Word to the Wise
Tuesday, July 11, 2017 - Tuesday in the 14th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gen 32:23-33 and Matt 9:32-38]"The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest." [Matthew]
JULY 11, ST. BENEDICT, abbot
For the past two weeks I was in a suburb of Chicago to preach two retreats for a religious congregation of sisters. They were founded early in the 1900's to minister to Lithuanian immigrants, especially in the Catholic schools where Lithuanian immigrants' children were present. (Sisters of St. Casimir). At their peak, these sisters numbered 500+. Now they are at less than 60 members and none of them less than 60 years old. The retreats took place at a retirement community sponsored by a Franciscan congregation of sisters who were founded to minister in primarily Polish immigrant communities. This congregation now numbers less than 30 sisters. During the first retreat, I went to another retirement facility to anoint a sister. Next to this facility is a retirement center for priests. I learned that the first place cannot find a full-time chaplain and that none of the priests next door are capable of taking the job. All of this is in the context of the vast urban Archdiocese of Chicago! In the mission Diocese of Lubbock, TX, where I live, the vast majority of parishes have only one priest and he usually has more than one parish to cover.
Many of the parishes I visit will have a poster in the vestibule of the church showing the current seminarians for the diocese. Some dioceses are doing relatively well, but they are generally just holding their own and are more urban. The mission dioceses of the South have never been self-sufficient in vocations. Irish clergy and other international missionary priests were the rule, as they are now. In the Diocese of Lubbock, less than a dozen of the 40+ priests (for 60+ parishes) are native to diocese! My own Dominican province is facing some challenging facts of too many commitments to match the available brothers and few novices to replace aging brothers down the line.
All of this lends a tremendous urgency to Jesus' words in today's gospel about the harvest and the workers. Our experience here in Lubbock and elsewhere in Texas shows that there are plenty of men and women who could be interested in full-time service to God's people as a priest or sister, but the "culture" does not encourage that interest. The tremendous increase in Lay Ministry and Permanent Diaconate are great blessings, but the majority of these great people are not full-time in these ministries. Prayer and "accompaniment" are essential. We cannot expect God to "parachute" vocations to our dioceses. The vital work of encouragement, in addition to prayer, is the department of all of us from pew-person to Pope. The Lord will bless the efforts as long as we make them! AMEN
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