+ On this “Good Shepherd” Sunday, it is fitting to talk about
vocations, especially to the priesthood and consecrated
religious life! The priesthood, of course was instituted by
Christ at the Last Supper that he ate with his disciples. After he gives his
all really and truly by changing the essential substance of the bread and the
wine into his own body and blood which would be equally and unequivocally given
the next day on the Cross at Calvary, he tells this band of brothers to “do
this from then on, in his memory;” thereby vivifying the very act of remembrance
and doing what he did – until the very end of time!
In
the commission of doing comes the institution of the sacrament of Holy Orders. The
Twelve would from then on be priests of the New Testament with, through and in
Jesus their Lord, their Brother and their best Friend.
I think that it could be safe
to say that Jesus asked them, in preparing them for that great moment or
ordination, three questions: 1) Can you suffer greatly? 2) Can you pray
intensely and unceasingly? 3) Can you be a friend to others, to the very end –
even to the irritating and obnoxious? He didn’t ask them if they were smart, if
they went to college, or if they were on the dean’s list: he asked them the
practical question of life as a shepherd, which would mirror his life as
shepherd. Not that intelligence, and academic ability is not very important for
the modern priest or religious, but what is most important is whether the
candidate can suffer, really suffer; pray, really pray; and be a friend to all
kinds of people, to the very end?
And isn’t this actually what
Jesus’ Father must have asked his Son, the Word, (Second Person of the Blessed
Trinity) who volunteered to come to earth to save us from our sin: Son, can you
suffer, a bitter agony and death on a cross? can you pray, from your heart
constantly chatting with me about everything that is happening with you? can
you be a true friend and shepherd of those people to the bitter end – which
would mean a brutal death on the cross? Jesus immediately said: YES! YES! YES!
for them and for their salvation I am ready to go! And he came to us as our
friend, as our shepherd, as our Lord and God.
St. John Paul II in his
apostolic exhortation: Pastores Dabo
Vobis states emphatically that God
will provide “shepherds after his own heart” – which is the same as the
Sacred Heart of Jesus! In the day of a declining number of priests we must hold
firm to this prophecy from Jeremiah that will not just fade away. God will
always provide shepherds, and assistant shepherds so long as young, and these
days even not so young men listen and
respond to the call to feel his loving look upon them and to respond
enthusiastically to Jesus when he asks them to follow him without reserve.
O
Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ and Mother of priests,
indeed, Mother of the Church, guide those who courageously and lovingly wish to
investigate a life of service to the Church as priests and consecrated and
dedicated religious priests, brothers and sisters, of the New Testament,
shepherds after the heart of Jesus; protect and strengthen their vocations, and
help us with you to offer our full measure of support and prayers for so noble
and generous a commitment!
God bless you!
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