MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE 50th WORLD DAY
OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS
FOR THE 50th WORLD DAY
OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS
21 APRIL 2013 - FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Theme: Vocations as a sign of hope
founded in faith
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On the occasion of
the 50th World Day of
Prayer for Vocations, to be held on 21 April 2013, the Fourth Sunday of Easter,
I want to invite you to reflect on the theme: “Vocations as a sign of hope
founded in faith”, which happily occurs during the Year of Faith,
the year marking the 50thanniversary of the opening of the Second
Vatican Council. While the Council was in session, the Servant of God, Paul VI,
instituted this day of worldwide prayer to God the Father, asking him to
continue to send workers for his Church (cf. Mt 9:38). “The problem of having a
sufficient number of priests”, as the Pope stated at the time, “has an
immediate impact on all of the faithful: not simply because they depend on it
for the religious future of Christian society, but also because this problem is
the precise and inescapable indicator of the vitality of faith and love of
individual parish and diocesan communities, and the evidence of the moral
health of Christian families. Wherever numerous vocations to the priesthood and
consecrated life are to be found, that is where people are living the Gospel
with generosity” (Paul VI, Radio
Message, 11 April 1964).
During the
intervening decades, the various Christian communities all over the world have
gathered each year on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, united in prayer, to ask
from God the gift of holy vocations and to propose once again, for the
reflection of all, the urgent need to respond to the divine call. Indeed, this
significant annual event has fostered a strong commitment to placing the
importance of vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life ever more at
the centre of the spirituality, prayer and pastoral action of the faithful.
Hope is the
expectation of something positive in the future, yet at the same time it must
sustain our present existence, which is often marked by dissatisfaction and
failures. On what is our hope founded? Looking at the history of the people of
Israel, recounted in the Old Testament, we see one element that constantly
emerges, especially in times of particular difficulty like the time of the Exile,
an element found especially in the writings of the prophets, namely remembrance
of God’s promises to the Patriarchs: a remembrance that invites us to imitate
the exemplary attitude of Abraham, who, as Saint Paul reminds us, “believed,
hoping against hope, that he would become ‘the father of many nations,’
according to what was said, ‘Thus shall your descendants be’" (Rom4:18).
One consoling and enlightening truth which emerges from the whole of salvation
history, then, is God’s faithfulness to the covenant that he entered into,
renewing it whenever man infringed it through infidelity and sin, from the time
of the flood (cf. Gen 8:21-22) to that of the Exodus and
the journey through the desert (cf. Dt 9:7). That same faithfulness led
him to seal the new and eternal covenant with man, through the blood of his
Son, who died and rose again for our salvation.
At every moment,
especially the most difficult ones, the Lord’s faithfulness is always the
authentic driving force of salvation history, which arouses the hearts of men
and women and confirms them in the hope of one day reaching the “promised
land”. This is where we find the sure foundation of every hope: God never
abandons us and he remains true to his word. For that reason, in every
situation, whether positive or negative, we can nourish a firm hope and pray
with the psalmist: “Only in God can my soul find rest; my hope comes from him”
(Ps 62:6). To have hope,
therefore, is the equivalent of trusting in God who is faithful, who keeps the
promises of the covenant. Faith and hope, then, are closely related. “Hope” in
fact is a key word in biblical faith, to the extent that in certain passages
the words “faith” and “hope” seem to be interchangeable. In this way, the Letter to the Hebrews makes a direct connection between the
“unwavering profession of hope” (10:23) and the “fullness of faith” (10:22).
Similarly, when the First
Letter of Saint Peter exhorts
the Christians to be always ready to give an account of the “logos” – the
meaning and rationale – of their hope (cf. 3:15), “hope” is the equivalent of
“faith” (Spe
Salvi, 2).
Dear Brothers and
Sisters, what exactly is God’s faithfulness, to which we adhere with unwavering
hope? It is his love! He,
the Father, pours his love into our innermost self through the Holy Spirit (cf.Rom 5:5). And this love, fully
manifested in Jesus Christ, engages with our existence and demands a response
in terms of what each individual wants to do with his or her life, and what he
or she is prepared to offer in order to live it to the full. The love of God
sometimes follows paths one could never have imagined, but it always reaches
those who are willing to be found. Hope is nourished, then, by this certainty:
“We ourselves have known and believed in the love that God has for us” (1 Jn 4:16). This deep, demanding love,
which penetrates well below the surface, gives us courage; it gives us hope in
our life’s journey and in our future; it makes us trust in ourselves, in
history and in other people. I want to speak particularly to the young and I
say to you once again: “What would your life be without this love? God takes
care of men and women from creation to the end of time, when he will bring his
plan of salvation to completion. In the Risen Lord we have the certainty of our
hope!” (Address
to Young People of the Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro, 19 June 2011).
Just as he did
during his earthly existence, so today the risen Jesus walks along the streets
of our life and sees us immersed in our activities, with all our desires and
our needs. In the midst of our everyday circumstances he continues to speak to
us; he calls us to live our life with him, for only he is capable of satisfying
our thirst for hope. He lives now among the community of disciples that is the
Church, and still today calls people to follow him. The call can come at any
moment. Today too, Jesus continues to say, “Come, follow me” (Mk 10:21). Accepting his invitation
means no longer choosing our own path. Following him means immersing our own
will in the will of Jesus, truly giving him priority, giving him pride of place
in every area of our lives: in the family, at work, in our personal interests,
in ourselves. It means handing over our very lives to Him, living in profound
intimacy with Him, entering through Him into communion with the Father in the
Holy Spirit, and consequently with our brothers and sisters. This communion of
life with Jesus is the privileged “setting” in which we can experience hope and
in which life will be full and free.
Vocations to the
priesthood and the consecrated life are born out of the experience of a
personal encounter with Christ, out of sincere and confident dialogue with him,
so as to enter into his will. It is necessary, therefore, to grow in the
experience of faith, understood as a profound relationship with Jesus, as inner
attentiveness to his voice which is heard deep within us. This process, which
enables us to respond positively to God’s call, is possible in Christian communities
where the faith is lived intensely, where generous witness is given of
adherence to the Gospel, where there is a strong sense of mission which leads
people to make the total gift of self for the Kingdom of God, nourished by
recourse to the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and by a fervent life of
prayer. This latter “must on the one hand be something very personal, an
encounter between my intimate self and God, the living God. On the other hand
it must be constantly guided and enlightened by the great prayers of the Church
and of the saints, by liturgical prayer, in which the Lord teaches us again and
again how to pray properly.” (Spe
Salvi, 34).
Deep and constant
prayer brings about growth in the faith of the Christian community, in the
unceasingly renewed certainty that God never abandons his people and that he
sustains them by raising up particular vocations – to the priesthood and the
consecrated life – so that they can be signs of hope for the world. Indeed,
priests and religious are called to give themselves unconditionally to the
People of God, in a service of love for the Gospel and the Church, serving that
firm hope which can only come from an openness to the divine. By means of the
witness of their faith and apostolic zeal, therefore, they can transmit,
especially to the younger generations, a strong desire to respond generously
and promptly to Christ who calls them to follow him more closely. Whenever a
disciple of Jesus accepts the divine call to dedicate himself to the priestly
ministry or to the consecrated life, we witness one of the most mature fruits
of the Christian community, which helps us to look with particular trust and
hope to the future of the Church and to her commitment to evangelization. This
constantly requires new workers to preach the Gospel, to celebrate the
Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. So let there be committed
priests, who know how to accompany young people as “companions on the journey”,
helping them, on life’s often tortuous and difficult path, to recognize Christ,
the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6), telling them, with Gospel
courage, how beautiful it is to serve God, the Christian community, one’s
brothers and sisters. Let there be priests who manifest the fruitfulness of an
enthusiastic commitment, which gives a sense of completeness to their lives,
because it is founded on faith in him who loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:19).
Equally, I hope
that young people, who are presented with so many superficial and ephemeral
options, will be able to cultivate a desire for what is truly worthy, for lofty
objectives, radical choices, service to others in imitation of Jesus. Dear
young people, do not be afraid to follow him and to walk the demanding and
courageous paths of charity and generous commitment! In that way you will be
happy to serve, you will be witnesses of a joy that the world cannot give, you
will be living flames of an infinite and eternal love, you will learn to “give
an account of the hope that is within you” (1 Pt 3:15)!
From the
Vatican, 6 October 2012
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
This message is from The Vatican website.
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