The vineyards of God

by Editor · May 7, 2014

In his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Francis describes the vocation to the truly Christian life � consecrated and lay � as �a fruit that ripens in a well-cultivated field of mutual love that becomes mutual service, in the context of an authentic ecclesial life�.

“Our prayers for good vocations to the priesthood, the religious life and the permanent diaconate must be intensified.”

The pope designates Vocations Sunday � this year on May 11 � to all Catholics. We all are called to service.

Of course, vocations to the priesthood and religious life remain essential. Vocations to the consecrated life must be strongly promoted and supported. The many options by which a young person can live the consecrated life must be made known.

This week�s miscellaneous advertisements in which religious orders, for both men and women, showcase their charism, provides a helpful overview of many different ways in which a young man or woman may answer God�s call to the consecrated life.

In his message, Pope Francis also identifies married life as a valid vocation. But married men may also discern the call to the altar, which they can answer through the office of the permanent diaconate, a vocation which sometimes receives less recognition than it merits. It, too, must be promoted, especially in areas where access to the sacraments is restricted by the scarcity of priests.

Our prayers for good vocations to the priesthood, the religious life and the permanent diaconate must be intensified.

Many Catholic observers see a crisis in the vocation figures in the West. The prospect of fewer Masses and more churches closing down certainly is cheerless. However, a shortage of priests and religious also provides an opportunity for the laity to follow Jesus� call to work in his vineyards.

Indeed, perhaps the vocations crisis is a sign from the Holy Spirit that the laity now is called to perform many of the functions hitherto left to priests and religious.

Pope St John Paul II defined the Church�s demand on the faithful in his 1988 apostolic exhortation Christifidelis laici.

The call to an apostolic vocation, he said, is not for those in the consecrated life alone. �Lay people as well are personally called by the Lord, from whom they receive a mission on behalf of the Church and the world.�

He singled out areas in modern life where lay ministries can be fruitfully exercised: in confronting growing secularism, atheism and religious indifference, and in acting against the degradation of the human person through poverty, discrimination, violence, war and what St John Paul has famously termed �the culture of death�.

The ministries are many: to the sick, the poor, prisoners, the youth, the aged, families, abused women, pregnant women, men, refugees, and so on.

Ministries can be exercised in the secular world or in the parish (or, of course, both).

For example, thousands of Catholics are involved in the crucial apostolate of catechetics. Others share their talents by serving on the parish pastoral council � not for prestige, but for the good of the Church � or by cleaning the church after Mass. Promoters of Catholic media and literature in the parish and beyond are part of the important social communications apostolate.

Those who take part in these activities and others like them all answer the call to the vocation of service. The opportunities for lay engagement are varied and abundant.

In Christifidelis laici, St John Paul said: �It is not permissible for anyone to remain idle [because] the work that awaits everyone in the vineyard of the Lord is so great, there is no place for idleness.�

But greater lay involvement in the Church�s ministries must be accompanied by greater lay influence in how the Church is run. The discussion of how this is to be accomplished must be amplified.

When we pray for vocations to the consecrated life this Sunday � and, hopefully, every day � let us ask not only that men and women will join the priesthood, permanent diaconate and religious life in rising numbers, but also that lay people will hear the call to ministry, to exercise and give thanks for the gifts that God has given them.