4th Sunday of Easter A - Homily 5

Homily 5 - 2023

Today, right around the world, the Church has traditionally asked us all to pray for more priests and nuns [not surprisingly, given today’s Gospel] — although of recent years the Church has also suggested widening our vision and praying that every Catholic comes to realise our vocation and our mission to accept responsibility to make the whole world a better and more just world. This responsibility flows naturally from baptism — part of the package deal [as it were]. When Jesus instructed his disciples to ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into his harvest, he wasn’t thinking of priests and nuns — who simply did not exist at the time. He was referring to all his followers.

Still, there is a real need to pray for vocations to the priesthood and the religious life —though, in this present phase of the Church’s life, I wonder if it may be more important to pray, not for more priests and nuns, but for better priests and nuns; to pray that we current priests and nuns grow ever closer to Christ, ever more faithful to our vocations; to pray that we sharpen our capacity to discern what God is calling our Church to be and how to act within this swiftly-changing secular culture; to pray that we learn to listen seriously to you lay members of the Church and deepen our conviction that God can and does work creatively through you.

I also think that it is important to pray for those working in seminaries and noviciates that they possess the knowledge and skills to ensure that their charges [seminarians or novices] discern wisely whether they are really called by God to priesthood or religious life; that they have the basic psychological maturity needed to minister effectively among you; that they know how to pray personally, and how to help you laity to pray; that they have the necessary self-knowledge and genuine humility to work fruitfully with others and particularly to take seriously those marginalised by our present systems; and that they have sufficient intellectual capacity not to be overwhelmed in an ever more educated world.

I suggest that we start [or continue] by praying especially for Pope Francis. On the day when he was elected Pope ten years ago, he asked the huge crowd present in the piazza below [and the even bigger crowd watching proceedings on television screens around the world], to pray for him. He had the humility to know the impossible task confronting him without the prayerful support of us all.

However, praying for him is not enough. We Catholics believe that he really is the successor of Peter. We need to choose deliberately to listen to him respectfully. Listening is difficult in a world that seems to be increasingly confrontational and polarised. We are by no means a homogeneous world or Church: people inevitably think differently, and at the same time are more ready to say what they think. We are not practised in living together in this kind of world: we do not easily listen respectfully to others, especially when our ideas and expectations conflict.

Our world and our Church need to mature. Thank God that Francis recognises this and is familiar enough with the wisdom of our Church, accumulated over centuries of experience by saints and by scholars. He wants us to learn again the skills of honestly stating what we believe, and of listening respectfully to others doing the same thing. As with any living structure, constant adaptation and renewal are necessary if the Church is to remain relevant within a constantly changing human context.

Doing God’s Will will require committed prayer from us all. When our knee-jerk reactions are to criticise, we really need to check if we have prayed first in order to discern God’s Will.

So as we pray today for priests and religious, let us focus on the present situation and present needs. We can leave the future safely in the hands of God.