Wednesday Reflection
16th February 2022
The only major feast day this week is already past. It was on Monday when we honoured Saints Cyril and Methodius who were Greek brothers from Thessalonica. They lived in the seventh century and translated liturgical texts into the Slavonic language and in the process invented an alphabet. Both were great evangelizers; Methodius outliving his brother and becoming a bishop.
They could be counted among the few labourers mentioned in that day’s Gospel who were sent out in pairs of two and who had plenty of ‘wolves’ with whom to deal. In a world that was largely hostile, they were fearless in proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was at hand. They did not hesitate to give witness to blind men who didn’t want to see. To deaf men who didn’t want to hear. We operate in a world of secularists and atheists who do not believe and do not want to believe. Who do not want to be convinced. I wonder if there is a tendency for people to say that the Pope, or the bishops, or the priests are not doing enough to teach the truth the Church teaches? But all of us have a responsibility to, “go out and proclaim the Good News.” It’s not always reason or argumentation or even miracles that convert the hardest of hearts. It may be a chance word we say or the example of our lives.
Giovanni Papini was an famous Italian atheist. One day he gave a coin to a freezing beggar by the roadside and told him there was more if he would curse and blaspheme. The beggar stood up walked away, saying ʺPoor man! Poor man. God have mercy on you.ʺ The great Papini called ʹPoor manʹ …. by a beggar. Those words changed his life. The truth was there whether he refused to see it or hear it or believe in it. It was the words of the beggar that caused him to convert to the Catholic Faith. Makes you wonder what our words could achieve.
Monsignor Monaghan
