On the eve of Valentine’s Day, February 13, the 49th World Day of Prayer for Vocations’ message was released by the Vatican. The subject matter of this year’s message focuses on the theme: “Vocations, the Gift of the Love of God”.
Every vocation comes from God’s free and loving initiative. The Letter of James says: “Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (Jas 1, 17). We are the result of God’s generous and adventurous love! This fact makes us marvel at God’s ineffable designs! As Pope Benedict XVI rightly maintains: “The profound truth of our existence is thus contained in this surprising mystery: every creature, and in particular every human person, is the fruit of God’s thought and an act of his love, a love that is boundless, faithful and everlasting (cf. Jer 31:3). The discovery of this reality is what truly and profoundly changes our lives”.
The surprising way God comes across to meet us causes us great wonderment. Certain saints, like Saint Augustine, expressed their profound gratitude to “the Father of mercies” (2 Cor 1, 3) personal love for them. In his ‘Confessions’, the Saint of Hippo declares: “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.” (X, 27.38).
Every vocation is a mystery in itself. Nevertheless, it is not enclosed within its own parameters. Since God’s essence is self-giving his love takes hold of the individual both vertically and horizontally. In this regard Pope Saint Gregory the Great employs the seedling metaphor when lecturing on the Book of Job. “In the soil of our heart God first planted the root of love for him; from this, like the leaf, sprouts love for one another.”
God’s love prompts the consecrated person to open his/her whole being to the Holy One. Thus, the present Pope says that the “love of God, which priests and consecrated persons are called to mirror, however imperfectly, is the motivation for answering the Lord’s call to special consecration through priestly ordination or the profession of the evangelical counsels”. Saint Peter’s fervent retort to Jesus: “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you” (John 21:15) comprises the key of a life totally offered and lived out, and therefore one that is genuinely joyful.
The horizontal expression of one’s consecration to God demands from “the consecrated person to be a builder of communion between people and a sower of hope. The relationship of consecrated persons, and especially of the priest, to the Christian community is vital and becomes a fundamental dimension of their affectivity”. Authentic consecration always translates itself into a generous solicitude towards those who are suffering and in greatest need.
Let us continue to pray for more gifts of God’s love as found in the priesthood and consecrated life.
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
San Gwann