As the month of May begins our Holy Father Benedict XVI calls upon us to celebrate the 46th World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Its theme is "Faith in the Divine Initiative - the Human Response." Last Wednesday many of us attended a meeting with Archbishop Dolan. It was inspirational. As he did at his installation our new shepherd paid tribute to the presbyterate of New York. He expressed pride at being one of our number. The feeling is likewise. In his presentation he humbly shared with us how he has responded to the divine initiative in his spiritual journey. One can see in his Episcopal motto: "To Whom Shall We Go" a true summary of the call he received and its nourishment in family, school, seminary, and ministry. In his monograph: "Priests for the Third Millennium" he wrote: "The priesthood is a call, not a career; a redefinition of self, not just a new ministry; a way of life, not a job; a state of being, not just a function; a permanent, lifelong commitment, not a temporary style of service; an identity, not just a role. We are priests; yes, the doing, the ministry, is mighty important, but it flows from the being; we can act as priests, minister as priests, function as priests, serve as priests, preach as priests, because first and foremost we are priests! Being before act!...(B)ecause as priests we are configured to Christ at the very core of our being, our priesthood will have the same characteristics as that of the Eternal High Priest. Two especially are worthy of our consideration: our priesthood is forever, our priesthood is faithful…It is a complete, lifelong commitment to Christ and His Church…The priesthood is forever! How we live the priesthood, where we are assigned, what we do - all these things will certainly change, but our priestly identity will never change. The priesthood is eternal…We are faithful to our priestly identity no matter what the circumstances…fidelity will be easy when our priestly lives are happy, interesting, invigorating. Ah, but the sorrow, loneliness, frustration will come, and then can we be faithful? Yes, if we know that our fidelity is not to a job, a career, a function, an assignment, but to a call, an identity, a person, namely Jesus and His Church." (228-32) As the Lord challenged Archbishop Dolan to "Follow Me", so He reaches out today to many to serve His Church as priests and religious. Each Sunday as your Pastor I see men of every age who would make wonderful candidates for service as ministers of Word and Sacrament. There are so many young women who participate in worship and communal activities here at Saint Stanislaus Kostka who would make wonderful members of religious communities of prayer, education, health care, and social service.
The insights of our Shepherd encouraged me to reflect back on the first promptings of the Holy Spirit I experienced to consider the possibility of priesthood. Our parish, like others, devoted the three days prior to the Feast of the Immaculate Conception to prayer for vocations. Father Hunt, a Jesuit priest, spoke to our school in our basement church, and told us that God was planting seeds of a sacred calling in our hearts. If that were so then the following it was nourished by Father Bill, a newly ordained from Rome, who became the third assistant in the parish. He was our hero as boys. When he asked at an altar servers' meeting if anyone of us ever considered becoming a priest a few of us answered positively. Four of us actually entered a seminary. My parents, particularly my mother, supported my choice. The parish community prayed for all her seminarians. Though we are celibate, we are never alone, whether in formation or in ministry. Over the years in good times and bad the consoling presence of Christ and His community is evident.
As we experience the challenges of the new millennium it is obvious that the Church needs more men and women to embrace the challenges of proclaiming the Gospel to a world distinctly more materialistic and secular than ages past. It requires a wise and strong voice to confront the moral dilemmas of our day. It demands a compassionate heart to heal the seemingly defeated soul experiencing constant temptations, to listen to the distraught parents of a wayward child, and to comfort a family touched by a health crisis or death.
In his letter to the Universal church our Holy Father states: 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. The Apostle Paul, whom we remember in a special way during this Pauline Year dedicated to the Two-thousandth anniversary of his birth, writing to the Ephesians says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him" (Ef 1:3-4). 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 witness. The divine Master personally called the Apostles "to be with him, and to be sent out to preach and have authority to cast out demons" (Mk 3:14-15); they, in turn, gathered other disciples around them as faithful collaborators in this mission. In this way, 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. Let us give thanks to God, because even today he continues to call together workers into his vineyard. While it is undoubtedly true that a worrisome shortage of priests is evident in some regions of the world, and that 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 fulfillment of the Kingdom is he, the Lord, who freely chooses persons of every culture and of every age and invites them to follow him according to the mysterious plans of his merciful love.
Our first duty, therefore, 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.
Please pray for the priests who serve you today, especially our new Pastor, Archbishop Dolan and those young men who will be ordained this Saturday.
Vivat Jesus
Fr. Brian
