5th Sunday of Lent
St. Andrew Dinner (Vocations)
Basilica of the Assumption
April 5, 2025
Introduction
We’ve gathered at America’s First Cathedral for the annual St. Andrew Mass and Dinner. This event is named to recall how Jesus called the fishermen Andrew and his brother Simon. When the Lord called, they dropped their nets, left everything, & followed him. In that instant, by the grace of God, they saw their former life as of little value, for somehow they knew that Jesus was like no one they would ever meet.
This evening some 50 discerners are with us, you who, in some way, have felt the call to priesthood in their hearts. You join the Baltimore seminarians, some 57 of them, and those who work tirelessly to raise up priestly vocations, Father Stephen Roth and Father Matt Himes. Over time, the number of priestly ordinations has increased, yet the harvest is vast and the laborers few, so kindly pray for vocations.
As Rubbish
With all that in mind, I’d like to focus first on Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. It is likely, some say, that Paul wrote this letter while imprisoned in Rome and that he addressed it to a small, struggling Christian community in what is today the northeastern part of Greece. They were believers living in a hostile atmosphere and Paul wrote in friendship to encourage them.
But he didn’t pat them on the back or flatter them. He wrote to them about things that really matter. He told the Philippians that he considered everything in his life up to the point of his conversion as mere rubbish. Why? Because it was bad? Or because it had no value? No, not that. Paul said this because of the overwhelming goodness and beauty of Christ, the Risen Lord whom he encountered on the road to Damascus, the Risen Lord of whom he says, “It is not I who live but Christ lives in me!” St. Paul didn’t merely know about Jesus, he knew Jesus and knew him intimately. He knew Jesus’ faithfulness to his Father, for in loving obedience the Son of God emptied himself of glory to save us. In the many trials and hardships that St. Paul encountered in his ministry, he experienced the power of Jesus’ resurrection: “I have strength for everything thru him who empowers me,” he writes (4:13).
Paul also knew that God wasn’t yet finished with him. Even as he was preaching the Gospel everywhere he could, the power of the resurrection continued to transform him. That is why Paul didn’t look back, didn’t long for the good old days, but looked ahead resolutely to what God had in store for him, if he could but attain the fullness of life and glory in the Risen Lord. Indeed, the project of Paul’s life was to reproduce in his own life the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and in God’s grace, to bring about the same transformation in all he encountered.
Paul’s Vocation and Yours
In a sense, St. Paul is telling us his own vocation story. He had no intention of becoming an apostle. He was a Pharisee intent on persecuting the followers of Christ, until, that is, he met Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and glorified. It was that encounter on the road to Damascus that changed everything, that caused Paul to look at his former way of life differently, that caused Paul, under the guidance of the Spirit, to chart a new course, something he never expected and something he never thought he wanted.
This brings us to the root of any vocation, including a priestly vocation. The Lord calls. Sometimes he shouts. Sometimes he whispers. Sometimes he shows himself to us through others who encourage us to consider the possibility of a priestly vocation. This is the grace of the Risen Lord at work in our lives. But for this grace to be actualized, we have to see, listen, and respond. We have to see the signs of his presence and perceive the power of his love. When he knocks at the door of our hearts, we have be unafraid to answer. And it some point, it has to dawn on us, just as it dawned on St. Paul, that life in Christ and sharing the life of Christ with others is worth more than anything else in our lives, any possession, any career possibility, even the beautiful possibility of being married and raising a family. This encounter with the Risen Lord is essential, and it is had at Holy Mass, in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in spiritual direction and private prayer, reading Scripture, serving the poor. In all these ways and more, we see by faith the glorious face of Christ and hear him calling us as he called Andrew and Peter, and as he has called and is calling generations of young priests.
The Woman Caught in Adultery
I couldn’t let this moment pass without a word about the Gospel, for today’s Gospel also goes to the heart of priestly ministry. The woman caught in adultery faces her self-righteous accusers. They are in the presence of Jesus, but unlike St. Paul, they do not know him. Seeing him as a rival, they try to put Jesus on the spot. “The Law says she should be stoned. What do you say?” . . . a trap. Jesus eluded them. He bent down and wrote on the ground, stood up and said, “Let the one without sin cast the first stone.” They went away. He forgave the woman and urged her to sin no more.
At the heart of the priestly ministry is reconciliation and mercy. Everything a priest does aims at reconciling people with God and with others. The priesthood is one long mission of mercy, one in which the priest himself is aware of his own need for mercy. As a result, he extends the mercies of Jesus to others with compassion. In a world that is angry, divided, and confused the forgiveness Jesus offers, especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, is like an oasis, a balm, a haven. Dear brothers, when you think of priesthood, think of joy of being forgiven and then think of what joy it would be to extend that healing to others. Perhaps this is what the Lord is calling you to do.
Well, dear friends, we’ve rounded the corner into the last week of Lent and we are preparing to celebrate solemnly the high priestly deeds of Jesus: his entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, his Death and Resurrection, the great events by which we are saved. Let’s pray for the grace to enter into these events, to encounter Christ anew, to consider everything in our lives as so much rubbish in light of his love, and then let us pray with all our might that the Lord might raise up in our midst those who will continue his beautiful ministry of mercy, now and in years to come, indeed, until he comes in glory.