Recently I was at home in Ireland on vacation, but I
was greatly saddened to see the atmosphere in the country with
regards to the Church. It has become very anti-Catholic. Much of this
is understandable because of scandals that have happened in the past,
but much of it is also grossly unfair. A few days ago I read that in
the last 10 years, 8 priests in Ireland committed suicide, which is
really shocking. I knew two of them. I don’t know exactly what
happened to them, but it seems that they couldn’t take what was
going on any more. I also know many who have left. One friend who
left the priesthood recently wrote in an email to me that the
priesthood had become so joyless and such a burden to him. He had
little or no support where he was working and that is not how it is
meant to be. Priests are meant to be the shepherds of the people and
the people are meant to take care of their shepherds. Thankfully that
has not been my experience here. People are wonderful in looking
after their priests in this country and I am very grateful for that.
One of the politicians at home recently said that if
you see a priest you should probably throw a stone at him and that
the Catholic Church should be in the trash, where it belongs. That is
religious persecution and inciting hatred, but the problem is that it
is subtle. It would be much easier to deal with bloody persecution,
because then you would know who is with you and who is not.
Why is this happening, apart from the scandals that
have outraged people? The reason is because Satan knows what God has
given us in the Eucharist and he wants to do everything possible to
take that away from us, or to make us turn against it and there is no
Eucharist without the priesthood. So the easiest way to do it is to
turn people against the priesthood. Jesus ordained that we would have
the gift of his Body and Blood through the priesthood. Priests are
ordinary, weak, human beings, just like everyone else, but for
whatever reason Jesus made it so that priests would be his messengers
and the instruments through which we would have the gift of the
Eucharist, the gift of his Body and Blood.
Ireland is not the only place where this is
happening. It happens continually in different countries, but it is
usually more public and bloody. In China most of the Catholic Church
has to operate underground, because the government doesn’t want it.
In the Middle East at the moment great numbers of Christians have
been executed because they are Christian. A good friend of mine,
called Ragheed Ghanni, was shot dead in Iraq because he was a priest
and refused to close the church.
Why am I painting such a bleak picture of what is
going on? I think it is good that we are reminded of the gift that we
have in the Eucharist and the lengths people are willing to go to, in
order to make sure that we continue to have it. Thank God we do not
have open persecution here, but it could happen. The Eucharist is the
gift of Jesus himself, his Body and Blood and without our priests we
will not have that gift.
Sometimes I get frustrated when I meet hostility
because I am a priest, but then I am reminded that Jesus said it
would be like this. ‘You will be hated by everyone on account of my
name, but the one who perseveres will be saved’ (Mt 10:22). The
other side of this is that we continually turn to Jesus to receive
the strength we need to persevere. I don’t just mean priests, but
all of us. Satan will continue to try and convince us that we don’t
need the Eucharist, or the Church, and especially not the priests,
but the reason he does that is because he knows that this is one of
the greatest gifts that Jesus has given us, because it is the gift of
Jesus himself.
So let us remember to pray for our priests,
especially those who are being persecuted and let us also remember
where our strength lies when we are getting frustrated or find it
hard to keep going. Our strength is in Jesus, in the Eucharist which
is really and truly the Body and blood of Jesus.
“Come to me all who labor and are overburdened and
I will give you rest.”
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