By Deacon Anthony Cassaneto
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37)
Today, Christians are faced with so many challenges: religious, educational, economic, and social. Religiously, for example, our present society is non-receptive to the Gospel’s message and, in fact, has become antagonistic to the values that Christians hold sacred: the value of life, religious expression, and the importance of family life.
Cardinal Timothy J. Dolan recently expressed his concern in a podcast released by the Wall Street Journal regarding “the rise of anti-Catholic sentiment and the decline in recognizing the value of traditional faith and values in American society” (The Good Newsroom, 7/12/2023).
If we allow any of the aforementioned challenges to overcome our peace of mind, we can easily loose our way as followers of Christ. Instead of becoming grounded in the faith that sustains us, we become distracted by our worldly concerns.
One of the most critical challenges that our Church faces is the decline in the number of priests in active ministry. This challenge has resulted in the number of parish closings or mergers. It was reported that in one (arch)diocese over one-third of the parishes have closed or merged due to the shortage of priests.
All the baptized are encouraged to pray for priestly vocations and to support those who are being called to serve as a priest or a religious. The Church, indeed, is in need of holy priests to be like “the Good Shepherd and prince of shepherds, who gave his life for his sheep” (Lumen Gentium, §5). Without our priests, there is no Eucharist. Without the Eucharist, there is no sacrament of unity to call us together as a community of faith.
Companions on the journey with the priests and religious are the People of God. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium, Chapter II) reminds us “For those who believe in Christ, who are reborn….not from the flesh, but from water and the Holy Spirit… have established themselves as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, who in times past were not a people, but now are the People of God”(Lumen Gentium § 9). They are to be true witnesses of Christ, spreading the faith by word and deed” (Lumen Gentium, §11).
Who are the the People of God? They are all the faithful [clergy, religious, and the laity] who by Baptism are incorporated into Christ, and in their own way share the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ and to the best of their ability carry on the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world” (Lumen Gentium Chapter IV §31). They transform the world by what they say and the good example they give to all they meet on their journey to the Kingdom.
Specifically, “the laity are given this special vocation: to make the Church present and fruitful in those places and circumstances where it is only through the laity that the Church can become the salt of the earth” (Lumen Gentium, §33).
More importantly, ‘the laity are a Spirit-filled People of God who feed on the Eucharist in faith as a sign of their total dependence on the Lord as the ultimate source of life. They are a People who share its bread with others – bread for the hungry by helping the poor; bread for the oppressed by fighting for justice; bread for the lonely by offering friendship; bread for the despairing by giving encouragement (Lumen Gentium Chapter II, §11). “As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist strengthens our charity, [our ability to reach out to help others] which tends to be weakened in daily life…,” (The Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1394).
We are often reminded that “charity (love) begins at home.” It is within the home, the domestic church, that Christian values and morals are taught and experienced by a child(ren) through parental guidance. In an Open Letter to Catholic Parents, the writer states: “As children are growing toward maturity, the family home is the most important and formative culture.”
The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council reminded the faithful: “Christian married couples and parents…should support one another in grace all through life with faithful love and should train their children (lovingly received from God) in Christian doctrine and evangelical virtues” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium, §41). The parents (godparents) are primarily responsible to help children understand that their God loves them and wants them to be happy. Among the principal Christian values passed onto children are: forgiving, loving and praying for our enemies. Welcoming and serving the marginalized, the “least” among us, is being Christ-like . In general, the Spiritual and Corporal works of mercy, most especially, Caring needy, the widowed and orphan, praying for the physically and emotionally abused, and the elderly who have no one to visit them, bring them the bread of life (the Eucharist) or console them when they are lonely. These are the values that characterize a Christian and will contribute to the transformation of society.
In Christ and in the Church there is no inequality arising from race or nationality, social condition or sex, for there is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave or freeman; there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Chapter IV §32).
The world that you and I grew up in is not the world our children know today. It is a self-centered world in which money, power and prestige are the keys to success. St. Paul in his Letter to the Colossians states: “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, put on compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness and patience” (Col. 3:12). These attributes are all counter-cultural and are rejected by all those who were not gifted with faith.
In the interim, let us turn to the Mother of Jesus, glorified in body and soul in heaven. She is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come, so too does she shine forth on earth, until the day the Lord shall come, as a sign of sure hope and solace to the People of God during its sojourn on earth. (The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, §68).
