The set up for the quote:
"The padre, that Father Gomez, he will be very happy that you have come back to those nuns," the man behind the counter said.
"Why should he be happy?"
"He will say that it proves a religious thing."
"What religious thing?"
the quote:
"Faith. It is a word for what is unreasonable. If a man believes in an unreasonable thing that is faith. It is not reasonable that you should come back to this place and work for nothing. Nobody believed it. You have come back."
The Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett
**from a well-loved old pbook published in 1962 and only cost 40 cents.
**