4th SUNDAY OF EASTER

For many priests, this World Day of Prayer for Vocations will the most difficult we have ever faced. For months now the papers have been filled with shocking stories from around the world of clerical sexual abuse. In the minds of many the words priest and paedophile have become synonymous. In Ireland, traditionally the most ‘Catholic’ of ‘Catholic’ countries, many priests are afraid to appear in public wearing a clerical collar. There have been cases of men spat at and verbally abused in the street, one priest, visiting a house in his parish, having the door shut in his face with the words ‘There are no children here’ ringing in his ears. And here in Scotland, although it’s not as bad as that, the whole sorry mess is a cloud hanging over us all.

Just two weeks ago, in the Tablet, Timothy Radcliffe, former head of the Dominican Order, wrote an article entitled ‘Should I stay or should I go?’ in which he explored the reasons for and against his staying in the Church or leaving it. And while, like him, I am definitely staying and intend to be a priest for the rest of my life, the real question I have had to face in recent months is why I am doing so. Why am I still a priest in a Church which behaves the way it does and which so often appals me? These are important questions to which I have given a great deal of thought recently and which I would like to reflect on with you today. Because, until I have given some kind of answer to them, how can I possibly invite you to pray for vocations to the priesthood? And if it helps some of you answer similar questions in your own life, then all the better.

The reasons why any of us do the things we do are, of course, complex. There are usually several layers of reasons and in my own case, when I looked closely at why, despite everything that is going on, I am still a priest, I have been able to identify four such layers. They don’t all have equal value. Some carry more weight than others. But I begin with by far the most superficial of them which is quite simply this: I will be sixty five in June, and if I left the priesthood, what else would I do? Where would I live? How would I support myself? What would I use for money? These are not in themselves good reasons for staying but I have to acknowledge that they are there. I have even asked myself if winning the lottery would make a difference and have come to the conclusion that, while I would not give up being a priest, I just might retire and, if you like, ‘let them get on with it.’ But to be honest, I don’t really think I would.

And the second reason for staying, not a very good one either, is that I am so deeply influenced by the way I was taught as a child in St Thomas’ Primary School in Muirkirk, a way of thinking which is now part of the hard-wiring in my brain, that I simply cannot imagine turning my back on it all. The truth which I am reluctant to admit is that, despite everything I have said to people over the years about God’s unconditional love, there is a very old and quite primitive part of me that still struggles to believe it and so would be afraid to go. I am actually appalled that this way of thinking is still there in me, but am consoled by the fact that it is not, in the end, why I am still a priest.

We come closer to that with my third reason, which is that, despite all its weaknesses – and there have been plenty of them over the centuries - I know with what St Ignatius would call a deep interior knowledge that God is at work deep within history through the Church. Our God is a God who, in Jesus, has embraced the human condition in all its messiness and has not been afraid to get his hands dirty. And to be a man or woman of faith is to do the same. It’s to engage with the full reality of whatever happens, no matter how ugly it may be, and find God there. All kinds of stuff will happen and always has. We belong to a sinful church which has, over the centuries, faced crisis after crisis, many of them far greater than anything we know today, and survived them. And not only has it survived them, but guided by the God who at Easter turned death into life, those very same crises have become the place where change and growth have taken place. And I have not the slightest doubt that that will happen again now. Indeed it is already happening for those who have eyes to see. Like everyone else I get angry at what goes on in the Church. There will be other revelations about corruption in the Church before the current crisis is over. There are times when I am so disgusted that I feel like walking away. But I won’t, because it is through this church that I came to know God and it is through it, no matter what happens, that I will continue to know him.

But the real reason I am still a priest is that being one has been the most wonderful experience imaginable. Far away from Rome, the Pope, the Vatican and all that stuff which, in the end, doesn’t really matter, daily contact with the lives of ordinary people has been the most amazing experience of God for me. As a priest of the Catholic Church for just over forty years it has been my privilege to be trusted by so many people and to be given access to their most secret emotions and thoughts. Whether it be a times of joy or sadness, the birth of a child or the death of a spouse, it has been my great privilege to accompany people and speak with them about what really matters in their lives in a way few others are allowed to do. They have shared their doubts and struggles with me and we have laughed and cried together. We have searched for God in all that has happened and in doing so, two great truths have emerged for me. The first is the sheer goodness of God and the second is the way that goodness is reflected in every person I have met. Quite simply, I wouldn’t change it for anything

And that’s why, despite all the scandals and all the bad publicity, I can still ask you to pray for vocations today.


BIDDING PRAYERS


We begin this week by praying for priests everywhere. The scandal of child sexual abuse by fellow-priests in countries all over the world hangs like a dark cloud over every priest today. In the eyes of many, especially in the media, all priests are paedophiles, and this, for some, is a very difficult burden to bear. And so we ask God to give them the depth of spirituality they need to understand that this painful experience is part of a period of penance for sin that the whole Church is called to at this time...........Lord hear us

Many priests today feel disillusioned and disappointed as they look at what is going on in the Church. For some this is because the Church they knew in their youth has disappeared and they struggle to come to terms with the changes that have taken place. For others, the sadness they feel is because the hope for the future which came out of the Second Vatican Council seems to be dying. And so we ask God to give them all the grace they need to keep trusting the God who, in time, turns all things to good............Lord hear us

Over the years, huge numbers of men have, for a whole variety of reasons, chosen to leave the active priesthood. Some, in the process, have also left the Church, hurt and angry at the way they have been treated. Many, on the other hand, continue to play their part in the life of the Church, often as married men with a wife and family. And so we pray for them all today, that God will continue to bless them and where necessary heal those who have been hurt by their experience.............Lord hear us

Despite everything that has gone on, there are still men, young and old, coming forward and expressing an interest in becoming priests. And so we pray for them and ask God to stir the same desire in others. We pray, too, for those who work with them and teach them when they finally enter the seminary. We ask God to give vocations directors and members of seminary staffs the wisdom and discernment they need when deciding who is and who is not suitable for priestly ministry today........Lord hear us

The book of the Apocalypse, today, speaks of a huge number of people, impossible to count, who have been through the great persecution and have washed their robes clean in the blood of the Lamb. These are the martyrs of the early Church, but they also represent the millions of men and women who, through times of difficulty and crisis down through the centuries, have remained faithful to the Gospel. And so we pray that, when the history of our time comes to be written, we will be counted among them...........Lord hear us

As explained in this week’s bulletin, there will be a meeting here in the hall on Wednesday 26th May to which are invited people, especially young adults, who once came to Mass here but have, for a whole variety of reasons stopped doing so. The aim is simply to engage in conversation with them listen to them and hear something of their own experience. And so we ask God to move among us in the time between now and then and to give those of us here the courage to make the meeting known.......Lord hear us