Pray for Vocations

Good Shepherd Sunday

The Gospel for each Fourth Sunday of Easter is from one of the passages where Jesus calls Himself the “Good Shepherd.” It is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, as we reflect on the mystery of God’s call and the beauty of humble and unselfish service.

For me, my call has been to priestly ministry, collaborators with the bishop, with fellow clergy, and with the lay faithful to make visible in a human way the holiness, wisdom, and service of Jesus in the world. For most of the faithful, it is the call to marriage and family life, the basic unit of society and the domestic Church. For some, it is a call to religious life in community, anticipating already and pointing to the communion of the saints in the Kingdom of God. For others, it is a specific vocation to the single life, free to reach out in service with generosity and in witness to the truth that we are all brothers and sisters in one human family.

Whatever our primary vocation, our Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for us, continues to call each of us to a role in his Kingdom; no one is exempt. But responding to that call is not a single decision. It is a daily re-commitment to whatever God is asking of us in our role. Most often, this plays out in the concrete events of each day, the people and responsibilities and routines and unexpected events that make up our lives. We find our own personal happiness precisely when we discover and follow God’s will in our lives; when we can say: “That was not an easy thing to do, but it was the right thing to do.”Good Shepherd Sunday readily connects especially with priestly vocations. As I wrote last June in the Central Minnesota Catholic magazine, I was blessed very soon after ordination with an insight that has always helped me: as a priest, I am most myself when there is least of me. That is, we are ordained not for ourselves but for others, to serve the Church’s mission for the whole Body of Christ.

The most significant things the priest does are not his at all; they are the actions of Jesus to bring the new life of Baptism, to forgive sins in Penance, to heal soul and perhaps body in the Anointing of the Sick, at times to hand on the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, and most remarkably, to feed God’s faithful with the Body and Blood of Jesus. None of this belongs to human power; it is the “I” of Jesus who speaks and acts through the ones he has chosen, for reasons of his own, as his priests.

In taking on our humanity, the Son of God chose limitation. He could not be everywhere, heal all the sick, speak to everyone in need of forgiveness and hope. The culmination of his mission from the Father was ultimately one particular Friday afternoon, a specific piece of wood, a handful of nails, and the surrender to death. It is in our weakness and limitation that we are most united to the humility we pray for in the Litany of the Sacred Heart: “Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto thine.” Or, as Pope Benedict XVI once said: “Christ, the greatest, became the least; He who is the first took the last place. To be a priest means to enter into the community of those who make themselves small.”

Make it one of your works of mercy to pray for vocations each day. Prayer is a truly effective tool placed at our disposal to foster the growth of the Church; as is good example and direct encouragement of young people you believe God may be calling. Just ask them: “You have many good qualities. Have you ever considered becoming a priest / brother / religious sister?” They may not answer right then, but it starts a train of thought. I know this works, because that’s just how it happened for me.