"Cherish God’s vocation in you.
Let it be constant,
efficacious,
and loving."
Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
So Jesus goes over to Matthew, who, at that time, was anything but a saint. He was sitting at the customs post, collecting the required taxes. He was a Jew acting as a representative of the Roman occupation government. He didn’t have a fan club, to say the least. It wasn’t just that he was a tax collector – probably that would have been bad enough, but it was also that he was an employee of the Roman oppression government. It was almost like he was giving up his heritage. This is the Matthew who Jesus approaches and gives a fairly simple, two-word command: “follow me.”
We could be in wonder about why Jesus would pick such a man, and plenty of homily time has been spent examining that issue, I think. What has me in wonder these days is Matthew’s response. “And he got up and followed him.” That’s it. He left the table, didn’t even clock out, left all the money there, and took off to follow Jesus. He didn’t cash out the register or finish up with the customer he was working with, or even take a minute to record the current transaction in a spreadsheet. He followed right then and there. He left his whole considerable livelihood behind. And that livelihood was as rich as he wanted to make it, since all he had to return to Rome was the tax that was prescribed. Anything else was his to keep. But on the strength of a two-word command, he gets up and leaves his responsibilities to his employers, his family, and all he ever knew behind.
What was it that caused him to do such a thing? It certainly wasn’t some kind of solidly-worded argumentation or beautiful preaching or rhetoric, because all Jesus said to him was “follow me.” So did he know Jesus before this? Had he indeed heard him preach before and experienced a stirring in his heart? Had he witnessed one of Jesus’ miracles and always wanted the opportunity to know more about this man? Was there something going on in Matthew’s life that was calling him to make a change? Was he unmotivated by his current situation or had he felt God tugging at his heart? Of course, we don’t know the answers to any of these questions. All we do know is that Jesus said “follow me” and Matthew did. Simple as that.
Yesterday I was at the Cathedral of St. Raymond in Joliet, for priesthood ordinations for our diocese. Three young men were ordained for service to the Church of Joliet. They, of course, looked elated, and had an excitement that I clearly remember myself. This past week, I received a letter from a young woman I knew from the parish where I served my internship back in my third year of seminary. She has finished her first year of formation for service as a Dominican nun. Her letter told me about the richness of her experience of formation, including classes, prayer and ministry experiences. Just a couple of weeks ago, we celebrated the forty years of wonderful service that Fr. Ted has given our diocese, including his work for the last six years at our parish. In his homily at his celebration Mass, he reflected on the many experiences he had over the last forty years, and said that if he had it to do over again, he would enter the priesthood again “in a heartbeat.” Later this year, we will have the opportunity to celebrate the fifty years of service that Sr. Anne Hyzy has given as a nun. She is a woman whose faith and spirituality have been a beacon for so many of us, and we look forward to celebrating her anniversary. And just this past week, I celebrated my second anniversary as a priest. So this has been a time when I have had the opportunity to reflect a bit on God’s call.
What is it that gets any of us to respond to that call: “follow me?” Because – and let’s be very clear about this – every one of us gets that call in some way, shape or form, at some point in our lives. We are called to rich vocational lives in so many different ways. Some are called to be priests, deacons or religious. Some are called to the married life and give of their lives as parents. Some are called to the single life, sacrificing the promiscuity and worldliness of our current culture to be a witness to God’s power in the world. We may be church workers, or doctors, or lawyers, or construction workers, or grocery store clerks, or any of a million different things. But the one thing that unites us – our baptism – also unites us in its effect: we are all called by our baptism to do something specific, something heroic, something very significant for Christ. To all of us – every one of us without exception – Christ is saying: “follow me.”
In a perfect world, it should be enough for us that God has forgiven us of our sins and made us one with him in baptism. It should be enough for us that Jesus says, despite the myriad of ways that we are unworthy of any kind of call, “follow me.” It should be enough that we are forgiven, and graced, and called, and loved to respond just like Matthew did, giving it all over so that we can follow the Lord wherever it is that he is leading us. But lots of times, that isn’t enough. Because we are sinful people who are afraid of commitment or are too bogged down in the world, or have turned away for so many reasons. Sometimes, it takes a while for that “follow me” call to work its way through our hardened hearts and restless spirits. I should know: it took thirty-six years for me.
So what about you? Is there a customs post that you need to walk away from? Is there a call to “follow me” that you’ve been hearing from the Lord for some time now that you have not had the courage to answer? Because I think the real question is not what is it about Jesus that would make someone follow him with just a simple command. No. The real question is, what is it about us that would turn down the life of grace and happiness and adventure and joy that Jesus has in store for us? I can’t possibly imagine how terrible it would have been to say “no” to Jesus at this point in my life. I always tell people that if you really want to be really happy, then you have to do what God is calling you to do. Nothing else will make you that happy. And I should know, because the last two years of my life have been the most wonderful I can remember.
Jesus comes to all of us today, in the busy-ness of our lives. Right in the middle of taking the customs tax from a traveler, we are called: “follow me.” What does that call look like for you? Are you ready to get up and follow him, without another word being spoken? If you’ve been on the fence, consider this homily the sign you’ve been looking for. God is calling. “Follow me.”
Sphere: Related ContentFourth Sunday of Easter: Following the Good Shepherd
Every year on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, we celebrate “Good Shepherd Sunday.” And every year on this Sunday, I protest inwardly about how awful it is to be compared to sheep! I think a lot of priests look forward to preaching on this day, but for me the analogy just doesn’t seem to work. Maybe that’s because I didn’t grow up in the time and place Jesus was preaching. They might have been more prone to get the point than people in our modern time and suburban place. I mean, you don’t see a lot of sheep around Naperville, do you? I think the reason I protest against this whole sheep metaphor is because it is usually preached as encouraging a kind of blind acceptance of what we’re being taught. Sheep are usually thought of as animals who accept whatever they’re being told blindly, because they are not able to think for themselves. That’s what makes me kind of bristle at the whole idea of being compared to sheep. I don’t think we’re supposed to check our brains at the door when it comes to living our faith. I can’t imagine God wanting us to do that since he created our ability to think and gifted us with free will.So I’m thinking that this is not the picture we are supposed to be getting from these readings, and that the problem here is that your preacher doesn’t really know anything helpful about sheep that would explain the analogy. So I read a commentary about this reading, and I think it helps sort out the analogy that Jesus is making here. In Jesus’ day, the shepherds would gather several flocks in the same fenced-enclosure. The sheepfold might be constructed in a pasture using brush and sticks; or, it would adjoin a wall of a house and have makeshift walls for the other sides. Owners of small flocks of sheep would have combined them in the secure enclosure at night. Someone – the gatekeeper – would then guard the flocks. The "gate" would have been a simple entrance, but the gatekeeper might even stretch out across the opening and literally be the "gate." The shepherds would arrive early in the morning and be admitted by the gatekeeper. They would call out to their sheep and the members of the flock recognize the voice of their own shepherd, and that shepherd would “lead them out.” The shepherd then walks in front of the flock and they follow. (Jude Sicilliano, OP)So then, I think the point that Jesus is making is that sheep know their shepherd’s voice and they follow him. This shepherd is one who takes care of them and leads them, keeping them safe. So maybe sheep aren’t so dumb after all. Their ability to know their shepherd’s voice helps bring them to the place where they belong, and their desire to follow the shepherd keeps them safe, keeps them from stumbling off the path into who knows what kind of dangerous situations.
It pains me to say this, but you know, maybe we need to be a little more like sheep after all. I for one find that I am often distracted by the plethora of competing voices out there, so much so that it can be hard at times to hear the voice of Jesus our Good Shepherd. Some of the distracting voices that we are subjected to include:
• voices of temptation that call us to covet more than we need or embroil us in heartbreaking addictions;
• voices of intolerance that call us to accept war and terrorism as legitimate ways to deal with disputes;
• voices of self-importance that call us to turn our back on God or trick us into thinking that we don’t really need God;
• voices of isolation that divorce us from family and community
• voices of apathy that divorce us from our world, the needy, and the marginalized
• voices of discouragement that lead us to give up on ourselves or on others, or that convince us that our efforts don’t really matter
And these are just a few, aren’t they? There are so many voices out there that can distract us from our Shepherd, so many enticing things to drag us off the path to God. And we follow them all the time. All these voices diminish our life, lead us away from our families, communities, church, even God. Even if we follow them in the hopes of leading a more exciting life, we may find that the momentary thrill of turning away from the Good Shepherd only leaves us feeling diminished and alone. The only way to a more exciting, fulfilling life is to follow Jesus who “came so that [we] might have life and have it more abundantly.”
So does this mean we have to leave our brains at the door, and follow blindly? No. Of course not. Following those other competing voices out there is what requires blind acceptance. The thinking person follows the Good Shepherd, and faces the many challenges of life not with some kind of delirious, unthinking, debilitating faith, but instead with a faith that is informed by Scripture, upheld by Tradition, and nourished in the Eucharist. The most abundant life we can have is a life in Christ.
On this Good Shepherd Sunday, the Church also asks us to pray for vocations. Because without people dedicated to their vocation – whatever it may be – so many people will never hear the Gospel, never hear the Shepherd’s voice. We know that every person has a vocation. Every person is called on by God to do something specific with their life that will bring not only them, but also others around them, to salvation. Parents help to bring their children to salvation by raising them in the faith. Spouses bring their husbands and wives to salvation by upholding their faith and living for each other in good times and in bad. Teachers help bring students to salvation by educating them and helping them to develop their God-given talents. Business people bring others to salvation by living lives of integrity and witness to their faith by conducting business fairly and with justice and concern for the needy. The list goes on. Every vocation, every authentic vocation, calls the disciple to do what God created them for, and helps God to bring salvation to the whole world.
Six years ago on this very Sunday, I was struggling with my vocation. I knew that God was calling me to give up my comfortable life and go to seminary to study for the priesthood. But I did not want to go. I had heard the Shepherd’s voice but was in some ways choosing to ignore it. I was already doing what I wanted to do with my life and thought it was going pretty well. But on some level, I knew that life as a disciple required me to do what God wanted, and not necessarily what I wanted. There was an open house that day at the Diocesan Vocations Office. I wasn’t interested in going – at all. And that day, the celebrant, who is now one of my brother priests, preached on vocations and made the point that living as a disciple meant that at some point we have to stop asking the question, “what do I want to do with my life?” and start asking, “what does God want me to do with my life?” And I knew that God wanted me to go to that open house that day, so I did. Four months later, I was in seminary.
What about you? Are you doing what God wants you to do with your life? Maybe your answer won’t require such a radical change as mine did. Maybe it means you renew your commitment to your family, your work, your life as a disciple. But if you’re a young person out there and have only been thinking about what’s going to make you successful and bring in lots of money so you can retire at age 35, maybe God is today asking you to stop thinking only of yourself and put your life’s work at the service of the Gospel. Maybe you’re being called on to be a teacher, or a police officer, or a health care professional. And maybe, just maybe, God is calling you to enter the priesthood or religious life. On this day of prayer for vocations, I’m just asking you to pray that God would make his plans for your life clear to you, and that you would promise God to do what he asks of you. I can tell you first hand that nothing, absolutely nothing, will give you a more abundant life.
Sphere: Related ContentFourth Sunday of Easter: World Day of Prayer for Vocations
Today’s brief Gospel reading begins with the wonderful line, “My sheep hear my voice.” However, I have two problems with that. First, who wants to be compared to sheep? Sheep are not the brightest of animals, and they must remain in their flock to defend themselves against even the most innocuous of predators. Second, how are the sheep, if that is how we are to be called, to hear the shepherd in this day and age? There are so many things that vie for our attention, that it would be easy to miss the call of the shepherd altogether.
So let’s look at these issues. First, many who raise and nurture sheep would perhaps disagree with my assessment that they aren’t very bright. I have been told that sheep do have the innate ability to hear their master’s voice, which helps them to survive. Add that to the fact that they also innately remain part of the flock, and we can see that sheep seem to know what it takes to survive. And maybe we don’t know that as well as we should. How often do we place a priority on being within earshot of our Master? How willing are we to remain part of the community in good times and in bad? Yet Jesus makes it clear today that this is the only way we can survive, the only way we can come at last to eternal life.
So what will it take to overcome my second objection? What will it take for us sheep to hear our Master’s voice? We who are so nervous about any kind of silence that we cannot enter a room without the television on as at least background noise. Or we who cannot go anywhere without our cell phones and/or iPods implanted firmly in our ears? Or we who cannot bear to enter into prayer without speaking all kinds of words and telling God how we want to live our lives? If even our prayer and worship are cluttered with all kinds of noise, how are we to hear the voice of our Shepherd who longs to gather us in and lead us to the Promise? Yet Jesus makes it clear today that entering into the silence and listening for his voice is the only way we can survive, the only way we can come at last to eternal life.
The real question, though, is this: how are we to hear the Shepherd’s voice if there are no shepherds to make it known? Today is the world day of prayer for vocations. And I want to talk about all vocations today, but in a special way, I want to talk about vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Because it is these vocations, and especially the priesthood, that are called upon to be the voice of Christ in today’s world. This is a special, and difficult challenge, and I know there are young people in this community that are being called to it. We hear in today’s Liturgy of the Word that this task is not always easy because it is not universally accepted, as Paul and Barnabas found out. But it is a task that brings multitudes of every nation, race, people and tongue to the great heavenly worship that is what they have been created for. People today need to hear the voice of the Shepherd, but who will be that voice when I retire? Who will be that voice when there aren’t enough priests in our diocese for every church to have one?
We know that every person has a vocation. Every person is called on by God to do something specific with their life that will bring not only them, but also others around them, to salvation. Parents help to bring their children to salvation by raising them in the faith. Teachers help bring students to salvation by educating them and helping them to develop their God-given talents. Business people bring others to salvation by living lives of integrity and witness to their faith by conducting business fairly and with justice and concern for the needy. The list goes on. Every vocation, every authentic vocation, calls the disciple to do what God created them for, and helps God to bring salvation to the whole world.
Six years ago on this very Sunday, I was struggling with my vocation. I knew that God was calling me to give up my comfortable life and go to seminary to study for the priesthood. But I did not want to go. I was already doing what I wanted to do with my life and thought it was going pretty well. But on some level, I knew that life as a disciple required me to do what God wanted, and not necessarily what I wanted. There was an open house that day at the Diocesan Vocations Office. I wasn’t interested and wasn’t going. And that day, the celebrant preached on vocations and made the point that living as a disciple meant that at some point we have to stop asking the question, “what do I want to do with my life?” and start asking, “what does God want me to do with my life?” And I knew that God wanted me to go to that open house that day, so I did. Four months later, I was in seminary.
What about you? Are you doing what God wants you to do with your life? Maybe your answer won’t require such a radical change as mine did. Maybe it means you renew your commitment to your family, your work, your life as a disciple. But if you’re a young person out there and have only been thinking about what’s going to make you successful and bring in lots of money so you can retire at age 35, maybe God is today asking you to stop thinking only of yourself and put your life’s work at the service of the Gospel. Maybe you’ll be called on to be a teacher, or a police officer, or a health care professional. And maybe, just maybe, God is calling you to enter the priesthood or religious life. On this day of prayer for vocations, I’m just asking you to pray that God would make his plans for your life clear to you, and that you would promise God to do what he asks of you. I can tell you first hand that nothing, absolutely nothing, will make you happier.
And so, let us pray:
Sphere: Related ContentFaithful God,
You sent your son, Jesus,
to be our Good Shepherd.
Through our baptism
you blessed us and called us
to follow Jesus who leads us
on the path of life.
Renew in us the desire to remain faithful
to our commitment to serve you and the Church.
Bless all who dedicate their lives to you
through marriage, the single life, the diaconate,
priesthood, and consecrated life.
Give insight to those
who are discerning their vocation.
Send us to proclaim the Good News
of Jesus, our Good Shepherd,
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Monday of the Second Week of Ordinary Time: The transforming power of vocations
The vocational call is a call that is not about me, not about you, but only about the God who makes the call. Just as the ancient high priests that the author of our first reading speaks about did not take that honor upon themselves, and just as even Jesus did not take that honor upon himself, so none of us takes up our own vocation. That is, none of us takes up our own vocation if our vocation is really authentic.
The thing about a vocation, whether it's a vocation to the priesthood, or to religious life, or to parenthood, or whatever our vocation may be, is that that vocation comes from the God who created us. Our vocation comes to us at our baptism, when we are called from our old sinful life to a new life of promise, re-created to be the people we were supposed to be in the first place. Our vocation is a gift, the gift by which we are able to work out our salvation and see God at work in us, enabling us to do things we could never do on our own.
Our vocation is not primarily about us, as I said at the beginning. Our vocation is given to us, along with our gifts and talents, so that we can go out into the world and transform it to a better place, so that we can make a difference, so that we can glorify God in everything that we do. We don't have to have a vocations crisis: all we have to do is for each of us to take up our vocation and live it faithfully, so that our world is all covered with the glory of God.
If we all would make this the goal of our lives, we would be like that new wine poured into the new wineskin of our world, making all the earth new with God's love and mercy.
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