Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

We begin today’s homily with a short message from the Archbishop:

“Dear friends, this weekend we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday, when the

Church prays especially for vocations to the priesthood. I want to ask you to

join me in praying today that all those whom Our Lord is calling will respond

with courage and generosity to his invitation to serve their brothers and sisters

as priests in our Archdiocese. If you feel that the Good Shepherd might indeed

be calling you – and if you are 18 or over – I would ask you to write to me

directly at archbishop@rcaob.org.uk. I shall be happy to meet you, with our

Vocations Director, Fr Craig Szmidt, and to hear your story as you try to

discern what the Lord is asking of you today and in the years ahead. Please

pray for me and for all our priests. With my prayers and kindest wishes,

Bernard Longley.”

Yes, the priesthood isn’t like any other job or career, where you look at your

own talents and qualifications, and if you seem to fit the requirements, then you

apply in the hope of being accepted. And it’s not like any other job or career,

where you remain in control, and when you see fit, you can change and do

something else. There could be someone whom people might think would

make an excellent priest. He could have all sorts of different gifts and talents,

but if he’s not being called by the Lord, then he shouldn’t be ordained. But –

sometimes someone might be called and not realise it. Others might realise

first. That was probably my own situation, where others suggested the idea to

me and I didn’t think it was for me, and I went on a vocation discernment

retreat in part as a way of being able to say to people that I had seriously looked

into it, and it wasn’t for me. But I was wrong. So discerning a call to the

priesthood isn’t a simple and straightforward thing of just reading the

information on a vocations website, and that’s it, all done and dusted.

There are also different subdivisions within a calling as well. If you are called

to the priesthood, is it to the diocesan priesthood, where you serve directly

under the Archbishop, or is it a calling to the religious life? If the latter, which

religious order? And there’s also the question of whether it is to the active or

the contemplative life. In both cases you would live in a community of other

priests and/or brothers, but would you be more active in the world, perhaps as a

chaplain to a school, prison, hospital or some other setting, or perhaps parish

work? (Of course, you can do all these things as a diocesan priest as well.) Or

would you live a life of deeper prayer, more distant from the world, maybe in a

monastery, perhaps looking after the monastery animals, beekeeping, blending

incense, writing spiritual and theological works, or even making a bit of

chocolate?

Once you start training for the priesthood, discernment doesn’t end at that

point, either. Throughout your training, you are discerning whether this really

is what God is calling you to, and your seminary and/or religious community is

also discerning as well. Discernment is not just a personal journey; the Church

discerns with you as well. Of course there are times when someone thinks, “I

am called to this”, but those in higher authority say, “Oh no you’re not”. Or

maybe you both reach that decision together. Does that mean your calling

might be actually to marriage, or is it maybe to another form of priestly

ministry or religious community? During my time in seminary we had one or

two who had begun formation in the monastery, who then changed to diocesan

priesthood; one who began training for his diocese, who then left, explored

different options, and eventually became a monk and was ordained a priest,

while still remaining as a monk; and another who began at the seminary, but

training for a religious order, who then remained at the seminary but left the

order and trained for a diocese instead. And sometimes, once men have been

ordained priests, they still switch. A priest told me a while ago that he had

made the move because of changes in his religious order. The Franciscan

Friars of the Renewal was founded because a group of Franciscans thought that

things had moved in the wrong direction, so they set up a new branch of the

Franciscan family.

In all this, it’s important that we are rooted in prayer. Discernment is not a

lone-ranger process; it is also always together with the wider Church.

So on that note, please do pray for those who are discerning their call, not just

this Sunday, but make it a regular part of your prayer. And I encourage you to

spend some time this Sunday before the Blessed Sacrament, before Jesus, the

Good Shepherd, that all whom the Lord calls may hear His call, and respond

with courage and generosity.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk