Some time ago I had lunch in a local restaurant with Deacon Vincent McQuaid, the Catholic chaplain at Dr Gray\u2019s. By pure coincidence, a woman I knew was there too with her friend. On their way out she told me that she had paid for our drinks. That was a very kind and generous gesture. It\u2019s just a pity that I only had half a pint of alcohol-free beer\u2026 That gesture, unexpected and undeserved, was in line with today\u2019s gospel: \u2018If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, he will most certainly not lose his reward.\u2019<\/i> In fact, she went much further, because it wasn\u2019t just a glass of cold water (which was served free-of-charge in that restaurant anyway); and I\u2019m certainly not \u2018a little one\u2019<\/i>. I just wonder what her reward was, as I haven\u2019t seen her since. Perhaps she won the lottery and now lives in a country where summer means summer\u2026<\/p>\n
I have to admit that this wasn\u2019t the only act of kindness that has been shown towards me here. It happens every now and again in one form or another. Those acts of kindness often aren\u2019t made simply because I\u2019m a priest; it\u2019s because most people I have met are kind and friendly and do this out of the goodness of their hearts. It\u2019s important to me that I\u2019ve been accepted in this community, and am even considered by some as \u2018one of our own\u2019. I feel at home here, to the slight irritation of my beloved Mum who lives a thousand miles away.<\/p>\n
You may wonder why the heck I\u2019m talking about myself rather than about Jesus\u2026 Perhaps that\u2019s because in this parish I\u2019m the sole literal illustration of his statement in today\u2019s gospel: \u2018Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me.\u2019<\/i> The nearest active priests are in Elgin, Huntly and Peterhead. We priests find ourselves thinly spread, each serving at least a couple of parishes. We all try to do our best, but we are only human, limited by time and distance, with our limited talents, skills and capabilities. We are prone to make mistakes and errors, as is everyone else. Our \u2018superpowers\u2019 that we use to celebrate Mass and the other sacraments are considered neither \u2018super\u2019 nor \u2018powers\u2019 by many outside the Church. There\u2019s no shortage of those out there who consider us to be redundant or even harmful. Undoubtedly many such perceptions are justified by the unpleasant attitudes or sinful actions of some of the clergy worldwide. People\u2019s expectations of us are very high, and we priests often struggle to meet them.<\/p>\n
But don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m not intent on using up my weekly allowance of moaning in this sermon. I\u2019m really happy to be here and to be doing what I believe I was called to do. I\u2019ve said all that to put your<\/b> kindness and helpfulness into perspective. Neither I, nor any of my colleagues, could do much without your personal involvement and commitment. I\u2019d like to testify that this parish community\u2019s strength comes from you. It is each act of kindness towards others, of help to others, voluntary work, prayer or suffering \u2013 even if it\u2019s apparently overlooked or going unnoticed \u2013 that makes this community so great. And all that is done for God\u2019s sake. Today I\u2019d like to thank each and every one of you for doing your bit for the parish. As for offering me a cup of cold water, you\u2019ve gone much further than that, and made me feel at home. How? Here\u2019s a clue: my visitors, looking at my collection of bottles full of the water of life<\/i>, given to me by many of you, must wonder whether I\u2019m an alcoholic\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some time ago I had lunch in a local restaurant with Deacon Vincent McQuaid, the Catholic chaplain at Dr Gray\u2019s. By pure coincidence, a woman I knew was there too with her friend. On their way out she told me that she had paid for our drinks. That was a very kind and generous gesture. It\u2019s just a pity that I only had half a pint of alcohol-free beer\u2026 That gesture, unexpected and undeserved, was in line with today\u2019s gospel: \u2018If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, he will most certainly not lose his reward.\u2019 In fact, she went much further, because it wasn\u2019t just a glass of cold water (which was served free-of-charge in that restaurant anyway); and I\u2019m certainly not \u2018a little one\u2019. I just wonder what her reward was, as I haven\u2019t seen her since. Perhaps she won the lottery and now lives in a country where summer means summer\u2026 I have to admit that this wasn\u2019t the only act of kindness that has been shown towards me here. It happens every now and again in one form or another. Those acts of kindness often aren\u2019t made simply because I\u2019m a priest; it\u2019s because most people I have met are kind and friendly and do this out of the goodness of their hearts. It\u2019s important to me that I\u2019ve been accepted in this community, and am even considered by some as \u2018one of our own\u2019. I feel at home here, to the slight irritation of my beloved Mum who lives a thousand miles away. You may wonder why the heck I\u2019m talking about myself rather than about Jesus\u2026 Perhaps that\u2019s because in this parish I\u2019m the sole literal illustration of his statement in today\u2019s gospel: \u2018Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me.\u2019 The nearest active priests are in Elgin, Huntly and Peterhead. We priests find ourselves thinly spread, each serving at least a couple of parishes. We all try to do our best, but we are only human, limited by time and distance, with our limited talents, skills and capabilities. We are prone to make mistakes and errors, as is everyone else. Our \u2018superpowers\u2019 that we use to celebrate Mass and the other sacraments are considered neither \u2018super\u2019 nor \u2018powers\u2019 by many outside the Church. There\u2019s no shortage of those out there who consider us to be redundant or even harmful. Undoubtedly many such perceptions are justified by the unpleasant attitudes or sinful actions of some of the clergy worldwide. People\u2019s expectations of us are very high, and we priests often struggle to meet them. But don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m not intent on using up my weekly allowance of moaning in this sermon. I\u2019m really happy to be here and to be doing what I believe I was called to do. I\u2019ve said all that to put your kindness and helpfulness into perspective. Neither I, nor any of my colleagues, could do much without your personal involvement and commitment. I\u2019d like to testify that this parish community\u2019s strength comes from you. It is each act of kindness towards others, of help to others, voluntary work, prayer or suffering \u2013 even if it\u2019s apparently overlooked or going unnoticed \u2013 that makes this community so great. And all that is done for God\u2019s sake. Today I\u2019d like to thank each and every one of you for doing your bit for the parish. As for offering me a cup of cold water, you\u2019ve gone much further than that, and made me feel at home. How? Here\u2019s a clue: my visitors, looking at my collection of bottles full of the water of life, given to me by many of you, must wonder whether I\u2019m an alcoholic\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-a"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}