Pride: The Source of the Contemporary Vocations Crisis
There is often talk these days of a “vocations crisis” in the Catholic Church in America. I believe this is an accurate diagnosis, but I would clarify that I believe we have a “vocations crisis” properly speaking, that is, we are not merely lacking priests (or even religious) in terms of numbers. No, the problem is much deeper and more serious than one of manpower.
What is the vocations crisis we are facing:
1. The vocations crisis is a “crisis of response to vocations,” that is, a vocation is a calling from God. Certainly, there is no lack on God’s part.
2. The vocations crisis necessarily affects every vocation. Vocations are complementary because they are given for the benefit of others, of the Church. Therefore, the crisis affects the married life (look at the state of family life in America), the single life (in various manifestations), the priesthood, and the religious life.
3. The vocations crisis is symptomatic of an “identity crisis” inasmuch as people either no longer believe that God created them for a purpose or they would rather invent their own purpose in life.
This identity crisis is fostered by our culture, and it strikes at the heart of every human person. Those who do not know that God created them out of love, to be happy in Heaven live a tragic existence, and it is the duty of Christians to evangelize the culture as well as those persons who suffer in this way. Those who believe God has a purpose in mind for them–a way of loving for which he especially designed them, a way that they will be of service in the Church as they ought to be, a way for them to be happy–but who would rather invent their own purpose are in a different situation. They do not lack Faith–as do those who do not believe God has a vocation for them–they lack Love, which is the more serious deficiency. In fact, it is deadly.
The lack of Faith and the lack of Love have the same cure: the sacraments. These physical meetings with Christ that give us grace are the only way that the disease of Pride will be eradicated from our hearts.
There is a fairly concrete way to overcome the vocations crisis that I can see:
1. The worthy celebration of the liturgy according to the norms of the Church (Without worshiping God rightly, we cannot serve him well in other ways).
2. A rejection of sin, especially sins that undermine the dignity of the human person such as abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, and contraception (These sins, in a very powerful way, teach us to regard the persons whom we ought to love as objects. They destroy the family, which is rightly called “the domestic Church.” Without a family united by real love, it will be very hard for someone to give his life to God.)
Without these, our hearts cannot be free enough to give our lives to God.