Saturday, April 16, 2016

4th Sunday of Easter, Year C, 17.04.2016

Acts 13:14, 43-52 / Apocalypse 7:9, 14-17 / John 10:27-30

In this week’s bulletin, there is something other than the usual announcements. 

There is a photo of the Major Seminary formators and the seminarians and also a chart that shows the number of priests in the various age groups.

This Sunday is also called “Vocation Sunday” so a little information about seminarians and priests might be interesting.

A story has it that one church decided to put a rather unique announcement in its bulletin and it is titled “Obituary” and it goes like this:

Our church was saddened to learn this week of the death of one of our most valued members, and he is Mr. Someone Else. 

Someone's passing creates a vacancy that will be difficult to fill. 

Mr. Else has been with us for many years and for all those years, Someone did far more than a normal person's share of the work. 

Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend, one name was on everyone's list, "Let Someone Else do it." 

Whenever leadership was mentioned, this wonderful person was looked to for inspiration as well as results; "Someone Else can work with that group." 

It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the most liberal givers in our church. Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed Someone Else would make up the difference. 

Someone Else was a wonderful person and everybody expected a lot of Someone Else. Now that Someone Else is gone, we wonder what we are going to do. 

Someone Else left a wonderful example to follow, but who is going to follow it? Who is going to do the things Someone Else did? 

Mr. Someone Else will be fondly remembered and sadly missed. 

When help is needed we can't depend on Someone Else anymore. 

May Someone Else rest in peace.

Maybe that’s a novel way of highlighting an issue that is usually faced in church.

We come to church but we don’t want to get too involved. We tend to think that when there is something to be done, then there will be “someone else” to do it, but not us.

That’s why church ministries and organizations always have a membership issue. Because we think that someone else will join and do the work.

The same goes with the priesthood. There will be someone else who will join the Seminary and be a priest. But the reality can be seen in the chart in the bulletin.

But in the gospel, Jesus said, “The sheep that belong to Me listen to My voice. I know them and they follow Me.”

Jesus founded the Church and along with it the priesthood so that there will be a continual offering of the Mass in memory of Him.

Obviously it can’t be that Jesus won’t provide the Church with vocations to the priesthood.

So Jesus is calling those He has chosen, but are they hearing His voice? And are we helping those that Jesus has chosen to hear His voice?

Our parish, the Church of the Sacred Heart, was built in 1910. It is one of the oldest parishes in Singapore and also one of the smallest, in terms of size.

But size may not matter, because small does not mean we are invisible and insignificant. 

Since it was built, this parish has produced fruits for the priesthood. 

At least five priests were baptized in this parish, and out of those five, three were ordained here, and one of them became the bishop of Penang.

And there is a seminarian from this parish (Bro. Simon Ho) who is in his third year of formation, and with our prayers we will be able to see his ordination in five years’ time.

So Jesus is indeed calling, and His voice is being heard in this parish.

But another voice is being heard and it’s calling out for “someone else”, as in “let someone else be a priest, but not me”.

“Let someone else join the church ministry and church organization, but not me”. “Let someone else do the work, but not me”.

But as in that church bulletin about the obituary, that “someone else” is gone. There is no more “someone else”.

The voice of Jesus is calling out to us. If we don’t listen, then there will be no one else who will join the priesthood.

If we don’t listen to the voice of Jesus, then no one else will pray for vocations to the priesthood.

If we don’t listen to the voice of Jesus, then it will be time to write an obituary, and it will be an obituary about our church.

But when we listen to the voice of Jesus, then the parish will bear fruit – prayers will be answered, miracles will happen, nothing will be impossible, and there will be vocations to the priesthood, as well as to the religious life.

Jesus is calling; let us listen, and the rest will happen.