Where are the Workers for the Harvest?

Where are the Workers for the Harvest?

Fr. Christian Bouchacourt, FSSPX

Superior of the South American District

When the storm hits and the ship is in danger of sinking, to whom do the fearful crew turn, if not to the ship’s captain? His authority, calm, and experience, reassure all who see him standing steadily at the helm. Likewise on the ﬁeld of battle, the soldiers who feel themselves ﬂagging look to their leader, who exhorts them by his orders and rallies them by his example. Were the leader to be lost, the soldiers’ courage would fade, doubt would take hold, and defeat would be at hand. The one to whom generations have looked for centuries is Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament, who reassures the doubtful, consoles the afﬂicted, strengthens the weak, kindles the lukewarm, listens to those who speak to Him, and ﬁlls with His grace those who ask. For more than two thousand years, He has been truly present among us in all the tabernacles of the world and gives Himself as nourishment in Holy Communion. But our Lord willed that this presence depend on an intermediary: the priest. He alone by his ordination has received the power to change bread and wine into the substantial, real presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.

‘Where the priest is, Christendom lives!

Dear friends, Christendom needs priests to exist, otherwise it breaks down and dies. Without the priest the divine truths would no longer be taught and faith would die out. Without him, divine life would no longer be kept alive in souls by grace, which fortiﬁes and sanctiﬁes them. Heaven would then be closed and hope would disappear.Without him, the tabernacles would be hopelessly empty, for the holy sacriﬁce of the Mass would no longer be celebrated and souls thus orphaned would die of hunger. Charity would grow cold and the ﬂock would be divided and scattered. Our Lord wanted not only priests for the perpetuation of His action here below, but also souls that would imitate His obedience, chastity, and poverty in religious life; souls that would pray and sacriﬁce for those who do not; souls that would spend their lives praising, serving, imploring, and consoling Him by living according to the evangelical principles He taught us in the Sermon on the Mount.

Let us keep foremost in our minds this complaint of our Lord in the Gospel: “The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few” (Matt. 9:37). That is why every Catholic family must not only pray for priestly and religious vocations, but also live in such a manner that they can awaken and develop in their midst. To ﬂourish, the divine call is needful of a favorable soil and must avoid the pitfalls that could endanger it. “A vocation is not a miraculous or extraordinary call, but the blossoming of a Christian soul that clings to its Creator and Savior Jesus Christ with an exclusive love and shares His thirst to save souls.” ‘Where better than in a Catholic family can such a blossoming occur?

Indeed, the ﬁrst crucible of priestly and religious vocations is the Catholic family:

But the ﬁrst and most natural place where the ﬂowers of the sanctuary should almost spontaneously grow and bloom remains always the truly and deeply Christian family. Most of the saintly bishops and priests whose “praise the Church declares”[Ecclus. 44:15], owe the beginning of their vocation and their holiness to example and teaching of a father strong in faith and manly virtues, of a pure and devoted mother, and of a family in which the love of God and neighbour, joined with simplicity of life, has reigned supreme. To this ordinary rule of divine Providence exceptions are rare and only serve to prove the rule.

Such an atmosphere can exist only if our Lord Jesus Christ reigns over the family.This will happen especially if the family’s day is punctuated by prayer recited in common, such as grace before meals, the Rosary, and night prayers. To this must be added the exemplary lives of both parents, manifesting a profound unity in their piety and reception of the sacraments.

The life of a priest or religious is centered on sacriﬁce and the imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ. This orientation of life must be cultivated from the cradle. No soul will be able to answer the divine call unless the spirit of sacriﬁce has become second nature to it. Children ought to learn prompt obedience and to be self-forgetful and helpful not only at home, but also to others and at their parishes. May the spirit of riches not cut off their generosity as happened with the rich young man in the Gospel. Parents ought not to coddle their children, but educate them with a virile love.

A pure and chaste environment is also necessary for the blooming of vocations. For this, dear parents, watch over your children’s leisure activities, reading, and friendships. Consecrating your home to the Sacred Heart will help you immensely. Make it a point to attend Sunday Masses whose beauty uplifts the soul. It is not enough just to attend a traditional Mass, but go to the High Mass, during which the Church in her liturgy deploys all her splendor and proclaims on high her faith in order to nourish and fortify our own. Your sons will be able to participate in the service of the altar. Altar boys make up the court of Christ the King. They are His pages, amongst whom our Lord likes to choose those whom He calls to His service. Too many of the faithful abstain from attending the high Mass out of sheer laziness, preferring shorter or later Masses for the sake of their hobbies. Such conduct is not without consequences.

And lastly, dear parents, make the decision to enroll your children in good schools. I am full of admiration to see how, every year, you are more and more numerous in making this sacriﬁce for their good. This sacriﬁce may go so far as to enroll them in boarding schools as some of you do. The souls of your children are your most precious possession. You are not their owners, just their trustees. God conﬁded them to you; you will have to answer to Him for them. The perverse teaching that takes place in ofﬁcial schools, including Catholic ones, the bad friendships, and the deleterious atmosphere prevailing there can mark your children’s lives and endanger their salvation. Do not delude yourselves; especially when they are adolescents, your authority will count much less than that of their teachers and comrades who set before them base or twisted ideals.

How can we explain the dearth of vocations we are experiencing? How can we explain that for the last few years, with a few exceptions, the majority of the boys entering our seminary come from families that do not adhere to Tradition? There are some priories that have not given a vocation for more than twelve years even though the children are numerous. Let us take a look at the obstacles that may suffocate the divine call in your children’s souls.

The ﬁrst and foremost among them is the absence of the spirit of sacriﬁce. Protect your families against the spirit of the world. Television and especially the Internet work ravages in souls. To allow a television set or Internet connection in your children’s rooms is totally irresponsible. To let them use these devices without supervision is tantamount to putting them in a proximate occasion of sin for which you are responsible before God. I appeal to your authority, you fathers of families who quite often because of the obligations of your work neglect those of your family.Be vigilant! You have no idea of the ravages that the Internet can cause in the souls of your children. Take a look at their Facebook account as I have and you wilt understand! Your teenagers need your authority. It is their strength and their shield even if they do not always realize it during the critical teen years. Keep out of your homes the love of comfort and convenience, laxity, and consumerism.

A certain sentimentality in education also constitutes an obstacle to the blooming of vocations. Dear parents, your children are not your equals. Your authority has been delegated to you by God Himself to help them to accomplish His will and to put them on guard against the dangers of life and to protect them from themselves. Be good but ﬁrm. Loving one’s children does not mean hugging them ten times a day, but encouraging them to do good and to shun evil resolutely. Education is the art of arts,and upon the quality of the education received depends the direction a child’s life will take. Your children ought to respect your authority by their prompt obedience. Do not yield to their whims. Teach them to love the cross! There is no salvation without it.

Your parental duty makes it incumbent upon you to monitor the visits and outings of your older children. Do not let them “go steady” from the age of 15 or 16 or 17, as our priests see happen too often. These “commitments” are nothing else than ﬂirtation in disguise, even if the two young people are traditionalists. They are marred by original sin, and do not forge it! By allowing this to go on, you put their purity in jeopardy, you kill their youth and sterilize the generosity of which they are capable. Courtship can only be envisaged for young adults, not adolescents. How many vocations have we lost this way! It is the ultimate ruse used by the devil to ruin a vocation. Your children must make the distinction between love and healthy friendship. Far too many parents do not see the danger and remain not only deaf to the priest’s remarks, but judge them inept and make fun of them. Every young Catholic should ask himself or herself one day whether he or she is called by God. A spiritual retreat can be a good opportunity to get light on the likelihood of this call. But once the ﬁres of passion have been lit, young people no longer want to consider this possibility.

A major obstacle to vocations is the habit of criticizing the priests at home. Love your priests and respect them! Trust them. If you should notice their faults or failings, pray for them! In case of disagreement with one of them, do not take up the matter in front of the children. Do not label them, do not criticize their faults publicly, be docile to what they teach you. Do not critique their sermons. How do you expect children to respond to God’s call if they see the priests and nuns constantly denigrated? Such behavior is unfortunately all too frequent and causes much damage even if it arises more from levity than malice. The habit of criticizing priests in order to preserve oneself from the conciliar disasters does not justify the continuation of such a practice in our priories today. How many times have I heard this line: “Since the conciliar crisis, I no longer trust priests. My anticlericalism saved me, so I keep it up!” That is tantamount to saying that in Tradition there are not good priests and that docility and obedience would constitute weakness and naivety. Luther could not have said it better; private judgment has become the order of the day. Such a state of mind produces disastrous effects on budding vocations and destroys the unity of communities. Such families give no sons or daughters to the Church.

I would like you to be convinced that there is no greater honor than to give a son or daughter to the Church. These vocations, dear parents, will draw down upon your family abundant graces in this life, and in paradise they will be the most precious gems adorning your crowns and will be your boast. So do not discourage them, but rather help them to take root and develop. The Church is so in need of them! If they do not come from your families, then I do not know where we shall ﬁnd them. The most solid and stable vocations come from united, fervent Catholic families. Your children’s devotion depends on yours. Numerous fathers and mothers of families who received Holy Communion not only Sundays but during the week have merited the grace of a vocation for one of their children.

Let us pray for priestly and religious vocations and for their perseverance. Let us pray likewise for priests, monks and nuns. On their holiness depends not only that of your souls, but also that of society. It is because the Catholic priesthood is not well that Christendom is perishing. So, Lord, give us many holy priestly and religious vocations and very many holy priests! God bless you.

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