyond our control, others of our own making. In such times of trial and fear, we are tempted to think that God is asleep or inactive.

The Gospel reflects this reality as it continues: “Then it began to blow a gale and the waves were breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped. But he (Jesus) was in the stern, his head on the cushion, asleep.”

In the Year of Evangelisation logo, the boat seems dwarfed by the waves that threaten to overwhelm it. It reminds me of the simple humility of a Breton fisherman’s prayer: “Lord, the sea is so wide and my boat is so small.”

And yet this boat is far from being totally at the mercy of the waves. It is given momentum and drive from a shining sail, which carries the early Christian Chi-Rho monogram, a combination of the first two letters of the Greek spelling of the word Christ. He himself is our Light. If the breath of the Holy Spirit, the energy of Divine Love, fills us, it will dynamically urge and drive us forward. Belief in Christ moves us out of any passive indifference into God’s own intimate involvement with us personally and God’s engagement with all His people. Belief in Christ also frees us from being paralysed by fear of what threatens to swamp us.

The disciples were terrified to the extent that they cried out to Jesus: “Master, do you not care? We are going down!” Then, when Jesus has spoken his word of Peace, and the storm is calmed, they find themselves filled with awe and asking each other who is this person Jesus, who is Lord of all and who brings them to safe harbour.

May the Year of Evangelisation be an opportunity for us to hear Christ’s word of Peace being spoken into the maelstrom of our lives.

May we be open to having our sails filled by the radiant love of our God and chart new waters in our own witnessing to the name and the message of Jesus.

Fr Damian McNeice is Master of Ceremonies to the Archbishop of Dublin.

To order banners, candles or prayer cards which feature the logo of the Year of Evangelisation, please contact the Evangelisation Office