2017 message for World Day of Prayer for Vocations
released
(Vatican Radio) The 2017 message for the World Day of Prayer
for Vocations was released Wednesday entitled, “Led by the Spirit for Mission”.
In the message for this 54th World Day of Prayer for
Vocations, the Pope reflects on the missionary dimension of our Christian
calling.
The Holy Father says that “commitment to mission is not
something added on to the Christian life as a kind of decoration, but is
instead an essential element of faith itself. A relationship with the
Lord,” he adds, “entails being sent out into the world as prophets of his word
and witnesses of his love.”
Even if at times when “we are conscious of our weaknesses
and tempted to discouragement”, Pope Francis underlines, “we need to turn
to God with confidence”, and he reiterates that, by "virtue of baptism,
every Christian is a “Christopher”, a bearer of Christ, to his brothers and
sisters."
In the message divided into three subtitles, the first being
“Jesus is anointed by the Spirit and sent”, the Holy Father explains that, “to
be a missionary disciple means to share actively in the mission of Christ.”
In the second heading, “Jesus is at our side every step of
the way”, Pope Francis describes how “the questions lurking in human hearts and
the real challenges of life can make us feel bewildered, inadequate and
hopeless.” But he goes on to say, “if we contemplate the risen Jesus
walking alongside the disciples of Emmaus we can be filled with new confidence."
In the third subtitle, “Jesus makes the seed grow", the
Pope says that, “it is important to let the Gospel teach us the way of
proclamation.” “The seed of the Kingdom”, he adds, “however tiny, unseen
and at times insignificant, silently continues to grow, thanks to God’s
tireless activity.”
Concluding his message the Holy Father underlines that,
“there can be no promotion of vocations or Christian mission apart from
constant contemplative prayer and he encourages this kind of profound
friendship with the Lord, “above all for the sake of imploring from on high new
vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life.”
The 2017 World Day of Prayer for Vocations will be
celebrated on May 7th.
Below find the English translation of the Message of His Holiness
Pope Francis 2017 World Day of Prayer for Vocations
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In the last few years, we have considered two aspects of the Christian
vocation: the summons to “go out from ourselves” to hear the Lord’s voice, and
the importance of the ecclesial community as the privileged place where God’s
call is born, nourished and expressed.
Now, on this 54th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, I would like to reflect on
the missionary dimension of our Christian calling. Those who drawn by
God’s voice and determined to follow Jesus soon discover within themselves an
irrepressible desire to bring the Good News to their brothers and sisters
through proclamation and the service of charity. All Christians are
called to be missionaries of the Gospel! As disciples, we do not receive
the gift of God’s love for our personal consolation, nor are we called to
promote ourselves, or a business concern. We are simply men and women
touched and transformed by the joy of God’s love, who cannot keep this
experience just to ourselves. For “the Gospel joy which enlivens the
community of disciples is a missionary joy (Evangelii Gaudium, 21).
Commitment to mission is not something added on to the Christian life as a kind
of decoration, but is instead an essential element of faith itself. A
relationship with the Lord entails being sent out into the world as prophets of
his word and witnesses of his love.
Even if at times we are conscious of our weaknesses and tempted to
discouragement, we need to turn with God with confidence. We must
overcome a sense of our own inadequacy and not yield to pessimism, which merely
turns us into passive spectators of a dreary and monotonous life. There
is no room for fear! God himself comes to cleanse our “unclean lips” and
equip us for the mission: “Your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted
out. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send and
who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I, send me’” (Is 6:6-8).
In the depths of their heart, all missionary disciples hear this divine voice
bidding them to “go about”, as Jesus did, “doing good and healing all” (cf.
Acts 10:38). I have mentioned that, by virtue of baptism, every Christian
is a “Christopher”, a bearer of Christ, to his brothers and sisters (cf.
Catechesis, 30 January 2016). This is particularly the case with those
called to a life of special consecration and with priests, who have generously
responded, “Here I am, Lord, send me!” With renewed missionary
enthusiasm, priests are called to go forth from the sacred precincts of the
temple and to let God’s tender love overflow for the sake of humanity (cf.
Homily at the Chrism Mass, 24 March 2016). The Church needs such priests:
serenely confident because they have discovered the true treasure, anxious to
go out and joyfully to make it known to all (cf. Mt 13:44).
Certainly many questions arise when we speak of the Christian mission.
What does it mean to be a missionary of the Gospel? Who gives us the
strength and courage to preach? What is the evangelical basis and
inspiration of mission? We can respond to these questions by meditating
on three scenes from the Gospels: the inauguration of Jesus’ mission in the synagogue
at Nazareth (cf. Lk 4:16-30); the journey that, after his resurrection, he
makes in the company of the disciples of Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-35) and, finally,
the parable of the sower and the seed (cf. Mt 4:26-27).
Jesus is anointed by the Spirit and sent. To be a missionary disciple
means to share actively in the mission of Christ. Jesus himself described
that mission in the synagogue of Nazareth in these words: “The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he has anointed to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the
blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s
favour” (Lk 4:18-19). This is also our mission: to be anointed by the
Spirit, and to go out to our brothers and sisters in order to proclaim the word
and to be for them a means of salvation.
Jesus is at our side every step of the way. The questions lurking in
human hearts and the real challenges of life can make us feel bewildered,
inadequate and hopeless. The Christian mission might appear to be mere
utopian illusion or at least something beyond our reach. Yet if we
contemplate the risen Jesus walking alongside the disciples of Emmaus (cf. Lk
24:13-15), we can be filled with new confidence. In that Gospel scene, we
have a true “liturgy of the street”, preceding that of the word and the
breaking of the bread. We see that, at every step of the way, Jesus is at
our side! The two disciples, overwhelmed by the scandal of the cross,
return home on the path of defeat. Their hearts are broken, their hopes
dashed and their dreams shattered. The joy of the Gospel has yielded to
sadness. What does Jesus do? He does not judge them, but walks with
them. Instead of raising a wall, he opens a breach. Gradually he
transforms their discouragement. He makes their hearts burn within them,
and he opens their eyes by proclaiming the word and breaking the bread.
In the same way, a Christian does not bear the burden of mission alone, but
realizes, even amid weariness and misunderstanding, that “Jesus walks with him,
speaks to him, breathes with him, works with him. He senses Jesus alive
with him in the midst of the missionary enterprise” (Evangelii Gaudium, 266).
Jesus makes the seed grow. Finally, it is important to let the Gospel
teach us the way of proclamation. At times, even with the best
intentions, we can indulge in a certain hunger for power, proselytism or
intolerant fanaticism. Yet the Gospel tells us to reject the idolatry of
power and success, undue concern for structures, and a kind of anxiety that has
more to do with the spirit of conquest than that of service. The seed of
the Kingdom, however tiny, unseen and at times insignificant, silently
continues to grow, thanks to God’s tireless activity. “The kingdom of God
is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep or rise
night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how” (Mk
4:26-27). This is our first reason for confidence: God surpasses all our
expectations and constantly surprises us by his generosity. He makes our
efforts bear fruit beyond all human calculation.
With this confidence born of the Gospel, we become open to the silent working
of the Spirit, which is the basis of mission. There can be no promotion
of vocations or Christian mission apart from constant contemplative
prayer. The Christian life needs to be nourished by attentive listening
to God’s word and, above all, by the cultivation of a personal relationship with
the Lord in Eucharistic adoration, the privileged “place” for our encounter
with God.
I wish heartily to encourage this kind of profound friendship with the Lord,
above all for the sake of imploring from on high new vocations to the priesthood
and the consecrated life. The People of God need to be guided by pastors
whose lives are spent in service to the Gospel. I ask parish communities,
associations and the many prayer groups present in the Church, not to yield to
discouragement but to continue praying that the Lord will send workers to his
harvest. May he give us priests enamoured of the Gospel, close to all
their brothers and sisters, living signs of God’s merciful love.
Dear brothers and sisters, today too, we can regain fervour in preaching the
Gospel and we can encourage young people in particular to take up the path of
Christian discipleship. Despite a widespread sense that the faith is
listless or reduced to mere “duties to discharge”, our young people desire to
discover the perennial attraction of Jesus, to be challenged by his words and
actions, and to cherish the ideal that he holds out of a life that is fully
human, happy to spend itself in love.
Mary Most Holy, the Mother of our Saviour, had the courage to embrace this
ideal, placing her youth and her enthusiasm in God’s hands. Through her
intercession, may we be granted that same openness of heart, that same
readiness to respond, “Here I am”, to the Lord’s call, and that same joy in
setting out (cf. Lk 1:39), like her, to proclaim him to the whole world.
From the Vatican, 27 November 2016
First Sunday of Advent
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