There is a place near my hometown
in Ireland (Killoran, Balinasloe) called ‘The Bishop’s Chair’. My father
brought me there once (14th Jan 2000). It is a hard place to find as it really is
in the middle of nowhere. This ‘chair’ which is in the middle of a field, was
where at least two bishops, between 1679-1701, ordained many priests in secret.
At the time it was illegal to be a Catholic priest and if they were caught they
could have been executed, so they had to ordain priests in secret. It is very
moving to visit it, even though there is not much to see today, but just to
think of the sacrifice that so many men and women were prepared to make at that
time, to pass on their faith. Priests were prepared to risk their lives so that
the people could have the mass, because they had the faith to believe that the
mass was everything, because in it we have the gift of Jesus himself. The
people were prepared to risk their lives by going to mass. The mass had to be
celebrated in secret, often on what were known as ‘mass rocks’ out in the
countryside. A mass rock was a large rock used as an altar. Many priests did
die for the mass because they were caught. But now all that sort of thing is in
the past, right?
A few years ago in 2007, a
priest friend of mine, who was my next-door neighbour in the Irish College in
Rome for a year and a half, was shot dead after celebrating mass in Mosul,
northern Iraq. He was just 35 years
old. He had been threatened several
times, but he remained on in his parish in order to celebrate mass
for the people, even though he knew the danger. On the Sunday after Pentecost in 2007 after celebrating mass in the
parish church, Ragheed and three deacons were ambushed by several gunmen. They
forced them out of the cars they were driving and shot all four of them. Persecution for our faith is never far away.
At this time we don’t live
with that kind of persecution in this country, thank God, but we are living
with a different kind of persecution, where our faith and our Church is
constantly being undermined, mocked and lied about. Maybe it seems strange that
something like the Christian faith, which preaches peace and justice, love of
neighbour and respect for all people, should face such ongoing persecution? And
it still does in many parts of the world. In China there is the official Catholic
Church, controlled by the Communist party and then there is the underground Catholic
Church. Then we have this line in today’s Gospel:
‘I have come to
bring fire to the earth... Do you suppose I am here to bring peace on
earth? No, I tell you, but rather
division
This line seems to be a
contradiction to what we usually associate with what Jesus spoke about. ‘I have
come to bring fire to the earth.’ What about peace and tolerance and all that? Preaching
the message of Jesus Christ, which is about peace and justice, etc, brings
persecution with it. Why, because not everyone wants to hear it. The teaching
of Christ is a very challenging teaching at the best of times. It shows us up
when we are not living according to God’s will and that often makes people
angry, because we don’t like to be shown up. It says in John’s Gospel: ‘People
have preferred darkness to the light, because their deeds were evil’ (Jn 3:19).
There is a tendency in us which draws us to what is wrong, which we call
concupiscence. We often know what is ‘the right thing to do’, but we find it
hard to choose it. St. Paul writes: ‘I do not understand what I do. For what I
want to do, I do not do. What I hate, I do’ (Rom 7:15). This is the struggle
within us. Even extraordinary people like St. Paul also struggled with the same
temptations, which is good to know. No one is exempt.
If we have done what is
wrong, or are living in a way that is against what God teaches us, then we are
not going to be happy with the teaching of Christ, because it will show us up.
That is why the message of Jesus always brings persecution with it, because it
challenges us to choose one path or another. There is no middle ground. But
perhaps what is most important to remember is that the Lord’s teaching,
difficult though it often is, is there to help us, because the Lord knows what
will help us to become the best version of ourselves.
I always find it comforting
when I read about the calling of any of the prophets in the Bible. Nearly all of
them resisted. And even if they didn’t resist initially, they usually asked God
after a while if they could quit, because it was so difficult. They suffered
for speaking the truth about God. The prophet Jeremiah said: ‘You have seduced
me Lord and I have let myself be seduced... For me the Lord’s word has meant
insult and derision all day long’ (Jer 20:7, 8b). The prophet Elijah, who is
considered the greatest of the prophets, after working one of the most
extraordinary miracles then finds himself on the run because the Queen is
trying to kill him and he says: ‘Lord, I have had enough. Take my life, I am no
better than my ancestors’ (1 Kg 19:4-5), or as we would say, ‘I wish I was
dead.’ Who would blame them?
If you want to be faithful
to the teachings of Jesus it will cost you. Not everyone in your family is
going to like it. Sometimes it makes people feel guilty about their own life
and they will take it out on you. Many people have shared with me about children
in their own families who mock them, or sometimes spouses. It is always cruel when
it comes from those closest to us, but that’s exactly what Jesus said would
happen: ‘From now on a household of five will be divided; three against two and
two against three.’ Many of the people you work with won’t like it. But that is
no reason for us to be afraid, because the Lord assures us that He is with us
and that He will help us. ‘In the world you will have trouble. But do not be
afraid. I have conquered the world.’
I think it is also worth
remembering that we don’t have to defend the Church. The Church can defend
itself. ‘The Catholic Church is full of corruption and hypocrisy’ Yes that’s
true, but that doesn’t take from the teachings of the Church and that’s the
only thing that matters. Show me any Church, or organization that doesn’t have corruption
and hypocrisy. I got an angry email from someone once, pointing out more
hypocrisy and corruption in the Church. I replied by saying, ‘If you want to
find scandal in the Church, you have two thousand years of corruption to choose
from.’ The corruption doesn’t take from the fact that it is God’s teaching
coming through his Church. There has always been hypocrisy and corruption and
there always will be, because the Church is the people of God and the people of
God are sinful people.
I also think it’s good to
demand respect, when others are being disrespectful to you. ‘I respect what you
believe, or don’t believe and you should have respect for what I believe,
whether you accept it or not.’
For our part we just try
to be faithful and live our faith as best we can. We follow this path because
we believe it is the most worthwhile path, because it is the path that leads to
God. Not everyone understands us, but that’s ok. That’s how the Lord said it
would be.
‘I have come
to bring fire to the earth and how I wish it were blazing already.’
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