Hope for Vocations
By Father Karl Bissinger

The following reflection was given by Fr. Karl Bissinger at the annual prayer service for vocations on Thursday, August 3, 2006 at Saint Julie Billiart Church in North Dartmouth.

We have come here to St. Julie’s tonight for the annual evening prayer for vocations with Bishop Coleman, with priests and seminarians of the Diocese of Fall River, with their parents, and with several of the vocations awareness teams from different parishes. We come here to pray for vocations to the priesthood and to the religious life. We pray that many young people will hear and respond to God’s call. We pray for those who think they might be hearing his voice, that they may hear more clearly and have the courage to accept Christ’s invitation to follow him more closely. And, we pray that those who have said “Yes,” to God’s call, especially our diocesan seminarians, will persevere and continue to grow in their vocations.

The Gospel we have just heard (Mk 4:26-29) is the parable about seed scattered on the land. The farmer sows the seed in his land according to the method of the day. As you may have already imagined, he does not plant only as many seeds as the number of plants that he needs and hopes will grow. Instead, he casts a wildly generous number of seeds out in all directions, way more than he would expect to come up and grow to maturity. From another parable, we know of the obstacles that seeds can meet: a hot, scorching sun, hungry birds, choking thorns, rocky ground, or even a path full of foot traffic.

After the farmer scatters his seeds, we might expect him to water the land, fertilize it, build a fence around his vegetable patch, or maybe set up a scare crow. But this farmer doesn’t worry about any of those things. In fact, the next thing Jesus tells us he does is, precisely: he goes to bed and sleeps, then he gets up the next day, and goes to bed again that night, day after day and night after night. And, without knowing how, almost without perceiving, he begins to notice small sprouts, which eventually grow into fully ripe ears of grain.

Now, this parable is about the growth of the kingdom of heaven, but I believe that it just as fittingly describes an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life. In fact, this spring, our diocese completed the initiative called Operation: Planting Seeds. And, that is just what we did: we planted seeds. We tried to reach as many young hearts as we could.

Looking back at my own vocation, I know that many seeds were planted in my heart, and it took many cycles of days and nights for those seeds to grow and reach the point of maturity at which I could say, “Here I am, Lord! Send me!” (Is 6:8). It took many people to ask me, to be examples for me, to pray for me, to form me, and to befriend me.

Before deciding on the reading we have just heard, I had thought of this past Sunday’s Gospel (Jn 6:1-15) as a possibility. It is the story of the Multiplication of the Loaves. Now, I know we usually associate that parable with the Eucharist, but I saw a connection with our current vocational situation. Just to remind you, there is a crowd of about 5,000 men, not counting women and children out in the countryside with Jesus. There are no restaurants or banquet facilities around, but Jesus realizes they are hungry and wants to feed them. Finally, the apostle Andrew comes up with a boy who has five loaves and two fish. “But,” he objects, “What good are these for so many?” And, you know the rest of the story, they collect 12 wicker baskets of fragments in leftovers.

This week during the Seminarian Convocation, I was able to join the seminarians for a presentation on pastoral planning in the Diocese of Fall River. The presentation included many statistics and projections, graphs and charts about diocesan personnel and facilities. To be fair, there came out of this workshop creative and thoughtful ideas about the future, about ministry, and about a fewer number of priests than we have been accustomed to.

I believe there is a temptation to feel a little bit like Andrew and Philip, and the other disciples who were starting to feel the pressure of a hungry mob and who only scraped up what would barely be enough food for Jesus and the 12 disciples to have a light afternoon snack. We have been praying and working hard for vocations. We know there are a great number of parishes that will need a priest to minister there. And, when we count the number of heads, when we do the math, we can become discouraged. There were no ordinations this year. We still have the same number of seminarians as last year. “What good are these for so many?”

But, like Andrew and Philip, we sometimes forget that despite our logic and calculations, Jesus is standing on the grassy hill with us. And, it is our faith in Jesus that keeps us from becoming really discouraged and falling into despair. “Thank, God!” we should say. “We have nine young men who are willing to step forward to follow Jesus!” “Thank, God!” we should say. “Look how many people are praying for vocations!” There are many people who are out there praying. You who are gathered here play a very important part.

However, just this afternoon, Sr. Theresa who works here at St. Julie’s and is part of the parish community, told me that at the nursing home where she ministers, the residents there take great pride in praying for our current diocesan seminarians. They have the vocations posters in their rooms and each has one of the faces circled. And, they brag to each other “I’m praying for Daniel Nunes” and the other responds, “Well I’m praying for Greg Bettencourt!”

Our prayers and efforts express our desire, but they also express our hope that God will hear and answer! Does this mean pray for a miracle? If that’s what it means, then let us pray for one!

I would like to conclude with some words of John Paul II, who encouraged in all who encountered him the virtue of Hope. And, that’s what we need to foster and pray for in ourselves. One of his biographies is called Witness to Hope, and these words come from the Pope’s 1994 book Crossing the Threshold of Hope.

If at every stage of his life man desires to be his own person, to find love, during his youth he desires it even more strongly…. [But, the young] need guides…. Clearly, the fundamental problem of youth is profoundly personal. In life, youth is when we come to know ourselves. It is also a time of communion. Young people, whether boys or girls, know they must live for and with others, they know that their life has meaning to the extent that it becomes a free gift for others. Here is the origin of all vocations—whether to the priesthood or religious life, or to marriage and family (121-122).

Thank you for all the prayers and work that you have done this year for vocations. And, please keep praying for our young people that they may hear and answer the vocation to which God himself is calling them.