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In
Search of the Spirit
A
monthly letter from the Glenmary Vocation Office
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May
2002
1,136
People Gather to Reflect on Church Vocations!
By
Father Steve Pawelk
That’s
right, 1,136 people from the United States, Canada and
Mexico gathered in Montreal April 18-21 to reflect on
vocations. That is more people than live in my hometown
of Maple Lake, Minn. These were bishops from all three
countries, religious and diocesan vocation directors,
formation directors, young religious under the age of
35, representatives of national Catholic organizations
like the Knights of Columbus and Serra Club as well as
over 130 young people. They all came to help design a
future for the Catholic church. What a wonderful time
of energy and hope.
Three
“calls” were sounded during this gathering that
give me a great deal of hope. I want to share these with
you. First, a call to holiness, a call for young people
today to be saints NOW. Regardless of what sins plague
the priesthood and our church, the people of God need
priests, sisters, brothers and lay ministers who will
be holy and saintly people. Today and tomorrow, as the
church goes through this time of purification, we need
others to come forward and follow Jesus as holy disciples
in service to all.
Second,
a call to listening – a call to open myself to many
cultural viewpoints so that new ways of being and doing
Church can be developed. Sister Marie Chin, RSM, invited
us to look at September 11 from the viewpoint of cultures.
What type of culture created the World Trade Center explosion
and what type of culture responded? How is the church
situated in relation to these cultures?
By
reverently listening to the many cultures that make up
the North American Church—Vietnamese, Mexican, Nigerian,
Colombian, Filipino, etc.—we can learn new ways of
being the Body of Christ in service to the world. We need
to be set free by the Holy Spirit and embrace a new world
rooted in Jesus and expressed in many ways through a variety
of cultural perspectives.
The
third call came from Father Gilles Routheir—a call
to mission, a call to look beyond self to the needs of
others. Father Routheir was critical of vocation efforts
that try to help the individual find his or her way to
personal growth and spiritual meaning. He boldly insisted
that, service is not a feel good kind of thing, but a
response to the needs of people of the world.
In
other words, the mission of Christ involves moving toward
the other rather than toward one's individual need. Father
Rautheir invited us to look at Amos, Jeremiah, Isaiah
and even Mary. None of them wanted to be called. All had
questions, are you sure it is me you want? Yet, they heard
the voice of God say, more or less, “I need you to
proclaim the good news. I need you to go on mission and
serve the lost, wounded and abandoned.” Mission is
based in need — not in self-fulfillment.
All
of these calls—to holiness, listening, mission—give
me hope for the future of the priesthood, brotherhood
and sisterhood in the United States. If you wish to read
more about this exciting Montreal gathering, I encourage
you to check out the talks and the papers of the young
delegates at www.vocations2002.org.
For
other issues of In Search of the Spirit
