|
A
different look at Vocations Awareness Week
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
Each year a week is set aside to raise awareness that responding to a
vocation is of extreme importance in the Catholic Church. There are,
however, a variety of vocational choices. Each calls those who embrace
them to strive for holiness.
The word “vocation” traditionally and most commonly has been
understood to mean a call to priesthood and/or religious life. But, in
fact, a “vocation” is a call to embrace a basic lifestyle. It is not
limited to priesthood or religious life. Our vocation is a call to
holiness. It is a call whispered to every child of God.
“Holiness” is a frightening word to many. Part of that is rooted in
conventual wisdom that equates holiness with perfection. Only the
disillusioned look upon themselves as “perfect.” While it is true the
Scriptures urge us to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”
(Matt. 5:48), only God is perfect. The rest of us at best strive for the
“fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity” (Catechism
of the Catholic Church, quoting the Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church of the Second Vatican Council). There is a huge divide between
striving and accomplishment. None have been more aware of that than the
saints of the Church who repeatedly describe themselves as sinners, a
judgment that amazes many. Nonetheless, it makes my point.
The mistaken notion that holiness demands perfection suggests that
holiness is mission impossible. However, not perfection but union with
Christ is the source of holiness. Holiness is striving to do the will of
God in every human activity. It is wholeheartedly devoting one’s self to
the glory of God and the service of neighbor, and it is a clear teaching
of our Church that “all Christians in any state or walk of life are
called to holiness” (Catechism no. 2013). That goal is to be
achieved through one of four foundational vocations: ordained ministry
(priests and deacons); consecrated religious life; the single celibate
life; or marriage and parenthood.
Regardless of our state in life, the way to holiness is the cross.
Jesus clearly taught us: “whoever wishes to be my follower must deny his
very self, take up his cross each day, and follow in my steps” (Lk
9:23). This admonition is found in all three synoptic Gospels: in
addition to St. Luke, it is found in St. Mark’s Gospel (8:34) and St.
Matthew’s Gospel (16:24).
The Catechism also teaches “there is no holiness without
renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the
discipline and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace
and joy of the Beatitudes” (Catechism no. 2015).
In previous columns devoted to Vocations Awareness Week, I have focused
on the call to priesthood. That should surprise no one.
The need for priests is obvious to all who are attached to reality. That
is especially true in our Local Church for the people of the 16 parishes
that have been clustered in recent years and which now are served by a
single priest: Attica and Covington; Alexandria and Elwood;
Dunkirk-Montpelier-Hartford City; Earl Park-Goodland-Kentland; Otterbein
and Oxford; Fowler and Dunnington; Winchester and Union City.
This year the first class of permanent deacons was ordained. A second
class is in preparation. The call of men to the permanent diaconate
should be raised to the forefront as well. I will continue to do that.
This year, however, I want to hold up marriage and parenthood.
Marriage as defined by the Church is the union of one man and one woman
in a lifelong covenant in which “each and every marriage act remains
ordered per se to the procreation of human life” (Catechism
2366). And, it is a vocation, one that needs to be emphasized,
especially in our age when cohabitation without the benefit of marriage
and same-sex unions are widely accepted as normal. The Church insists,
of course, that marriage is a covenant wherein a man and woman become
“one body” in Christ (Cor. 10:17). Rather than equal to marriage,
cohabitation and same-sex unions mock God’s plan for family life.
Marriage and parenthood is the way most people attain the holiness to
which God calls them. Christ is the source of this grace. Christ
encounters Christian spouses through the sacrament of matrimony and
parenthood. “Christ dwells with them, gives them strength to take up
their crosses and so follow him, to rise again after they have fallen,
to forgive one another, to bear one another’s burdens … to love one
another with supernatural, tender and fruitful love” (Catechism,
1642).
During this Vocations Awareness Week, it is my hope the Catholic people
of Northcentral Indiana will reflect on marriage and parenthood as a
call given by God, a true vocation that gives God glory and assists
people in their pilgrimage toward holiness.
It is not an easy vocation. Far from it. That is why the Church provides
marriage preparation programs and enrichment programs for those who are
married. Diocesan policy includes a six-month preparation period for
marriage, hoping during that time couples will reflect seriously on the
covenant they commit themselves to when they marry, not only its joys
but its challenges as well.
From where I stand, marriage and parenthood is far more challenging than
priesthood. The anxiety in the heart of spouses for each other and of
parents for their children never leaves them. For parents in particular
it is part of life long after children leave home. The sacrifices
demanded of spouses and parents are ever present.
Truly those who embrace marriage as a sacred vocation give their lives
for each other and their children. It is a vocation of selflessness
second to none. It deserves to be celebrated as such.
I salute those of you whom God has called to this vocation. From the
midnight eruptions of the newly born, through unending diapers, the taxi
and numerous athletic events era, the nervous teen years, the travails
of young adulthood, the empty nest adjustment period, to the loneliness
of widower/widowhood, I don’t know how you do it. God does,
however. God extends his hand in blessing in ways humans find difficult
to comprehend.
May you come to understand that as you live your vocation you are
walking the way of holiness. This does not mean that you are perfect. No
one knows that better than you. It does mean that if you are true to
your vocation you will find the sanctification for which Christ lived
and died. Literally, you are following him in good times and in bad, in
sickness and in health, until death. Your reward will be great in
heaven.
During Vocations Awareness Week, I will hold you up to the Lord in my
daily prayers and Masses. |
