If we are not on fire with love for Jesus Christ, none of our good intentions matter

Have we lost the belief in prayer and the power of God to be active in our world and in our Church, asks Fr John Harris OP

On the morning of May 26, 2018 I sat in our Dominican church in Newbridge not wanting to open the church for the 8am Mass. Not one box had been opened with the results of the referendum on abortion but the exit polls had already predicted that not only had the referendum been carried but it had been so by a landslide. Why open the doors of the church? Why keep going? The teaching of the Church on the sacredness of human life is not a periphery doctrine, and yet the Catholic population had massively decided that the right to choice had trumped the right to life.

My role as a preacher of the Gospel had not changed even if all around me had. The truth remains and it still has to be preached and witnessed to. So I opened the church. I was now a stranger in my own country. The title of Archbishop of Philadelphia Charles Chaput’s book is Strangers in a strange land but it was now my reality.

As so often in the past so once again I looked to the writings of Pope Benedict XVI to give me guidance and a way of progressing as a preacher in this new Ireland. Using a letter of the Pope Emeritus I was given that guidance and the strength to continue to preach and witness to the Good News.

Reasons

In his letter to the President of the Episcopal Conference of Germany on April 14, 2012 concerning the controversy of the Vatican’s demand that the translation of the institution narrative in the various Eucharistic Prayers “pro vobis et pro multis” be rendered “for you and for many” and that there was to be no mention of “all”, Pope Benedict gives his reasons for this strict instruction.

Under his papacy there was little room for confusion and ambiguity maybe reflecting a more ancient tradition of the summa teologiae, The Pope at the time presents the problem clearly and his answers are challenging.

Pope Benedict asks the question if Jesus died for all, then why did he say “for many” at the Last Supper? And why should the Church retain these words of Jesus for the institution? He points out that according to Matthew and Mark, Jesus said “for many”, while according to Luke and Paul he said “for you”. This Benedict says seems to narrow the focus even further. But with his incisive intelligence he says this use points towards the solution.

He writes – the disciples know that Jesus’ mission extends beyond them and their circle, they know that he came to gather together the scattered children of God from all over the world (John 11:52). Yet this ‘for you’ makes Jesus’ mission quite concrete for those present.

He notes that this concretising as it were acknowledges “that they are not simply anonymous elements within some vast whole: each one of them knows that the Lord died precisely for me, for us. ‘For you’ covers the past and the future, it means me, personally; we, who are assembled here, are known and loved by Jesus for ourselves. So this ‘for you’ is not a narrowing down, but a making concrete, and it applies to every eucharistic community, concretely uniting it to the love of Jesus. In the words of consecration, the Roman Canon combined the two biblical formulae, and so it says ‘for you and for many’.

Tradition

The Pope Emeritus makes the point that the ‘for you’ of the Luke-Paul tradition does not restrict but rather makes concrete, so now we recognise that the dialectic ‘many’ – ‘all’ has a meaning of its own.

‘All’ concerns the ontological plane – the life and ministry of Jesus embraces the whole of humanity: past, present and future. However, specifically, historically, in the concrete community of those who celebrate the Eucharist, he comes only to ‘many’.

So here we see a threefold meaning of the relationship between ‘many’ and ‘all’.

It is this threefold meaning of the relationship which offers us strangers in a strange country a road map towards our new self-understanding as Catholics in a society which is uncomfortable with our very existence in their midst.

The virus has had its impact also on ourselves as believers…”

Pope Benedict writes: Firstly, for us who are invited to sit at his table, it means surprise, joy and thankfulness that he has called me, that I can be with him and come to know him. “Thank the Lord that in his grace he has called me into his Church.”

We must begin by asking ourselves: does my Faith fill me with joy, and am I grateful to God that he has graced me to be a Catholic? Am I surprised by his choice of me?

Archbishop Chaput writes: The fundamental crisis of our time, and the special crisis of today’s Christians, has little to do with numbers, or organisations or resources. It’s a crisis of faith. Do we believe in God or not? Are we on fire with a love for Jesus Christ or not? Because if we are not, none of our good intentions matter. And if we are, then everything we need in doing God’s work will naturally follow, because he never abandons his people.

In his recent homily at the annual Dominican pilgrimage to Knock, Fr Paul Murray OP challenged us: “For what defines this particular moment in our history is not the grim, appalling poverty of the 19th Century; it is not physical destitution in other words.

“It is rather a sickness that attacks the spirit, a virus clearly determined to undermine the health and strength of living Faith and living hope.

“All of us, I would say, have been affected in some measure, believers and non-believers alike…the virus has had its impact also on ourselves as believers…but there are times in the Church when we witness, and witness also in our own hearts, if we’re honest, a lack of trust in the power of God to transform our lives and heal the deep wounds caused by the scandals and divisions of recent years,” Fr Murray said.

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A central question – have we lost the belief in prayer and the power of God to be active in our world and in our Church.

In Newbridge almost 70% voted in favour of the abortion referendum. As I stood up on the Sunday to preach I couldn’t help but think “how many of you here today voted ‘yes’ to abortion?” At the time I wrote an article in this newspaper in which I said: “Last week made it obvious that not only are we not reaching those on the peripheries, we are losing those sitting in front of us every weekend.”

We need a spiritual revival in the Church, one that is founded on the joy of the Gospel indeed but founded on the reality of supernatural grace and the power of the sacraments. Our liturgies should be God-focused and not self-congratulatory. We need to acknowledge that the Church is not ours but God’s.

Have we the courage to say “thank the Lord that in his grace he has called me into his Church”. We need to be a people who testify to what the Lord means for them. People who are alive with the Faith and not just those who wish to make the Church in their own image and likeness. We need to re-engage with the living Christ of the resurrection.

I am reminded of the prayer of St John Henry Newman: “I adore Thee, O Almighty Lord, the Paraclete, because Thou in Thy infinite compassion hast brought me into this Church, the work of Thy supernatural power. I had no claim on Thee for so wonderful a favour over anyone else in the whole world. There were many men far better than I by nature, gifted with more pleasing natural gifts, and less stained with sin. Yet Thou, in Thy inscrutable love for me, hast chosen me and brought me into Thy fold.”

Call  of love

Our calling into the Church is a supernatural call of love, it is not a burden of slavery placed on our freedom. Your love is better than life we pray in the psalms. Do we truly rejoice in this supernatural love which is a higher calling than life itself?

The Pope continues: Secondly, this brings with it a certain responsibility. How the Lord in his own way reaches the others – ‘all’ – ultimately remains his mystery. But without doubt it is a responsibility to be directly called to his table, so that I hear the words ‘for you’ – he suffered for me.

The many bear responsibility for all. The community of the many must be the lamp on the lamp-stand, a city on the hilltop, yeast for all. This is a vocation that affects each one of us individually, quite personally. The many, that is to say, we ourselves, must be conscious of our mission of responsibility towards the whole.

One of the possible responses to the tsunami of secularism is to run and take fright. To batten down the hatches and wait until the storm has passed by (as I once heard a bishop preach at an ordination). We could all run and hide in a safe secluded corner of a garden and play the piano. To find our own comfort zone and only deal with ‘our own’.

In his book, Archbishop Chaput says this is not an option for him as a bishop and it is definitely not an option for me as a Dominican. St Dominic went into the cities to preach. He preferred to preach at Carcassonne where his preaching was not accepted than in Toulouse where he was a successful preacher. To run and hide is not an option for us Dominicans or for the ‘many’. We will be asked on the last day how we cared for the ‘all’.

But our response to the ‘all’ will depend on how we are first of all in love with Christ. The first and second challenges of Benedict XVI are intimately connected. For if we are lukewarm in our Faith we will be lukewarm in our call to witness. If we are unsure about the truth of the Gospel we will never preach it. If our base line is, it doesn’t really matter if we practice the Faith or not, then we will never be intentional disciples.

What defines this particular moment…is not the grim, appalling poverty of the 19th Century; it is not physical destitution”

There are various possible responses – The Benedict Option is proposed by some. Maybe the challenge for us Dominicans is to come up with a Dominic option, which doesn’t involve simply in regrouping but more direct involvement. Whatever our response is it cannot be one of disconnect or even distain for the “all”.

In an essay written by the great French Dominican Henri-Dominique Lacordaire on the re-establishment of the order in France, he noted that St Dominic founded the order when Christian Europe was approaching the crises of adolescence. One wonders if this is a precise understanding of where Irish society is today. Is it undergoing its own crises of adolescence after 100 years of the foundation of the State.

Fr Lacordaire goes on to note that the friar’s preachers showed considerable shrewdness in grasping the kind of preaching which was suited to their time. The challenge is clear how can we now in the Ireland of today preach into this new reality.

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In his book, Archbishop Chaput quotes the late Fr Richard John Neuhaus: For the Catholic Christian, the world is not alien territory but a creation of love that has tragically alienated itself from its Creator. This mission of the Church is to call the world home. [We must] never tire of engaging [people], of persuading them, of pointing out in their lives the signals of the transcendent glory for which they were created. Never weary of proposing to them the true story of their lives…the Church must make her proposal winsomely, persuasively and persistently, like a lover to the beloved. As Benedict says: “We bear a responsibility for the all.”

Finally Pope Benedict wrote: “[A] third aspect comes into play. In today’s society we often feel that we are not ‘many’, but rather few – a small remnant becoming smaller all the time. But no – we are ‘many’: after this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues”, as we read in the Revelation of Saint John (7:9). We are many and we stand for all.”

So the words ‘many’ and ‘all’ go together and are intertwined with responsibility and promise.

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Recently I was one of three of the brethren who preached a parish mission in Downpatrick, Co. Down. In the parish is buried St Patrick, St Brigid and St Columcille. While in the parish I couldn’t but be struck again by the figure of St Patrick. I read again his Confessio. A real man who was seen as the last of the apostles, for it was believed he brought the Gospel to the ends of the earth. We are the fruits of his mission. We Irish cannot forget our Christian roots. Lots of money and energy are now being put into celebrating our pagan past.

We Catholics need to wake up and realise our wonderful Christian heritage in this land. We need to grasp who we are, who we are the descendants of. Who brought the Gospel all over the world? I am not saying that the Irish saved civilisation but I am saying that from one man who heard the voice of the Irish grew a great nation of missionaries, saints and scholars.

You and I are part of this heritage. Let us listen to the letters of the Popes to the Irish that we had in the Office of Readings yesterday for the feast of all the Saints of Ireland. “If God has chosen you to be his companions in tribulation…do not prove unworthy of your ancestors…follow eagerly in the works of those whose virtues you esteem.

“Open up the doors of that Church and let the nation enter, to sing the praises of God, so that each of us may come to live more deeply the knowledge that we, that I am, known and loved by Jesus so this ‘for you’ is not a narrowing down, but a making concrete, making it real.”

If we are lukewarm in our Faith we will be lukewarm in our call to witness”

For the majority in our country we are few and strange. After all that has happened, after all that has come to light, how can there still be believers? This is where we begin: we haven’t gone away and we are not going away. In Italian a stranger is known as who one is. The stranger is not lost in the crowd but stands in his or her own reality.

Towards the end of his book Archbishop Chaput writes: “Bland secular platitudes, consumer junk, and cheap nihilism feeds nobody’s soul. These things strangle the heart…if we truly love God, we’ll evangelise the world he made, and whose soul he created us to be. After all, we’re disciples and friends – not just servants, but friends – of the Lord of history, who died and rose again to save the world.”

I began my article in The Irish Catholic the week of the referendum result: The tsunami of the vote in favour of abortion was no silent revolution, it was the biggest wake-up call ever given to the Church in Ireland and each one of us who claim to be Catholic must listen to it and take it very seriously. One thing is clear after last Friday’s vote; things can’t go on as before for the Church here in Ireland. Whatever we are doing simply isn’t working.

Sadly, for many in the Church that is exactly what has happened – nothing. We have endeavoured to go on as before. I think Pope Benedict has given us a map out of Egypt if we have the courage to follow: