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Fourth Sunday of Easter
15 May 2011
Dear Friends in Christ,
The Fourth Sunday of Easter is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday because the Gospel appointed for this day is always a passage about the identity of Christ as our shepherd and His disciples as His flock. The Latin word for shepherd is pastor, and this word, of course, has come over into English to describe the office of one who has the care of souls. Because of this association of the office of pastor with the Fourth Sunday of Easter, the Church also designates this feast as a World Day of Prayer for Vocations. So, on this day of prayer for vocations, let us consider the life to which priests are called.
The priesthood is not an extraordinary life for extraordinary men; it is, rather, an ordinary Christian way of life for ordinary Christian men. This means that the priesthood must be seen and understood in the context of authentic Christian discipleship. To put it most simply: where the Christian faith is truly believed and steadfastly lived, young men will step forward and offer themselves to the Church for lifelong service in the priesthood. And the place in which that Christian faith must be believed and lived is the Christian family: both the natural family of parents and children and the spiritual family of the parish church. It is only in a family that the title Father makes sense, whether for a husband or a priest, and so it is in the family of the Church that men learn to understand, revere and be drawn towards fatherhood.
After choosing the Twelve Apostles, the Lord Jesus “appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him,” thus foreshadowing the relationship between bishops and priests. “And he said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’” (Luke 10:1-2) As with all intercessory prayer, the purpose of prayers for more laborers in the Lord’s harvest of souls is not to change God but to change ourselves — to help us understand that it is by divine election and not human choice that a man is called to the priesthood and sent to fulfill the Great Commission. But how is that call heard by the young man who is called? Ordinarily there will be no miraculous interventions, no dramatic displays of divine providence. Ordinarily the call is conveyed in ordinary ways. If a young man feels drawn to the service of the altar and the celebration of the sacred liturgy, if he feels compelled to teach the Gospel to others, if others see in him the mark of the priesthood, then there is good reason to believe that he may be called. And when that happens, then he should step forward with faith and generosity: Here am I Lord, I come to do your will! But even when a young man feels called, it belongs to the Church, of course, to verify that a man is called to the priesthood by testing to see if he has all the gifts of nature and grace needed to live the life of a priest. In our diocese that work is done by our bishop’s vicar for vocations, and more information is available at www.charlestonvocations.com.
Father Newman