Here is my response: From the first day of my time at All Hallows College in the late 1960s the priestly ministry described perseverance, dedication, and sharing the Good News with others. Little did I realise then what that would mean in the real world, particularly in parishes.
Seminary
All Hallows was a missionary seminary for the English-speaking world. Sadly, it closed in November 2016. Leaving your family and loved ones added an extra dimension to relentless ministry especially if you loved your homeland.
Spreading the gospel Is demanding in your own culture but doing so in another country adds an extra dimension. You have to discover the main ingredients of the new people to minister to and that takes time.
I was blessed in that I had nine years as a curate working with 2 outstanding parish priests who guided me in wonderful ways. When I spoke with other curates, I began to count my blessings.
My curate friends said at the time that they were asked to do things by people who had no clue how to do the same things themselves. The nine years of being an assistant priest were crucial in learning the United Kingdom’s ways of life. In those days I pondered why we spent six years doing cosmology, epistemology and indeed other ‘ologies’ in Seminary.
By our baptism, every one of us is called witness through words and actions we belong to Jesus Christ, but the priest has affirmed the duty to preach and teach actions that’s where the relentless possibilities are challenging.
Much later in my ministry, I was a Parish Priest for 22 years in the same place. There is something to be said for leaving priests where they are if they are happy and doing a good job.
Ministry
During those 22 years, we did some wonderful things together and many of these were not religious. The social events such as Parish Dances, Christmas bazaars and even car boot sales drew people from outside the ranks of Catholicism.
Some of these people got involved with enthusiasm and they worked hard for our Catholic Community. We had a Scottish Methodist who never missed a thing and even came to Mass. I called her the best “Catholic Methodist”. And she loved it.
On one occasion I saw a T-shirt in one of the shops with the words “living for others” and I couldn’t resist wearing it at the Parish Summer Fair. There were very favourable comments coming from all directions. But the best Catholic Methodist said, “Tom is living for others while Jesus died for all”. Needless to say, I have done a few sermons on that remark.
The other area we need to address is the social gathering of the clergy themselves. In former times we played Golf or Cards together or we belonged to walking groups and with these we exchanged pastoral approaches. These were weekly breaks from relentless ministry and more often than not returned home with a new enthusiasm and determination.
Priests too need holidays. They need a day off and we need the courage to tell our people what we can do and the issues we cannot cope with. When we used to do parish visiting there was a great opportunity for people to get to know their priest.
But most of all visiting people in their homes was a wonderful way to get to know the people of the parish. It did happen that people banged the door on my face but thankfully only rarely did that happen. In many ways that too set off alarm bells that we need to do more.
There was one wonderful occasion when the man of the house I called on shouted abuse and banged the door on my face but two hours later a couple rang my doorbell and to my amazement, the man was the same person who verbally abused me earlier. We became the best of friends, and they never missed Mass thereafter. We are still in contact 25 years later.
On another occasion, three people rang the Presbytery Bell. There was a father and mother and their son, and they told me that their son’s wife had just died having given birth to their first child three weeks before. They were all of Polish background. They asked me to do the Requiem Mass for the young wife and mother and here comes the challenge, would I baptise the newly born so at the Requiem as well?
Relentless ministry confronted me in a new way as the young father carried his baby son as he led his wife’s coffin into the packed Church. It was a great honour to connect the two ceremonies in numerous ways especially with the waters of baptism being the water of eternal life. Relentless ministry we may well have but surprising pastoral events like that elevate the people involved to the highest heavens. But priests too need to be raised to the highest heavens.
Retirement
Since retiring I have done chaplaincy work on Cruise Liners at Christmas. On one occasion as I went to the self-service restaurant for supper one evening a young member of staff who was welcoming people into the restaurant suddenly asked me to anoint him.
In an instant, I decided to respond because the chances of seeing that crew member again were remote. That sort of instant response is in essence what all ministry is about. Jesus always listened and responded without hesitation which makes him the champion of relentless ministry.
It is my experience that the people of a parish working together both in a spiritual way and socially quickly become a profound catalyst for the transformation of hearts and minds which also happens far too rarely nationally.
I have tried to be positive in my reflections on relentless ministry and the greatest honour has been to see the FACE of Jesus in the thousands of people I have ministered to. We stood together in good times and in bad and I personally never worried about standing alone
We would do well to think of the first Christians of Antioch in modern-day Turkey. Shortly after the Resurrection the followers of Jesus were called “Christians” and of equal significance Jews and Gentiles had equal standing without circumcision.
This equality shaped early Christian theology, practice and missionary outreach so much so that “The Way” became a global faith. The way is still the same, not forgetting THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE.
Fr Tom Grufferty is a retired priest living in Knock, Co. Mayo.