Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights

This was released earlier today by the Zenit News Agency:

Pope Francis Calls for Prayer for Vocations

Reflects on Idolatries that Impede Young People from Answering Call to Follow Christ

VATICAN CITY, March 03, 2014 (Zenit.org) – During morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis called on the faithful to pray for vocations free from the idolatries of this world. The Holy Father based his homily on today’s Gospel from St. Mark, which recalled the meeting between Jesus and the rich young man.

“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” the young man asks Christ. The Pope noted that although the young man was good man who observed the commandments, he wanted more. “The Holy Spirit urged him,” the Pope said.

The Gospel recounts that Jesus told him to sell his goods, give the money to the poor and follow him. Upon hearing this, the rich young man went away sad.

“His heart was restless, because of the Holy Spirit that urged him to come closer to Jesus and follow him, it was a full heart, and he did not have the courage to empty it,” the Pope explained.

“And he made the choice: money. A heart full of money…But he wasn’t a thief, a criminal: no, no, no! He was a good man: he never robbed, never! He never swindled: it was honest money. But his heart was imprisoned there, he was tied to money and he did not have the freedom to choose. Money made the choice for him.”

The Holy Father went on to compare the rich young man’s dilemma with the struggle today’s youth go through in answering God’s call. Many who do feel the call resist because their hearts “are full of other things” and do not have the courage to empty it.

“We should pray so that the heart of these young people can be emptied, emptied from other interests, from other loves, so that the heart can become free,” he said. “And this is the prayer for vocations: ‘Lord, send us, send us nuns, send us priests, defend them from idolatry, from the idolatry of vanity, from the idolatry of pride, from the idolatry of power, from the idolatry of money.’ And our prayer is to prepare these hearts to be able to follow Jesus closely.”

Concluding his homily, Pope Francis urged the faithful to pray for young people who have a vocation today so that “they may be free and not be slaves” to their idolatries.

“We should help them so that they may grow, so that the Lord can enter in those hearts and give this indescribable and glorious joy that each person who follow Jesus closely has,” he said.

At Siena College this week, my students were intrigued by the Paschal Mystery and the idea of Jesus suffering; that, if Jesus is God, why is he afraid?  In the end, I explained two issues: first, his sorrow stems from the fact that he is abandoned, he is alone, he is isolated even from God; and second, that this isolation really cannot be, can it?  God IS a relationship of love, that cannot exclude, cannot isolate, cannot abandon.  And so, the sorrow and fear of Jesus, really cannot be, cannot ever exist when it comes to you and me: we can never, ever be abandoned, alone, or isolated from God and his love.

Clearly, the prophet Isaiah reminds us, God cannot forsake us, forget us, withhold his care from us.  Apparently, even in the darkest of circumstanceswhen we’re in the most dire needGod can never forsake us.  Does this mean that life will be easier for us, that somehow we’ll be spared trials and suffering?  No, for as long as we live in this world, the things of this world can always threaten and harm us.

Recall our gospel, where two images are set against each other: God and mammon.  Many translations have equated mammon with money, but actually it is more than money: it’s all the stuff that can be acquired with money.  When I was younger (and much more idealistic and somewhat scrupulous) I used to think I was fine in this regard since I didn’t have much money.  But that’s not the case; it’s not just money, but anything that can be gotten or gained in this world.  So Our Lord is setting up a choice for us between God and everything else.  But if we look at how “everything else” can be begged, borrowed, lost or stolen, there really isn’t any other choice.  We can really only place our trust and hope in God and His care.

This past Mondayfor examplewe had a Finance Committee meeting.  While our parish can no longer avoid the financial crisis of the last 6 years, we must now struggle to meet our own financial concerns head-on.  While I normally approach such problems with analytics and high levels of anxiety, this time, in the end, I have to admit that “I can only do what I can do” and that because all of this is for God and his great glory, God will have to see us through.  It’s not naive, it’s just true.  Remember, the stuff of this world can fail us, but God cannot: it’s not within his nature to forget us, to fail us, to be without care for us.

So what does this mean?  Considering the birds and the flowers of our gospel, we witness how much greater we are and that it would be absurd for God not to care for us.  If he can shower such beauty and generosity on simpler things, then even the most intricate of creationhuman beingswill warrant even greater care and concern.

And so we simply TRUST him.  We give ourselves over to him.  We place ourselvesand nothing elseinto God’s embrace, where he cares for us and provides for us.  For remember: in the end, all these things that money can buy are fleeting, will pass away, or we’ll have to leave them behind on our death…the only thing that is truly lasting is the love we have with the Lord God.

From this day onward, might we be resolute: place ourselves into the trust-worthy embrace of the Lord of all creation?  He who made us and sustains us, is the only One who never changes, is always stable, and is always loving & caring when he deals with us.  Only then can we begin to convince ourselves that we truly trust God over mammon.

God love you, always.

On December 29 of last year, Pope Francis introduced this Prayer to the Holy Family (see below) that he wrote himself, asking the faithful to pray with him for families throughout the world and for the work of the upcoming Synod of Bishops devoted to pastoral care of the family.  Pope Francis has made Christian family life a central priority of his remarkable pontificate.  For guidance and inspiration, he asks us to fix our gaze on the Holy Family of Nazareth.