The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde on March 12 at Holy Spirit Church in Annandale for the Annual Diocesan Vocations Mass. It is reproduced here in honor of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations Sunday, May 11.
It is a great joy for me to be with you all this morning for our annual Diocesan Vocations Mass. I look at your young faces, and I see the future of the Catholic Church! I see future Catholic parents, future Catholic priests and future Catholic religious sisters and brothers. The hope of Christians everywhere passes from generation to generation, and your time in the Church and in society is not far away. Catholics of every generation are called to meet and address the questions and problems of their time. This is why it is critical to have Catholics well formed in their Catholic Faith, so that they can bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to bear on world events and crises.
You are very fortunate! Each of you has the privilege of attending Catholic school and of receiving an authentically Catholic education. Like the Apostles in our Gospel reading today, each of you has recognized Jesus as the Christ and followed Him by being baptized, receiving communion, confessing your sins in the Sacrament of Penance and soon will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. Each of you is full of potential yet to be released into the greater world. Next year, you go to high school. It is a very exciting prospect, isn't it? In high school, you will begin to make decisions about a myriad of things from the subjects you are going to take in school, which can lead to your future employment, to the kinds of friends you will make, which might influence decisions you make as to whether you experiment with drugs or sex. These decisions and many more will have a lasting impact on your future.
Yet, God has a master plan for your lives. God has what I like to call a “life project” that He entrusted to you when He created you. This life project God has determined will most effectively be achieved according to a particular state of life: married life, the single life, priesthood or religious life. Sometimes it is helpful to have a theme for our lives, and I would like for us to reflect upon the idea of vocation to service. Jesus is often portrayed as a servant in the Gospels. He washes the feet of His disciples, He feeds the hungry, He heals the sick, He places His life at the service of helping others and being there for their needs. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to imitate Him in this life of service. Pope John Paul II in his Message for the 40th World Day of Prayer for Vocations wrote: “In today's culture, the person who serves is considered inferior; but in sacred history the servant is the one called by God to carry out a particular action of salvation and redemption. The servant knows that he has received all he has and is. As a result, he also feels called to place what he has received at the service of others. In the Bible, service is always linked to a specific call that comes from God” (no. 1).
As you continue to grow and to discover the gifts that God has entrusted to you, you must also strive to discover the vocation He has laid out for you to travel in order to accomplish the life project He has entrusted to you. For those of you who are called to the married life, your life of service will primarily be to your spouse, your children and your profession. For those of you called to the single life, your life of service will be primarily to your neighbors and your profession. For those of you called to the priesthood or religious life, your life of service will be primarily to God, His Church and those to whom God sends to you.
I would like for each of you to seriously consider whether God might be calling you to be a religious sister, brother or priest. As you may know, our diocese is growing very quickly. We need good priests who will lead us in holiness, we need good religious men and women to minister to the needy and pray for our diocese. Our world holds up the image of wealth and power as the complete fulfillment of the human heart, but nothing could be further from the truth. When do you feel better: receiving an allowance or being paid for a chore, or, when you help someone who really needs you or you extend a helping hand to someone who is suffering? Usually, it is in the moments that we forget ourselves and reach out to others that our hearts feel the best.
You might be thinking that you are too young to be considering something like a vocation, but in our first reading God says to Jeremiah: “Say not I am too young.” You are the future of the Church and the future of the United States, you have much important work before you. God has a particular vocation for each of you. It is exciting, and when you discover it and begin to live it you will fulfill the deepest longings of your heart. Amen.
