Our Seattle priory is in turmoil this morning as we await the visit of our novitiate class. We don’t have guest rooms to accommodate twelve novices and the novice master, but this is a happy problem. Our Dominican Province has almost a quarter of its entire membership in formation. Not only are we holding our own, we are growing: this September, fourteen young men are entering our Province. By summer 2001, we may be scrambling to provide accommodations for fifteen.
In our Church, where many bemoan the lack of vocations to the ministerial priesthood and religious life, several ideas have arisen to account for the shortage. I have even heard people opine that the Holy Spirit is deliberately withholding priestly vocations in order that the laity be given more responsibility in the Church. But could the overall crisis of vocation in the Church mean that the Holy Spirit is withholding religious vocations in deference to the laity? I do not think that God would leave his people bereft of the sacraments to prove a point! In my opinion, the single most important reason for the lack of religious vocations is that discernment has not been properly encouraged in parishes.
The parish looms so large in the spiritual life of a Catholic that if something is not presented in the parish, it’s not presented at all. Diocesan programs will not reach the faithful unless promulgated in each parish. No document of the Church will be read unless it’s likewise made available. And no call for vocations will be heard until each parish addresses the crisis of vocation in the Church. How, then, can parishes foster the discernment of vocation?
As our first consideration, we must remember that the Church is the measure of society and that what happens in the Church reflects what is happening in society at large. We see evidence of this everywhere. Individuals have lost confidence in the sacredness of their person and of their singular contributions for the sake of humanity. Alienation in the contemporary world is a recurring theme, one that is exacerbated by economic concerns and the now-ubiquitous tendency to view every human initiative in light of its market value. Father Timothy Radcliffe, the Master of the Dominican Order, has recently written that, while every society has had a market, ours is the first society to be a market. Everything and everyone is regarded as a commodity. To counter this trend, the Church can offer not only Catholics, but all of society, the revelation of what it means to be called by God. It is the Church which is best suited to address these issues. For it holds the revelation of the sacred nature of the human person and can offer that person the place where they can discern God’s purpose for them.
Every man and woman has been called into existence by God himself and has a specific destiny; each must discern and act according to that destiny to achieve the happiness that awaits. Each Christian man and woman has been further called to unique participation in the work of Christ himself and divinely gifted for the sake of that work. All Christians receive an apostolic call and an apostolic dignity, begging the questions in each of us: “To whom has Christ sent me? What would he have me do? How has he gifted me for the sake of that mission?”
No one can answer these questions alone. To discern requires a human conversation. St. John of the Cross warns us to distrust even supernatural revelation unless it is confirmed in a completely human way. He writes:
“God is so pleased that the rule and direction of humans be through other humans and that a person be governed by natural reason that he definitely does not want us to bestow entire credence on his supernatural communications, or be confirmed in their strength and security, until they pass through this human channel of the mouth of another human person. As often as he reveals something to individuals, he confers on them a kind of inclination to manifest this to the appropriate person. Until people do this they usually go without complete satisfaction, for they have not received this knowledge from another human like themselves.” (The Ascent of Mount Carmel, II, 22, 9)
When it comes to discerning call and vocation, individuals ought to find in their own parish the first and chief place to “be confirmed in their strength and security.” How can the parish truly become such a venue? Firstly, vocation must be preached and taught. The Sunday homily offers a primary opportunity for presenting personal vocation, just as the Sunday liturgy is the first venue for celebrating the many vocations of individual parishioners. I have made vocation a criterion for my own preaching to the extent that, if a homily is not useful for the sake of helping others to discern and live their call, I consider it an utter failure and a waste of time.
In a parish where vocation is preached, taught and celebrated, other initiatives will then make sense. The Called and Gifted program, offered by our Institute, thrives in parishes that value the role of each member in the apostolic mission of the Church. In such an environment, vocations to the priesthood and to the religious life are considered ordinary expressions of the Catholic faith, not as extraordinary or heroic. A personal experience comes to mind: some years ago, I invited parishioners interested in religious vocations to attend regular instructional meetings. Eight young men and four young women showed up initially. Each had already explored the question of religious life and four had approached vocational directors of religious communities; only one had ever attended a diocesan meeting about vocations. All were delighted, however, to meet in the relative security of their own parish. I assigned readings: the documents on priesthood and the religious life from Vatican II and passages from John Paul II, including his personal reflections upon the priesthood. We also discussed the charisms of the different Orders and spoke of the lay apostolate. And we talked about the following of Christ and our common apostolic vocation. I asked that each of them pray for the others while individuals in the parish prayed, too. The discernment of these twelve spilled over into mainstream parish life via discussions, support and encouragement.
Of the original twelve, seven have entered seminaries and novitiates. Granted seven is no great number. But if every parish in the United States (there are 22,000) were sending just three candidates into seminaries and houses of formation every year, we would have a staggering 66,000 candidates annually entering religious life or preparing for ordination.
The best reason for insisting upon the involvement of the parish for discerning vocations is, finally, the admonition of Jesus to his disciples (and therefore to each one of us), “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you…” (John 15:16). Intimate to our vocation is being chosen, not simply choosing what to do in response to God. The vocation we’ve received is decisively communicated to us only when the Christian community calls us to live our true vocation. This is true for each member of a parish and therefore, for those who are discerning ordination or religious life.
The parish can actively call upon its members to exercise any of their charisms, just as the parish can call upon certain of its members to discern priestly or religious vocations. Even as Christ has entrusted his work of redemption to his Church, so he has entrusted the discernment of God’s call to his people. The men and women who might be called to the service of the Christian community through ordination or through religious life need more than active encouragement of fellow Christians. They need to experience the call of Christ enacted in real examples in their parish communities. Even as Christ has entrusted his work of redemption to his Church, so he has entrusted the discernment of God’s call to his people.