At several points in his message marking the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Benedict XVI alludes to sacrifice as a necessary part of responding to the call of Christ – a sacrifice that entails a willingness to face “every danger and even persecutions”.

The Pope reminds the faithful in the message on the theme “Vocations at the service of the Church on mission” that the Church is “missionary in herself and in each of her members” and that through the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, all are called to bear witness and to announce the Gospel.

But, he writes, those called to the ministerial priesthood are chosen to engage in this work “in a special and intimate way”. And the readiness to face danger and persecution must be accepted as an inescapable element of answering the call to this vocation. As the Pope notes, “a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master” (Matthew 10:24).

Whenever the subject of “lack of vocations” arises, the problem is, more often than not, pegged to celibacy. Hardly ever, it seems, is the matter considered in the light of the needs of the society in the present time and the need to encourage young and not-so-young men to be part of a Church that is called to renew the face of the earth.

The question that needs to be asked is what new responses is the Holy Spirit calling forth in the challenges of the present?

Riddles of human existence

The call to the priesthood and religious life has always been a serious and radical matter. It is, perhaps, so now more than ever. The Church requires men and women today as in the early Christian community “eager to remain faithful to the example of the teaching of Jesus” and ready to respond “in prudence and simplicity” to the challenges posed of an indifferent and non-believing society. 

Our local Church requires priests and men and women religious who are willing to work in sacrificial ways with our youth wherever they are in our hostile environment, leaders who will give the example of self-sacrifice rather than self-service.

It is not a job for those wishing to serve only from a position of comfort, and by their own power and their self-assessment of their own gifts and talents.

“You did not choose me, no I chose you: and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last,” says Jesus. “The world makes its choices in one way”, St Bonaventure wrote, “Christ in another.” As leaders of living communities priests and men and women religious stand in a unique position to build much needed solidarity in our nation.

But people everywhere are also seeking answers to the unsolved riddles of human existence. What is the purpose of human life? How is genuine happiness to be found? Why suffering and death? The priest and the religious are specially chosen to accompany fellow-sojourners in a quest for life’s meaning and purpose.

In this the Fourth Sunday of Easter, Jesus presents himself as the true shepherd of the flock and the gate of the sheepfold through which the sheep find safety. “I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full,” he says. He seeks willing and “close collaborators” in this mission.