(This article courtesy of the Arlington Catholic Herald.)
Editor's Note: This homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde on Saturday, Sept. 21, for the Diocesan Youth Rally Mass held at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, Virginia.
For example, in Isaiah 55:6-9, we hear the Lord’s invitation in these words: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call him while he is near.” And in the Gospel of Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus Himself invites us through the parable of the landowner who hired laborers to work in his vineyard. God is inviting us into His vineyard to be His witnesses to our generation, to our world.
Two events have been deeply etched into our lives at the dawn of this third Christian millennium: the Jubilee Year of 2000 and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The dawn of this millennium saw pilgrims from every corner of the earth streaming into Rome and designated Jubilee churches in every diocese to recommit themselves to Christ and to His Church. The Church threw open the storehouse of graces for all humanity and invited them to come and draw deeply from this treasure trove.
During the Jubilee Year, diverse groups of people came together in Rome and their level of participation was truly impressive (cf. Novo Millennio Ineunte, no 9). This was especially true of the gathering of the world’s young people in August of 2000. Our Holy Father wrote specifically about those young people in his Apostolic Letter on the New Millennium. “And how could we fail to recall especially the joyful and inspiring gathering of young people? If there is an image of the Jubilee of the Year 2000 that more than any other will live on in memory, it is surely the streams of young people with whom I was able to engage in a sort of very special dialogue, filled with mutual affection and deep understanding. … Yet again, the young have shown themselves to be for Rome and for the Church a special gift of the Spirit of God. … The Jubilee of young people [told] us that young people, whatever their possible ambiguities, have a profound longing for those genuine values which find their fullness in Christ. Is not Christ the secret of true freedom and profound joy of heart? Is not Christ the supreme friend and the teacher of all genuine friendship? If Christ is presented to young people as he really is, they experience him as the answer that is convincing and they accept his message, even when it is demanding and bears the mark of the cross. For this reason, in response to their enthusiasm, I did not hesitate to ask them to make a radical choice of faith and life and present them with a stupendous task: to become ‘morning watchmen’ (cf. Is 21:11-12) at the dawn of the new millennium” (no. 9).
The second event was the terrorist attacks on our nation. Nineteen men hijacked four airplanes and flew them into three buildings and a field. Dissatisfied with life, they chose to end their own and take as many innocent civilians as they could with them. Why? Only they truly know the answer to that question, but the philosophy they demonstrated at the dawn of this third Christian millennium is one that elevates individual passions over the rights of others, and the ethic of death over the natural right to life of innocents.
The Holy Father at World Youth Day in Toronto consigned to each of you and to your generation the task of being the builders of a new civilization. He said: “The aspiration that humanity nurtures, amid countless injustices and sufferings, is the hope of a new civilization marked by freedom and peace. But for such an undertaking, a new generation of builders is needed. Moved not by fear or violence but by the urgency of genuine love, they must learn to build, brick by brick, the city of God within the city of man. … [Y]ou must be those ‘builders’! You are the men and women of tomorrow. The future is in your hearts and in your hands. God is entrusting to you the task, at once difficult and uplifting, of working with him in the building of the civilization of love (Address 7/27/02, 4).
How do you go about building, brick by brick, the city of God within the city of man and be the morning watchmen of this new millennium? By drawing closer to Christ in true friendship, by becoming more like Christ in your thoughts, words and actions, by being holy! This is the basic challenge which Pope John Paul II gives all of us, especially you who are the young Church, in these opening years of the third Christian millennium. Our Holy Father says to us: “The time has come to repropose wholeheartedly to everyone [the] high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 31). Indeed, the universal call to holiness which comprises the “high standard of ordinary Christian living” is the foundation from which we set out on our day’s work.
“All in a day’s work!” You responded to the Lord’s invitation to work in his vineyard at Baptism. You are continually strengthened with the Lord’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance and with the Lord’s Body and Blood through receiving Holy Communion. You have been formed through Catholic education whether it be in a Catholic school or religious instruction program in your parish. And, now, you are being invited by the Lord to work in His vineyard to build the city of God within the city of man. “All in a day’s work!”
And, as you are setting out on the adventure of your young lives, the words of Pope John Paul II are very timely. He teaches us that in the pursuit of holiness and as we set out on our life’s work, we must discover the vocation to which God calls each of us. He reminds us: “Service, motivated by prayer, is a preferred route for the birth and growth of genuine vocations to the priesthood, to the consecrated and missionary life, and of solid lay vocations, of married and unmarried people, shaped by dedication to serving others” (L’Osservatore Romano, 37, Sept. 11, 2002, no. 3, pg. 2).
Each of you is in a different place in terms of your relationship with Jesus. Some of you heard the call to come closer to Him in true friendship and to work in His vineyard earlier in your lives and responded with an enthusiastic “Yes!” Others of you may have heard the same call and responded “Maybe later, Lord,” but now want to express a generous “Yes!” Still others may be hearing the Lord’s call for the first time in a very clear and new way! No matter when you come to God, He will provide for that day. He will give you the gift of the Holy Spirit to strengthen your will in saying and in living a generous “Yes” — “Here I am, Lord, send me!”
“All in a day’s work!” Will you commit your life to building the city of God or to building the city of man? Will you say “yes” to the Lord as He invites you to labor in His vineyard within the specific vocation or calling in life He will reveal to you?
Dear young people of the Church, the Lord is inviting you to build a new civilization of love and life, to be the morning watchmen in this new millennium! As a bishop of the Church, I echo the Holy Father and challenge you to make a radical choice of faith and life, to grow into ever deepening friendship with Jesus, possessing “…a faith full of life for a life full of faith” (L’Osservatore Romano, 37, Sept. 11, 2002, no. 2, pg. 2). Say “yes” to Jesus and to His Church! He will not fail you or forsake you! Be strong and be courageous! I pray for you each day and ask that you pray for me too. Together, let us be laborers in the Lord’s vineyard and, with Him, build the new city of God!
