“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”
That verse, which is taken from this coming Sunday’s gospel reading from Matthew 9, has a certain application to all of us, but it has a particular application to priests. It’s no secret that in many places today (including our own diocese) there is a shortage of priests. Many parishes that used to have a resident pastor no longer do, and many priests currently active in ministry are overseeing two and sometimes even three church communities.
Some say that in all this we’re experiencing a “vocation” crisis, but that’s inaccurate. In fact, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as a vocation crisis. A vocation is a “call” (that’s what the word means). To say there’s a vocation crisis is to say that God isn’t calling enough men to serve him in the ordained priesthood. But that can’t be true. The Bible says that God always supplies our need (Philippians 4:13). So obviously the Lord is calling enough men to the priesthood to supply for the needs of his Church at the present time. However, some of those who are being called are not responding to the Lord for one reason or another. It may be because of the attractions and temptations of the world; it may be for some other reason.
So yes, we have a crisis, but it’s not a vocation crisis, it’s a response crisis!
Is there anything that we can do as individuals to help change this? Are there any concrete actions we can take in order to promote and support priestly vocations in the midst of the present response crisis in the Church? The good news is: Yes, there are!
The first thing that we can and should do, of course, is PRAY. That’s what Jesus tells us in this Sunday’s Gospel text: “Ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”
The second thing we can and should do is ENCOURAGE: we should encourage young, single men that we know who are serious about their faith to consider the possibility that God is calling them to be priests. Here we need to remember that there’s a very big difference between encouraging and nagging. Encourage—yes; nag—no. If you know a young man who seems to possess the personal and religious qualities that would make him a good priest, tell him so! Then give him the time and space he needs to reflect on what you said. Sometimes that’s all the encouragement that’s needed.
In addition to praying for vocations, and encouraging potential vocations, we also need to make the effort to LIVE our vocation—our personal vocation—as well as we can. That’s the third thing we can do to address the response crisis. Young men will say yes to the call to be priests if they’re surrounded by priests and lay people who live their vocations well—who live their vocations joyfully. It’s inspiring for a young man who is discerning a vocation to the priesthood to be surrounded by clergy and lay people who have been positively influenced by the priests in their lives. That can make a big difference.
Our former Holy Father, Pope Francis, said it well: “No vocation is born of itself or lives for itself. A vocation flows from the heart of God and blossoms in the good soil of faithful people.” By our prayers, our words of encouragement and our faithfulness in living our personal vocation, may we be among those faithful people.
