For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/102107.shtml
When the Lord comes, will he find any faith on the earth? As Vocation Director for the Archdiocese, this question from our Lord at the end of today’s Gospel can easily be distilled to a question about religious vocations in general, and vocations to the priesthood for our Archdiocese in particular. When the Lord comes, and He does come to us for a living encounter right now in the scriptures we have heard and in the Eucharist that we are about to share – when the Lord comes, will he find men of faith who are willing to leave everything to follow Him? When the Lord calls men to be priests, will He find anyone with enough faith to answer His call?
Winning the battle for vocations, for discernment of God’s will and for the courage to follow the Lord wherever He may lead us, is a matter of prayer. This weekend’s scriptures plead with us to be vigilant in prayer, and we see clearly that it is when we stop praying that the battle for vocations will be lost. As long as Moses was vigilant in prayer, the Israelites had the better of the fight against the Amalekites. But when his vigilance waned, the enemy advanced. As Christian people who know that holiness is a true battle, and who know that the determination of the enemy is relentless, today’s first reading is an encouragement for us to be prayer warriors if we are to have any chance to know God’s will clearly in our lives and to sustain the courage to answer His call.
As vocation director, I experience many great Catholic families and young people who are open at least in principle to God’s call in their lives. Rare, however, are those families and young people who pray fervently asking God to call them to be different, to be saints, and to set them apart to teach people how to love the kingdom of heaven. It is natural for us, I guess, and part of my own story, to want first to be normal, and to pursue some sort of kingdom on this earth, while theoretically remaining open to God’s calling us to something different. We figure that if God wants us to be a priest or a sister, He will let us know by confounding our plans for marriage or for a career. We wait until life does not meet our expectations before asking if God wants us to do something different. Rare, however, is the Catholic family or the young person, who prays unceasingly that they will be given the gift of a religious calling, the chance to work singleheartedly their entire lives bringing people to love the kingdom of heaven and the eternal life that has been given through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There are two ways that we can pray unceasingly for an increase of vocations to religious life, and especially for vocations to the priesthood for our Archdiocese. The first is to make a petition everyday that God will give the Church more priests, the priests she needs to build up the body of Christ and to be spiritual fathers protecting God’s people from the power of the enemy. I hope we are all doing this in our personal prayer, storming heaven asking the Lord for more priests, and we should do this unceasingly at Mass as well. In this, the annoying widow in the Gospel is our model and heroine, as she asks and asks and asks for what is so important to her well being. Our motto should be this: God wills absolute things absolutely and contingent things contingently. We are not praying trying to change God’s mind into giving us more priests, but if it is his will that the current shortage of priests is allowed as a means of stretching our faith and forcing us to pray, then I hope all of us here are up to meeting the challenge and will double our efforts to pray for more priests.
Just as important as this prayer directed to heaven, however, is the way that we teach each other to pray for more vocations to the priesthood and religious life. As I said earlier, it is one thing to pray that we remain open to whatever God might ask of us – this is a good and holy prayer. But this is not how Moses and the widow prayed in today’s scriptures. They did not pray simply for the grace to accept whatever outcome was inevitable, as good of a prayer as that might have been. No, they prayed for victory, for a decision in their favor. In the same way, our prayer for vocations is not simply a prayer for openness in case God might call us to be priests and religious; no, our prayer for vocations is a prayer asking God specifically to receive the gift of a calling to the priesthood or the religious life. It is a prayer asking God to choose me and not someone else! It is a prayer that priesthood and religious life will not be a vocation of last resort, but a vocation of first preference.
St. Paul says in our second reading that reading the scriptures will equip us for the work that God has marked out for us. Reading scripture before the Blessed sacrament, and engaging in daily mental prayer, will strengthen our will and determination to allow God to call us to something extraordinary. Going to confession regularly will release us from discouragement and weariness, and assure us of the Lord’s constant help. And praying the rosary will allow our Blessed Mother to help us more and more, for she was Jesus’ first and best disciple, and she did not hesitate but responded in faith when she was asked to do something extraordinary for God. Please join me and Archbishop Naumann and all my brother priests in praying more and more for vocations to the religious life, and especially for holy priests for our Archdiocese. Jesus tells us that we must pray always without becoming weary.
No comments:
Post a Comment