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 50th
anniversary 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’" (Rom
4:18). 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
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