4th Sunday of Easter Year A 2026. Vocation Sunday

Christ chooses to be with us and He does that through the gift of the Eucharist. At least that was the message of last Sunday’s Gospel. He inserted Himself into the despair of the Disciples who were fleeing from what they thought was the failure of Jesus’ political programme.

The means to ensure His Presence is the Eucharist. And the human instrument to make present the Eucharist is the priesthood. Today it is a good time to speak about being called to the sacrament of Holy Orders.

The word order suggests hierarchy, rank, arrangements etc. In terms of arrangements, both the Responsorial Psalm and the Gospel outline the pastoral pattern of what it is to be a priest. God is the Good Shepherd and Jesus calls Himself the Gate of the sheepfold. He is the one who watches over the flock and is prepared to lay down His life for the sheep. Pope Francis echoed this when he said that the shepherds must smell like their sheep.

There have been reports of the increase in the number of baptisms this year at Easter. But the statistics of priestly vocation show stagnation or in some places, the number seems to be dwindling. How shall we approach this sacramental crisis?

There is an inseparable link between the priesthood and the Eucharist. One is unable to exist without the other. In celebrating the Eucharist, the priest is ordained to act “in persona Christi”. The Eucharist, as the source and summit of Christian life, is the purpose of a priest’s ministry. Given by Christ to His Church, the priesthood is for the purpose of confecting the Eucharist to provide the faithful with the means of salvation brought about by Christ.

Very central to the salvation of humanity is the Eucharist that Christ offered us before He returned to the Father. That means He intended the Mass as a way for us to be present at the sacrifice of Calvary. Each one can take part in Christ’s sacrifice and gain inexhaustible fruits from that. For centuries, we have lived this faith.

The crisis caused by scandals notwithstanding, we need to address the issue of the shortage of priests in the local Church. Time flies and passes us by quickly and often without our realising it, we wake up and suddenly we are already in our 60s with the shadow of our past years stretching behind and the prospect of a future that is rather dim. The median age of priests falls in the territory of heart problems or diabetes or any of the debilitating diseases.

Still, the parishes need to be staffed. The solutions of the Anglican communion, of married priesthood or a female clergy have not in any way worked. Their numbers continue to drop. We have increased lay participation as a solution butstill it remains that our theology does not or cannot support the confection of the Eucharist without Holy Orders. We may want to change the theology but that is the topic of a conversation for another day.

What can be done in the meantime?

Firstly, recognise the connexion. If Christ intended the Eucharist as the ordinary means of salvation and the priesthood as the instrument that makes thatpossible, then the lack of instruments cannot be a case of the absence of calling. Christ has not stopped inviting young men to join Him in this sacrifice of praise and worship. It is we who have stopped listening and responding. The vocation crisis is symptomatic of a generation that has not responded to God—ours is an era deaf to God’s calling.

I say this with a kind of apathy. It is not that I do not care. Rather, I am way past the sell-by-date and I am increasingly irrelevant. When I am dead, it is not that I do not care. Rather I cannot care because the dead has no say in this world. And the shortage of vocation is not my problem but it is definitely your problem or the problem of the living.

Second, a vocation is not death. The idea that one sacrifices and loses everything is not true. It is a sacrifice, yes and, it makes a lot more sense for the word “sacrifice” means that we trade our life for the life of others. However, the less we believe in the Resurrection, the less appealing will the idea of sacrifice be because the priesthood is truly an oblation. One must believe that there is more to this life that makes it possible to embrace the loneliness attendant with giving up one’s autonomy.

Thirdly, the model for our economic life is basically driven by production and manufacturing. The metrics of success for us are work and wealth accumulation. Poverty is simply having nothing to shout about. It is not difficult to translate such a model into the priesthood. The same standard for the measurement of success easily seeps into the Church. With wealth inequality, our idea of justice is equitable distribution of wealth etc. Priests are drawn into this endeavour and are supposed to be at the forefront of fighting for justice. It is surely a noble enterprise. But behind this utilitarian mentality, we easily reduce a person’s worth to his or her ability to produce. So what happens when a person has finally outlived his or her usefulness?

The proliferation of homes for the aged is witness to this kind of thinking that a person is valued only when he or she can produce. Thus, our elderly priests are shunted to homes and there, like other elderly, are left to slowly fade away. The point here is that the priesthood is fundamentally a call “in persona Christi”.

Ultimately, he does not need to do anything except to celebrate Mass and make present Christ’s Body and Blood. Sadly, we value people for what they can doand not who they are. A priest is a priest by virtue of his ordination; not by virtue of what he does or can accomplish.

Finally, Christ chose 12 fallible men to shepherd His people. The first amongst them was the first to deny Him. The one trusted with money was the one who sold Him. Without a doubt Christ chose frail and flawed men to stand in His person. However, now what we demand is, as in everything in this world, from politician to priest, a candidate who is perfect. Apparently no one can fail and there is no room in the closet for any skeletons. But whatever our standard, there is no denying that Christ willed for priests to pastor His people. Thus, our job is to pray for more young men to courageously accept Holy Orders and pray for them to grow into the Heart of Christ so that like the Master who laid down His life, we will have holy priests who willingly lay down their lives for the people whom they serve.

Good Shepherd Sunday Year B 2021

The difference between a Catholic and Protestant designation for a “man of the cloth” is the origin of the handle for the 4th Sunday of Easter. Pastor is the term generally used to denote a minister in the Protestant circle. Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. In the Gospel, Jesus clearly paints Himself as the Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. It is not surprising that Jesus should endorse a model of servant and self-sacrificing leadership borrowed from an agrarian setting as the pedigree of the ancient patriarchs and prophets was pastoral. Moses was tending to sheep when God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. David was a shepherd boy when the Lord chose him to be King. In other words, these leaders brought with them their shepherding skills as they represented God who Himself, in sacred scriptures, has been described as the Shepherd and the people His flock.

Today is also called Vocation Sunday which traditionally has been dedicated to the promotion of priestly and/or consecrated life. Parishes used to host elaborate bazaars where diocesan seminarians and various religious mingle around to promote the calling to priestly and/or religious life. These days, a shift may have taken place as the emphasis is placed on the universal call to holiness.[1] In other words, every baptised person is called to holiness. There is no such thing as a “higher calling” for the priestly and/or religious vocation. Under this universal clarion, married couples have as much responsibility to answer the call to live the fullness of Christian life and embrace the perfection of charity.

Furthermore, in some parts of the world, vocation to priestly and/or religious life is mostly unheard of. In fact, the more developed the economy is and the more progressive the society is, the more unnecessary is this call. In particular, a priest may have limited utility for people who grieve or those who need to signal a rite of social passage, like baptism, confirmation, marriage and funeral. Otherwise, he is superfluous. This situation basically reflects society’s lack of need for God and fundamentally, it is an indication that God is redundant. More and more the priesthood (and by extension religious life) is becoming irrelevant in a dystopian worldview that has painted God out of the picture.

In the context of this pandemic, there is a yearning detected and also a weakness revealed. Firstly, the general mood is that every nation has been trying to get back to where we were. What were we? From the mouth of Pitbull[2], “No doubt about it”, we are straining to return to that domain where “You can do what you wanna do. And do who you wanna do. Be what you wanna be. Freak who you wanna freak”. We yearn for the life we knew before Covid-19 blanketed us. There is a mental fatigue that comes from this loss of “freedom” and we are craving for the unregimented life we were accustomed to. Such a longing is natural but our Covid response may have just uncovered our unchallenged practical atheism[3]. In a certain sense, humanity wants to get back to an almost “Godless” past rendering any talk of priestly/religious vocation rather mindless. Why should we be concerned about a vocation which is slowly but surely relegated into irrelevance?

Good Shepherd Sunday is perhaps a chance to get reacquainted with the significance of Holy Orders. What is it to be a priest in the context of sacramental theology? It is to be an extension of Christ. According to the Catechism, “…in the age of the Church, Christ lives and acts in and with His Church through the sacraments”.[4]

Since the Sacraments are actions of Christ done through the Church, we can appreciate the powerful instrumentality of Holy Orders. Christ instituted this Sacrament so that He can save humanity. But, in these days as we are rightly reminded of human frailty and moral fragility, there is no currency for the priesthood. Such a despairing sentiment whilst proper actually reveals how poor and dependent we are. This question of why God chooses weak men to serve His Church comes a position of strength, a position which thinks that the strength of the Gospel message lies in the personal prowess of the messenger. But, every single Apostles in the Upper Room was nothing but weakness personified. Peter denied Jesus. Thomas doubted Him. Prior to that, Judas sold Jesus out. The current scandals only illustrate for us that from prince to pauper, no one is immune from the indignity of succumbing to human weaknesses. There is no doubt that everyone from clergy to congregation ought to be more professional. The idea being that weaknesses, heinous human flaws do not invalidate Christ’s means of salvation.

The priesthood is vital to the mission of Christ in saving humanity. St Paul writing to the Romans, speak of “how others are to hear if no one preaches to them”. In the context of the universal call to holiness, that is, the priesthood of all the baptised, every Christian is to preach with his or her life the Gospel truth. However, two quotes from St John Mary Vianney may help us understand the heart of this particular vocation to the priesthood. Firstly, he says, “There is nothing so great as the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, He would have given it to us”. Secondly, "O, how great is the priest! ... If he realised what he is, he would die... God obeys him: he utters a few words and the Lord descends from heaven at his voice, to be contained within a small host". This second quote must be contextualised especially in an age of personality cult. Instead, it should be read in light of Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel, where Jesus declared to the Jewish crowd, which subsequently abandoned Him, that eternal life is premised on eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood. He did not hedge or fudge on this requirement. The Sacrament of Holy Orders is the guarantee given by Him that the Church will always have the power to confect His Body and His Blood so that our passage to eternal life can be assured.

Holy Orders is necessary for Christ’s earthly mission to save the world. St Pio Pietrelcina said this, “It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do without Holy Mass”. For this reason, we should never stop praying for more vocations in general and to the priesthood in particular.[5]

Today is a day for the appreciation of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. It is not a focus on the person of the priest. Rather, in the light of Easter, the priesthood was instituted by Christ for the mission of salvation. Without the priest, there is no Eucharist. Without the Eucharist, there is no Church. Without the Church, there is no salvation. Christ cannot save virtually. He cannot even save with a magic wand. He saves sacramentally. Through Holy Orders, Jesus gives us His Body and Blood, the only food that can sustain the pilgrim on the journey to eternity.


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[1]Lumen gentium (LG5). Dogmatic Constitution of the Church

[2]Pitbull, aka Armando Christian Pérez, the American rapper in the music video from the TV series Empire, featuring Jussie Smollet.

[3]Simply defined as belief in God but living as if there is no God.

[4]Despite our awe with technology and its powerful applications, salvation does not come from human capability. We tend to forget that programmes, no matter how sophisticated they are in themselves, do not save. It may be true to an extent, as witnessed in history, that Man has, by and large, solved the problem of human hunger. But what happens when human efforts fail? The pandemic gives us the answer on two front. Firstly, human solutions provide the condition for the possibility of human flourishing. Secondly, more importantly, programmes can only do that much. No matter how much it can accomplish, salvation belongs to Christ alone. This means we need Christ. We need the Sacraments.

[5]It is ironical that we idolise people through the cult of personality and yet recoil at the “pedestalisation” of the priest. But this is for a good reason because the person of the priest is NOTHING more than a signpost to the sacred. Sadly, through personality cult, he has been reduced to be a purveyor of preferences. Even if a priest chose to obey the liturgical rites of the Church, that would be read as his “personal preferences”. Instead of pointing to Christ, in the cult of personality, unwittingly, the priest is relegated to pointing at himself. This process itself places a limitation on his effectiveness as a sacrament of Christ.