For God’s Sake: Give Your Life Away
The first week of November is loaded with tremendous celebrations…our parish feast day and holy day of obligation, All Saints Day, followed immediately by the Commemoration of All Souls. Then flowing from the celebration of those in Heaven, then those being purified for Heaven, the US Conference of Bishops have asked us to hold November 3-9 as “National Vocations Awareness Week”.
How are we promoting and encouraging people to generously respond to the call the Lord has placed on each person to give their lives as a sacrifice of love? After all, that’s what a vocation is. And each person does have one.
The Church has long held that, following the pattern set by the Lord Jesus Christ, every Christian has been brought into the world with a purpose that is recognized only by sincerely making of their life a gift.
And there are three primary ways of doing this: Holy Matrimony, Sacred Orders, and Consecrated Life.
In marriage, a man and woman give themselves to each other as Christ and the Church are given to one another. Spousal love is a crucial Sacrament for participating in the Kingdom of God.
In Sacred Orders, men give their lives exclusively to Jesus Christ and His Church, to be the Sacrament that makes the other Sacraments possible, as he stands in persona Christi (in the person of Christ).
In Consecrated Life, men and women give themselves to the service of the Church and the souls of the world through the Works of Mercy, being the Lord’s hands, eyes, feet, and heart in concrete and practical ways. Think of the many Religious Orders like the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Salesians, the Missionaries of Charity, and so many more.
No one is called by God to remain on the sidelines of the Kingdom of God. Your life was given to you as a gift, and God has given you life so that by your giving it away, you find Christ dwelling in you, you’ll be made a saint!
At the time of this writing, I’m sitting in the back of the gorgeous chapel of Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, having concelebrated the Mass of Institution of Acolytes for the 2nd Year seminarians here, among whom were five Atlanta men. This is also the seminary home of our pastoral year seminarian Will Whitlow. I’m so encouraged by the holy, joyful, normal, men who are preparing to be the next generation of priests!
Jesus told us to ask the master of the harvest to send out more laborers for the harvest…the harvest is lost souls who don’t know their dignity as children of God. The laborers are you and me. So let’s pray always, but this coming week in particular, that the Heavenly Father would raise up through and among us priests, moms, husbands, Sisters, deacons, wives, missionaries, Brothers, nuns, monks, and fathers, all with hearts on fire for the Gospel.
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!
All you holy saints of God, pray for us!
Peace in Christ,
Fr. Michael
Pastor