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Volume III Number 2 | December 2011
When looking for workers in the vineyard
WE MUST WALK THE TALK
September is Vocation Month here in the Archdiocese of Davao. It is the season to scour schools and parishes to talk about the seemingly anachronistic idea of “vocation.” The Archdiocese eagerly invites religious all over the country to reach out to its faithful, especially the youth, and proclaim to them the significance and urgency of discovering and following one’s particular vocation in life. Often, promoting one’s congregation in the hope of being able to catch some “fish” from the deep sea of the world become only incidental to that broader message.
It was a joy to join the Vocation Campaign held in the middle of September. For almost two weeks, the friars spent time and energy visiting many schools and universities, handing out leaflets, hanging posters, talking to students about vocation and the Capuchin life. It was deep down, hardcore vocation work. It was meaningful but also very tiring and, sadly, not as fruitful as expected. No one from any of the places the brothers visited attended either of the two Search-Ins set for them. The friars later found out from the more seasoned vocation promoters that it is the same in most religious congregations and that it has been a dilemma dogging the Church for some time.
In the face of such results, is it enough to just shake our shoulders and move on? It is a telling signal challenging fishers of men to come to terms with the hard fact that the world and the youth are growing disinterested not only with religious life but ultimately with things God-related! The steady rise of a mindset that idolizes worldly and material glories, benefits, and comforts definitely make calls for a life of sacrifice and austerity not only seem outdated but even distasteful!
For many, becoming a priest or religious is a crazy option given the allures of today’s lifestyles. Why leave the beaten path to a potentially lucrative career-driven life for one of inconvenience and self-restraint? What joy can be had in living one’s life especially for God when the world seems able to satisfy all human longing? But it is these hard questions that must lead the youth not to feelings of dismay or disgust but to the grace of being challenged. Vocation ministry must then militantly embrace this additional prophetic role to invite the young to reflect about the beauty of the gift of consecration, of realities beyond what is simply physical, and of success that surpasses the measure of a bank account. Although vocation campaigns may seem to fail to bag hordes of recruits, they nonetheless must not fail to provide living testaments of people who humbly, simply strive to live their consecration daily as a resounding and eloquent advertisement that the religious life is not to be summarily shunned.
Discipleship is not and never will be a numbers game but a grace that is gratuitously given together with the same grace of being able to respond. Today’s trends, conventions and fads may put the Lord in a box marked “Passé” but there are still brave, humble souls who dare to find ultimate fulfillment and meaning in Him. Society may have been blinded by the dazzling lights of temporalities but those who respond to the Lord’s call, handful they may be, may yet be the brightest and clearest lights for all and be eloquent heralds to remind people of the now-missed true meaning and value of human existence.
This is the challenge: vocation promotion that is beyond simply preaching and explaining and towards that of witnessing. Religious are to promote consecrated life in words and in deeds now more than ever; only together will consecrated life be a convincing testimony for the world to heed. Those who have offered themselves to the Lord must be living proofs that God is alive in their ministry, apostolate, and in their most ordinary actions. Love must not only be talked about but be given; only by experience can one attest that love is real!
Religious thus have a “burden to love;” for as persons who felt and responded to God’s love, people should realize through them that there is more beyond the ephemeral things of life; that although people may have forgotten their interiority, it remains true that in an inner chamber of everybody’s soul, God is waiting. Conversion begins when the people realize this and awaken from a dark, worldly slumber to the One True Light of life. w (PVP)
To Our valued readers,
Your suggestions comments and opinions mean a great deal to us especially if it would help us improve more this website. Please feel free to drop us a message.
Fraternally,
`Busay´ Editor and Staff
Comments & Letters from our Readers:
.....peace and all good! Keep up the very good work of informing the Province about what's happening with the friars in the far south of the Philippines.
May the joyful anticipation of Christ's coming this season of Advent bring you all a blessed Christmas!
God bless you all!
Fraternally in St. Francis,
Kapatid Ed Tiamson, OFM Cap.
Maayong gabii igsuon!
Daghang salamat sa updates. Nabaton na ang busay hard copy at emails nemo. Akong ipaserox katong bang parte sa busay para sa bulletin board sa Mga parokya nato diri sa luzon.
God bless you.
Capuchito
- Br. Chito Bartolo, OFMCap
Maraming salamat brother... nakakamiss talaga diyan sa mindanao....naway patuloy na mag-alab ang ating munting simulain at naway gabayan tayo ng Poong Lumikha...God bless us all!
- Br. Vincent Paul Bitong, OFMCap
Peace and all good!This is a great idea bro. doc joel, to come up with an online newsletter that will not only reach the brothers in the province, but all those who in one way or another can support this cause. I commend you br. doc for this wonderful idea. The pictures speaks for itself :) a source of inspiration to our vocation.
- Br. Michael Flores, OFMCap
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