Fr. David Sherry
District Superior of Canada

Dear Reader,

An atheist was visiting the west of Ireland and endeavoring to make himself understood in the local tongue. When it came to saying “hopefully,” he bridled, for the only way to express that adverb in the native language is to say “with the help of God.” No, he was a conscientious atheist, he couldn’t do it. “This isn’t fair,” he complained to a local, “I shouldn’t have to mention God if I’m an atheist and I just want to say ‘hopefully.’” The man considered the stranger for a moment and then said: “If you’re an atheist, that means you don’t have any hope.” Touché. In any language.

Irish is a metaphysical and theological language. Try saying “I took the train yesterday.” Boring. Say “I took the train in God” instead. You’re speaking Irish. Do you still honor Woden, Thor and Venus? How about this? Friday (Venus’s day) is “The Fast,” Woden’s day (Wednesday) is “The First Fast” and Thor’s day is—you’ve guessed it—“Between the Two Fasts.” My personal favorite however, is the word for “Mass.” In other languages that word invariably comes from the Latin “Missa” which means “dismissal.” The great Gaels of Ireland however, with their customary knack for getting to the heart of the matter, disdain this trend. They call it “The Sacrifice.” Perfect.

Faced with conclusive evidence of the manifest predestination of the Irish people, you might reasonably conclude that, in a foreshadowing of Vatican II and its eternal springtime, Pope Celestine and the missionaries he sent to that blessed isle would have forthwith inculturated the Catholic faith. You would be wrong. Turns out, even the pagan Irish had nothing to teach the Christians, but rather had everything to learn. The true God was not called Crom or Lug or any other of the denizens of the Celtic pantheon: He is Deus or Dé in the mouths of the savages. The Mass itself was not translated into the native tongue or interspersed with war dances or invocations of earth goddesses. Not even the somewhat loose marital mores of the pagans were suffered to remain as they were. There followed not the abolition, but the purification and refinement of the ancient culture by Truth Himself. And where pagans had sacrificed their children to demons, now priests, virgins and laypeople lived temperately and justly and piously. Why, it’s enough to leave an atheist speechless!