There is no priest who does not go through the motions of urging the faithful to pray for vocations. But, too, often, the phrases are formal. They are what is expected of one. In the priest's mind, they are apart of the announcements, on a level with the card party for the Ladies' Auxiliary or the Catholic Youth Organization skating meet. These other activities are, of course, not to be sneered at. They too foster a Christian life and therefore stimulate vocations. But can we put them in the same category as prayer? Out of hundreds of possible ways of fostering vocations, prayer was the single one Our Lord specified.
The harvest, He told them, is plentiful enough, but the laborers are few; you must ask the Lord to Whom the harvest belongs to send laborers out for the harvesting. - Luke 10:2 -
What prompted these words? Luke says that Christ spoke to them on the occasion of choosing seventy-two disciples. - Luke 10:1 - Matthew sketches the background in more detail. It was after a long journey, he noted, and the Lord's heart was touched by compassion for the masses who hungered for knowledge of heaven but did not know where to search for what they lacked.
Yet still, when He looked at the multitudes, He was moved with pity for them, seeing them harried and abject, like sheep that have no shepherd. Thereupon He said to His disciples, the harvest is rich plentiful enough, but the laborers are few; you must ask the Lord to Whom the harvest belongs to send laborers out for the harvesting. - Matt. 9:36-38 -
Not only those already in the Church but equally those outside her make Him yearn for laborers, lest the plentiful wheat rot in the fields. Christ's compassion for the multitude was twofold. Because they were hungry, He miraculously fed the five thousand. Because their souls suffered, sheep without shepherd, He was moved with pity.
Every true priest has the same heart-tearing pity as he flies over a great city such as Paris, New York or London. Down below he sees with Christ's eyes millions of souls unfed by the Eucharist, unhealed by penance, living in houses built on sand because they know not the Rock. He sees in them what Our Lord saw when He looked at the multitudes - danger of eternal loss! here are countless acres ripe for harvesting, but how few the laborers to gather!
Our Lord indicates that this harvest of souls is convertible. He is enthusiastic about the prospects of winning souls, and His words are intended to project that enthusiasm to His priests. He made a similar expression of confident anticipation when the crowds streamed out of Samaria to hear His words: 'Why, lift up your eyes, I tell you, and look at the fields, they are white with the promise of harvest already.' - John 4:35 -
As wheat does not oppose the sickle, so the masses will not oppose us. One wonders if we do not underestimate the possibility of conversions. The failure may simply be in our defective preparation and approach. The unbelievers will not go to hear philosophers, but they will go to hear saints. Priests who work in the slums amid the outcasts report that they rarely meet with an insult. Like the wheat, the masses will bend only before a certain kind of harvester. Not findings us as we should be, they turn their backs on us. But when they encounter a priest whose life expresses the message he brings, they are ready to be harvested.
What Our Lord asked us to pray for was laborers. He did not say, "My Father is almighty; He can make the few accomplish much." He knew the extent of His Father's power, but He was also one with His Father in the divine plan to sanctify man with the aid of human means. In the Incarnation, His human nature was instrumentum conjunctum divinitatis. In the prolongation of His Incarnation, He uses us as instruments. Though He could reap the harvest without men, He will not. But only laborers, not idlers, are acceptable instruments. The priest must study to perfect his mind, not wearying the people with stale repetitions. It is true that "words will be given to you when the time comes" - Matt. 10:19 - but what Our Lord here promised was not inspiration for those who do not prepare their message, but the help of the Spirit for those persecuted beyond human resource. In the designs of Providence, whether a priest receives the gift of final perseverance may depend not only on the amount of evil he has done, but on the good he has left undone.
The laborers must go into the harvest fields, to the masses, to the unbelievers, to the abandoned, to the rudderless. Is it not possible that the Lord withholds many vocations from dioceses and mission societies because of the growing use of priests in strictly secular activities? Why specifically does God call a man to the priesthood? It is not easy to justify the placing of a priest in insurance, building, accountancy, banking, publicity and promotion when the need is so grave for convert makers, for missionaries to search out the lost sheep and lead them gently to the fold of Christ. Do we lack dedicated and reliable laymen able to do such tasks as well or better? If the Lord was so particular about the fragments of bread, which He ordered gathered up, then will He not insist jealously that His priests do precisely that for which He called them?
Why did Our Lord, when He spoke of vocations, single out precisely the word pray? Because prayer is the expression of the Christian community and the yearning of the Church. As the Church gets the kind of pope she deserves, so she gets the kind and number of priests she deserves. Why do some countries have so many vocations? Because the Catholic people of these countries, rich in their faith, want priests
and they pray to be given the priests they want. Why do some countries have so few? Because few people, even few parents, pray for priests. "Ask, and the gift will come." - Luke 11:9 - Can we hope to receive if we do not ask? There are probably hundreds of thousands of vocations hanging from heaven on silken cords; prayer is the sword that cuts them. The laborers are available potentially in the heart of Christ; it is our petitions that actualize them. "And I was never consulted?" - Isaiah 30:2 -
Are there prayers in Church for vocations? Do mothers pray for vocations for their children? Do the faithful pray the Lord "to send laborers out for the harvesting?" - Matt. 9:38 - Do schoolchildren pray for the call of God?
What the Christian community wants ardently, the Lord of the harvest will grant. That is why Our Lord told us to pray. The command was intended for all, but it was given directly and specifically to the Apostles and the disciples, as His ambassadors and co-workers among the people. Prayer in the Church is alone primary; publicity and its methods are secondary. The search for vocations begins on our knees. One bishop had no candidates for the priesthood in two years. He began a campaign of prayer in the schools of his diocese, and without any other publicity he activated forty vocations at the end of one year.
The original Greek word for "sending" laborers into the fields is stronger than the Latin. - Luke 9:38 - It means the Lord of the harvest would thrust them out or propel them forward. The same Greek word is used by - Matthew 8:31 - for the expulsion of a devil out of a man (though different words are used in describing the incident in Mark 5:8 and Luke 8:29); it takes a great power to drive the priesthood into a man. This power Our Lord said He would exercise, if we prayed. It even suggests that from totally unexpected and impossible places, He would inspire vocations.
Every slightest failing on our part brings the community under the judgment of God. Every least increase of priestly virtue brings it blessing. When the Israelites took Jericho - Joshua 6:1-21 - God ordered that the city be destroyed and its wealth given to Him as the fruit of victory. But one Israelite disobeyed. Yielding to temptation, Achan appropriated to himself a garment and some precious ornaments, violating the divine command. - Joshua 7:1 - Later, when Joshua was routed in battle, the Lord revealed that the reason for his defeat was the secret sin of Achan. The evil of one brought destruction and death on his entire community.
Personal sins, even the most secret, have repercussions on all the Church. A cut finger pains the whole man. The ripple caused by a stone thrown into a pond touches every point on the shore. A hidden violation of Christ's law by any of His members reverberates through and disturbs the equilibrium of the entire Mystical Body. Joshua, under the inspiration of God, ordered the destruction of Achan and the stolen goods. 'And there Josue (Joshua) said, thou hast brought trouble on us, and now it is the Lord's turn to bring trouble on thee.' - Joshua 7:25 -
Now, if the sin of one layman so affected the ecclesia of Israel, how much more the failings of one priest affect the ecclesia Dei! But the influence of one good soul, one saint, works to the good of the whole community. God was willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of a few just men. Abraham stopped at ten and the cities were destroyed. - Gen. 18:16-19:28 - But God does not necessarily stop at ten. Blessings, vocations and conversions abound, and judgments are averted because of the few who are good. For Jacob's sake, God multiplied the flocks of Laban. - Gen. 30:27 - Out of respect for Joseph, God prospered the house of Potiphar. - Gen. 39:5 - The wicked city of Zoar was saved because of the prayer of Lot.
Once again, said he, I yield to thy entreaty; I will not overthrow the city thou plead for. - Gen. 19:21 -
Because of Paul, 276 souls were saved in a violent storm at sea. - Acts 27:24,34 -
Before God sent Jerusalem into captivity as a punishment, He told Jeremiah that one good man would save it. 'Go the rounds of Jerusalem, search the streets of it with hue and cry; and if you find one man there that faithfully does his duty, and keeps troth, then the city shall be pardoned.' - Jer. 5:1 -
After He had inflicted judgment on Jerusalem, He gave the reason. 'Who would close the breach, intercede with Me to spare the land from ruin? Never a man was found! What wonder if I have poured out My vengeance, burnt them up in My anger? It was but their deserts I gave them, says the Lord God. - Ezk. 22:30-31 -
Finally, when the Last Judgment comes, the days of vengeance, "there would have been no human creature, if the number of those days had not been cut short; but those days will be cut short, for the sake of the elect." - Matt. 24:22 - It could well be that God's wrath - and let us not forget that Revelation 6:16 speaks of ira Agni - is withheld from cities because of saintly souls among the clergy and the religious and the laity. God could not strike as long as Moses stood between Him and the people. 'So the Lord relented, and spared His people the punishment He had threatened.' - Exodus 32:14 -
What converts could prayer win in mission lands! The materialism of Japan would fragment like the shell of an egg to reveal the life within, did we but pray for Japan. How slight would be the sacrifice, yet how much would it mean to the vicar of Christ if every priest who lives in comfort sent even a few of his Mass stipends to the Holy Father through his Society for the Propagation of the Faith!
O blessed intercessors are we! The salt of the earth! The lights of the world! Without good men, the world would be corrupted and in darkness. We sanctify ourselves not for ourselves as individuals, but for all as God's people. We do not save our soul alone; either we save it in the context of our neighbours and of the Mystical Body, or we lose it. No cell of my body can live normally outside my body, but my body can live without any given individual cell. In toto Christo we live and work. To neglect intercession is to sin against God. 'Never may I offended the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and pointing you to the good paths, the right paths.' - 1Kings 12:23 [1Sam. 12:23,RSV]
If we priests lack a heart to sigh and cry for the abominations and miseries of others, great is our reason to fear for ourselves. We cannot speak of unbroken fellowship with Our Lord without unbroken fellowship with the Church and the world. 'God has proved His love to us by laying down His life for our sake; we too must be ready to lay down our lives for the sake of our brethren.' - 1John 3:16 -
Because the holiness of the priest in God's designs makes the Church holy, those who seek the priesthood but are wanting in holiness must be purged. ' Have you never been told that a little leaven is enough to leaven the whole batch? Rid yourselves of the leaven which remains over, so that you may be a new mixture, still uncontaminated as you are.' - 1Cor. 5:6-7 -
BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN ( 1895 to 1979 )
Page 3
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
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