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On any
Saturday morning, it’s not unusual to see parents loading young people
into vans and heading off to baseball, field hockey, football, and
soccer fields or to school gymnasia, skating rinks, or Tae-Kwon-Do
storefronts. Once at their destination, parents typically drop off the
young people for scheduled practices or competitive events. Then, after
the perfunctory “good byes” and “love ya’s,” most parents head away to
complete other chores as the young people run to meet up with their
teammates, friends, and coaches.
For Carlton
Henry, there never was a van. Nor were there teammates. Many of us
would wonder how any of the young people Carlton hung with in the ’hood
could be called “friends.” In the inner-city New York neighborhood
where Carlton grew up, young people channeled their as of yet unbridled
energies into gangs, not into organized athletics. Likewise, these
young people learned about drugs and alcohol through experience itself
by observing others or becoming involved in drugs, not through a
school’s drug education program. Carlton ate his “family meal” each day
in a homeless shelter, not at home surrounded by members of his family.
That was how
Carlton Henry lived until one day someone told Carlton to go on Saturday
morning to a small upstairs gym located in lower Manhattan. That
challenge―a “call” that penetrated Carlton’s soul―ultimately, changed
his life.
When Carlton
entered that gym the following Saturday morning, he first noticed that
the floor and walls were painted white. Then he noticed about eighty
people, each wearing a white outfit, moving around in what looked to be
some sort of funky ballet. Standing at the center of the room was a man
who appeared to be in his early 30s. His name was Peter Westbrook.
Peter had
grown up in the projects located in Newark, New Jersey. He knows
first-hand about the desperation and anger that festers in the souls of
the young people who live in the inner city. Westbrook also knows their
tendency to settle scores by fighting. In fact, his Japanese mother
knew her son needed an outlet for the desperation and anger filling his
soul that,
when he
was accepted to New York University on a scholarship,
she urged
Peter to join its fencing team. It was his mother’s challenge―a “call”
that penetrated Peter’s soul―which changed his life.
Several
years later, in 1976 to be precise, Peter Westbrook went to the Olympics
as a member of the US fencing team. Then, in 1984 (eight years after
his last Olympic competition due to the 1980 boycott), Westbrook won an
Olympic bronze medal in individual sabre. It was the first medal the
U.S. Fencing team had won in two decades.
After the
1984 Olympics, Peter Westbrook’s love for the sport and the
opportunities it provided him continued unabated. Seven years later,
Peter Westbrook used his own money to establish the Peter Westbrook
Foundation. His goal was to assist inner-city young people to achieve
their hopes and dreams through the sport of fencing.
Westbrook’s
forty-week program not only teaches young people the sport but also
emphasizes structure and discipline as well as academic success.
Westbrook notes, “When they realize the dedication they put in fencing,
they can accomplish anything they put into school.”
In 2000,
Peter Westbrook sent three of his program’s graduates to the Summer
Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.
“If it
wasn't for fencing I probably would have been dead by now, like many of
my friends,” Westbrook says. “That’s why I knew it would work for our
young children in the inner city. Fencing saved my life.”
Perhaps so.
But, I disagree. I believe Peter’s mother saved her son. When she
recognized his desperation and anger, she recommended that Peter take up
the sport of fencing. If his mother hadn’t called her son to risk
changing his life by offering him a positive alternative, who knows what
might have happened to Peter Westbrook? For his part, Peter believes he
would be dead.
Likewise,
when Carlton Henry entered the second-floor gym on that fateful Saturday
morning, he didn’t have a clue about the difference between Peter
Westbrook and the others at the time, but he sure does now. As
Westbrook attests, “I see all of them at the same time, I see them train
and I see them compete and each one amazes me. There may be four people
in this room headed to the Olympics and it’s very possible that a few
may come home with medals. That’s a good thing, but then I look over at
Carlton in the corner over there. After years of drugs, gangs, and
living in homeless shelters, here he is―you tell me where the victory
is.”
Perhaps
fencing saved Carlton Henry’s life, too.
Again, I
disagree. I believe that unnamed voice who called Carlton Henry to risk
venturing to that small, second floor gym saved Carlton’s life. If that
person hadn’t challenged Carlton Henry to risk changing his life by
offering Carlton a positive alternative, it’s pretty clear what would
have happened to Carlton Henry. He’d be dead, too, whether his death
would be attributable to drugs, disease, or violence.
The fourth
Sunday of Easter is called “Good Shepherd Sunday.” Today’s gospel
focuses us upon the image of Jesus as the “Good Shepherd” who knows each
of his sheep personally and calls each by name. Jesus tells his
disciples that his sheep recognize the voice of their shepherd and
follow wherever he leads, especially in the darkest of valleys as well
as in the most peaceful of plains.
Whether he
realizes it or not, Peter Westbrook is following the example of the Good
Shepherd. Through his dedication to help inner city young people
channel their desperation and anger into positive behaviors, Peter
provides assistance in learning how to make good choices. “In the
suburbs or in small towns, kids have to make a bad choice for things to
go wrong,” he says. “Here they have to go out of their way to make
something good happen.”
So, too,
that unnamed voice was following the example of the Good Shepherd.
Whether that person knew it or not, by calling Carlton Henry to risk
changing his life by challenging Carlton to venture into that small,
second floor gym, it was that person who awakened in Carlton’s soul the
possibility that his life could be different.
For 42 years
now, the fourth Sunday of Easter has also been called for the “World Day
of Prayer for Vocations.” It is a day on which Roman Catholics
throughout the world unite in prayer to ask God to help young people
discern and respond wholeheartedly to God’s challenge to love God and to
love neighbor as much as they love themselves.
It’s that
last clause that characterizes the adolescent years in our nation and,
sadly, some―if not many―adolescents never move beyond selfish
individualism because a mother or father, a sister or brother, an aunt
or uncle, a grandparent, a teacher, a coach, or some unnamed voice never
has challenged young persons by name to risk changing their lives by
offering a positive alternative that penetrates their souls.
While many
of us may think that this day of prayer dedicated to vocations means
praying for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, that is not
the proper focus of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Instead, we
pray this day by petitioning God to help young people, in particular, to
discern better the type of loving person God is calling each of them to
become and to embrace that call―one’s vocation―wholeheartedly in a
unique and unrepeatable way.
It may be
that God is calling a young person to discover how to be a truly loving
person through the Sacrament of Matrimony or Ordination. These are
wonderful vocations and the world certainly needs the evangelical
witness to true love that a husband, a wife, and a priest can offer by
living out their vocations in a personal, unique, and unrepeatable way.
At the same time, God may be calling another young person to discover
how to be a truly loving person through one’s evangelical witness as a
single person or a religious sister or brother. Those are also
wonderful vocations. Undoubtedly, the world needs many generous young
people who wholeheartedly live out their vocations and give witness
through the example of their lives in the workplace or in various
apostolic endeavors.
What we pray
for on this World Day of Prayer for Vocations, then, is not that God
send more priests and brothers and sisters to staff our parishes and
schools and other Church-sponsored organizations, as important and
critical as that need really and truly is. Instead, we pray that God
will assist young people to discern the person God is asking them to
become as truly loving human beings. Is it to be a dedicated and
faith-filled spouse, parent, priest, deacon, single person, or
consecrated religious?
But, having
started there, that is not where our prayer concludes on this day.
In addition,
we pray on this World Day of Prayer for Vocations that God grant young
people the grace to respond wholeheartedly to God’s unique and
unrepeatable call so each young person will bring to fulfillment the
vocation God is entrusting to them.
It’s so very
easy for young people to become distracted by the desire for material
things―many of them good things―that young people view responding to the
vocation which they’ve discerned as being beset with so many impediments
that they decide the price is so high that they can’t respond to God’s
call. That’s what Jesus’ parable about the rich young man is all
about. This poor fellow so worries about everything but what will give
“meaning” to his life that he could not respond to Jesus’ call to
“follow me.”
How many
young people decide the price is so high that they “live together”
rather than witness to the vocational dignity that would be uniquely
theirs as God calls them to the Sacrament of Marriage?
How many
young people decide that celibacy is such a grave impediment to human
happiness and fulfillment, a price that is so high, that they aren’t
willing to witness to the vocational dignity that would be uniquely
theirs as God calls them to the Sacrament of Ordination or the
consecrated religious life?
How many
young people decide that they must have it all―marriage, children, and a
high-paying job―but end up giving the pursuit of money first priority
and neglect the vocational dignity that would be uniquely theirs as
spouses and as parents and as they would give witness to their vocation
through their wholehearted, full, and completely selfless dedication to
a vibrant and rich family life?
The World
Day of Prayer for Vocations is meant to focus us as the worldwide
community of Roman Catholics upon the unique and unrepeatable vocation
God has entrusted to each of us. Our lives will have
“meaning”―eternal
“meaning,”
in fact―only when we live out our lives as vocations.
This
“meaning” will
emerge as we
pursue holiness of life and don’t not lust blindly after what the world
calls “success” as the “be all” and the “end all” of existence.
This
“meaning” will
emerge as we
become a loving, forgiving, and healing presence in our homes,
neighborhoods, cities, nation, and world and, especially, when as we
don’t expect of others what we are unwilling to do ourselves.
This
“meaning” will
emerge as we
proclaim the Gospel and don’t fear speaking the truth to a world whose
members have become ensnared by the evils of consumerism, materialism,
and irresponsible individualism.
This
“meaning”
will emerge
as we build families whose members reverence one other as they live out
their vocations and serve as a source of inspiration for others.
This
“meaning” will
emerge when
we serve others by challenging them to risk changing their lives by
engaging in positive and uplifting behavior.
Read the
gospels for yourself. You will find there is only one thing Jesus ever
asked his disciples to pray for. What is that, you ask? Jesus exhorted
his disciples to pray that the Master of the harvest send more workers
for the harvest.
In our own
generation, the harvest is as great as it has been in any generation.
Many people are thirsting to see God’s face. They will only see God’s
face in the witness we offer through the example of our lives. That
will only happen as we live out our vocations wholeheartedly.
Yes, the
work is plentiful and the challenges and impediments are many. Yes, the
laborers are few. But that doesn’t mean that God hasn’t called many
young people—and all of us as well—to assist in the harvest. No, the
simple truth is that God calls each and every human being by name.
However, as today’s
gospel reminds us, only a very few people are willing to discern and,
then, to respond wholeheartedly to the call God has given them.
On this
“Good Shepherd Sunday” and “World Day of Prayer for Vocations,” we unite
ourselves in prayer as Roman Catholics to ask that God assist young
people to trust God, first, by discerning His call and, second, by
responding wholeheartedly to His call. We pray also that God grace
young people not to allow their failures and sins as well as the
tempting allure of the many wonderful things of this world to keep them
from discerning their vocations and responding wholeheartedly to them.
Furthermore, we pray that young people recognize that their happiness
will be found only as they devote themselves to living out their unique
and unrepeatable vocations, whether that will be as dedicated and
faith-filled spouses, parents, priests, deacons, single people, or
consecrated religious.
And, lest we
forget, we also pray today that we don’t fail to challenge young people
to respond to God’s call. Thank God for people like Peter Westbrook’s
mother and that unnamed person who challenged Carlton Henry to risk
changing his life. These two people weren’t afraid to respond to the
stirrings of God’s call in their souls by proclaiming the Gospel that
changed two lives. Our prayer would be incomplete this day if we didn’t
ask God to strengthen us to challenge our young people to do the same.
“Duc in
altum,” Pope John Paul II reminds us today about following Christ.
Although he died two weeks ago, Pope John Paul II continues to speak to
young people today in the message he wrote for this 42nd World Day of
Prayer for Vocation. Before he died, John Paul II wrote:
Dear adolescents and young people, it is to you in a particular way
that I renew the invitation of Christ to “put out into the deep.” You
find yourselves having to make important decisions for your future. I
still hold in my heart the memory of the many opportunities I have had
over they years to meet with young people, who have now become adults,
some of them your own parents perhaps, or priests or religious, your
teachers in the faith. I saw them, happy as young people should be, but
also thoughtful, because they were conscious of a desire to give full
“meaning” to their lives. I came to recognize more and more how strong
is the attraction in young people for the values of the spirit, and how
sincere is their desire for holiness. Young people need Christ, but
they also know that Christ chose to be in need of them.
Dear young men and women! Trust Christ; listen attentively to his
teaching, fix your eyes on his face, persevere in listening to his
word. Allow him to focus your search and your aspirations, all your
ideals and the desires of your heart….
To you, young people, I repeat the words of Jesus: “Duc in altum!”
In proposing his exhortation once more to you, I think at the same time
of the words which Mary, his Mother, addressed to the servants at Cana
in Galilee: “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). Dear young people,
Christ is asking you to “put out into the deep” and the Virgin Mary is
encouraging you not to hesitate in following him.
As Pope John
Paul II has noted, every human being desires to live a “full” life.
This World Day of Prayer for Vocations reminds us that there is
something more than a “full” life and that is a life that gives
“meaning” to other people by challenging them to risk changing their
lives by offering them a positive alternative. As former-United Nations
Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjöld,
noted four decades ago in his diary, Markings: “Do not seek
death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a
fulfillment” (p. 159). That road is the wholehearted acceptance of
one’s vocation through which each and every one of us gives witness to
perfect love of God and neighbor, just as the Good Shepherd has done for
us. |
HOMILY
