There’s something wonderful going on here in Westerly. At a time when so many in the Church are talking about a "vocation crisis," we are thriving! Imagine that! Little old Westerly: a place which many Rhode Islanders have never even visited; a place which is sometimes described as being "out in the middle of nowhere"—here we are blessed with an abundance of young men preparing for the priesthood. All of which means that Fr. John is not an anomaly—at least he isn’t in this community. Of course, he shouldn’t be an anomaly ANYWHERE! Because in point of fact, my brothers and sisters, there is no vocation crisis! There never has been, and there never will be. And if you say there is, you are calling God a liar! You see, those who claim there’s a vocation crisis imply that Jesus Christ has abandoned his Church and is not calling a sufficient number of men to shepherd his people! But the Lord promised us through St. Paul that he would supply ALL our needs (which includes our need for priests: Philippians 4:19); and in Matthew 16, Matthew 28 and other places in the New Testament he promised to be with his Church always until the end of time. The eternal bridegroom Jesus Christ is absolutely faithful and will never abandon his bride, the Church, in her need. So why have numbers been down in recent decades? It’s simply because some of those who have been called by Christ have not responded for one reason or another. So let’s name it for what it is—not a vocation crisis, but rather a RESPONSE CRISIS.

We thank God today that the response crisis has not been so severe in Westerly—or in nearby Pawcatuck for that matter. And we pray that by the grace of God the current trend will continue in our community and spread to many other places. But we need to understand that this will not happen automatically or magically. Besides prayer, something else is necessary to help those who are being called to respond wholeheartedly—and the "something else" that’s necessary is not some kind of gimmick! I am constantly amazed at the number of intelligent people in the Church who seem to think that we will draw more young men to the priesthood through some clever ad campaign, or by implementing a Madison Avenue-style marketing strategy. Now please do not misunderstand--I’m not disparaging the many good efforts currently being made to reach out to young men in order to help them discern the Lord’s call. But we are sadly mistaken if we think that those outreach efforts will be the basis of a strong, revitalized priesthood! It won’t happen. And I know that for a fact because the real formula for a strong, vital priesthood (and the formula to deal with the current response crisis) has already been given to us by Almighty God himself in his Holy Word. And so we don’t need any gimmicks. Ask yourself the question: Why did the apostles respond to the call of Christ? Why did they say "yes" to the invitation the Lord gave them to become the very first priests? It’s because they saw the priesthood lived! They saw the priesthood lived to perfection by the great High Priest himself! That was the reason. As the author of the Letter to the Hebrews put it in chapter 7, verse 26, "It was fitting that we should have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, higher than the heavens." And yet in his priesthood our Lord was fully human, for as that same author says in chapter 4, verse 15, Jesus was "tempted in every way that we are, yet never sinned."

Young men today need to see the priesthood lived with power and conviction if they’re going to hear and respond to the Lord’s call in their own lives. Now first of all that means they need to see committed lay people exercising and living out their priesthood in the world! Did those of you who are baptized know that you are priests? No, you don’t share in the ministerial priesthood, but you are members of the priesthood of all believers. As St. Peter tells the baptized in his first letter, "You are a chosen race [and] a royal priesthood," called to offer "spiritual sacrifices" to the Lord in your daily lives. Fr. John is blessed with parents who take their priesthood seriously. In case you don’t know them, they are not "Cafeteria Catholics." And there are many people like that in this community of Westerly—which is one big reason why young men are responding to the Lord’s call here. Their witness provides a vocation-friendly atmosphere.

But something else is also required. The Second Vatican Council tells us that the ministerial priesthood is essentially different from the common priesthood of all believers. Consequently, if a young man is being called to the ministerial priesthood, he needs to see holiness not only in the lives of his parents and other lay people, but also in the lives of ordained priests. And, I dare say, here we find perhaps the biggest reason for the response crisis of recent decades. As Bishop Sheen put it on one of his classic tapes, our world desperately needs holy priests—"and we have not too many today." From my own experience I can attest that the example of good priests is indispensable in the discernment process. You know, we rejoice at what God is doing here in Westerly these days, but it’s really my home parish in Barrington which has set the standard for our diocese in the last two decades. I was the first priest ordained from Holy Angels 15 years ago, but since then 3 others have followed. Four priests in only 15 years. Not bad for a parish half the size of St. Pius. A coincidence? No way. The four of us responded to the call of Christ in no small part because we saw the ministerial priesthood lived effectively—by a good pastor, and by a number of good assistants who served there over the years.

And how exactly is the priesthood "lived?" It’s lived by imitating Jesus Christ, the great high priest. Will any one of us do that perfectly? Of course not. As Hebrews 5 reminds us (and most of us don’t need the reminder!), we are all sinners "beset by weakness." So we will never imitate Jesus perfectly as priests, except when we act sacramentally in his person—as Fr. John will in a few moments when he says the words of Jesus over ordinary bread and wine, and they are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. And yet, in spite of our many imperfections, if our deepest desire is to imitate Christ the priest as we exercise our ministry, that fact will be evident to others and it will have it’s effect. In this regard, I think of Monsignor Struck and the positive influence he had on Fr. John and on all the young men who are discerning a vocation in our community. You didn’t have to be the Cure of Ars to pick up on the deepest desire of his heart.

And so, Fr. John, resolve today to imitate to the best of your ability the great High Priest: the great High Priest who prayed often. To live the ministerial priesthood is to live a life rooted in prayer. Do not neglect your daily Holy Hour. It will provide you with the grace to remain faithful in the midst of the trials, the temptations and the discouragements which are certain to come your way. And it will give you the strength to be a victim—which you must be—since the great High Priest was also a victim. This, of course, is what makes the priesthood of Jesus Christ unique. By definition a priest is one who offers a sacrifice. Old Testament priests offered sacrifices distinct from themselves; Jesus the great High Priest offered himself. To live the ministerial priesthood means to imitate Jesus in his victimhood by self-sacrificial service. Not an easy task, to say the least. But this, Bishop Sheen used to say, is the way the Lord will judge us when our earthly lives have finally ended. As he put it in his autobiography, "When the Lord comes to take us . . . he will look to see if we have any marks of the Cross upon ourselves. He will look at our hands to see if they are crucified from sacrificial giving; he will look at our feet to see if they have been thorn-bruised and nail-pierced searching for lost sheep; he will look at our heart to see if that has been opened to receive his divine heart."

And finally, imitate the great High Priest by taking his Mother as your own. Pope John Paul II has rightly noted that "Mary was called to educate the one eternal priest." She also wants to educate us as her priest sons, by teaching us to surrender to God’s call in our lives as completely as she surrendered to the Lord’s call in hers. If we desire to live the ministerial priesthood, then we will allow Mary to teach us in this way (by her example), and we will continually seek the grace that comes through her powerful intercession.