Do you ever
wonder why it is that some people seem to be given the grace to
believe and others don’t? I often wonder this myself; it is a
strange thing. When I was nineteen I came back to my faith having
stopped practicing it for a few years, as many teenagers do and as
many of my friends did. Why did I come back? I don’t really know,
but I believe that it was a grace that the Lord gave me. A friend of
mine who had been to Medjugorje—a place in Bosnia where Our Lady is
said to have been appearing—and had rediscovered her own faith
through it, began to tell me about what had happened to her and how
she had come to see how real God was. Her faith had come alive over
there. After listening to her for an hour and a half, she invited me
to go to a prayer meeting the following week. Now prayer meetings
were not half cool enough for me at nineteen, but she was smart and
she got a girl I had a crush on, to invite me and so of course I
went. There I discovered something I had never seen before. A whole
group of 30 or 40 young people, praying the rosary, singing hymns
together, reading the Scriptures and sharing their experiences of
faith. I found it both wonderful and strange, because I wasn’t
aware that there were young people praying together anywhere, and I
could see from them that they had a very real and sincere faith. They
really believed in God. The scriptures really spoke to them and they
took their faith very seriously. None of them had to be there and
they were all very ordinary people from all kinds of back-grounds. I
knew I wanted what they had and so I began to come back to the prayer
meeting every week.
A few weeks later they had what is known as a
‘Life in the Spirit’ seminar, where they teach about the reality
of the power of God’s Spirit and about living the Christian life
seriously. Then during the fifth week of the seminar they pray with
each person that they will receive a fresh outpouring, or new
experience of the Holy Spirit, and it is amazing what happens.
Although nothing in particular happened when they prayed with me,
within a few days I found that I had an extraordinary desire to pray.
I found that the words of the bible began to speak to me in a way
that they never had before. The mass came alive for me as it never
had before. That is the power of God’s Spirit. After continuing to
pray with these other young people for about three years I felt that
God was calling me to be a priest and I answered that call, and then
in 1998 I was ordained a priest. This was all in my home town of
Galway. Some others in the group also went on for religious life, but
most of the people in the group are now married. They were the ones
who taught me how to pray, to read the bible, to love the mass.
I was very
fortunate that God granted me the grace to discover him at that stage
of my life. I was also very fortunate because my discovery of God was
through people of faith and it was a very positive thing. They taught
me how it was possible to have a personal relationship with God, with
Jesus and that has remained with me to this day, 14 years later.
One
of the difficulties that we have in our times, is that we often only hear
about our faith through the media, who only present us with the
controversial aspects. They zoom in on issues like married priests,
women priests, abortion, scandals, etc. And they do their job
well, you’ve got to hand it to them. They are not interested in
whether you believe or not, or in what you believe. They are only
interested in selling newspapers and programs, that’s their job.
And so they bring up arguments and get everyone worked up about it.
But the problem is that they take all these arguments are often taken
out of context. The controversial issues are really only secondary.
What is important is our relationship with Jesus Christ. That is what
our faith is about. When we develop this relationship with the Lord,
then all the other things just begin to fit into place; they don’t
seem so important. But if you begin with all the controversial stuff,
you haven’t a chance. They are not what our faith is based on, and
they are really not all that important. Believing that Jesus Christ
is Lord, that He is the way to the Father, and the way to heaven,
that’s important; that because of him our sins can be forgiven,
that he is present to us in the Eucharist, for our benefit, that’s
important.
Anyone
I know who has grown much in their faith, who has a real relationship
with God, they rarely have a problem with the more controversial
aspects of the Church’s teaching, because it just fits into place
for them. Their relationship with God comes first and this is what
enables them to live as a Christian and to love other people. It’s
not because someone else told them that this is what they must do,
but because they have a real relationship with God and they work at
it.
During
dark times such as we have at the moment, it is even more important
that we ask ourselves what we believe in. Do I believe that Jesus
Christ is Lord, that the Church is from God, that the Scriptures are
from God? If I do, then the one thing I need to focus on more than
anything else, is Jesus and what He has revealed to us. I don’t
mean that we don’t address the problems that we are facing, but
from a faith point of view, keeping Jesus at the centre is more
important than anything else.
Many
people struggled with the teachings of Jesus when he gave them. In
fact, it says in this Gospel, right after he had given the teaching
on the Eucharist, that many people left him then, because they
thought he was crazy. They couldn’t accept what He said. But He
didn’t run after them and try to explain what He really meant.
Instead He just let them go. They had to decide. He just turned to
the disciples and said, ‘What are you going to do? It’s your
decision.’ And Peter said, ‘Where else can we go, we believe that
you are the holy One of God.’ It doesn’t mean that they didn’t
struggle with the teaching, but that was what they decided.
The
Lord does the exact same with us today. He is very definite. He gives
us an invitation to follow him, to follow the way that leads to life,
by following the teachings of Christ. He says, ‘Are you with me or
not?’ It’s your choice, but he wants us to make a definite
choice. No room for those who are indifferent. In the book of
Revelations, referring to one community, Jesus says, ‘You are
neither hot nor cold. How I wish you were one or the other. But since
you are neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.’
Very strong words. The Lord wants us to follow him, because it is the
only way that will lead us to happiness, but we have to make the
choice.
Jesus said, ‘What about you,
do you want to go away too?’ Peter said, ‘Lord where else can we
go, you have the message of eternal life, and we believe, we know
that you are the Holy One of God.
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