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14 th Sunday in Ordinary Time
For the first year after my Ordination I went to work with our Missionaries in Venezuela. Straight away they put me to work in a very poor section of the parish. To get an idea of the resources and facilities available to me, consider Mother Teresa and Calcutta. I had no resources. My church consisted of four walls and an aluminum roof, no furniture. One of the first things I heard about was how various priests came and went. When they came they started various communities and gatherings. When they left everything just fell apart until the next priest came. I thought that was a failure on our part. I began to see that there was a huge population of sick people living in the Barrios with little help or support. I decided to begin there. For a few weeks I went into hibernation and reflected on the thing looking for inspiration. I happened to read the Gospel of today about Jesus sending out the 72 to preach his word. I decided that was how I was going to begin. In my own makeshift way I invited every able bodied person from the Church to come to a meeting. At the meeting I explained to them that it was our Christian duty to reach out to the sick of the neighborhood. I did a bit of training with them. I gave them some prayers. I appointed them as Ministers of the Eucharist. I gave them all a huge badge of authority to wear and I sent them forth. Then we waited a couple of months. At the return meeting they all came back very enthusiastic and feeling empowered that they were doing great good. It wasn’t a lot but it was a good beginning. Time passed and I returned to Ireland to my community. More time passed and in 2010 I attended an International Conference of delegates from my Order. I happened to meet some of our priests from Venezuela. Consider my amazement when they told me that the Ministry of visiting the sick in the Barrios was going strong. The word of God inspires us to action. We consider ourselves to be powerless and afraid. When we put on Christ we are empowered beyond our beliefs, beyond our abilities. We can all do good things. We can change people’s lives. But we have to believe. We have to trust in God. We have to begin. First, we must learn to walk by faith.
With love, Fr. Pat