Exiit qui seminat - Called To Be Holy
Bishop Sullivan will be celebrating Mass and preaching this Sunday at Christ the Good Shepherd about the importance of vocations, and in particular a vocation to the diocesan priesthood. Vocation comes from the Latin vocare which means "to call". In a world that is filled with so many distractions and so much noise, the Lord still quietly calls out to His sons and daughters to follow Him - some as priests, others as religious, others still as married and single persons. In a special way, we are called to remember that the priesthood of Jesus Christ, lived out in the lives of His unworthy servants (priests ordained through Holy Orders), give us unfettered access to the life of faith and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. That's why we're constantly praying for priests - because we need them!
At the same time, we are called to pray for ourselves and our own vocation. That vocation has two aspects to it. The first is a general vocation that is shared not just by the baptized, but every person on earth. All of us, regardless of our state in life and our relationship with God, are called to be holy. St. Thomas Aquinas stated that it is the desire of the human heart moves toward and longs for the good per se, a thing that is goodness itself or the greatest good. And of course, for us, that greatest good is God. Pope St. John Paul II called it our universal call to holiness. It is a holiness that the world desperately needed in the ever increasingly secular world that we find ourselves. Holiness is not just something that one does for one's own benefit. For even though we strive as individuals to get to heaven, we are also called to get to heaven as a group, as a Church.
Now HOW that holiness is manifested is unique to each of us. Regardless of what that vocation is or whether we are called to single or married life, or to a religious vocation or to the priesthood, the Lord gives us the grace and gifts to speak the Word of God using our own unique "accents". It's impossible for the word to be changed. It is immutable, unchanging and eternal. But God has a truly special and unique way that He longs to use us. He waits patiently for us to open up our hearts to Him so that He can dwell there. And while there is a particular need for good and holy priests in our diocese and elsewhere, there is also a particular need for good and holy religious, good and holy married couples, as well as good and holy single people. "Holiness is the greatest testimony of the dignity conferred on a disciple of Christ ... It is possible to say that this call to holiness is precisely the basic charge entrusted to all the sons and daughters of the Church by a Council which intended to bring a renewal of Christian life based on the gospel" ( Christifideles laici Pope St. John Paul II). Let us pray that we live out that basic charge entrusted to us and give witness to the world of what it truly means to be a disciple of Christ and a witness to the Gospel.
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Fr. Rob Sinatra
