"All for you", the testimony of a young seminarianConsecrated Laity: with Christ, through Christ, for ChristP. Matteo Curina: "One does not abandon one's former life for no reason: one leaves everything to follow the Lord."Pope Francis has published his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, to be celebrated on April 30. This year, the Pontiff proposes to reflect on the idea that vocation is grace and mission, because "it is a free gift and, at the same time, it is a commitment to set out on a journey, to go out, to bring the Gospel".
The origin of every vocation is love, "because this is, from always and forever, the dream of God: that we live with Him in communion of love". Francis recalls this through the words of St. PaulIn Christ, God the Father "chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will" (Ef 1, 4-5)".
Will and freedom
The Pope says that this call to love, which becomes concrete for each one of us in a vocation, is "inscribed in our innermost being and is the bearer of the secret of happiness". But it can also come unexpectedly. This is how the Pontiff tells it: "It was like this for me on September 21, 1953, when, while going to the annual student's feast, I felt the impulse to enter the church and go to confession. That day changed my life and left an imprint that lasts to this day." However, everyone receives the call in a different way, because "God's imagination to call us is infinite".
Yes, a response is expected from everyone. It is in this harmony between the will of God and the freedom of man that vocation lives. The Pope points out that "the gift of vocation is like a divine seed that sprouts in the soil of our life, opens us to God and opens us to others to share with them the treasure we have found".
Vocation as mission
Every vocation is also a sending out into the world. Francis says that "there is no vocation without mission. And there is no happiness and full realization of oneself without offering to others the new life we have found. The divine call to love is an experience that cannot be silenced".
In fact, the Pope recalls what he has already said in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii GaudiumEach one of us, without excluding anyone, can say: "I am a mission on this earth, and that is why I am in this world".
It is the mission of every Christian to be a living witness to the joy of Christ and his Church. This "translates into works of material and spiritual mercy, in a lifestyle open to all and meek, capable of closeness, compassion and tenderness, which goes against the current with respect to the culture of discarding and indifference".
Without voluntarism, with Christ
However, the Pope warns that we cannot fall into voluntarism. Our witness "is not born simply from our abilities, intentions or projects, nor from our will, nor even from our effort to practice the virtues, but from a profound experience with Jesus". As an example of an experience with Christ, Francis mentions the next World Youth Day, which will take place in August and will be held in Lisbon.
For we are not witnesses of something, but "of Someone, of a Life". And for this reason, we are "marked by fire by this mission to enlighten, bless, enliven, raise up, heal, liberate" (Apostolic Exhortation, Apostolic Exhortation, p. 4). Evangelii gaudium, 273)".
Personal vocation, universal spirit
The Pope wanted to recall that "in the Church, we are all servants according to different vocations, charisms and ministries". Therefore, the mission of the laity, "committed to building up the family as a small domestic church and to renew the various environments of society with the leaven of the Gospel; in the witness of consecrated women and men, totally dedicated to God for their brothers and sisters as a prophecy of the Kingdom of God; in the ordained ministers (deacons, priests, bishops) placed at the service of the Church; in the service of the poor and the needy; in the work of the Church; in the work of the Church; in the work of the Church; in the work of the Church; in the work of the Church; in the work of the Church; and in the work of the Church. Wordof prayer and the communion of God's holy people".
The personal mission of each one must also be seen in the overall richness of the Church. "In this sense, the Church is a vocational symphony, with all vocations united and diverse, in harmony and at the same time outbound to radiate in the world the new life of the Kingdom of God". To conclude his message, the Pope quotes the prayer composed by St. Paul VI for the first World Day of Vocations:
"Jesus, divine Shepherd of souls, who called the Apostles to make them fishers of men, draw to You also the ardent and generous souls of the young, to make them Your followers and Your ministers; make them sharers in Your thirst for universal redemption. [...]discover the horizons of the whole world for them. [...]that, responding to your call, they may prolong your mission here on earth, build up your mystical Body, the Church, and be "salt of the earth and light of the world" (Mt 5,13)".
