National Vocation Awareness Week November 5-11!
National Vocation Awareness Week November 5-11!
We are celebrating National Vocation Awareness Week. We all received a call to holiness, but in different ways: as a priest, religious, married couple and family, singles, and so on. Vocation in general is openness to God’s call. How do we foster this call? One of the brochures for Vocation Awareness week talks about seven ways family can foster vocation: 1) snuggle up and read fascinating age-appropriate saints story at bedtime; 2) watch a better movie as a family (e.g. Life of St. John Bosco); 3) Set the record straight, means tell children about real happiness, instead TV tells them what is happiness; 4) Play dress up, let children imagine being a priest or nun or married couple and play it out, 5) pray from the heart, have family prayer time and during the family prayer pray for the families, priests and nuns too; 6) Talk about vocations openly, marriage, priesthood, and religious life; 7) Befriend a priest and religious, invite a priest or nun at your home.
I remember in 2015, 8th grade St. Anthony students invited me as their special guest at the radio station for an interview. They asked me to share my vocation story. How did I decide to become a priest? I told them the short answer was because God called me. Then I explained to them how I found out God was calling me. It was through my family, pastor, nuns, youth group, and so on. Definitely, I can say that the youth program called “Cherupushpa Mission League” had a remarkable influence on my decision. I was very much involved in this youth ministry. I was a participant at the beginning and in my high school years, I was in the leadership team under the guidance of pastors and nuns. The experience with youth ministry encouraged me in my decision-making to become a priest. The priest who first encouraged me to join the youth group passed away recently.
These are the little steps to teach our children about vocation. Everybody is not going to be a priest or nun. It is their choice, but it is our duty to teach our children about different vocations and have the opportunity to talk about and get to know them. When it comes to faith, normally we say it is their choice. They are automatically exposed to everything else, and we should give them the opportunity to be exposed to our faith and its traditions and roots. Then they can make the right choice. We all are called to holiness in different paths. It starts with family prayer. Let us pray for vocations.
The 31st Sunday reading invites us with a strong invitation to render humble and loving service to one another. St. Paul tells us, “Brothers and sisters: We were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cares for her children. With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but our very selves as well, so dearly beloved had you become to us.” Paul’s work was completely selfless and full of affection accompanied by a sense of spiritual fatherhood for the people.
In the first reading prophet Malachi (means my messenger) criticized priests, leaders, and people for their negligence towards God. The basic message of today’s gospel is that everything we do must be about Jesus Christ, never about ourselves. We have to understand that we are His servants. Jesus spoke to the crowd and disciples about the scribes and Pharisees. The scribes were the professional teachers of the law and Pharisees were known for their strict fidelity to the Jewish law. The Pharisees were the most authoritative and powerful group in first-century Judaism. Jesus said to the audience that the scribes and Pharisees had taken the chair of Moses which means they had the authority to teach. In the Catholic Church, we talk about the Chair of Peter (Pope). In the diocesan Cathedral, there is a chair of Bishop. It is a place of authority to teach. Jesus asked them to listen to scribes and Pharisees, but not to follow their example. He told them, “The greatest among you must be your servant.” We are called to put each other first – as a married couple, priest, deacon, religious, and so on. We all are called to holiness and glorify God. Jesus said that we have only one Father, Teacher, and Master. We are called to manifest God’s fatherhood, not their own fatherhood. We are called to be teachers and masters to participate in the ministry of Christ and do it for the glory of God, not doing it for our own glory. Our vocation is to glorify God.
This Sunday, the Lord invites us to reflect on our own vocation. Through the family prayer and celebration of the Eucharist, let us strengthen our vocation. Let us also pray for the vocation to the priesthood, diaconate, and religious life.