Pascha IV

Pascha IV

Acts: 4:8-112; Psalm 118; I John 3:1-2; John 10:11-18

Since 1963, The Fourth Sunday of Easter has been designated as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. My question is what are we praying for? The answer may seem obvious. Since the 1960s we have been experiencing a serious decline in vocations to the priesthood and religious life. But is the answer that obvious?

How often when we pray as individuals and as a Church do we fail to notice God’s response because we are so intent that the answer be given to us in a particular fashion? In other words, we want the answer to our prayer in the manner we desire not the answer God gives us.

The homiletic and prayer materials sent to pastors for the World Day of Prayer, say much. The photos alone are telling: prayerful looking seminarians vested in cassocks and surplices, hands carrying monstrances or hosts amidst clouds of incense. Images say more than words.

Have we considered that God has answered our prayers of the past 57 years? Might we consider that we have failed to notice that there are vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, and episcopacy in our midst? They just happen to be women and people who are married or have a desire to be married and also hear the summons to Holy Orders.

And it is not a matter of whether we like God’s answer. We need to discern whether it is God’s answer and if so, act on it.

Women constitute more than half of the Church. Baptized like men in the Sacrament that is the experience of the dying and rising of Christ and entrance to the sacramental life of the Church; why then, are there seven Sacraments for men but only six Sacraments for women? Jesus called a number of men to follow him but he also was followed by women, and yes, in this case we do know their names, Susanna; Mary, the wife of Cleopas; Joanna; Mary of Magdala; the sisters, Martha and Mary; Salome; and Mary, the mother of James and Joses.

How many parables of Jesus, alongside those about shepherds, farmers, kings and fishermen, involve women as examples of the Kingdom of God? How many women does Jesus encounter, heal and, like the nameless Samaritan woman, Mary Magdalene or the other women at the tomb, send as evangelists, that is, apostles, to tell others the good news of salvation? How many women for two millennia have died as martyrs for Christ alongside of men or have been at the heart of family life passing on the Christian faith to our children? Yet, solely due to their gender, cannot stand at altar–tables in the heart of our spiritual home and lead God’s people, the kingdom of priests, to offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving in the person of Christ, by the Holy Spirit, to the Eternal Father.

What are we praying for, and have we failed to notice the answer given?

Is there a value to the celibate life, I believe there is. Yet is the celibate life an inherent part of the call to the priesthood? The Eastern Churches, both Orthodox and Catholic, to the present day, and Latin Christianity until the 12th century witness to both married and celibate clergy. Might some women and men minister better married while others do so as celibate?

If we are to pray for vocations, plural, we need to get beyond just priesthood.

Every baptized person has a vocation, sometimes more than one. Every baptized person for the good of the entire Church is provided with gifts of the Holy Spirit and vocare, are called, more emphatically, summoned by Christ, the Good Shepherd, to deeply live their vocation.

Vocations are not just about Holy Orders and vowed religious life.

We need to consider Church leadership in a broader context. Do we pray for God to raise up laity who have the gift of administration and leadership? Why does canon law stipulate that only the ordained among us can be pastors? And are we as a Church willing to pay just salaries and benefits and train such gifted people? Too many people who work for the Church are part-time and/or have to supplement their salaries with second and third jobs to support their families.

Religious and monastic life ebb and flow throughout the Church’s history. Yet they often have been the seed bed of renewal for the entire Church. Such members have been called by God to speak truth to the powers of the Church. Is it a matter of praying for more vowed sisters, brothers, monks and nuns or is it a willingness on the part of the greater Church to pray that God raise up women and men like Hildegard von Bingen, Dominic, Elizabeth Fiorenza, Francis and Clare of Assisi, Benedict, Teresa of Avila, Sister Joan Chittister, Hans Küng, Ignatius of Loyola, and Teresa of Kolkata to renew the Church?

When we reflect on the Sacrament of Marriage, do we view the period of dating as a time of discernment of whom God is calling us to marry? Did any of you ever ask God whom you should marry? Do we pray for our children who are considering marriage that their relationship may be grounded in Jesus Christ? We put men through years of prayer, discernment, and education prior to the Sacrament of Holy Orders and a handful of hours of preparation for the Sacrament of Marriage. What are we saying by that inconsistency? Would Christian couples even be open to such a spiritual discernment for marriage?

Marriage and family are the foundation of the church and society. Do we pray that husbands and wives have a common prayer life? Do we pray for healing in the lives of our sisters and brothers that have experienced separation and divorce? Praying for others is a vocation in itself, is it not?

There is also the person who chooses to remain single as a Christian; no vows, no promises, no community life. Just a singular Christian life lived in the world. Do we reflect as to what their life offers to the world in Christian witness? Jesus was a single person. In the past, the Church held those who were widowed in special regard. Another version of the single life.

We need to be honest about our history. We need to reflect on what scripture reveals and what it does not reveal. Culture and its impact on the church’s life must be explored.

So, what are we praying for today? And are we open to God’s answers?

We will not fully be the Church of Jesus Christ until all the baptized, women and men, lay and clergy, married, single, religious, vowed, monastic, and widowed stand shoulder to shoulder as equals in the community sharing leadership according to the Spirit’s gifts. That’s vocation!

Maybe that’s what we should be praying for.