Dear young people…consider your vocation

Photo by Catholic New World

Pope Benedict loves speaking to and about the youth as the future of the Church and the world. He draws enormous energy from them, and they love him. He praises, thanks, challenges and encourages them in these messages, whether personal encounters or in addresses to other groups. They will be the leaders, parents, priests and religious to preserve moral order in the world, he hopes and he says.

In the current issue of Chicago’s Catholic New World, the glow of Benedict’s visit is still warm and his messages are continuing to have their impact. The issue is devoted to ‘priest appreciation week’, which picks up the pope’s call to Catholics in America to “love your priests”. And it puts the light on vocations.

When Benedict addressed the US bishops in Washington, he took a few questions at the end. The third one asked him to comment on the decline in vocations, “and on the reasons for hope offered by the personal qualities and the thirst for holiness which characterize the candidates who do come forward”, as the Holy See Press Office transcript states it.

Let us be quite frank: the ability to cultivate vocations to the priesthood and the religious life is a sure sign of the health of a local Church. There is no room for complacency in this regard. God continues to call young people; it is up to all of us to encourage a generous and free response to that call.

I was at a recent meeting at which Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George said vocations start in the family and specifically with a good marriage that shows love, forgiveness, sacrifice and true faith. Benedict emphasized that in his answer to the vocation question. He was sort of saying we can tend to overlook the obvious.

In the Gospel, Jesus tells us to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send workers. He even admits that the workers are few in comparison with the abundance of the harvest (cf. Mt 9:37-38). Strange to say, I often think that prayer – the unum necessarium – is the one aspect of vocations work which we tend to forget or to undervalue!

Nor am I speaking only of prayer for vocations. Prayer itself, born in Catholic families, nurtured by programs of Christian formation, strengthened by the grace of the sacraments, is the first means by which we come to know the Lord’s will for our lives. To the extent that we teach young people to pray, and to pray well, we will be cooperating with God’s call. Programs, plans and projects have their place; but the discernment of a vocation is above all the fruit of an intimate dialogue between the Lord and his disciples. Young people, if they know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God’s call.

Young people, “if they know how to pray“, can be trusted….That was a very subtle but key remark for parents and educators.

It has been noted that there is a growing thirst for holiness in many young people today, and that, although fewer in number, those who come forward show great idealism and much promise. It is important to listen to them, to understand their experiences, and to encourage them to help their peers to see the need for committed priests and religious, as well as the beauty of a life of sacrificial service to the Lord and his Church.

His concern for the formation of youth is evident and enthusiastic.

…candidates today, as much as ever, need to be given a sound intellectual and human formation which will enable them not only to respond to the real questions and needs of their contemporaries, but also to mature in their own conversion and to persevere in life-long commitment to their vocation.

Benedict went on a few days later to St. Joseph Seminary in New York, where he was met by 24,000 wildly cheering seminarians, priests, religious sisters, and other young adults. In his address, he repeatedly asked them to listen in silence for the call of God to any action.

We must listen deeply. We must respond with a renewed social action that stems from the universal love that knows no bounds. In this way, we ensure that our works of mercy and justice become hope in action for others.

Then he focused attention on one call.

Dear young people, finally I wish to share a word about vocations. First of all my thoughts go to your parents, grandparents and godparents. They have been your primary educators in the faith. By presenting you for baptism, they made it possible for you to receive the greatest gift of your life. On that day you entered into the holiness of God himself. You became adoptive sons and daughters of the Father. You were incorporated into Christ. You were made a dwelling place of his Spirit. Let us pray for mothers and fathers throughout the world, particularly those who may be struggling in any way – socially, materially, spiritually. Let us honor the vocation of matrimony and the dignity of family life.

Let us always appreciate that it is in families that vocations are given life.