 |
The World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which will be
celebrated in the joyful atmosphere of the Easter festivities,
especially joyful because of the Jubilee celebrations, gives me the
opportunity to reflect, together with you, on the gift of the divine
call, sharing your care for vocations to the ordained ministry and to
the consecrated life. The theme that I intend to propose to you this
year is one in harmony with the event of the Great Jubilee. I would like
to meditate with you on: The Eucharist, source of all vocations and
ministries in the Church. Is not perhaps the Eucharist the mystery of
Christ, living and working in history? From the Eucharist, Jesus
continues to call people to follow Him, and to offer everyone the
"fullness of time." "In the fullness of time, God sent His Son, born
of a woman" (Gal 4,4) "The fullness of time coincides with the mystery
of the Incarnation of the Word … and with the
 mystery of the Redemption
of the world" (Tertio millennio adveniente, 1): in the Son, who is of
one being with the Father and was made man in the womb of the Virgin,
the awaited "time" has its beginning and end, the time of grace and
mercy, the time of salvation and reconciliation.
Christ reveals the plan of God for all of creation and, in particular,
for man. He "fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme
calling clear," (Gaudium et Spes, 22) a calling which is hidden in the
heart of Him who is Eternal. The mystery of the incarnate Word will be
fully revealed only when every man and every woman will be fulfilled in
Him, sons in the Son, members of His mystical Body, which is the Church.
The Jubilee, and this one in particular, celebrating 2000 years of the
coming in time of the Son of God and the mystery of redemption, enjoins
all believers to consider their own personal vocation, to complete in
their lives what is lacking in the passion of the Son, for the sake of
His body, which is the Church. (cf. Col 1,24)
"When He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed and
broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they
recognized Him; and He vanished out of their sight. They said to each
other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the
road, while He opened to us the Scriptures?'" (Lk 24, 30-32)
The Eucharist constitutes the culminating moment in which Jesus, in
His Body given for us and in His Blood poured out for our salvation,
reveals the mystery of His identity and indicates the sense of the
vocation of every believer. In fact, the meaning of human life is
totally contained in that Body and in that Blood, since from them life
and salvation have come to us. In some ways, the very existence of the
human person must be identified with them, so that this existence is
fulfilled in so far as it can, in its turn, make of itself a gift for
others.
 In the Eucharist all this is mysteriously signified in the signs of
bread and wine, the memorial of the Passover of the Lord: the believer
who is nourished by that Body given for him and with that Blood poured
out for him, receives the power to transform himself, in turn, into
gift. As Saint Augustine says, "Be what you receive and receive what you
are." (Discourse 272, 1: On Pentecost)
In their encounter with the Eucharist, some men discover that they are
called to become ministers of the Altar, other people, that they are
called to contemplate the beauty and depth of this mystery, others that
they are called to pour out again its impelling force of love on the
poor and weak, and others again that they are called to grasp its
transforming power in the realities and gestures of everyday life. Each
believer finds in the Eucharist not only the interpretative key of his
or her own existence, but the courage to actualize it, indeed to build
up, in the diversity of charisms and vocations, the one Body of Christ
in history.
In the account of the disciples of Emmaus (Lk 24, 13-35), Saint Luke
lets us glimpse what happens in the life of the person who lives the
Eucharist. When "in the breaking of bread," done by the "stranger," the
eyes of the disciples are opened, they realize that their hearts were
burning in their breasts while they were listening to Him explaining the
Scriptures. In those hearts that burn we can see the history and the
discovery of every vocation, which is not a transient emotion, but an
ever more certain and strong recognition that the Eucharist and Passover
of the Son must become ever more the Eucharist and Passover of His
disciples.
"I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the
Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one." (1 Jn 2,
14)
The mystery of the love of God, "hidden for ages and generations,"
(Col 1, 26) is now revealed to us in the "word of the Cross," (1 Cor 1,
18) which, abiding in you, dearest young people, will be your strength
and your light, and will unveil to you the mystery of your personal
call. I know your doubts and your efforts, I see you lost at times, I
understand the fear that assails you about the future. But yet, I have
in my mind and in my heart the joyous image of the many encounters with
you on my apostolic Journeys, in the course of which I have been able to
verify the sincere search for truth and love that abides in each one of
you.
The Lord Jesus has pitched His tent among us and, from this His
Eucharistic dwelling, He repeats to each man and each woman, "Come to
me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I shall give you rest."
(Mt 11, 28)
Dear young people, go to meet Jesus the Saviour! Love Him and adore Him
in the Eucharist! He is present in the Holy Mass, that makes
sacramentally present the sacrifice of the Cross. He comes into us in
Holy Communion and remains in the tabernacles of our churches, because
He is our friend, the friend of all, especially of you young people, who
are so much in need of confidence and love. You are able to draw from
Him the courage to be His apostles in this particular period of time:
the twenty-first century will be how you young people will want it to be
and will make it. After so much violence and oppression, the world needs
young people capable of "building bridges" to unite and reconcile; after
the culture of man without vocation, men and women are needed who
believe in life and accept it as a call that comes from Above, from the
God who calls, since He loves; after the atmosphere of suspicion and
distrust, which poisons human relationships, only courageous young
people, with minds and hearts open to high and generous ideals, will be
able to restore beauty and truth to life and to human relationships.
Then this Jubilee time will truly be for all a "year of the Lord's
grace," a Jubilee of vocation.
"I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from
the beginning." (1 Jn 2, 13)
 Every vocation is a gift of the Father and, like all gifts which come
from God, arrives through many human mediations: that of parents or
teachers, of pastors of the Church, of people who are directly engaged
in a ministry of vocations' animation, or that of the simple believer. I
would like, with this message, to address myself to all these categories
of persons, to whom the discovery and support of the divine call is
linked. I am aware that the pastoral care of vocations constitutes a
less than easy ministry, but how can one not remember that there is
nothing more uplifting than an enthusiastic witnessing to one's own
vocation? He who lives this gift joyfully and nourishes it daily in his
encounter with the Eucharist will know how to sow in the hearts of many
young people the good seed of faithful adherence to the divine call. It
is in the Eucharistic presence that Jesus reaches us, places us within
the dynamism of ecclesial communion and makes us prophetic signs for the
world.
I would like, here, to direct an affectionate and grateful thought to
all those animators of vocations, priests, religious brothers and
sisters, and lay people who give of themse lves generously and with
enthusiasm in this arduous ministry. Do not let yourselves be
discouraged by the difficulties - have trust! The seed of the divine
call, when it is planted with generosity, will yield abundant fruit.
Faced with the grave crisis of vocations to the ordained ministry and to
the consecrated life that pervades some regions of the world, it is
necessary, above all in this Jubilee of the Year 2000, to labor so that
every priest, every consecrated person, rediscovers the beauty of their
own vocation and witnesses it to others. Let every believer become an
educator of vocations, without fearing to propose radical choices; let
every community understand the centrality of the Eucharist and the
necessity for ministers of the Eucharistic Sacrifice; let the whole
People of God raise an ever more intense and impassioned prayer to the
Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest. And let them
entrust this prayer to the intercession of her who is the Mother of the
eternal Priest.
Prayer
 Virgin Mary, humble daughter
of the Most High,
in you the mystery of the divine call
was fulfilled in a marvelous way.
You are the image of what God accomplishes
in those who entrust themselves to Him;
in you the freedom of the Creator
raised up the freedom of the creature.
He who was born in your womb
has joined in one single will the salvific freedom of God
and the obedient assent of man.
Thanks to you, the call of God
is definitively joined with the response of the man-God.
First-fruits of a new life,
you keep for us all the generous "Yes" of joy and love.
Holy Mary, Mother of all who are called,
make all believers have the strength
to answer the divine call with generous courage,
and let them be joyful witnesses of love toward God
and toward their neighbour.
Young daughter of Sion, Star of the morning,
who guide the steps of humanity
through the Great Jubilee toward the future,
direct the young people of the new millennium
toward Him who is "the true light which enlightens all men." (Jn 1,9)
Amen!
From the Vatican, 30th September 1999 |
