Jesus prayed to the Father, “With me in them and you in me, may they be so completely one that the world will realise that it was you who sent me and that I have loved them as much as you loved me.” (John 20:23) What happened to these words down through the years since the Reformation as Protestants and Catholics turned against each other and devoted as much time to running each other down as we did trying to persuade peoples of other faiths that we were each the only way to salvation. My mother was forbidden by the Catholic church to enter a Protestant church on the occasion of the burial of a family member. Because my father was not a Catholic, my parents could not be married in the church. The marriage ceremony took place in the sacristry. I am the only Catholic male on my father’s side of the family.
Since the Second Vatican Council and the call for ecumenism, church policies and practices have changed. More than that, people today just don’t see the sense of these divisions; some no longer go to church. For myself, I have grown closer to my cousins, some of whom are loyal Anglicans. I suppose its family that brings us together; its family that helps us to understand the meaning of Jesus’ words; its family that helps us to see Jesus in one another; its family that binds us together in a way whereby others can better understand how Jesus’ love for us is as powerful as that which is found in the very heart of God. We’ve still got a long way to go. We’re getting old.
But I hope our future generations can see that without family, church doesn’t make sense, that preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes no sense. I always enjoy meeting up with my cousins. After all we’re family and I am no longer different and I am still very much a Catholic priest whose ministry began within and is still rooted in family.
Fr Tom Rouse lives and works in Lower Hutt - Aotearoa/New Zealand.
