The Courage To Speak
Fr. Donald Macdonald, SMM
THE COURAGE TO SPEAK
A parish priest was both delighted and astonished to see his people, as a result of hearing Father de Montfort speak, radically change, and reflect genuine love of God and sorrow for sin. He himself was a good man, highly respected, but he had never seen anything like this. He said as much to Father de Montfort. “My dear friend,” said Montfort to the priest who actually had baptized him, “I walked over 2000 leagues in pilgrimages in order to beg from God the grace to move the hearts of people, and he has granted me that grace”.
IN NEED
There is no false modesty here. Father de Montfort, the preacher, was well aware of what he had been given – the grace to move people’s hearts. He had, after all, been given what he so much wanted. He, therefore, knew the value of what he had been given, and from whom it came. “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Cor. 3:6-7).
Father de Montfort, here as in so much else, was at one with St. Paul. Both saw themselves as “servants through whom you believed”. (1 Cor. 3:5). They are overwhelmed with the gift they have been given, and so keen to give to others.
ENCOURAGED
This gift did not mean that a magic wand had been waved and that all difficulty had vanished. St. Paul, for example, reminded his people in northern Greece of the first time they met. He had been flogged as a trouble-maker in Philippi, and forced to leave town.
Paul travelled south with a few companions, presumably in agony and shock from the flogging. He arrived in Thessalonika, a stranger with nothing but what he stood up in. Again he began to speak.
This provoked yet more trouble as he reminded his people later, writing to them after being compelled to leave their city. “For you yourselves know though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi . .. we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the face of great opposition”. (1 Thess. 2:2).
He was afraid. He might lose his nerve. Paul pleaded with God for the courage to speak. Every Christian can identify with that. Paul in his weakness is so attractively human.
This should encourage all Christians who ought to speak of their faith and so share what they have been given. There is no need of a high profile. Each will be graced to speak in his or her own way. There is no one way, no best way. The important point is to speak. Both St. Paul and St. Louis Marie found it crucifyingly difficult at times, as well as marvelous on other occasions.
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Father de Montfort was no stranger to that world either. The priest who invited him to his parish and was thrilled by what he heard and saw, actually met him in the company of his bishop, who was forbidding him to preach! It was the good name of the parish priest, who happened to call at that moment to invite Montfort to preach in his parish, that changed the bishop’s mind. If such a priest was asking for him . . .
Montfort, like Paul, withdrew at times to beg God to give him courage to speak. He must have been bone-weary at times facing so much opposition. He was given courage to speak in circumstances which would have defeated others not so blessed.
SELFGIVING
Seeing what they did – the wonder of God giving himself in Christ, and with that gift believing that they were receiving everything – they could do no other than give themselves in return. For the most part, the world about them did not see Christ, and how much it needed that vision. Paul and Montfort, to help meet this need, lived to give people Christ and themselves too, “gentle among you, like a nurse taking care of her children . . . ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves . . .”. (1 Thess. 2:8).
In their cases the medium was in large part the message. They believed that they were called to give Christ, not just teaching about him. There are dangers in this, of course, but given integrity and a genuine call from God and always open to the Spirit, it can be so convincing. This registered with people.
In Thessalonika, for example, such was the response to Paul the beaten stranger, that “your faith in God has gone forth everywhere . . . what a welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God . . .” (1 Thess. 1:9). They were graced to know that in listening to what Paul had to say they heard a word from God. In welcoming the word they would be left with Christ when Paul moved on. Paul the preacher gave himself in frightening circumstances, and thereby gave them Christ.
Father de Montfort once arrived at a priest’s door in response to his request to come and preach in his parish. Having travelled through wind and rain to get there, he was told to move on as the priest had heard ‘stories’ about him and had now changed his mind.
ENLIGHTEN MINDS AND HEARTS
Montfort left and later met the bishop of La Rochelle, who took to him and invited him to preach a mission there. He never regretted it, as Montfort left the mark of the gospel on the town. “The whole city . . . has been . . . touched . . . He was sometimes interrupted by the weeping of those who listened to him, and when he could no longer be heard, he was obliged to stop and say, ‘My dear children, do not weep; you are making it impossible for me to preach. It is even more necessary to instruct you and enlighten your minds than to touch your hearts.’ . . . He excelled equally in reaching both . . . the real aim of every preacher.”
The anonymous priest who was afraid to let him speak may, to some extent, have had an anonymous parish which a word from Father de Montfort might have inspired. It could have encouraged him too.
Montfort’s approach was again one with that of St. Paul – “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness . . . that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God”. (1 Cor. 2:1-5). There is an entire approach to life there in the assimilated gospel.
MY WITNESSES
Father de Montfort gave himself to God in the Christian community mainly through preaching. He found it to be very hard. He was also a skilled teacher of children, so, presumably, knew what he was talking about when he wrote that, “it is more difficult to find an accomplished catechist than it is to find a perfect preacher”. (Original Rule 79).
He even went as far as to say that “the catechist has the most important function of the whole mission.” This should encourage all Christians who ought to speak of their faith and so share what they have been given. There is no need of a high profile. Each will be graced to speak in his or her own way. There is no one way, no best way. The important point is to speak. Both St. Paul and St. Louis Marie found it crucifyingly difficult at times, as well as marvelous on other occasions.
When they were frightened they called on God for courage. Father de Montfort, as we saw, pleaded with his being for the grace to move the hearts of people. In so far as we glimpse what he saw will we make that prayer ours.
The ideal perspective into the reality that St. Paul and St. Louis Marie lived is beautifully focused by St. Paul. He offers a framework within which the individual can find his or her feet, and in response to the gift of God in Christ, have the courage to speak – “therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart . . . For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake”. (2 Cor. 4:1, 5).
