The missionary vocation implies a free response

Is there something that is common to Justin de Jacobis, Francis Regis Clet, Jean-Gabriel Perboyre, Jean-Henri Gruyer, Joseph-Louis François, Pierre-Rene Rogue, Mark Antonio Durando and Fortunato Velasco Tobar?

Besides being saints and blesseds of the Congregation of the Mission, we can also state (from the perspective of the theology of vocation) that each of these individuals who are numbered among the Vincentian martyrs and/or who are remembered for their heroic virtue … each and every one of those individuals responded affirmatively to the One who from all eternity called them. As a result, they took on a personal project that involved them in a process of total identification with the will of God and with the needs of the world (the needs of the world in accord with the context and the era in which they lived).

Thus, in the tradition of the Congregation of the Mission we find outstanding witness of many different individuals as they responded to God’s call. In none of those responses do we discover some abstract search for personal holiness or an enthusiastic desire that resulted in some form of selfishness disguised in acts of generosity. The authentic Vincentian RESPONSE originated with the freedom of the Creator who called those individuals to go out, with the freedom of a creature, to an encounter … the response is an affirmative response that leads to consecration. Therefore, in responding to the call of the other and the transcendent Other one is able to identify with the face of those persons who are suffering. Thus, the true Vincentian Missionary, even when his vocational story is filled with emotional chapters and perhaps with an authentic desire from the time of childhood to consecrate his life, nevertheless, these Vincentian Missionaries have responded as Christians to the vocational binominal, God-poor, or in categories of vocational theology, discipleship-mission.

In the words of John Paul II: The history of every priestly vocation, as indeed of every Christian vocation, is the history of an inexpressible dialogue between God and human beings, between the love of God who calls and the freedom of individuals who respond lovingly to him (Pastores Dabo Vobis, #36).

Our vocation as consecrated individuals as more specifically as Vincentians is intertwined with four binominals which give meaning and identity to our missionary response:

Today, many Provinces in the west (and many dioceses and institutes of consecrated life) have experienced a significant decline in the number of candidates who seek entrance into their houses of formation and at the same time, have all seen a certain degree of instability in those who have entered the Congregation. Given that reality, there is a clear danger of becoming discouraged and therefore wanting to fill our houses without, however, proper accompaniment and/or discernment. We become disappointed and without realizing it we communicate our own doubts and it would seem as though the Word had not become incarnate … we make little effort at vocational promotion because deep down we believe that we are doomed to disappear (let us eat and drink because tomorrow we may die). Indeed, it would seem that Divine Providence had taken a vacation. In other words, there is the danger that we begin to believe that there are very few people who will respond to the call or, even worse, we begin to believe that there are very few people who are called in the midst of this anti-vocational world.

Our foundational context was not necessarily a favorable moment for a vocational response, at least not from the perspective of authentic motives that ought to characterize a response to such a call. We should recall the fact that Vincent himself underwent a profound conversion and also engaged in a process of reforming the clergy. Thus, it is there in the midst of the darkness of night, when the task of fishing is most difficult and when it is also most difficult to hear the voice of God … it is at that time that the sun of the new day appears on the horizon and the catch of fish is so great that the nets begin to break apart and to tear (cf Luke 5:1-11). There, we find the origin of the Vincentian vocation.

Vincent de Paul allowed himself to be encountered by the One who called him throughout his life, who called him in 1617 in Folleville and Châtillon, who called him to a conversion in which he set aside his personal plans and his search for an honorable retirement and instead committed himself to the task of evangelizing the poor. Furthermore, he identified the need of soliciting the assistance of various individuals who in turn would be able to enthuse others to join in this worthwhile mission.

Therefore, I believe that in three words we find the light that enabled Vincent to respond to his call: encounter, conversion, and promotion.

It is in the encounter with the other (with the poor) and with the Other (with God) that people are able to hear the voice that calls out to them and sensitizes their heart. Thus, there is a need to provide those individuals with one’s time and with a process of accompaniment so that they might be assisted in living an authentic process of conversion in which they find the channels that enable them to engage in vocational dialogue (freedom of the Creator – freedom of the creature). Through the instrumentality of vocational ministers, the following of Jesus Christ evangelizing the poor (discipleship) is placed before those individuals as a worthwhile option (mission).

Let us make this resolution now all together, but let us do it in the spirit of Our Lord, with perfect assurance that he will assist us in time of need. Aren’t you willing to do this, my brothers of the seminary? Aren’t you, my brothers who are students, also willing. I am not asking this of the priests for no doubt they are all disposed to do so. Yes, my God, we all want to correspond with your plan for us. That is what all of us in general and each one in particular intend to do, with the help of your holy grace (CCD:XI:366).

By: Fr. Rolando Gutiérrez, CM
Vice-Province of Costa Rica

Translated:
Charles T. Plock, CM
Eastern Province, USA