Vigil Mass

Raheen

Saturday 12 April

We live in a world that has become very uncertain and dangerous. It is full of fears about recession and climate change and the supply of oil. In various parts of the earth people suffer, and have suffered for many years, from violence and poverty and oppression. Sometimes we are very concerned about them and very generous for a while, but then the media spotlight moves on and we begin to forget. In recent weeks we have once again seen violence breaking out with tragic results in our city.

The temptation is to get on with our own lives and to feel that all of this is too big for us, that there is nothing effective that we can do – “sure it won’t make any difference”. We are tempted to thank God that we are not affected and to hope that the trouble will not harm ourselves or our neighbourhood. But such temptations are really an expression of our fear, of our desire not to have to face the uncomfortable reality: brothers and sisters, whom we are meant to love as we love ourselves, are suffering in ways that we do not want to think about. Decent and honest families in some areas of Limerick, are surrounded by burnt out houses and crime and violence, and are struggling to raise their families against so many odds.

But what we need to do is not to turn our minds away from the suffering and pain of life, but to understand what we celebrate in the Easter Season. The great mystery of faith cannot be understood without Good Friday; it cannot be understood without the horror and cruelty and injustice of Calvary. He was insulted and tortured and he bore our faults in his body on the Cross ( Second Reading ). Easter gives us the faith and hope that even the worst that can happen to us can be faced if we understand that it leads to a goal and that the goal is great enough to make everything worth while ( Cf. Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi,1 ). St Paul says: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed in us” ( Rom 8:18 ). On the first Pentecost, St Peter spoke about, “the promise that was made is for you and your children” ( First Reading ).

That is why the sheep follow Christ the Good Shepherd. They know his voice – we know his voice – because it speaks of the only hope that is big enough to give meaning to our lives. It is a hope that speaks to our most profound longings. We have heard the Good News which is stronger than death or evil or anything we fear. If we understand that this is the answer to the hope that lies deep in every human heart we know that we have to be his messengers. We have to live in a way that allows other people to see the hope that we have received.

That means that we are meant to be shepherds too. In our lives and in our voices, people should be able to hear the hope that we have recognised in the Risen Christ. The Gospel tells us that if we are to do that, we have to enter through him. We have to have listened to him; we have to be filled with his life; we have to be people who live by his hope.

That is the task of the whole community of Christ’s followers. It is a task for every one of us.

But there are particular roles that the community needs in order to grow and in order to be a community of hope. There are the role of parents, of teachers, of people who serve the community in many different ways.

On this World Day of Prayer for Vocations we look at one aspect of the life of the community which has a unique part to play – the life of those who devote themselves to living and witnessing to the Good News through religious life or through the ordained ministry. It is worth remembering that for decades, priests and religious have lived in the most deprived communities in Limerick. They have been part of the communities and they have continued to live with the people while violence and drug abuse and crime escalated.

We focus especially today on the fact that our community needs priests who will keep our hope alive by preaching the Good News, by celebration of the sacraments in which we are touched by the life that is stronger than death, by leading and inspiring and encouraging the community of faith. This is the Day of Prayer for Vocations. It is an opportunity to pray as we are doing in this Mass; it is also an opportunity to reflect on what we can do to make our families and our parishes and our diocese a more encouraging and supportive context for vocations to be recognised and to grow. This is not just a task for priests or for Vocations Directors or for particular groups. All of these are most important, but it is fundamentally a task for the whole community.

In his message for today, Pope Benedict says:

“Vocations to the ministerial priesthood and to the consecrated life can only flourish in a spiritual soil that is well cultivated. Christian communities that live the missionary dimension of the mystery of the Church in a profound way will never be inward looking. Mission, as a witness of divine love, becomes particularly effective when it is shared in a community, ‘so that the world may believe’.” (cf. Jn 17: 21).

No doubt the drop in vocations is the result of a complex combination of factors in the our diocese are really “a spiritual soil that is well cultivated”. We have to challenge ourselves as to whether we really live the missionary dimension of the Church as effective and convincing witnesses to divine love and to the hope that God’s love offers us. And we have to ask the Lord to send us the priestly vocations that we so urgently need.

And so we pray in the words of Pope Benedict:

O Father, raise up among Christians

abundant and holy vocations to the priesthood,

who keep the faith alive

and guard the blessed memory of your Son Jesus

through the preaching of his word

and the administration of the Sacraments,

with which you continually renew your faithful

( Message for World Day of Prayer for Vocations 2006 )

+Donal Murray