Joke: It's been said that every pastor ought to have six weeks of vacation each year because if he is a very good shepherd, he needs it; and if he is not a very good shepherd, his congregation needs it. 

In any vocation, there is a need for a vacation. Today, the Church throughout the whole world spends this day praying for the vocation to the priesthood and religious life, especially for priests. Why do we need to pray for priests? In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us saying, “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Is it a call for priests only? The majority of people live in married life, very few live a single life, and fewer choose to live in the life of a priest and religious life. Living in any vocation, we are all called to be a good shepherd. Why do we need to be a good shepherd in our vocation? How do we live our life to be a good shepherd in our vocation?

On this day that the Church designated as a “World Day of Prayer for Vocations” and in response to vocation, Pope Francis once taught, “In the diversity and the uniqueness of each and every vocation, personal and ecclesial, there is a need to listen, discern and live this word that calls to us from on high and, while enabling us to develop our talents, makes us instruments of salvation in the world and guides us to full happiness.” How do we listen, discern, and live? Anthony de Mello once said that the most difficult thing in the world is to see and to listen. Why? It is because to see and to listen requires a response, and a response requires a commitment to either agree or disagree with what we see or listen.

I once was on a highway from Harlingen, Texas, back to Corpus Christi, Texas. I came across a big plastic cover that seemed to fall off from a truck or something that lay on one side of the highway. Drivers slowed down when they approached and took off as it was not their responsibility to pick it up. I joined the crowd and passed it. However, my conscience constantly bugged me what if … I finally couldn’t win my conscience, and I made a U-turn to push that huge plastic cover to the side while it was raining. Each of us can be a good shepherd if we learn to listen and to discern to be responsible not only for our shake but for others as well.

In any vocation, we are invited to learn to listen, to discern, and to live a vocation we choose. So, why and how do we listen, discern, and live our vocation?

Listening, Pope Francis once said, “We need to learn how to listen carefully to his word [God’s word] and the story of his life, but also to be attentive to the details of our own daily lives, to learn how to view things with the eyes of faith, and to keep ourselves open to the surprises of the Spirit.” How do we listen to God’s word and the story of our own life if it’s not to learn to be aware of what’s going on in our own life? What if I didn’t remove that big plastic cover I accidentally ran into, someone might drive into it because of whatever reason it is, and that might cause an accident and might cost life as well. From listening and discerning that helped me to go back to remove it.

During my pastoral year for the priesthood, I was assigned to a parish that had a hospital close by. Part of my schedule was to spend a morning of a week to go to visit patients in that hospital. That one morning on the way to head to the hospital, I came to the stop sign that if I turned left, it led me to the hospital. If I turned right, it led me to a parishioner’s house whom I had come to visit a few times. I came to visit him at his house because I used to visit him in the hospital. He suffered from diabetes so badly that they amputated his both legs to save his life. When I reached that stop sign, instead of turning left to go to the hospital as indicated in my schedule for that day, I turned right to go to this man’s house. When I got close to his house, I saw a lot of people standing outside the house. When I arrived, family members told me that they just rushed him to the hospital. On the way to go to the hospital, I called my pastor to come to anoint him. What if I followed my routine schedule, I would miss the opportunity to see him the last time and he would be missed his last rite. The Lord constantly speaks to us every moment of our lives, but are we aware of his calling to do what is out of our daily routine?

Discerning, the Pope says, “We have to resist the temptations of ideology and negativity, and to discover, in our relationship with the Lord, the places, the means and situations through which he calls us.” What did Jesus do before he performed any miracle, even before his passion and death? Prayers. Seminarians go to confession once every two weeks and pray together twice a day. Why? So, they can resist temptations and negativities and discover the meaning of a relationship with the Lord, places, and situations through vocation. Marriage vocation, have you spent time together in prayers? When was the last time that you prayed together as husband and wife? As a family together?

Not only to resist temptations and to discover places, means, and situations, but also, the Pope said, “Every Christian ought to grow in the ability to “read within” his or her life, and to understand where and to what he or she is being called by the Lord, in order to carry on his mission.” Seminarians go to annual retreats. Day of reflection once every semester. Marriage vocation, when was the last time you went on a retreat or spent time together?

The Pope said, “Living vocation is today! The Christian mission is now! Today the Lord continues to call others to follow him. We should not wait to be perfect in order to respond with our generous “yes”, nor be fearful of our limitations and sins, but instead open our hearts to the voice of the Lord.” Not finished there, the Pope continued, “To listen to that voice, to discern our personal mission in the Church and the world, and at last to live it in today that God gives us.” “May Mary Most Holy,” the Pope said, “who as a young woman living in obscurity heard, accepted, and experienced the Word of God made flesh, protect us and accompany us always on our journey.” You are invited to say one Hail Mary to pray for the vocation to the priesthood and religious life and to pray for your own vocation either to your single life or marriage life. The decision is yours.