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Vocation
Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk |
The word vocation means a calling, and a calling is a proposal or initiative
addressed to someone to which that someone is invited to respond.
All of us have received a vocation from God, a multifaceted calling to which we
are invited to respond. God calls us out of nothingness into being. Not one of
us would be here if God had not called us to be. God also calls us to faith,
that is, to life in Christ. This is not something we achieve for ourselves. In
fact, it is formal Church teaching that faith is a gift from god that cannot be
earned or caused by us. As part of our call to faith, God calls us to eternal
happiness in heaven. All this is God’s initiative, God’s call. It is all
vocation. Our part is to accept or to reject, to cooperate with God’s invitation
or to evade it.
In ordinary Catholic vocabulary, however, we have tended to use vocation to mean
God’s call to the priesthood or the religious life. In this chapter, I wish to
deal with how such a vocation works.
There are two facets to a priestly vocation: an individual subjective one, and
an ecclesial or objective one.
In the heart of the individual, a vocation to the priesthood manifests itself by
a combination of appropriate talents and a God-given inclination to use those
talents in the service of Christ and the Church as priest. A person who has no
bent for learning, who has no potential for public communication of any kind,
and who has no leadership skills may be a saintly individual, but he is clearly
not called to the priesthood, simply because God has not given him the human
equipment that a priest has to have. But even if the human equipment is there,
it doesn’t necessarily mean that God is calling the individual to the
priesthood. After all, the human talents that are required for priests can be
used in lots of other good ways. A vocation to the priesthood seems likely only
when the individual begins to perceive some sort of personal attraction to the
work of priestly ministry, when he begins to realize that it might be a good
thing for him to dedicate the gifts he has received to the Church as a priest.
It is not that God awakens him in the middle of the night and tells him to
enroll in the seminary; rather, he begins to be aware of the priesthood as a
real and appropriate way for him to spend his life. He is led to make a
prudential judgement that he may have a priestly vocation.
Obviously this awareness calls for some response. The response includes more
careful prayer and reflection. Eventually it means professional preparation in a
seminary. It’s not enough to accept what seems to be a vocation and then sit
back and wait for it to happen.
The story of every priest, therefore, involves an invitation from God, quietly
and respectfully delivered, and a response on the part of the one who has been
called. Every priest is a priest because God has not only called him but also
because he has decided to answer.
There is more, however. A vocation to the priesthood is not a private matter
between God and the one called. There is also an ecclesial dimension to it. It
is not possible to be a priest without ordination, and ordination comes from
Christ through the Church. The individual has to be called by holy orders by the
bishop, and it is that call which constitutes a priestly vocation in its most
narrow and technical sense. Obviously the bishop has to exercise some
discernment before he calls someone to the priesthood, but the fact remains that
it is he, the bishop, who delivers the “official” vocation to the one who
presents himself for the priesthood.
We should not overly romanticize priestly vocations. They do not generally come
through visions or irresistible urges of grace. They are discerned in a
combination of human gifts and human responses. At the same time, we should not
overly rationalize priestly vocations. Every vocation involves the work of the
Lord, busy in the deepest interior of the one called, working through all those
who lead the candidate through his period of preparation toward the call to holy
orders. There is some mystery in every vocation.
Every priestly vocation is different. There is no simple, standard story because
vocation deals with individuals, and every individual is unique. Some priests
say that there was never any doubt in their mind about what the Lord wanted for
them in their lives, never a question about how they would respond. Others found
that they had to struggle for a long time to understand clearly the invitation
that God was giving them, and then struggle some more to bring themselves to
respond. Some are ready to begin their preparation for the priesthood at a
relatively early age, others only later. Some find that, once they have begun
their preparation, everything works together without incident to bring them to
the bishop’s call. Others experience a long series of questions and problems
they have to resolve before they can take the last steps. The only real common
elements in every priestly vocation are the quiet work of the Lord, human
response, and final validation in the sacrament of holy orders.
Is it a sin not to accept a vocation to the priesthood? I am inclined to think
that it is not a sin in the same way it would be a sin to refuse the vocation to
life or to faith. It might be a mistake though, or a lack of generosity, if I
use what God has given me for personal ends when those gifts could have been
used for the well-being of God’s people. One thinks of the rich young man in the
gospel who turned away from Jesus’ call because he had other plans (cf. Matthew
19:16ff).
Does each of us have a specific vocation that we have to discover and accept or
else run the risk of both temporal and eternal misery? I don’t think so, since
the gifts that God gives each of us are capable of being used in many good ways.
At the same time, ordinary common sense would seem to dictate that we are best
off if we make the most generous and most appropriate use of the talents that
God has given us.
Vocations to the priesthood are among the most important gifts that God gives to
the Church. Without priests, the Church cannot be what God intends it to be.
Without vocations, there are no priests.
I think that many Catholics are disturbed about the apparent decline in priestly
vocations in our time. There are reasons for the decline. One is the
self-serving culture in which we live that does not seem to esteem a life of
dedication and service like that of the priest. Another is the turmoil in the
Church caused by elements both inside and outside it, not excluding differences
of opinion about married priests and the ordination of women.
We also need to recognize that many of us grew up in a time when there was an
unusual abundance of priests, and we are inclined to think that that’s the way
God meant it to be, whereas God may now be showing us that it’s not necessarily
so. Moreover, the decline in numbers of priests seems to be a localized
phenomenon in highly developed countries and may say more about those countries
than about the priesthood.
All of which is not to say that we don’t have to be concerned about vocations.
Vocations are a gift from God, but they are a gift that needs to be cultivated.
Clearly, none of us can give a vocation to anybody. That’s God’s work. But we
all can help people respond to the vocation that may be there. We can encourage
likely candidates to think about the possibility of the priesthood for
themselves. We can offer our appreciation and respect to those who are already
priests and thus perhaps inspire others to follow in their footsteps. Above all
we can pray, publicly and privately and regularly, for the vocations that God
wants his Church to enjoy. Prayer is not something we do because al else has
failed; instead, it is the way in which we open ourselves and our neighbors to
receive the gifts that God wants us to have.
Vocation is something that is part of every human life, every Christian life.
Priestly vocations are a specialized calling for the good of the Church. They do
not result from purely human initiative, nor from some sort of magical
intervention on God’s part, but rather from the cooperation of God and the
individual and the Church. Each of us has our own part to play in seeing that
the Church has the priests it needs.
Questions for Reflection and Discussion
- How has God’s call manifested itself in my life?
- What experience have I had of candidates for the priesthood?
- How can I encourage vocations to the priesthood?
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