Franciscan at Home

The Instrumentum laboris describes the scope of the upcoming Synod on Youth, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment with these words: “just as our Lord Jesus Christ walked alongside the disciples of Emmaus, the Church is also urged to accompany all young people, without exception, towards the joy of love” (no. 1). The theme of accompaniment weaves through the document like a melody on which all other harmonies are based. In fact, accompaniment is explained as a non-negotiable within youth ministry. “The accompaniment of younger generations is not an optional element in the task of educating and evangelizing young people, but an ecclesial duty and a right of every young person” (no. 85).

This concept is not new in the life of the Church. In 1976, the United States’ Bishops published A Vision of Youth Ministry, which proposed the story of Emmaus as the guiding image for how ministry to youth should be carried out: through the process of listening and accompaniment. These two principles go hand in hand.

Intentional listening is an essential part of accompaniment, and one that we in the Church must strive to increase in our work with young people. Though Jesus knew the answers to the questions the two disciples were asking, he engaged them in a dialogue about what had just occurred in Jerusalem and listened as they shared their stories. Only when they were finished did he open up the Scriptures to give them a fuller understanding.

There is a scene in the film Good Will Hunting where Sean (Robin Williams) and Will (Matt Damon) share a pivotal conversation on a bench overlooking a swan-filled lake. The week before, Will quickly and incisively interprets a painting that Sean had created and hung in his office.

Blessed Pope Paul VI boldly affirmed that, “Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize.”[1] If evangelization is in fact the Church’s deepest identity, it logically follows that every Catholic institution must consciously proclaim the Good News to all people and facilitate both their initial encounter and deepening relationship with the Lord Jesus. The content of this Good News is found in the kerygma, the Greek term meaning “initial proclamation.” God the Father revealed himself perfectly in the Person of his Son Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who then suffered and died to atone for all the sins of mankind, rose from the dead, and now lives forever to draw all people to the Father in himself, by the saving grace and power of the Holy Spirit. Intimate communion with the Lord Jesus is thus the Church’s primary goal. When we set out to bring this saving message to teenagers, we quickly discover no shortage of obstacles. They constitute an enormously diverse and complex demographic, particularly when it comes to their spiritual, emotional, and intellectual circumstances. They are constantly faced with challenges, some more threatening to their souls than others. Many teens today have lost or have never even possessed an awareness of the dignity, value, and eternal significance of their lives. Many of them have no appreciation for their relationship with God, who loves them into being, or have no conscious relationship with God whatsoever. Though many teens can sense this inner lack, they are oftentimes unaware that God seeks to bring healing to them. We must first help awaken in them a willingness to try a different path than the one they and their peers have been walking, and then nurture a desire in them for the guidance Christ offers. Referencing Evangelii Nuntiandi, the Congregation for the Clergy’s General Directory for Catechesis describes evangelization as, “the carrying forth of the Good News to every sector of the human race so that by its strength it may enter into the hearts of men and renew the human race.”[2] What this means is that the Gospel is intrinsically powerful and effective! We do not add any power whatsoever to the work of the Holy Spirit. What he offers through evangelization must be taken in, like a seed, in order that he may further nourish and grow his grace in the soul. Put another way, his is the true healing balm, the antidote, the cure, the elixir of eternal life. But before we can begin to decide upon a course of action for the effective offering of this healing message to our teens, we must first carefully and prayerfully consider some of the specific challenges they face in our current cultural milieu.

"Behold, the Lamb of God!" Following Christ's baptism, the Gospel of John recounts how John the Baptist recognizes Jesus walking by and proclaims, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" Two of the Baptist's disciples, including Andrew, immediately follow Jesus and ask him, "Where are you staying?" to which the Lord replies, "Come and see." And "so they went … and stayed with him that day" (Jn 1:35-39). The passage beautifully illustrates the "dynamism of vocation" and the process of discernment among the first disciples of Jesus. Specifically it offers a paradigm for the manner by which Christ invites men to share in the grace of priestly ministry. Through the instrumentality of "prophetic witnesses," the Risen Jesus-who "continues working even now" (cf. Jn 5:17)-attracts new generations of "workers" into the harvest (Lk 10:2) and extends his gracious invitation to follow him into the "fields." In our own day, the Risen Christ continues to call men after his own heart to proclaim the Gospel and to feed, heal, and sanctify his people by the sacraments. So it should not be surprising that in each emerging generation there are those whose hearts are stirred by the invitation. Catechists and religion teachers, who are privileged to encounter and to instruct youth, should expect to see, and will invariably notice, particular young people who exhibit signs of being called. They will also see qualities, whether obvious or more intangible, that beg to be recognized for the sake of the one called and for the good of the Church. For many young men today, a catechist may, by God's design, play the role of John the Baptist in pointing out to them the Lamb of God and in awakening within them the gift of faith. The Experience of Being Called What is the experience of a man "being called" to follow Jesus as a priest? Well, there are as many differences in experience as there are "unique" souls. St. John of the Cross says, "God leads each one along different paths so that hardly one spirit will be found like another in even half its method of procedure." (Incidentally, our awareness of each soul's uniqueness and God's manner of communicating to it should instill in us a certain awe and respect toward those we assist and encourage, whether we do so as priest, religious, or catechist.) Notwithstanding the uniqueness of each man's experience, what is true for each man's experience is his growing fascination with the person of Jesus Christ and a heightened sense of Christ's particular love for him. This sense of particularity in the awareness of Christ's love can arise very early in one called to priesthood. I remember distinctively my summer Bible school classes at age 5 and listening attentively to the many stories of the Old Testament-the call of Abraham, the call of Samuel, the courage of David and Esther-that stirred my young imagination. The living Person of Jesus and his offer of friendship in the Gospel was made present to me through the joyful storytelling of my first grade teacher, Sr. Pat Hogan, O.P. of the Sparkill Dominicans, as well as through the witness of my parents' prayer at their weekly Charismatic Renewal meetings in my local parish, St. Gregory Barbarigo in Garnerville, NY. This saying is true: "Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses." Confirmed by the example of those whom I revered-my parents, my teachers, parish priests and religious, and devout parishioners-I very quickly made their enthusiasm toward Jesus my own and I soon moved from an observer to a worshipper. Fascination with the goodness and beauty of Jesus beckons the one called to seek deeper intimacy with Jesus in prayer and often corresponds with a growing interest in the Eucharistic Presence and the sacramental life of the Church. Just as Andrew and the other disciple are moved to inquire of Jesus, "Where are you staying?" so, too, the one called to priesthood glimpses his deepest truth reflected in the Lamb of God and hungers to better know him. The call narratives in the Scriptures (especially in the Gospels) resonate within, appealing for a personal response to the solicitous love of Jesus the Good Shepherd. At the core of discerning a vocation lies the fundamental questions: How is God calling me to give of myself for love of God and love of others? How is Jesus calling me to reveal his heart to the world? For the future priest, Christ's invitation to "come and see" appeals to his freedom and dilates his heart, impelled as he is by the example of Christ's boundless love, to likewise minister for the sake of the Gospel and to become an "ambassador for Christ" (cf. 2 Cor 5:20).

“Mom, what’s that?” a little girl in the grocery store unabashedly asked as I walked past them in the produce aisle. Slightly embarrassed at her daughter’s rather loud and candid question, her mother simply and timidly responded “She’s a lady who loves Jesus.” I smiled at both mother and daughter and gave a little wave as I kept on in pursuit of the items on my list. In living my call to consecrated religious life over the past thirteen years, there have been plenty of experiences similar to this and I am sure that every sister has a supply of her own. Humorous as they may be, still they point to a sad reality that consecrated religious life is not as visible or fostered as it was in decades past and that the simplistic answer may have been the extent of that mother’s knowledge of the reality of this state in life. There was a time when most young people were exposed to sisters in the classroom, parish, or even in the family, but those days are gone. Most knowledge of religious life comes rather from movies like “The Sound of Music” or “Sister Act,” but the life of consecration has a depth and beauty worth studying and sharing with a generation that tends to long for more and settle for less. Throughout Salvation History, God has called men and women to follow him in the consecrated life. They have borne witness to the Gospel by living heaven on earth. In this way, they have revealed the providence of God in every age through their trust and their loving service to their brothers and sisters in need. From the earliest days, God called individuals to himself, as with the desert fathers, but that expression of single-hearted following of Christ eventually flowered into individuals living a dedicated life in community. Founders and foundresses responded to the needs of each particular time and established religious institutes within which members consecrated themselves to God through vowing the Evangelical Counsels, living in community, and serving according to their particular situation in apostolates such as health care, education, and care for the poor and needy of every condition. God’s call goes forth even today inviting young people to forsake the promises of the world for the sake of embracing his eternal promises. Vowing to live poverty, chastity, and obedience in a world that exalts material goods, sexual license, and individualism is counter-cultural to say the least, but it is a path worth discerning and a journey worth taking. Catechists have a particular role to play in assisting young people to encounter the truth and beauty of a call to be consecrated to God through the profession of the evangelical counsels through education and exposure. While the General Directory for Catechesis instructs that “every means should be used to encourage vocations to the priesthood, and to the different forms of consecration to God in religious and apostolic life and to awaken special missionary vocations,”[1] it is essential to remember that God is the source of every vocation. The role of the catechist is to propose to students that such a particular vocation is not just in the movies and that there is a real possibility that they could be called and ought to learn to listen to the gentle voice of the Good Shepherd.

We often ask children various versions of the same question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” “What kind of job would you like to have?” Career days at elementary schools are built around this question. When I was in the sixth grade, we were assigned to investigate various careers and do a report about one we might like to pursue. I initially chose “psychologist,” but my father, who wasn’t a big fan of psychology, encouraged me to think of something else. I did my report on forensic pathology. (Spoiler alert: I became a psychologist anyway!)

As Catholics and disciples, what we want to be is only a piece of what we need to consider when thinking about our life’s path. A more relevant question is, “What is God’s plan for your life? What does he want you to be?” It seems that even many Catholic parents, teachers, and catechists are hesitant to ask this question. Perhaps we worry that it’s too much pressure to ask it this way. Many parents say they just want their kids “to be happy.” But we often don’t know what will make us happy. We search for happiness in all the wrong places: material possessions, status, power, and unhealthy relationships. In contrast, true and lasting happiness is found only in living the lives we were created to live. When we discover something new that we really enjoy, we often say, “I was made for this.” That’s because we are at our best, and often experiencing our greatest joy, when we are doing what we were made for. It’s time we start asking our young people, not only what they want to do, but what God has made them for.

For many kids and teens (and even some adults), there is no easy answer to this question. With a few exceptions in salvation history, God doesn’t usually speak in an audible voice and tell us what to do. Perhaps this is because of his profound respect for our free will. We might not feel like we had much choice if God audibly directed our most important decisions. Also, we tend to value things a little more if we have to work for them. If we have invested time and energy into our search for a purpose, we will be more engaged in that purpose when we find it. A third reason God might not tell us directly about his plan for our lives is that he delights in taking us on a “treasure hunt.” Some parents, on birthdays or Christmas, hide gifts in various places around the house and provide clues for their kids to find them. These parents talk about how exciting this makes the experience of opening the gifts and how much fun it is to see their children find what they have hidden. God is our Father. We are his children. And parents delight in those times when their kids find something they have hidden just for them.

Luego de una larga sucesión de documentos magisteriales orientados a la importancia de un ambiente comunitario que fomente el cultivo de la vocación de cada miembro[1], el Documento Preparatorio de la próxima XV Asamblea General Ordinaria del Sínodo de los Obispos, “Los jóvenes, la fe y el discernimiento vocacional” [2], declara:

"Toda la comunidad cristiana debe sentirse responsable de la tarea de educar a las nuevas generaciones y debemos reconocer que son muchas las figuras de cristianos que la asumen, empezando por quienes se comprometen dentro de la vida eclesial. […] En todas las partes del mundo existen parroquias, congregaciones religiosas, asociaciones, movimientos y realidades eclesiales capaces de proyectar y ofrecer a los jóvenes experiencias de crecimiento y de discernimiento realmente significativas."[3]

A lo largo de mis años de servicio en el ministerio, en todas las pláticas que he escuchado, y aun las que en ocasiones he dado, el enfoque suele orientarse al cultivo de la propia vida espiritual por medio de la oración personal y la vida sacramental de la Iglesia. Aparte de la importancia de la vida espiritual[4], y sin restarle nada a la necesidad del acompañamiento en el discernimiento, lo cual es un tema central del Documento Preparatorio[5], quisiera enfocar una realidad frecuentemente olvidada en el campo del discernimiento vocacional: la comunidad. Ya que el próximo Sínodo centrará la atención en la juventud, dirijo mis pensamientos a las comunidades de adultos quienes atienden o enseñan a los jóvenes (por ej. equipos nucleares de pastoral juvenil, catequistas, profesores de escuela, etc.).

En lugar de citar múltiples razones por las que una comunidad de discernimiento sea esencial en el discernimiento vocacional, quisiera mejor proporcionar algunas consideraciones para el cultivo de este tipo de comunidad. El Documento Preparatorio resalta esta necesidad, ya que dice:

"A veces esta dimensión proyectiva [de experiencias de crecimiento y de discernimiento para los jóvenes] deja espacio a la improvisación y a la incompetencia: es un riesgo del cual defenderse tomando cada vez más en serio la tarea de pensar, concretizar, coordinar y realizar la pastoral juvenil de modo correcto, coherente y eficaz. Aquí también se impone la necesidad de una preparación específica y continua de los formadores."[6]

No me declaro experto en el tema, ni puedo proporcionar un “plan pastoral” comprensivo, pero sí me daba cuenta de la importancia del cultivo de una comunidad que conduzca al discernimiento vocacional durante mi tiempo como agente de la pastoral juvenil rodeado de un equipo de adultos voluntarios. Apoyándome principalmente en mi propia experiencia en la pastoral juvenil, quizás algunas de mis percepciones puedan servir como catalizador para cultivar un ambiente comunitario que fomente el discernimiento vocacional. Aunque mis ejemplos provengan de la pastoral juvenil parroquial y una comunidad de voluntarios que prestan su servicio en el marco de un equipo nuclear, muchas de estas nociones son también aplicables a otras organizaciones o estructuras parroquiales o escolares, e incluso a la misma familia.

Following a long line of magisterial documents that address the importance of a communal environment conducive to fostering one's vocation,[1] the Preparatory Document <

There is probably a screen in the middle of your living room. There has been a screen in the middle of American living rooms since the 1950s. Its presence rearranged furniture and changed the focus of the ones sitting in those chairs—no longer looking at one another, but pointed at that screen.

There is probably a screen in the middle of your parish youth room or classroom, too. Maybe it is a large white screen built into the wall with a 4K projector, or an old console TV precariously perched atop a moving cart. It wasn’t always at the center, but over the past five-to-seven years it crept into the middle and redirected the focus as video-based catechesis has presented itself (perhaps unintentionally) as the solution to many challenges we face in ministry.

It is a historic time to be a part of youth and young adult ministry. The upcoming Synod on “Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment” is inspiring conversations across the world. Here in the United States, the Hispanic/Latino community has engaged in the Fifth Encuentro with an emphasis on young, second and third generation Hispanics/Latinos. Another important movement is “The National Dialogue of Catholic Pastoral Ministry for Youth and Young Adults”, which is a collaborative effort between the USCCB, The National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, the USCCB National Advisory Team on Young Adult Ministry, and the National Catholic Network de Pastoral Juvenil Hispana (LaRED).

It is well documented that many young people no longer affiliate themselves with being Catholic, or any religion at all. Before we can propose what can be done about this, some attention must be given to who these young people are. To do so challenges not only our pre-conceived notions but also the vocabulary we use when we speak of young people or youth or young adults.
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It remains to be seen how the usage of these terms may evolve over the next couple years. Regardless of how the words are used, it is important we don’t fall into a common problem described by Tony Vasinda of ProjectYM: “In the US, we have typically defined ministry to young people based on their age but not where they are on their spiritual journey.” While this “age-based” approach can have benefits in fields such as education or psychology, it fails when it defines our pastoral practice towards young people. One could argue that the continual debate about the most appropriate age for the Sacrament of Confirmation is a symptom of this issue.

There are seventeen-year-olds who are committed disciples of Jesus Christ; there are twenty-five-year-olds who are only just starting to think about their relationship with the Catholic Church. How might the Church give language to those pastorally accompanying such young people to guide them towards spiritual maturity?