Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there. Thanks to all who have sent me a Father’s Day card.
I like to give new life to old things. When we first got the parish house, there was an old, dilapidated greenhouse out back. It was made from a lot of those old single-pane windows that the U.S. Army gave away back in 1978 when the renovated the barracks on Ft. Rich. It looked to be about that old. The previous owners had been using it to store wood. Many of the panes were broken and the roof panels had holes. But the guts are good, so I decided to revive it. Why? Because I also like to grow tomatoes, and you can only grow tomatoes in Alaska in a greenhouse. I seem to be fairly good at it.
The project is taking longer than I had hoped, mainly because I can’t find a contractor willing to pour the footer and slab I need. Too small a project I guess. Nevertheless, by summer’s end, I am determined that it will be complete. I may have to get creative.
This may seem like a lot of work just for a few dozen tomatoes, and it is. But to me, it’s worth it. There’s just something special about planting the seeds, watching them grow, and harvesting the fruits in due time.
I think that is a lot like what is going on in today’s gospel as Jesus gives the Twelve a pep talk before sending them out. They have been with him for a while. Now it is time to send them on a little mission so they can grow in their faith and confidence as his disciples. Notice he gives them authority and sends them out to do exactly what he has been doing: proclaiming the Kingdom, healing the sick, casting out demons. Cool.
As a parish family, we are called to do the same thing. Within the believing community, we plant the seeds of faith, we help each other discern the gifts that we have been given, we call those gifts forth, train to give competence, give authority to use those gifts in the various parish ministries that serve the parish and the community around us, and then we have a big party every Sunday and at the end of the year to give thanks to God and to each other for the gifts of time, talent, and treasure that have helped our little part of the Kingdom to bear fruit.
From time to time, we also call forth young men and women to serve the Church as holy priests, deacons and consecrated religious. It is essential that we do so to fulfill our mission.
I’d like to concentrate on the way that we call young men to the Holy Priesthood for a moment, because this is the most pressing need at present.
Where do vocations to the priesthood come from? What are the conditions in which the seeds of a vocation can thrive and grow?
1. Prayer. As individuals and as a parish family we need to pray for vocations.
They did a study a few years ago on the parishes that seemed to be hotbeds of vocations to see what they had in common. Their findings were interesting. Demographics did not matter. It did not matter whether the parish was wealthy or poor, culturally or ethnically homogenous or diverse, urban or rural.
The only common denominator in parishes that produced lots of vocations to the priesthood was…
…regular Eucharistic adoration.
2. So, we need to pray for vocations, and we need to encourage vocations…but where? How?
a. At home – especially fathers
Mom and Dad, you want your sons to be happy. You want what’s best for them. Dad’s, you have a special role in that.
If Christ is calling them to priesthood, what a blessing if you support that.
Let me tell you what I mean. When I was 24, I had been working as a program manager for Junior Achievement, but in the background I had been discerning a vocation to the priesthood. There was no small amount of inner turmoil and self-doubt.
One of my main concerns was how to tell my dad.
You want your dad to be proud of you. I wasn’t sure how he would react. So I scripted out every argument in my head:
“If he says, this, I will counter with that. If he says that, I will counter with this.” Eventually, I had it all worked out in my head. All I needed was the right opportunity.
I did not have to wait long. A week or two later, my dad calls me up and said, “Hey, your mother is out of town this week, why don’t you come on by for dinner.”
Thank you, Holy Spirit.
We had a great dinner grilling steaks and eating huge football-sized baked potatoes.
Then he says, “Hey, why don’t we have some brandy and cigars out in the living room.”
Hey, cool! We never got to have cigars in the living room when Mom was home. So, there we sat chatting away with our brandy and cigars, with a big fire going in the fireplace.
So I said to myself, “Self! No time like the present.”
But before I could say anything, my dad looks at me and says, “Leo, you’ve been working that job at JA for some a couple of years now, and we both know that’s not what you are going to be doing forever. So I ask you, what are you thinking of doing with your life?”
Gee, thank you Holy Spirit.
I paused for a moment and then said to him, “Well, Dad, to be honest, I think I want to become a priest.”
He paused for a moment, had a sip of brandy and took a puff off his cigar, looked me right in the eye, and then said,
“Well…be a good one.”
To this day, that is the best gift I have ever received from my father.
b. We encourage vocations at home, we also need to encourage vocations as a parish family.
The early Church did not have a shortage of vocations crisis. Why? Because it was the parish that called them forth from the congregation.
Your vocation was not primarily some inner prompting from the Holy Spirit. It came from the people around you.
The community gathered, prayed, and then discerned who among them had the gifts necessary and then called them forth for ministry.
It’s interesting to note that the premise of John Chrysostom’s great treatise on the Holy Priesthood is that he and his friend Bartholomeus are hiding, because they have been called by the local church to be priests. The tract takes the form of a Greek dialogue where John is convincing his friend that he needs to come out of hiding and embrace his vocation.
I makes me wonder…what would happen if we did something similar here…
We are not at that point, but I will say that if you see a young man in the parish who you think has the gifts, take him aside and say to him, “You know, I see the gifts in you that would make a good priest. Have you thought about it? Please do. I’m going to be praying for you.
I guarantee you, if you can see it, they have been thinking about it.
And it might not be who you would expect at first glance.
We all have a role to play. We all have gifts to offer to further the spread of the Gospel and the salvation of souls here in 99504. As a parish family, one of the best things we do is plant the seeds of faith, water them with our prayers and faith. It’s up to the Holy Trinity to take it from there.
We plant the seeds, the Father gives the growth, the Son gives the commission, the Spirit gives power of God’s love. This is how we yield an abundant harvest.