Christ's First Vocation Director

by Fr. Roger J. Landry - January 7, 2005

After John the Baptist had pointed out Jesus as the Lamb of God, St. Andrew and a friend ran after Jesus and spent the rest of the afternoon with him. Then Andrew went to find his brother Simon. He said to him, "We have found the Messiah" and brought him to meet Jesus.

Little could Andrew have anticipated what plans Jesus had for his brother! Jesus looked intently at Simon and said, "You are Simon, son of John. You are to be called Cephas [which is translated Peter (or 'rock])]" (Jn 1:42).

Andrew probably would have been the last person to have foreseen, when introducing his brother to Christ, that the Lord would make his brother the rock on whom he would build his Church (Mt 16:18). Well before the Lord would send Andrew out as an apostle, he had already become a fisher of men — by simply being a good brother and a faithful Jew, sharing with the one he loved the great news of the coming of Christ.

St. Andrew was Christ's first "vocation director" and his example is a paradigm for the each of us in the Church today. Andrew shows us that vocations recruitment is not the exclusive work of specialists with fancy titles and particular commissions. It need not involve elaborate strategies. In fact, it is not supposed to be at all extraordinary, but rather the ordinary practice of doing what Andrew himself did: (1) running after Christ; (2) spending time with him; (3) bringing joyful, enthusiastic word of him to those we know and love; (4) leading them into direct contact with Christ; and (5) allowing Christ to do the rest.

Like Andrew, none of us knows what plans the Lord has for our relatives, friends, colleagues, teammates and even adversaries. Some young man we know the Lord may want to be St. Peter's successor. Some girl may have the vocation to be a 21st century Mother Teresa.

But just as Simon and Agnes Bojaxhiu might never have realized their vocations unless others had brought them into direct contact with Christ, so future saints, apostles, priests and religious might never become aware of God's plans for them unless we, like Andrew and Mrs. Bojaxhiu, bring Christ to them and them to Christ.

I think there are three PLACES in particular where we must bring those we know to meet Christ.

The first is in prayer. Most of us know that when Pope John Paul II was a teenager, he dreamed to become an actor. One day, however, he met a 40-year-old tailor named Jan Tyranowski, who, with St. John of the Cross' writings, helped the young Karol Wojtyla and his friends learn how to encounter the Lord more deeply in prayer. Jan told his young friends, essentially, that he had found the Messiah and wanted to show them where to find him. The Lord did the rest.

The second is in the sacrament of confession. Here the Good Shepherd cares individually for each of his lambs. His mercy helps young people not be discouraged by their falls. The heart-to-heart guidance he gives them through his priests helps them mature in self-knowledge and self-mastery. And his grace helps them to say "yes" to him in all their choices, preparing them to say "yes" to him when he at last makes his plans for them plain.

The third is in the Eucharist, both at Mass and in adoration. Most young people entering the seminary and religious life today state — as so many recent vocational testimonies on the web attest — that their whole lives changed when they started to receive the Lord daily and go regularly to adore him.

It's no surprise that priestly and religious vocations have plummeted at the same time that the practice of frequent confession, daily Mass attendance, and Eucharistic adoration have nosedived in the Church. Vocations will increase when the Church as a whole, and young people in particular, begin again to encounter the Lord there more regularly. We see this already happening in those parishes and dioceses where contact with Christ in these ways is vigorously promoted.

A young man who treasures the Lord's forgiveness in confession and his abiding presence in the Eucharist cannot help wondering about the priesthood that uniquely makes them possible.

A young woman who falls in love with her merciful and Eucharistic Lord cannot avoid marveling about whether she might spend her life wedded to that Love.

For us to bring them to Christ in these ways, however, we must be able to say, first, that "we have found the Messiah" there ourselves, and then not be bashful about inviting others to experience the same joy.

The Messiah and Harvest Master, who never ceases to call young people to follow him all the way, will take it from there. And what he does may surprise us.

Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.