By Fr Soroj Mullick, SDB –
The Youth Synod (YS) document focused on young Catholics’ baptismal call to holiness (YS 165), their contributions to the Church and on the process of growing in faith, and in discerning their vocation in life. There are young Catholics who are involved in parishes or communities through their services, time, talent and membership in groups and movements.
Yet, some clergy members doubt their commitment and are unwilling to share responsibility with them. Young people do challenge the Church to find clearer ways to express the teachings of the Church or to respond to new situations with the wisdom of faith, “conversion of heart and a renewal of structures” (YS 116). The vocational differences are gathered in the one and universal call to holiness. The Church is called to “a change of perspective”: through the sanctity of many young people willing to give up their life in the midst of persecutions in order to remain faithful to the Gospel.
The Synod members, in a letter addressed the young people, expressed with assurance that they wish to hear the voice of Jesus, “the eternally young Christ”, in the joys, hopes, pain and anguish of the young. The Church wants them to get involved shaping their own history, by getting rid of indifference, superficiality and discouragement. Going beyond the material world with short-term successes, pleasures, the youth are asked to rise up and turn towards love, beauty, truth and justice (NCD 62). This is holiness of life. Youth needs to be led by the Spirit with full of dynamism and spiritual depth acquired through moments of silence, prayers, reflections and catechesis, penetrated by the presence of risen Christ, and in encounter with him in the sacraments and in concrete life situation.
Emphasis on the Vocational Dimension and Mission
Vocation is one of the main themes of the YS and is mentioned often in the YS document. It is a ‘Vocation to Follow Jesus’ (YS 81) being fascinated by Him whose life was good, poor and simple, spent in generosity and offered as a gift, because Christ “fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear”(GS 22).
The common Christian vocation is the call to holiness, which can be lived out in every state of life in faith: young or old, single or married or in the priesthood or religious life. Vocation is not a script to be recited but a faith-response to be lived. It is not a theatrical moment without traces. Youth being the age of decisions, the Church regrets the provisional culture, which supports the idea of an indefinitely prolonged adolescence. The youth synod calls for a “true and specific vocational culture” with a mission towards those in the peripheries in the society with dedication to an ‘outward Church’.
A survey and research, born out of the World Youth Day (2000), following the qualitative method of life history had some revealing truths. Two dimensions were emphasized: religious experience and vocation of the adolescents and of youth. One cannot minimize the outcome of the research: permanence of vocational sign; divisions between those who are within and outside the Church; persistence of the sacred elements. Though religious vocation is not much a ‘talk of the day’, many youth, in spite of the secularization, question themselves on their vocational choice in life. The seeds of vocation seem to fall in abundance even today. But very few cultivate it. It is because the type of faith that is lived by them is related to a God a bit less “Other” and more of a “Friend”.
A protective God who accuses and reassures. But everything ends here. He does not call one to involvement, sacrifice and choices against the current. Secondly, in today’s culture, there is no positive orientation toward a particular vocation, that is, becoming priests and nuns. Often the parents dissuade their children who manifest and express a promising sign in such vocation. The third motive is, a lack of true vocational guidance for the youth through catechesis and accompaniment, in reflecting seriously on one’s vocation.
The single priestly life with a logic of faith and self-gift is a constituent element of the Church that leads to paths through which the grace of baptism acts and directs toward that holiness the young people are all called to. The communal life lived intensely by the youth through catechesis, the Eucharistic celebration in signs, symbols (liturgy) and preaching, and through silent contemplative adoration, transmits the “faith and formation for mission” and speaks of God. Therefore, there has to be a careful selection of candidates for the priesthood and to seminary programs to ensure that future priests are men who can recognize the gifts of others, relate well to women and men of all ages, and are devoted to serving the poor.
Fr. Soroj Mullick, SDB is a Salesian priest from the Kolkata Province. He has a Licentiate in Catechetics and a Doctorate (Christian Education) from UPS, Italy. He has number of years of teaching experience in college and in the formation of future priests. Besides, he has written number of research papers and articles, and has 25 years of Ministry in India and abroad as Educator, Formator, Retreat Preacher, Editor and engaged in School, Parish Catechetical & Youth Ministry. He is now an assistant priest in Bandel Basilica, rendering pastoral and catechetical ministry to the parishioners and to the pilgrims. He can be contacted at [email protected].