“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 used most frequently 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 sacrament we receive, is an outpouring of God’s grace, grace that we need, grace that comes to us from God often through the ministry 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.  Prayer is certainly the indispensable first step.  But we also need to do more.  We need to create an atmosphere in which young men automatically think about the priesthood.  The key is this: 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 this parish.  If you’re a young man: don’t expect someone else to answer the call: think about whether you can.  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 incredibly 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; in fact, 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 enemies of all: sin and death.  A priest is a kind of soldier for Christ, commissioned for 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, commissioned in her own branch of the service in the battle for the salvation of the world.  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 don’t diversify our portfolio.  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, and part of the point of celibacy and the complete dedication of our entire lives that priests and sisters are called to: is to remind all of you that you are also called to the same complete devotion and whole-hearted dedication to Christ within your own state in life.  Whatever your vocation: God is worth it all.  Heaven is worth it all.  You should go all in; you should put all your eggs in the basket of Eternal Life.  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 all in the Church grace to witness to Christ faithfully and heroically, with complete dedication to him.