As I prepare this column, it is snowing out! A reminder to me that the change of seasons is real; and each season has its own beauty. As we observe during this first full week of November, National Vocation Awareness Week (Nov. 5 – 11), it is an appropriate occasion for each one of us to focus on our God-given vocation — marriage, priesthood, diaconate, the single life — and how through our state in life we respond to the universal call to holiness.
As St. Bernard of Clairvaux writes in one of his sermons used in the Liturgy of the Hours on All Saints Day: “Come, let us at length spur ourselves on. We must rise again with Christ, we must seek the world which is above and set our mind on the things of heaven. … We should not only want to be with the saints, we should also hope to possess their happiness” (Office of Readings). Such happiness is seen and found in the lives of the saints in their relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and the communion of love that is personified in the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. St. Catherine of Siena expressed this idea when she stated: “All the way to heaven is heaven, if Christ is the Way.” In his Angelus message on All Saints Day, Pope Francis spoke of holiness as both a “gift” and a “journey.” In other words, holiness needs to be unwrapped and lived out wherever one finds oneself on the road of life, i.e., Vocation.
I am not a big TV watcher, but something that I have noticed since July, and especially in the month of October, is the continual presence of Christmas movies (not advertisements) on certain channels. What has struck me also was the dearth of Halloween shows and movies in the same time period while these Christmas-themed movies were very much at the forefront. A coincidence? I think not! I believe it is evidence that our world is looking for the light that can remove us from the darkness that is encompassing our world today! And whether they intend to or not they are pointing to where it can be found — in the Incarnation of the Son of God — Jesus Christ – which is the whole meaning of the Christmas event!
How then do we keep this light of Christmas which is none other than the light of Christ … the Spirit of Christ alive in our hearts and lives today and every day? The Gospel for this coming Sunday, the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time — commonly referred to as “The Wise and Foolish Virgins” (Mt 25:1-13) — I believe can assist in answering this question. I used to be concerned that the wise virgins didn’t share with the foolish ones — after all, had we not been taught that sharing is important from a very early age?!
Nonetheless, my own recent reflection has led me to look at this parable in a different light. What if the lamps of the foolish virgins are going out because not only had they lost awareness of time, but of their awareness of their vocation in life to let the light of Christ shine through them? In other words, they got lazy and expected everybody else to pick up the slack! Is it just a fluke that the next two parables in Matthew 25 which will be read on the last two Sundays of the current Church year concern the use of talents and that what we did or didn’t do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we did to Christ?
I hope you can see where I am going with this train of thought. First and foremost, Vocation Awareness Week falling at this time of year, is a great grace for the Church in the United States, as it reminds each one of us to consider our call to holiness and how it is lived out in our individual responses to God. Even more, this week is an invitation for us to help younger generations not to forget God’s call in their lives (their God-given vocation in life) and to help them discern and foster their own call to holiness.
In doing so, we can help counter a pervasive laziness in our society that is affecting not only one’s spiritual life, but actually life, in general! How often do we hear these days that there are not enough people to labor on behalf of others — willing to serve their neighbor — in various occupations and vocations? The word “sacrifice” is absent from our vocabulary both inside and outside of Church. And we wonder why the world’s lamp is going out?
I want to thank particularly Fr. Jason Hage, our Diocesan Promoter of Church Vocations, Mrs. Elizabeth Garn, Administrative Assistant, and all their associates, for all they do in reminding us of the importance of Church Vocations and their necessity. Two simple facts one should not forget are: (1) There is no Eucharist without the Ministerial Priesthood who continue to minister in persona Christi capitis, and (2) The importance of the Consecrated Life in manifesting and witnessing a Gospel way of living.
The light these vocations bring to other vocations in the Church’s life, including lay ministry, the diaconate, married life and the single life, has been dimmed by scandal and the abuse of offices and positions within the Church. Nevertheless, like we do on All Saints Day, we cannot forget the unsung heroes and heroines who have responded to God’s call in their lives and given their all “to light a candle, rather than curse the darkness” (The Christophers). Today, more than ever, our world needs the light of Christ and let us be aware how we can help kindle that light through our own lives and the vocations God has given us.
I invite us to use the Diocesan Prayer for Vocations during this week and beyond to beg the harvest master for more laborers in the fields:
Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly,
that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through us, and be so in us,
that every person we should come in contact with
may feel your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus.
Stay with us, and then we shall begin to shine as you shine;
so to shine as to be a light to others;
the light, Jesus, will be all from you.
None of it will be ours.
It will be you shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise you in the way you love best,
by shining on those around us.
Let us preach you without preaching:
not by words, but by our example,
by the catching force,
the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear for you.
Amen.
(St. John Henry Newman)
