Holy Hour Reflection
by Father Jeffrey Cabral

The following is a reflection given by Father Jeffrey Cabral at a Vocation Holy Hour at Annunciation of the Lord Parish in Taunton, MA on January 9, 2007.

Everyone here has had the experience of being invited — for example, invited to a birthday party, invited to join a sports team, or invited to be someone’s friend. Inviting: that’s what we see and hear Jesus doing in today’s Gospel reading (Mark 1:14-20). We see Jesus inviting two fishermen, Simon and Andrew, to be His disciples. He said to them: “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him, as did the other two whom He called—James and John. All four disciples said “yes” to Jesus’ invitation.

Jesus is repeating in our midst today what He said and did centuries ago in the Gospel scene. Right here, right now, He is inviting us to be His followers, to be His disciples, to come and be fishers of men. It is not the first time He has invited us; that happened at our Baptisms. Since then, Jesus keeps repeating His invitation to us.

Yes, Jesus keeps inviting us to know Him better and to love Him more — to come closer to Him. He keeps inviting us, to invite others as well, to know and to love Him. Getting to know and to love Jesus and then bringing others to know and love Him: this is the mission of the Church — we call it “evangelization.” Every member of the Church is chosen and called to know and to love Jesus and to bring others to Him. We especially meet Jesus in His Word and in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, as we do now, adoring the Lord in the Most Holy Blessed Sacrament, in the monstrance on the altar.

God invites each one of us to be holy, to become evangelized and to invite others to become holy, to evangelize. Every vocation in the Church is at the service of holiness. Some, however, such as the vocations to ordained priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life are at the service of holiness in a totally unique manner. It is to these vocations that I invite everyone to pay particular attention this evening.

We have gathered here this evening, as we commemorate National Vocation Awareness Week, to pray for more vocations to the priesthood, consecrated religious life and the diaconate. We also pray that those among us, meaning in particular you young people who join us this evening, will hear Jesus’ invitation to you to serve the Church as priests and religious, because priests and religious invite others to become holy and nurture them in holiness.

Here in our own Diocese of Fall River, we kick off a new campaign to foster vocations, especially vocations to the priesthood, called Go Out and Fish. It owes its name to the passage from the Gospel, which we heard tonight, where Jesus calls Simon Peter and his brother Andrew from fishermen to become fishers of men. For this vocational campaign, we are not only going to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send out more workers, to send out more fishers of men, into His Harvest, but we too need to be fishers. Jesus Christ Himself did not just simply pray. He invited. He called. He challenged. That is our task tonight, my friends. We simply must not just pray, but we too, like Jesus, must invite young men to consider the priesthood, call them by name, and challenge them to be modern-day fishers of men.

Time and time again, statistics have indicated to us that men respond to a priestly vocation because of an invitation made by someone else. If you talk to older priests, they will sometimes say that the religious sisters in parochial schools challenged the boys to consider the priesthood. Well, the sisters have long left our Catholic schools, and nowadays the laity and yes, priests themselves, must take up this important responsibility of inviting our youth. Research has shown that an invitation from a priest is one of the most effective ways of having a man consider the priesthood. Of the priests ordained last year in 2006, 67% said that a priest had invited them to consider the priesthood. That’s 2 in 3 priests! Almost one in four, about 24%, say that they first received an invitation to consider the priesthood from a friend. Parents were the next most likely person to make that initial invitation (between 12-15%). About one in ten says that they received an invitation from a parishioner, a religious sister, or a teacher. As you can see, we ALL can play a part in taking up Jesus’ call. Tonight, I challenge you—both my brother priests and the laity here, as well as myself—to go out and do as Jesus did…to invite, to call, to challenge, to go out and fish. Personally, I was invited, called, challenged as a high school student from my own parish priest. Many times he encouraged me to consider the priesthood, or in his own words, “Jeff, you’ll make a great priest someday!” Although, at the time, I was unwilling to listen, the seed was planted and eventually I got up and followed Jesus.

Tonight, we are asked to go out and fish. We can fish within our own parish communities. We can fish within our school communities. But most of all, we can fish within our own families. Families are the primary source of vocations.

To our dear young people, I ask you to be open to God’s call in your life. Many are called, but few respond. If God is calling you, don’t put Him on hold…don’t put him on call-waiting, like I did…but like those first Apostles, like our Blessed Mother Mary, respond immediately and follow Jesus.

May God bless our Diocese of Fall River with many faithful priestly vocations during this Vocational Campaign: Go Out and Fish.

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few…so pray to the Lord of the Harvest… and encourage…invite…call…challenge others to the priesthood. Go out and fish!