Going beyond boundaries - Fr. Tom Rouse

"Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me."  (Mt 11:4-6)

As I sit here in singlet and shorts, sweat pouring down my back despite a steady breeze from the half-broken fan, I think to myself, “This is a crazy lifestyle.” Why do I remain intensely dedicated to this way of life?

From my high school days, when I once received a copy of The Red Lacquered Gate as a prize, I have been fired by the history of the Columbans. This history is continually retold through the stories of many ordinary people who embarked on the various extraordinary ventures of mission as members of the St Columbans Mission Society.  I am proud to be part of that history.

The seeds of my missionary calling were planted very early in life. I believe God destined me to be a missionary priest. It is an extraordinary belief, that God destined and called me to be an instrument of divine salvation through the proclamation of the Gospel. I am grateful, therefore, to my immediate blood family, and especially my mother, among whom I came to understand the implications of that calling.

Likewise, I thank those who helped me in my initial exploration of the gospels. Somehow they sowed other seeds which bore later fruit in my years as a lecturer in biblical studies.

But the Jesus-story is not simply texts to be read but rather the call to journeys and lives dedicated to mission.

It has been a constant challenge to make those stories come alive in my own reading and preaching of the Scriptures because here lies the foundations of our calling to Columban missionary priesthood.

Our founders chose to dedicate our Society to the memory and name of an early Irish missionary. It is ironic and instructive to see how the improbable dream of our founders reflected the audacity of one who set out to establish monasteries among the ruins of Europe. But Columban’s motto – Christi simus non nostri – is another of those echoes that keep reminding me of what mission demands of us: to give ourselves totally to Christ.

I have reflected in the past on how my experience of deafness was one of those factors that played a significant part in drawing me into ministry among and with those who are the rejects of society. But commitment to the cause of a peace based on justice and respect for God’s creation is what also identifies me as a Columban missionary priest. And what I bring to this ministry, as a Columban, is a global perspective and cross-cultural experiences.

What also distinguishes Columbans from others as that we constantly challenge people to move beyond Church. It is not simply a matter of crossing geographical boundaries and the boundaries of race, language and class. It is more than that. It is to call people beyond the boundaries of Church and religion, and even the boundaries we place around God.

No wonder it is crazy. But I couldn’t be anywhere else; I couldn’t be anything else.

Fr. Tom Rouse Columban Regional Director, first went to Fiji in 1976

Read more Testimonies