VATICAN CITY, JULY 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Those who work in vocations ministry should be instruments for God to sow his Word, but should also imitate the grain of wheat hidden in the soil, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope said this Saturday in an address to participants in the four-day annual meeting of the European Vocations Service, which ended today in Rome. The meeting had the theme «Sowers of the Gospel of Vocation: A Word That Calls and Sends.»
In the context of the Year for Priests, the heads of the national vocation offices of the European episcopal conferences wanted to discuss the role of the Word of God in the life of the priest through biblical, sociological and pedagogical-pastoral reflections.
In his address, the Holy Father asked priests and animators to make themselves instruments of sowing in the face of a «deep […] sense of confusion that young people of today often experience» — there where «human words lack a future and a perspective, [and] also lack meaning and wisdom» and «an attitude of frenetic impatience and an incapacity to live a time of waiting is widespread.»
He then recalled the duty of priests and animators to be a «grain of wheat […] that knows how to live hidden in the clamor and noise» and «that renounces the pursuit of that visibility and image that today often become the criteria and indeed the purposes of life in many parts of our culture, and fascinate many young people.»
The parable of the sower, the Pontiff continued, teaches that «if the grain of wheat fallen to the ground does not die, it remains alone; but if it dies, it will produce much fruit.»
The one who «sows [the seed] in the heart of man is always the Lord alone,» he stressed, and «only afterward can the abundant and generous sowing of the Word of God go forward along paths of accompaniment and education, of forming and discerning.»
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On the Net:
European Vocations Service: www.vocations.eu
