The harvest, He told them, is plentiful enough, but the laborers are few; you
must ask the Lord to Whom the harvest belongs to send laborers out for the
harvesting. (Luke 10:2)
Yet still, when He looked at the multitudes, He was moved with pity for them,
seeing them harried and abject, like sheep that have no shepherd. Thereupon He
said to His disciples, The harvest is plentiful enough, but the laborers are
few; you must ask the Lord to Whom the harvest belongs to send laborers out for
the harvesting. (Matthew 9:36-38)
Holy Christians Guarantee Holy Priests | Bishop Fulton J. Sheen | From The Priest Is Not His Own | Ignatius Insight
Holiness descends in the Church from the All-Holy God through Christ, His bishops and His priests, to the
entire community that is the Mystical Body. But there is simultaneously an
ascending movement of holiness from the Christian community to the All-Holy
God. Particularly is this true of vocations to the priesthood and the religious
life.
There is no priest who does not go through the motions of urging the faithful
to pray for vocations. But, too often, the phrases are formal. They are what is
expected of one. In the priest's mind, they are a part of the announcements, on
a level with the card party for the Ladies' Auxiliary or the Catholic Youth
Organization skating meet.
These other activities are, of course, not to be sneered at. They too foster a
Christian life and therefore stimulate vocations. But can we put them in the
same category as prayer? Out of hundreds of possible ways of fostering
vocations, prayer was the single one Our Lord specified.
What prompted these words? Luke says that Christ spoke them on the occasion of
choosing seventy-two disciples (Lk 10:1). Matthew sketches the background in
more detail. It was after a long journey, he noted, and the Lord's heart was
touched by compassion for the masses who hungered for knowledge of heaven but
did not know where to search for what they lacked.
Not only those already in the Church but equally those outside her make Him
yearn for laborers, lest the plentiful wheat rot in the fields.
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