For, God in His infinite wisdom, knowing better than us, in spite of what we might think, helped us to realize that some would be better as priests, some as deacons, some as nuns or religious, some as single or married, and that within those vocations themselves we would be given the graces and the support we would need to live lives of sanctification and to live as God wanted us to live.
This is why today is not just the 4th Sunday of Easter, it is also known as World Day of Prayer for Vocations as well as Good Shepherd Sunday, tying the vocation of the diaconate, priesthood and religious life to that universal vocation of us all, so that our prayers strengthen, affirm, and reinforce every vocation, every way in which God has called us to Himself.
Because, all vocations are necessary and all vocations, especially in this day and age, are in need of our prayers. In fact, we need only turn on a TV or read a news article to see that our universal call has been suffering a lot lately, and that the voice of God calling us forward is being ignored, drowned out or replaced by another more enticing voice.
That is why while it may seem a bit strange for Jesus to equate us with sheep in our Gospel today, it helps us to understand the importance of this same voice that refuses to be heard and the important bond that a sheep and shepherd share. In fact, there is a little known fact that the relationship between a sheep and a shepherd is very unique, so unique that the sheep only knows and responds to the shepherd’s voice. If another shepherd tried calling that sheep forward, it wouldn’t respond, similarly, if anyone, other than the shepherd himself, tried walking in the midst of a herd that is not his own, there would be much havoc. That is why Jesus says: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
Throughout our lives, we hear many voices, of friends, family, and foes, and those voices become easy to discern, however, sometimes in the silence or even chaos of our lives, we hear another voice, a voice of one calling in the middle of that silence and above the chaos, it is the voice of God. And, in that call we are given an opportunity to discern where our lives are going and whether we want to respond to what it is that God is asking of us.
Each vocation fulfills a purpose in the Divine Will of God, and each call, unique to our individual lives, so that the more responsive we are to God, the more He will call us closer to Himself.
That is why the Church sees the necessity, on this day, to dedicate this Sunday for such a special purpose because, we are in a time right now where vocations are just not being heeded, not just to the priesthood and religious life, but all vocations, and while this day is particularly dedicated to praying for an increase in vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and religious life, each vocation fulfills the other, so that without vocations like yours, a religious vocation like mine or Fr. Julio’s or any priest, for that matter, suffers.
That is why while we hear so often about a vocation crisis, the crisis isn’t in vocations, its in listening and in heeding the voice of God. For, that voice, I would imagine, is growing hoarse in trying to call people to live the lives that He has called them to, but He can only do so much.
That is why to know Him we must listen to Him, and to listen to Him we must spend time with Him, otherwise, we can never know His voice. The difficulty, however, if we are honest, is that we spend so much time filling our lives with noise and distractions, the miracle is that His voice, indeed, can even be heard.
Yet, it was Mother Teresa who put it well, she said: “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence, she says, to be able to touch souls.”
Because, it is in the silence where we find our vocation, that silence we can find in our lives, that silence we find before this tabernacle, when it is simply us and God, and no one or nothing else, because then we can hear the whisper, then we can hear the cry, then we can hear the bellow of the Father.
When we hear that voice, when we heed His call, it is then that we find our path to holiness, it is then when we hear and understand that our vocation is not always what we want, but, indeed, what God wants, because He knows that this is the path to Him, that this is the way to become a saint, and this is the way that our will truly does becomes His.
And, that is what a vocation is, it is heeding that voice of the Shepherd, it is listening and desiring to always do the Will of God, not because we always understand it, not because it is always easy, but because it helps us to see the hand of God in our lives.
And, that hand, indeed, knows what He is doing, with that hand the Father created, shaped and formed us, and with that hand He, in turn, gave us to Jesus, and, put us in His care.
That is why He can raise us up or lower us, He can let us go, or hold us closer to Himself, it is our decision. For, though no one can take us out of His hand, we can take ourselves out. And, if we do leave, those hands will still be open, reaching out to us, signaling us to come forward, to renew our promise, so that we can live the promises that God has assured us of.
However, if we want the perfect example of how to live that vocation by always be responsive to what God wants in our lives, we need only look to Mary, because Mary shows us what it means to hear that voice, what it means to heed that voice. In fact, it is said that when a child is in the womb of his mother, he comes to recognize her voice, to the point that when he is born he finds comfort and joy in her voice.
We, too, should experience the same, heeding always the voice of God, and listening and finding comfort in His Mother, knowing that we are born as His children and that His Mother, like ours, will lead us safely home, if we listen to her voice, if we heed her Son, knowing that by doing so, in the end, His hand will be reaching out for us bring us closer to Himself.
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