| 46th World Day of Prayer for Vocations |
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| Written by Pope Benedict XVI |
| Wednesday, 25 February 2009 10:32 |
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Theme: "Trust in God and human response" Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and the Priesthood; Dear brothers and sisters! On the occasion of the coming World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life, which will be celebrated on May 3, 2009, Fourth Sunday of Easter, I am pleased to invite the entire People of God to reflect on the theme “Faith in the initiative of God and human response”. The perennial call of Jesus to his disciples resounds in the Church: "Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest!" (Matthew 9:38). Pray! The urgent appeal of the Lord points out that prayer for vocations should be uninterrupted and confident. In fact, only if animated by prayer can the Christian community actually "have more faith and hope in divine initiative" (Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, 26). The vocation to the priesthood and the consecrated life is a special divine gift, which is part of the vast project of love and salvation that God has for every man and for all humanity. The apostle Paul, whom we remember in a special way during this Pauline Year in celebration of the bimillenium of his birth, writing to the Ephesians, says: "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ has chosen us before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love" (Eph 1:3-4). In the universal call to holiness, the particular initiative of God, with which he chooses some to follow more closely his Son Jesus Christ and to be his ministers and witnesses, is highlighted. The divine Master personally called the Apostles "to be with him and to send them out to preach with the power to cast out demons" (Mk 3:14-15). They, in turn, have joined other disciples, faithful partners in mission ministry. Thus, answering the call of the Lord and obedient to the action of the Holy Spirit, host of countless priests and consecrated persons, in the course of the centuries, were raised in the Church at the full service of the Gospel. Thanks be to God, who even today continues to call out laborers for his vineyard. Although it is true that in certain regions of the earth there is a worrying shortage of priests, and difficulties and obstacles accompany the journey of the Church, we are strengthened by the unshakable certainty that the one leading her firmly along the centuries toward the final fulfillment of the Kingdom is He, the Lord who freely chooses and calls people of every culture and age to follow Him, according to the inscrutable designs of His merciful love. For this, our first duty is to keep alive with unceasing prayer, this invocation of the divine initiative in families, parishes, movements and associations engaged in the apostolate, religious communities, and in all realities of diocesan life. We must pray that the entire Christian people grow in confidence in God, convinced that the "Lord of the harvest" does not cease to ask some to freely commit their lives in working with him closely in the work of salvation. On the part of those who are called, they are required to have an attentive listening and cautious discernment, generous and ready adherence to the divine project, and serious study of what is proper to priestly and religious vocation in order to correspond to it responsibly and with conviction. The Catechism of the Catholic Church rightly points out that the free initiative of God requires man’s free response - a positive response which always presupposes the acceptance and sharing of the project that God has for each one, a response that accepts the initiative of love of the Lord and becomes for the person called an exigency that is morally binding, a grateful homage to God and a full cooperation in the plan which He pursues in history (cf. No. 2062). Contemplating the Eucharistic mystery, that expresses supremely the free gift by the Father in the Person of His Only-begotten Son for the salvation of men and the full and docile willingness of Christ in drinking until the last drop the "cup" of the will of God (cf. Mt 26,39), we understand better how "trust in the initiative of God" forms and gives value to the human response." In the Eucharist, the perfect gift that realizes the plan of love for the redemption of the world, Jesus freely sacrifices himself for the salvation of humanity. My beloved predecessor John Paul II wrote: "The Church received the Eucharist from Christ her Lord not as a gift, valuable among many others, but as the gift par excellence, because it is the gift of himself, of his person in his holy humanity, and his saving work "(Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 11). To perpetuate this mystery of salvation over the centuries, until the glorious return of the Lord, the priests are destined, they who precisely in the Eucharistic Christ are able to contemplate the excellent model of a "vocational dialogue" between the free initiative of the Father and the confident reply of the Christ. In the Eucharistic celebration it is Christ himself who acts in those he chooses as his ministers; he sustains them so that their response may grow in a dimension of confidence and gratitude that eliminates any fear, even when the experience of one’s weakness becomes stronger (cf. Rom 8,26-30), or the context of misunderstanding or even of persecution becomes more bitter (cf. Rom 8,35-39). The knowledge of being saved by the love of Christ, that every Mass nourishes in the believers, especially the priests, cannot fail to arouse in them a confident abandonment in Christ who gave his life for us. Believing in the Lord and accepting his gift leads to trusting in Him with a grateful spirit by adhering to his plan of salvation. If this happens, the “person called” willingly abandons everything and puts himself at the school of the Divine Master; it is then that a fruitful dialogue between God and man begins, a mysterious encounter between the love of the Lord who calls and the freedom of man who responds to Him in love, listening to the words of Jesus that resound in his heart: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, the kind of fruit that endures" (Jn 15:16) . This intertwining of love between the divine initiative and human response is also present, in a wonderful way, in the vocation to consecrated life. The Second Vatican Council states: "The evangelical counsels of chastity dedicated to God, of poverty and of obedience, being founded on the words and examples of the Lord, and recommended by the Apostles, the Fathers, the doctors and the pastors of the Church, are a divine gift which the Church has received from his Lord and she always keeps with His grace" (Lumen Gentium, 43). Once again, Jesus is the model of total and trustful adherence to the will of the Father to which every consecrated person should look. Attracted by him, from the earliest centuries of Christianity, many men and women have abandoned family, possessions, material wealth and all that is humanly desirable, in order to follow Christ generously and to live without compromise his Gospel, school of radical holiness for them. Even today, many go through the same very demanding journey of evangelical perfection, and realize their vocation with the profession of the evangelical counsels. The testimony of these brothers and sisters, in the monasteries of contemplative life as well as in institutions and congregations of apostolic life, reminds the people of God of "that mystery of the Kingdom of God which already operates in history, but awaits its full implementation in heaven "(Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata, 1). Who can consider himself worthy of access to the priestly ministry? Who can embrace the consecrated life depending only on his human resources? Again, it is important to reiterate that man’s response to God's call, aware that God is the one taking the initiative and still the one leading to completion his project of salvation, is never invested with the fearful calculation of the lazy servant who, for fear, buried the talent entrusted to him (cf. I 25:14-30), but is expressed in a prompt adherence to the invitation of the Lord, as Peter did when, trusting in His word, he did not hesitate to cast again the nets despite having toiled all night without catching anything (cf. Lk 5:5). Without in any way abdicating from personal responsibility, free response to God thus becomes a "co-responsibility" - responsibility in and with Christ, by virtue of the action of his Holy Spirit; it becomes communion with the One who enables us to bear much fruit ( Jn 15:5). The generous and full “Amen” of the Virgin of Nazareth, pronounced with a humble and determined adherence to the designs of the Most High, communicated to Her by the heavenly messenger (cf. Lk 1:38 ), is an emblematic human response, full of confidence in the initiative of God. Her prompt “yes” allowed Her to become the Mother of God, the Mother of our Savior. After this first "fiat", Mary had to repeat it many other times, until the climax of the crucifixion of Jesus, when she "stood by the cross", as the Evangelist John writes, sharer in the excruciating pain of his innocent Son. And precisely from the Cross, the dying Jesus gave her to us as Mother and has entrusted us to Her as children (cf. Jn 19, 26-27), Mother especially of priests and consecrated persons. To her I entrust those who feel the call of God to walk in the path of ministerial priesthood or consecrated life. Dear friends, do not be discouraged at the difficulties and doubts; trust in God and faithfully follow Jesus and be witnesses of the joy that springs from the intimate union with him. In imitation of the Virgin Mary, whom the generations proclaim blessed because she believed (cf. Lk 1,48), commit yourselves with every spiritual energy to achieve the saving plan of the Heavenly Father, cultivating in your heart, like Her, the ability to surprise and worship Him who has the power to do "great things" because Holy is his name (cf. ibid., 1.49). From the Vatican, 20 January 2009 BENEDICTUS PP. XVI |
| Last Updated on Thursday, 18 March 2010 05:34 |