Almost exactly seventeen years ago to the day and the hour, in a distant country, fifteen young men were ordained as priests. It was the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. Today, we are in the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, this Mass is being said by one of those fifteen young men. None of the Sisters knew about this anniversary of mine. They are as much surprised as you. This event has been planned for you, not for me. I’m extremely happy to be with you here, in the middle of nowhere, in this really modest place surrounded by my beloved hills.
This place for 82 years held a position vital to the survival of the Catholic faith in Scotland. Trained here were young men, who eventually would be ordained to priesthood to provide spiritual and sacramental ministry, often in hostile social environment. They weren’t driven by comfort or any prospect of a wealthy and peaceful life. This very place was burned to the ground and shot at by the royal troops – hardly a friendly approach. As ordained priests they often worked secretly, risking their lives and facing a massive anti-Catholic propaganda.
That’s the past. Now we live in a country with official policy of equality. Nobody is officially persecuted for being a Catholic, everybody can freely keep their beliefs and practice their faith. If priests have to hide, it’s because of their crimes, not their teaching. Do you know what’s the greatest challenge that we, priests, face every day? Any ideas?
Some people can assume it’s militant atheism, others can argue it’s so called ‘gay agenda’, because both have massive presence in mass-media and famous names fronting them. Neither of them. The greatest challenge we face is religious indifference. In the gospel Jesus speaks about hatred of the world. And some people do. They do because they are passionate about what they believe and because they see Christianity as a threat. We have the right to disagree and can make an effort to convince such people to our faith. St Paul is a good example of an extremely passionate persecutor of Christians turned to be an extremely passionate Christian. Passionate opponents are not our problem. Those impassionate are. Because they don’t bother. Because faith doesn’t matter anymore.
We are here, in the place born out of passion for Christ. We are here, because we are passionate about Christ. He matters to us, we bother about him. Let’s ask ourselves where does this passion lead us. This place gives us some clues.
Young Christians were coming here because the place was well hidden among the hills, out of view of their persecutors. They were coming here to be trained in the faith, and to develop their relationship with Jesus. We need such a place; not necessarily in geographical sense, rather in the spiritual one. We need time and space away from the world to renew and to deepen our personal relationship with Jesus. Without that we can become Christian activists, and even be very vocal, but ultimately vulnerable and ready to fall. Christianity is deeply rooted in Christ or it will wither and die.
This was a hiding place, but only for a period of time. People here weren’t sitting idly waiting for better times. They were leaving the place driven by their passion for souls. They were men on a mission, sent by God to spread the Good News, the gospel of Christ. They were abandoning this relatively safe place going to face the unknown. It must be the same with us; we have to share Christ with people around. Yes, we can be heckled, scorned, ridiculed. But people doing so are passionate and because of that they can be conquered for Christ. The real challenge are those impassionate, those who don’t bother. How do you light up their passion and craving? The clue is in the way we got here. The hills were indifferent to our presence. We could have gone round them, quickly and comfortably, sitting in the cars. We chose the hard way, we made an extra effort. To light the passion up in those impassionate we need to operate the same way, going the extra mile. It might seem a fruitless enterprise; sometimes we might not see the results. That’s not important. What really matters is that God will use our efforts to be found by those who we can light up.
This sermon was delivered at Mass in Hidden Seminary in Scalan, Scotland