In the Old Testament the prophets were given a mission to proclaim conversion to those who has strayed from their vocation to follow the God of Israel who, at the time of the Exodus, led the people on their journey to the Promised Land (Hosea 2:17).
The Vincentian vocation is, in essence, a prophetic vocation. In light of the temptation that confronts the ministers of the Church, namely, that they seek self, without even thinking about it. They flatter themselves and do not oppose nature, which has no other aim than its own satisfaction (CCD:XII:260). Saint Vincent knew how to respond to God’s call as he discerned the path of prophecy which he placed before the members of the Congregation of the Mission, the Company of the Daughters of Charity and the members of the Confraternities of Charity. He concretized that call with the following words: the state of the missioners is one in conformity with the evangelical maxims, which consists of leaving and abandoning everything, as the Apostles did, to follow Jesus Christ and, in imitation of him, to do what is proper (CCD:XI:1).
The truth of the matter is that I have never been in favor of using the business vocabulary when speaking about the theme of Vocation Ministry. Making an exception, however, we can affirm that the only “product” that we can offer to young men and women of the twenty-first century is a missionary proposal (vocation) that is translated in terms of understanding, experiencing and following Jesus Christ. As seen in the seal of the Congregation of the Mission, this Christ is Jesus of Nazareth who went from village to village evangelizing the poor (cf. Luke 4:16-21; Matthew 9:35-36).
The leaders in our provinces, the vocation promotion teams and those involved in vocational promotion ministry should not limit themselves to interviewing a limited number of individuals in order to apply the necessary criteria for accompaniment of young people and possible entrance into to our seminaries. Certainly we need to appoint competent confreres to accompany the those persons who engage in the multiple processes that begin at the time of discerning one’s vocation and continue through the phase of initial formation as well as that of on-going formation. This is necessary if we want to move beyond the culture of improvisation; but in reality the challenge goes further than that.
Creating an environment in the mission for the promotion of vocation plays a central role in the path toward a renewed culture of vocations, and this is only possible when the missionaries themselves are edified, first of all by the life of their confreres, and then, also edified by the life of those outside the community, by a new generation of young men and women who are enchanted by the beauty and the joy of following Christ in the style of Saint Vincent de Paul.
Oddly enough, at this time when the idea of renunciation is not attractive and when entertainment and pleasure seem to have hypnotized the new generation, yet we find an enormous opportunity to propose the vocation of the Vincentian missionary: young people are very sensitive to those experiences that involve the lives of people in projects that are coherent with the value system that they speak about with their words. In fact, the greatest enemy of vocation ministry is the lament that the young people themselves have thrown in the pre-synodal meeting: the false images of Jesus deprive young people of being fascinated by Jesus’ life.
Let us conclude this first series of vocational articles by beginning a reflection within our congregation: Are we being able to project the image of Christ in the same way that our founder did? Do we lack passion in responding to the call to follow Jesus Christ the Evangelizer of the poor? Will the new generation be able to find in the communities of the Congregation of the Mission the living testimony of shepherds with the smell of the poor … shepherds who will challenge them to follow the Christ who that is presented to us by St. Luke (cf. Lk 4:18)? At this time in history we need digital communications as we develop new vocational projects.
By: Rolando Gutiérrez, CM
Vice-Province of Costa Rica
Photo: Vero Urbina – Province of Peru
Translated:
Charles T. Plock, CM
Eastern Province, USA
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