Summary

Andy Rowen Word on the Week 13th June 2026.
In surveying the many stories that could be the substance of this week’s blog there is one which stands out and that is the ballad of Andy Rowan. It’s not a biography, his work is not done, and when he is discharged from the Royal Hospital, Donnybrook, where he is at present convalescing he will be ready to pick up the baton.
This blog is not being written to tell his story, that will happen in an RTE broadcast after the 9.00 o’clock news on Monday15th June. It has been named ‘Bad’ after a song which was sung by the famous band called U2.
Andy inspired the song out of his own experience of life lived on the wrong side of the track. It resonated with other peoples’ experiences and became a best seller.
Bono, the lead singer of U2, recognised the gifts God had given Andy and although they were being dreadfully misused by a drug induced lifestyle there was one gift that would endure and that was his love for Jesus. It was the one thing which was needful and Jesus became his Salvation (Acts 4 verse 12).
Did God err in choosing Andy? It upsets our innate assumptions of Christian behaviour. From when we were knee high to a duck we were told good children go to Heaven. So you had better be good!
Thus a lifetime quest to be good (by your own definition) is ushered in. It never really satisfies the guilty conscience nor is it found in the Bible. Religion offers a ‘good works’, route with confessions and penances paving the way.
By God’s grace Andy came to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour. The Christian meaning of ‘grace’ is God giving us what we don’t deserve. Andy’s sins have been paid for by Christ on the cross. Complete atonement has been made. Eternal security removes fear of judgement (John 10 verses 28/9).
The Apostle Paul, writing to the Christians in the Church at Rome, describes the impossibility of separating us from the love of God in Christ. He writes; - "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." — Romans 8:38-39
Such words become personal to those like Andy who have really put their faith in Jesus.