Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – On the occasion of the yearly World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the priesthood and religious life, which will be celebrated on the Fourth Sunday of Easter (this year, May 3), the Holy Father Benedict XVI in his Message invites the faithful to reflect on the theme: “Faith in the divine initiative - the human response.” “The exhortation of Jesus to his disciples: 'Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest' (Mt 9:38),” the Pope says, “has a constant resonance in the Church. Pray! The urgent call of the Lord stresses that prayer for vocations should be continuous and trusting. The Christian community can only really 'have ever greater faith and hope in God's providence' (Sacramentum Caritatis, 26) if it is enlivened by prayer.”
Benedict XVI highlights that “The vocation to the priesthood and to the consecrated life constitutes a special gift of God which becomes part of the great plan of love and salvation that God has for every man and woman and for the whole of humanity,” and recalling what Saint Paul said to the Ephesians, affirms that “in the universal call to holiness, of particular relevance is God’s initiative of choosing some to follow his Son Jesus Christ more closely, and to be his privileged ministers and witnesses.” Just like the Apostles, who were directly called by the Master, “responding to the Lord’s call and docile to the movement of the Holy Spirit, over the centuries, countless ranks of priests and consecrated persons placed themselves totally at the service of the Gospel in the Church.” While it is undoubtedly true that a worrisome shortage of priests is evident in some regions of the world, and “the Church encounters difficulties and obstacles along the way, we are sustained by the unshakable certitude that the one who firmly guides her in the pathways of time towards the definitive fulfilment of the Kingdom is he, the Lord, who freely chooses persons of every culture and of every age.”
Our first duty, Benedict XVI says, “is to keep alive in families and in parishes, in movements and in apostolic associations, in religious communities and in all the sectors of diocesan life this appeal to the divine initiative with unceasing prayer. We must pray that the whole Christian people grows in its trust in God, convinced that the 'Lord of the harvest' does not cease to ask some to place their entire existence freely at his service so as to work with him more closely in the mission of salvation. What is asked of those who are called, for their part, is careful listening and prudent discernment, a generous and willing adherence to the divine plan, and a serious study of the reality that is proper to the priestly and religious vocations, so as to be able to respond responsibly and with conviction. The Catechism of the Catholic Church rightly reminds us that God’s free initiative requires a free response on the part of men and women.”
The mystery of the Eucharist “expresses in a sublime way the free gift of the Father in the Person of his Only Begotten Son for the salvation of mankind, and the full and docile readiness of Christ to drink to the dregs the 'cup' of the will of God...It is priests who are called to perpetuate this salvific mystery from century to century until the Lord’s glorious return, for they can contemplate, precisely in the Eucharistic Christ, the eminent model of a 'vocational dialogue' between the free initiative of the Father and the faithful response of Christ...The awareness of being saved by the love of Christ, which every Mass nourishes in the faithful and especially in priests, cannot but arouse within them a trusting self-abandonment to Christ who gave his life for us.”
In his Message, the Pope highlights that “Jesus is the model of complete and trusting adherence to the will of the Father, to whom every consecrated person must look. Attracted by him, from the very first centuries of Christianity, many men and women have left families, possessions, material riches and all that is humanly desirable in order to follow Christ generously and live the Gospel without compromise, which had become for them a school of deeply rooted holiness. Today too, many undertake this same demanding journey of evangelical perfection and realise their vocation in the profession of the evangelical counsels.”
The Pope then poses the questions: “Who can consider himself worthy to approach the priestly ministry? Who can embrace the consecrated life relying only on his or her own human powers?” and responds: “the response of men and women to the divine call, whenever they are aware that it is God who takes the initiative and brings His plan of salvation to fulfilment, is never patterned after the timid self-interest of the worthless servant who, out of fear, hid the talent entrusted to him...Without in any sense renouncing personal responsibility, the free human response to God thus becomes “co-responsibility”, responsibility in and with Christ, through the action of his Holy Spirit; it becomes communion with the One who makes it possible for us to bear much fruit.”
In the conclusion of his Message, he recalls the example of the generous and unmitigated “Amen” of the Virgin of Nazareth, “emblematic human response, full of trust in God’s initiative.” To Mary, who is Mother of all Mankind, the Pope especially entrusts “ all those who are aware of God’s call to set out on the road of the ministerial priesthood or consecrated life.” Lastly, Benedict XVI exhorts the faithful not to become discouraged in the face of difficulties and doubts: “trust in God and follow Jesus faithfully and you will be witnesses of the joy that flows from intimate union with him.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 1/4/2009)
