One of the things I was very blessed with as a young
priest was getting to know a Baptist minister and his wife who worked
in Galway; Kelly and Susan Curry. He and his wife had come over
from the States because they felt the Lord was calling them there and
they set up a centre in Galway to encourage people to come back to
their faith. They weren’t trying to convert people to become
Baptist, rather this centre was about encouraging people to take
their faith more seriously and of course most of the people who came
there were Catholic simply because there were more Catholics around
than anyone else. But the reason I feel very blessed to have
come to know them is because it opened my mind to different ways of
faith. I got to know Kelly best. He wasn’t Catholic,
but he was obviously a man of God and filled with the Spirit.
Kelly has been a great source of encouragement and support to me as a
priest. As I got to know him it helped me to realise that God
was working in and through him just as much as through any priest I
knew. Now maybe that should be obvious, but when you grow up in
one particular way of faith, it is not always obvious and often we
can be suspicious of people who don’t see things as we do.
But of course God works through many different people in many
different ways. Many people I know have been greatly helped by
the work they do there in that centre. It is called An Tobar
Nua (The New Well).
I know that many parents and grandparents at this
time are distressed as they see their children no longer practicing
or going to church. While it is a tragedy to us, it doesn’t
mean that they have lost faith. We believe God offers us an
extraordinary treasure in the mass and through the different
sacraments and of course we would like that for others, especially
for our children. But at this time many young people have
become disillusioned with the Church and with official religion, and
for very understandable reasons. In many ways it is hard to
blame them, they have probably more reasons than most to be turned
off by it. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have
faith, or that they are not searching for God. People are
always searching for God. It seems to be an almost instinctual need
within us. While they may find it difficult to relate to the
Church at this time, that doesn’t mean that God is not reaching out
to them, or guiding them.
Just as getting to know my Baptist friend helped me
to realise that here are many ways God speaks to people, I think it
is good for us to remember that God is still speaking to them and
guiding them, perhaps in ways that we do not recognise or would never
have imagined. I am continually struck by the great goodness
that I have met in so many people, often people who have no interest
in the Church at all. But they do their best to live good lives
and help the people they meet, often with great generosity.
They do believe in God, but they don’t relate to God through the
means that we are used to.
Having said all that, I also think it’s amazing
how people are still being drawn to the Church and to religious
life. This year 5 young men joined us here in the Dominicans.
Last year 6 entered. The year before 2 and the year before that
13. So God is at work around us all the time and that is
something that should help us to take heart.
The readings today are also about how God gives his
Spirit to whomever He wishes, often in ways that we don’t expect.
The Apostles were surprised, just as the men in the time of Moses
were surprised, when they found others teaching and healing in God’s
name. But Jesus said to them, ‘Don’t stop them…If they
are not against us they are with us.’
There are many paths and ways to God. We
believe that the one God has revealed to us is an exceptionally rich
one, with the most extraordinary gifts to help us: above all the
Eucharist; the Word of God; the healing we receive through confession
and many other things. We hope and pray that others will
discover these treasures too. But God goes on reaching out to
people all around us in so many ways that we will probably never know
about. I think part of what we are called to, is to pray for
the people around us that they will discover God too. We are
blessed to have been given the gift of faith. So now let us
pray that God will help us to be sign-posts to him, by the way we
live our faith. Amen.