Sermon about Priestly Vocations

Introduction

In the Gospel of today, Our Lord Jesus compares Himself to a Good Shepherd. That is why this Sunday is nicknamed “Sunday of the Good Shepherd”, on which we often preach about priestly and religious vocations. I will follow today this custom and will talk to you about the priestly vocation.

Importance of Priesthood

If God let Adam and Eve commit the Original Sin, and let the whole mankind fall into deep spiritual and physical miseries, it was in order to bring about something more glorious for Himself and more meritorious for us: the Redemption of mankind by Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man.

From the very first instant of His human existence, Our Lord Jesus Christ has been appointed as the Sovereign Priest, that is to say the unique Mediator who would re-unite man to God. The word “Priest” comes from the Greek “Presbyteros” which means the “Elder” or “Senior” who leads a community; in Latin, “priest” is said “sacerdos” which means “he who gives what is sacred”. A priest is the one leading people to God and giving them what is sacred, that is to say Divine life. Our Lord Jesus is the Sovereign Priest: the one, and the only one, who leads us to God by his teaching and examples, and who gives us Divine Life.

However, Our Lord Jesus did not intend to exercise His priesthood all over the world and until the end of times directly and alone. He decided to associate to Himself some men, the Apostles, to make them work with Him for the glory of God and the salvation of souls: “Come ye after Me, and I will make you to be fishers of men” (Mt 4;22). He made them be His priests: He gave them the power to offer the sacrifice of the Mass, the power to forgive sins, the authority to teach all people: “Teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you”. (Mt 28;19).

It is through his priests, to whom He has given authority, that Our Lord Jesus leads His Church on earth; it is through His priests, to whom He has entrusted His doctrine and His Sacraments that Our Lord Jesus sanctifies souls; it is through his priests, to whom He has given the power to say Mass, that Our Lord Jesus offers Himself to God as He did on the Cross again and again. No priest, then no Mass: people will have nothing worthy to offer to God for the satisfaction of their sins and for obtaining the graces they need. No priest, then no Communion about which Our Lord Jesus said: “Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you” (Jn 6;54). No priest, then no absolution of sins: people will stay in their doubtful conscience. No priest, then no Extreme-Unction: people will face alone their agony, the last attacks of the devil and the justice of God. No priest, then no leadership: people will be “as sheep not having a shepherd” (Mc 6;34). In short: remove the priests, then you destroy the Church on earth.

Vocation to Priesthood, on God’s side

Now, God is infinitely wise: whatever He does is orderly. As Our Lord Jesus has promised that His Church will last until the end of the world when He said: “And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Mt 28; 19), so in the same time He has promised to share His priesthood with some men until the end of the world. It means that, in His infinite wisdom and omniscience, God has already planned and prepared since ever some men for that function and He calls them in their time to comply voluntarily with His plan. This plan and call of God, we name it the “Priestly Vocation”: the word “vocation” means the “calling”. Not anybody is called to become a priest of Our Lord Jesus, but only those God has prepared since ever. St Paul is very clear about it: “Neither does any man take the honor to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was” (Heb 5; 4).

Again, God is infinitely wise and orderly: He cannot call somebody to a specific mission without giving that person the capacity to fulfil well that mission. He called the Blessed Virgin Mary to be the Mother of God, so He gave Her a grace and a dignity proportioned to that Mission. When He calls a man to be a priest of Our Lord Jesus, He gives him the capacity, the qualities necessary to fulfil well the priestly duties. The priestly vocation is not God who appears all the sudden to a man telling him: “I want you to be a priest!”, is not in having extraordinary emotions or spiritual consolations. No, God calls by creating us in such a way that we have the proper qualities to fulfil well and faithfully the duties of priesthood.

However, not all men prepared by God like this become actually priests. Some die before, like St Dominic Savio, St John Berchmans, St Aloysius Gonzaga. Some others deny the call. Indeed, God gives the proper qualities to be a good priest, He calls, but He does not force the will, and a man can always say “no”. What will happen to such a man? Certainly he can still get his eternal salvation, but it will be more difficult, his glory in Heaven will be much less, and indirectly He will bear the responsibility of the damnation of souls which, he being a priest, would have been saved by his priestly work.

Our lord Jesus prepares his priests since ever by giving them the proper qualities; ultimately, He made his call definitively certain through the bishop who admits them to receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

Vocation to priesthood, on man’s side

In the light of what has been said before, it becomes quite easy then to answer the question: How do we know if somebody has a priestly vocation? By checking if he has the qualities necessary for the good fulfilment of priestly duties, quite simply.

What are the priestly duties? To pray and to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass for the glory of God and for the salvation of souls; to feed spiritually souls by teaching them the Divine Revelation and giving them the Sacraments; to encourage the faithful to the practice of virtues and works of mercy by their good examples. In short, to do what Christ did when He was on earth.

Now, to be able to fulfil well these duties, three main dispositions are necessary: a sufficient science, a holy life and a right intention.

-Science is needed because the priest must teach people the way to God, guide them through all the difficulties of this life, help them to overcome temptations and obstacles. Our Lord Jesus told his Apostles: “You are the light of the world… Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven” (Mt5;14). The science of the priest must be in proportion of the needs of the faithful: the higher is the education of the faithful, the wider must be the science of the priest; the more subtle and pernicious are the attacks against the truth, the deeper and more accurate must be the science of the priest. Also, because the priest is called to do his apostolate on people of all social classes, he must fit in any society and therefore have a certain general culture of profane sciences. This science is acquired firstly through the general studies in high school and college, then in the seminary.

-The second necessary disposition is to have a holy life: we don’t mean that the man be so holy that he could be canonized immediately by the Church, we mean that the man must live usually in state of grace and have a solid piety. A priest is a mediator between God and men: therefore, he cannot be close to God and guide people to God if he himself lives in state of mortal sin or is spiritually tepid. The virtues of simplicity, frankness, honesty, continence are especially necessary; the vices of pride, anger and intemperance are especially disqualifying to the vocation from God.

-The third disposition is to have a right intention: what is that? Simply to want what Christ wanted when He was on earth: to give glory to God and to save souls. That desire must not be a hint lasting for a while, a transitory emotion but must be either a clear and firm will or at least a vague but persistent desire, felt especially in time of prayer or after receiving Holy Communion. We don’t become a priest because we think it is a better way to do penance for our sins, or to secure our salvation. We don’t become a priest of course, because we want to secure a living for ourselves or satisfy an ambition, or for any other purely human motivation.

When a young man has these three qualities, then we can say that he has been prepared by God to the priesthood. What is he then expected to do? To say “yes”.

The generous response to God’s call

Let the young men who maybe hesitate to say “Yes” or feel like delaying their “yes”, know this: if God has prepared them, created them in view of being priests of Our Lord Jesus Christ, then they will never find their happiness nor achieve their personal development in anything else, because they will always be out of place. They will feel wasting their time, disappointment, bitterness.

Secondly, the young men may feel these natural and legitimate inclinations of getting married, having children, having an interesting job... and they hesitate to sacrifice all of these to become priests. Let them remember what Our Lord Jesus has sacrificed for their salvation, to give them what they have; let them remember what Our Lord has promised “everyone that has left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold and shall possess life everlasting?” (Mt 19:29). Let them remember that the eternal salvation of some other people depends on their generosity.

I will conclude this sermon by an anecdote. There was in France, a young and pretty lady, named Catherine of Montalembert.  She went one day to see his father in his office and told him about her will to become a religious. She said: “Father, I like everything: I like pleasure, I like smartness, I like the world, I like dancing, I love my family, I like my studies, my friends, my age, my life, I like my fatherland, but I love God more than all these and I want to be His entirely”. Her father tried to object: “My dear child, don’t you have any sorrow?” But Catherine replied: “Father, you have taught me that we don’t offer to God withered hearts nor sluggish wills”. See in this anecdote and the generosity of the girl called by God, and how parents prepare their children to respond generously to the call of God.

May Our Lady of the Annunciation, who offered herself totally to God’s service saying “Behold the handmaid of the Lord”, excite in the hearts of the youth and of parents such generosity.