World Day of Prayer for Vocations April 20, 2012
Pope Benedict XVI
The source of every perfect gift is God who is Love - Deus caritas est: "Whoever
remains in love remains in God and God in him" (1 Jn 4:16). Sacred Scripture tells
the story of this original bond between God and man, which precedes creation
itself. Writing to the Christians of the city of Ephesus ,
Saint Paul
raises a hymn of gratitude and praise to the Father who, with infinite
benevolence, in the course of the centuries accomplishes his universal plan of
salvation, which is a plan of love. In his Son Jesus - Paul states -
"he chose us, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without
blemish before him in love" (Eph 1:4).
We are loved by God even "before" we come into existence!
Moved solely by his unconditional love, he created us "not ... out
of existing things" (cf. 2 Macc 7:28), to bring us into full communion
with Him.
In great wonderment before the work of God's providence,
the Psalmist exclaims: "When I see the heavens, the work of your
hands, the moon and the stars which you arranged, what is man that you should
keep him in mind, mortal man that you care for him?"(Ps 8:3-4). The profound truth of
our existence is thus contained in this surprising mystery: every creature, and
in particular every human person, is the fruit of God's thought and an
act of his love, a love that is boundless, faithful and everlasting (cf. Jer 31:3). The discovery of this
reality is what truly and profoundly changes our lives. In a famous page
of the Confessions, Saint
Augustine expresses with great force his discovery of God, supreme beauty and
supreme love, a God who was always close to him, and to whom he at last opened
his mind and heart to be transformed: "Late have I loved you, O Beauty
ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I
was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I
plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was
not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been
in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you
broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my
blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I
pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You
touched me, and I burned for your peace." (X, 27.38). With these
images, the Saint of Hippo seeks to describe the ineffable mystery of his
encounter with God, with God's love that transforms all of life.
It is a love that is limitless and that precedes us,
sustains us and calls us along the path of life, a love rooted in an absolutely
free gift of God. Speaking particularly of the ministerial priesthood, my
predecessor, Blessed John Paul II, stated that "every ministerial action -
while it leads to loving and serving the Church - provides an incentive to grow
in ever greater love and service of Jesus Christ the head, shepherd and spouse
of the Church, a love which is always a response to the free and unsolicited
love of God in Christ" (Pastores Dabo Vobis, 25). Every specific
vocation is in fact born of the initiative of God; it is a gift of the Love of God!
He is the One who takes the "first step", and not because he
has found something good in us, but because of the presence of his own love
"poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit" (Rom 5:5).
In every age, the source of the divine call is to be
found in the initiative of the infinite love of God, who reveals himself fully
in Jesus Christ. As I wrote in my first Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, "God is
indeed visible in a number of ways. In the love-story recounted by the
Bible, he comes towards us, he seeks to win our hearts, all the way to the Last
Supper, to the piercing of his heart on the Cross, to his appearances after the
Resurrection and to the great deeds by which, through the activity of the
Apostles, he guided the nascent Church along its path. Nor has the Lord been
absent from subsequent Church history: he encounters us ever anew, in the men
and women who reflect his presence, in his word, in the sacraments, and
especially in the Eucharist" (No. 17).
The love of God is everlasting; he is faithful to
himself, to the "word that he commanded for a thousand generations" (Ps105:8).
Yet the appealing beauty of this divine love, which precedes and
accompanies us, needs to be proclaimed ever anew, especially to younger
generations. This divine love is the hidden impulse, the motivation which
never fails, even in the most difficult circumstances.
Dear brothers and sisters, we need to open our lives to
this love. It is to the perfection of the Father's love (cf. Mt 5:48) that Jesus Christ calls us every
day! The high standard of the Christian life consists in loving
"as" God loves; with a love that is shown in the total, faithful and
fruitful gift of self. Saint John of the Cross, writing to the Prioress
of the Monastery of Segovia who was pained by the terrible circumstances
surrounding his suspension, responded by urging her to act as God does:
"Think nothing else but that God ordains all, and where there is no love,
put love, and there you will draw out love" (Letters, 26).
It is in this soil of self-offering and openness to the
love of God, and as the fruit of that love, that all vocations are born and
grow. By drawing from this wellspring through prayer, constant recourse
to God's word and to the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, it becomes
possible to live a life of love for our neighbours, in whom we come to perceive
the face of Christ the Lord (cf. Mt 25:31-46). To express the inseparable
bond that links these "two loves" - love of God and love of neighbour
- both of which flow from the same divine source and return to it, Pope Saint
Gregory the Great uses the metaphor of the seedling: "In the soil of our
heart God first planted the root of love for him; from this, like the leaf,
sprouts love for one another." (Moralium Libri, sive expositio in Librum B. Job, Lib. VII, Ch.
24, 28; PL 75, 780D).
These two expressions of the one divine love must be
lived with a particular intensity and purity of heart by those who have decided
to set out on the path of vocation discernment towards the ministerial
priesthood and the consecrated life; they are its distinguishing mark.
Love of God, which priests and consecrated persons are called to mirror,
however imperfectly, is the motivation for answering the Lord's call to special
consecration through priestly ordination or the profession of the evangelical
counsels. Saint Peter's vehement reply to the Divine Master: "Yes,
Lord, you know that I love you" (Jn 21:15)
contains the secret of a life fully given and lived out, and thus one which is
deeply joyful.
The other practical expression of love, that towards our
neighbour, and especially those who suffer and are in greatest need, is the
decisive impulse that leads the priest and the consecrated person to be a
builder of communion between people and a sower of hope. The relationship
of consecrated persons, and especially of the priest, to the Christian
community is vital and becomes a fundamental dimension of their affectivity.
The Curé of Ars was fond of saying: "Priests are not priests for
themselves, but for you" (Le cure d'Ars. Sa pensée - Son
cœur, Foi Vivante, 1966, p. 100).
Dear brother bishops, dear priests, deacons, consecrated
men and women, catechists, pastoral workers and all of you who are engaged in
the field of educating young people: I fervently exhort you to pay close
attention to those members of parish communities, associations and ecclesial
movements who sense a call to the priesthood or to a special consecration. It
is important for the Church to create the conditions that will permit many
young people to say "yes" in generous response to God's loving call.
The task of fostering vocations will be to provide
helpful guidance and direction along the way. Central to this should be love of
God's word nourished by a growing familiarity with sacred Scripture, and
attentive and unceasing prayer, both personal and in community; this will make
it possible to hear God's call amid all the voices of daily life. But
above all, the Eucharist should be the heart of every vocational journey: it is
here that the love of God touches us in Christ's sacrifice, the perfect
expression of love, and it is here that we learn ever anew how to live
according to the "high standard" of God's love. Scripture,
prayer and the Eucharist are the precious treasure enabling us to grasp the
beauty of a life spent fully in service of the Kingdom.
It is my hope that the local Churches and all the various
groups within them, will become places where vocations are carefully discerned
and their authenticity tested, places where young men and women are offered
wise and strong spiritual direction. In this way, the Christian community
itself becomes a manifestation of the Love of God in which every calling is
contained. As a response to the demands of the new commandment of Jesus,
this can find eloquent and particular realization in Christian families, whose
love is an expression of the love of Christ who gave himself for his Church
(cf. Eph5:32).
Within the family, "a community of life and love" (Gaudium
et Spes, 48), young people can have a wonderful experience of this
self-giving love. Indeed, families are not only the privileged place for
human and Christian formation; they can also be "the primary and most
excellent seed-bed of vocations to a life of consecration to the Kingdom of God " (Familiaris Consortio,
53), by helping their members to see, precisely within the family, the beauty
and the importance of the priesthood and the consecrated life. May
pastors and all the lay faithful always cooperate so that in the Church these
"homes and schools of communion" may multiply, modelled on the Holy
Family of Nazareth, the harmonious reflection on earth of the life of the Most
Holy Trinity.
With this prayerful hope, I cordially impart my Apostolic
Blessing to all of you: my brother bishops, priests, deacons, religious men and
women and all lay faithful, and especially those young men and women who strive
to listen with a docile heart to God's voice and are ready to respond
generously and faithfully.
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