“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.  Ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”  This is the gospel passage most frequently used to discuss vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and rightly so.  There seems to be a real relevance in these words, a relevance to the situation in which we find ourselves today.  The harvest is indeed plentiful: we all have a great need for spiritual nourishment, for the assistance of God’s grace.  All we need to do is to look to ourselves with honesty and self-reflection to see both our own needs, but also how richly God blesses us, every week, every day.  Every single Mass we attend, every confession we make, is an outpouring of God’s grace, grace that we need, grace that comes to us from God through the hands of a priest.  There’s so much good work to be done in the Church and for the world.  It’s also true that the laborers seem to be quite few, just as they were in the Lord’s day.  We hear about the shortage of priests in our country and in our diocese.  The gap between the available personnel and the work that needs to be done, can seem daunting.  And yet, we are people of hope, and the Lord gives us the recipe for success: he tells us to pray, and to pray insistently and actively.  It’s our job: it’s your job to ask the Lord to send laborers to work in the harvest of his Church as priests.  

Prayer is certainly the indispensable first step.  But we also need to do more.  We need to create an atmosphere in which young men think about the priesthood.  The key is this, and I said this a year ago when I first arrived and preached about this topic for the first time: don’t pray for vocations from someone else’s family: pray for vocations from your family.  Don’t pray for vocations from someone else’s parish: pray for vocations from our parish.  If you’re a young man: don’t expect someone else to answer the call: think about whether you can.  If you’re a parent, don’t expect someone else’s son to step forward: ask your son if he might be able to give his life in this noble service to God and the Church. It’s a wonderful life, the life of the priesthood.  It’s a life of sacrifice certainly, a life of difficulties and obstacles, a life of service: but a life that is unimaginably rewarding.  

At this time of year, we think a lot about things like liberty, freedom, service, sacrifice: we think about all the men and women who have stepped forward to serve the freedom of our nation: people who have that special spirit: that desire to serve something greater than themselves.  People who care more about the common good than their own comfort, those who serve and promote the freedom of others, at the cost of their own safety, even at the cost of their own lives.  The priesthood and religious life are similarly noble, sacrificial, and statesman-like.  In addition to being proud Americans, we are also citizens of heaven; that’s the only citizenship of ours that will last forever.  And there’s a beautiful nobility in laying down one’s life for the cause of eternal freedom: to save people from the greatest enemy of all: sin.  A priest is a soldier for Christ, and I should be happy that my friend, my brother, my son, even my self might choose to enlist in this great campaign for souls and for eternal freedom.  Similarly, a religious sister participates in her own way in this great drama, serving souls and spreading the love of God, and I should be happy that my friend, my sister, my daughter might consider and choose this great life.  This takes great trust, great faith, and great confidence in God: to give up many of the things that the world claims are most important for happiness, to believe that God truly knows what will make me happy.  A priest and a sister are powerful witnesses to the world.  The one who gives up career and spouse and family for the sake of the kingdom: does what our world says is crazy: We shove all our chips into the middle.  We put all our eggs in one basket.  We say “No, thank you” to keeping our options open.  We say, God is worth anything.  And that’s an important truth for all of us.  Whatever your vocation and your state in life: God is worth it all.  Heaven is worth it all.  And whatever you sacrifice for the sake of Our Lord and His Kingdom, you will be repaid a thousand fold.  That’s the witness of the one who has given up his entire life for God: God is real, and his love is worth anything.  Our job: pray; believe that the Lord is calling people now; and actively encourage the young men and women of our parish and our families to consider the noble and joyful life of service to God and his Church.  God will indeed richly reward our faithfulness and our efforts. He will give us the laborers that we need.  Let us ask the Lord to bless our nation with freedom and peace, and to give the Church grace to witness to Christ faithfully and heroically.