Staying spiritually connected:
vocations versus violence
Last week in the midst of an ongoing war in Yugoslavia in which
Albanian Kosovars are daily made refugees by the army of their
own country and Yugoslavian military targets are daily bombed
by the NATO forces, 14 high school students and a teacher were
killed or committed suicide in Littleton, Colo. Faced with a tragedy
which seems even more senseless than usual, the media and many
others raise a question about God’s goodness: “How could this
happen, if God is good?”
Any response should be modest before the immense suffering of
the parents of these youngsters, the traumatic shock of their
classmates, the grief of society itself. No answer can be glib.
But it remains true that God did not will this violence and bloodshed.
The good God who called us out of nothing because he loves us
also made us free, and he respects our freedom. We can isolate
ourselves from God and others; we are free. In that isolation,
however, we are free also to destroy ourselves, now and even for
all eternity.
Whatever figures into the causes of violence, a spiritual isolation
prepares the way for physical bloodshed. It has been thus since
the story of Cain and Abel. But along with that continuous story
of isolation and violence runs a story of connections and peace.
In the language of faith, a vocation from God is a story of connection
to him and relationship to others. The vocation of all the baptized
is to remain close to God in order to transform the world. The
vocation to Christian marriage unites a man and a woman in Christ
for the life of their own family and the life of the world. The
vocation to single life as a lay man or lay woman is always a
calling to a life in service of others. The vocation to ecclesial
lay ministry is a vocation to build up the Church. The vocation
to consecrated life unites men and women to God and to each other
in their religious communities or secular institutes. The vocation
to diaconate and ordained priesthood configures men to Christ
for the salvation of his people. Vocations connect; they relate
those called to God and then, in a particular way, to others.
This past Sunday, Good Shepherd Sunday, the Church invited us
to pray for vocations to consecrated life and to ordained priesthood
in the Church. I celebrated Mass with the Felician Sisters and
their families and friends to mark the 125th anniversary of the
Felician Congregation’s foundation in North America. Sisters put
people into contact with God and with many other people, because
they are totally given, by vow, to God’s own purposes. The Felician
Sisters, and Sisters in so many other communities, are a source
of great grace to the Archdiocese.
On May 1, I will ordain deacons and then, a few weeks later, I
will ordain priests for the Archdiocese. Talking with these candidates,
I marvel at the many different ways God calls. Yet there is also
consistency in the vocational pattern. God calls always through
someone else, through a connection or relationship. Vocations
come from calls received in families and in parishes. Priests
call others to join them in their vocation. All of us call to
God for the gift of vocations to the ordained priesthood. The
great outpouring of grace in the new millennium will include the
grace of vocations to the priesthood, so that God’s people will
be well shepherded.
Vocations begin when people trust enough to surrender their life
to God and to others. Vocations develop when people grow in the
conviction that God’s will and not theirs should be the guiding
force in their life. A generous church creates an atmosphere in
which vocations flourish.
This past week I reviewed the record of generosity among parishes
in the Archdiocese. The Parish Sharing Program connects parishes
in a network of financial generosity and in the sharing of personal
talents and gifts. It helps rescue our parishes from the isolation
called parochialism. The financial help given from parish to parish
in the Archdiocese has grown steadily in the last five years and
now amounts to $3.2 million annually. There is no way of tracking
the friendships and other connections that have grown through
this program. Some parishes are still isolated, without a sharing
partner, and the Archdiocesan pastoral center will work to complete
the network of sharing in the next several months.
This record of generosity inspires confidence in the future of
this local Church. Since God is never outdone in generosity, many
vocations will spring up in the Archdiocese. An atmosphere of
generosity is basic to a culture of vocations, as Bishop Kicanas
explained in this column a few months ago. For this growing generosity,
I am grateful to God and to all of you. As we share Christ’s gifts
with one another, let us pray for vocations and for peace, here
and around the world, and let us work so that no young person,
no individual, no parish, no cultural or ethnic group, no club
or gang, no family feels isolated from the love of God. God bless
you.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.
Archbishop of Chicago
