This day in the Church is traditionally known as, “Good Shepherd Sunday.” On this Sunday, we often focus on vocations. A vocation is where God is calling you. There is a universal vocation that is for everyone and it is our call to holiness, to be set aside for God. Then there are the common vocations of Priesthood, Marriage and Religious Life. These are the ways that we can be like the Good Shepherd and lay down our lives. The vocations director asked if we would share our stories this Sunday about why we became priest and so I will.
I grew up in a Catholic household. We were not fanatical; it was just a part of who we were. We went to Church each Sunday. I believe I could count the number of times we would have missed Mass on one hand in our family. We didn’t go to daily Mass, except on our feast days. We prayed the rosary at certain times of the year and went to Catholic school most of our lives. I don’t think we were too hard core in our faith but we lived it. Mom and Dad definitely witnessed vocations by the way they really lived for theirs. They really had nothing else that they did besides the family.
I never really thought of being a priest growing up. The only time it crossed my mind was when I was fearful of having to join the army and to go to war and I thought if I was a priest I wouldn’t have to do that. Little did I know that priests do go to war and that the Chaplain corps has high casualty rates. I grew up never really knowing what I wanted to do. I had two steady girlfriends (at different times) but I never felt drawn to marriage. The relationships were not really good or wholesome.
When I graduated from high school, I got a job at the local sawmill. I really liked the manual labour there and I thought the guys were good, down to earth fellows. I liked working hard but I had a feeling that I should do more with my life. I started thinking if this is all there is, I could easily get stuck here and if something happened to the place I would really have nothing because I had no skills. I thought perhaps I should get a trade so that I wouldn’t have to spend my life at one place or have to work my way up from the bottom. So, I formulated a plan. I would save my money and then go travelling, get some life experience (whatever that meant). Then I would go to university, not because I wanted more school but because I wanted to row on a university rowing team. When I left school, I promised not to go back. My marks were very low and I graduated by simply scraping by. I planned to take the easiest course load and try the rowing scene. Then I would work up North and try to find a trade. My father had one and I saw that it was useful.
But that is not what happened. During the summer that mill closed down and many of us were temporary laid off. I went down to the coast to get certified as a canoe instructor and I asked my uncle if I could live at the monastery with him while I took my week long course. My uncle is a monk and priest so I did that. In the morning, I went to Mass. In the evening, Fr Mark (my uncle) would walk with me and show me stuff around the monastery. I felt a great peace there and mentioned it to my uncle. He invited me to a weekend monastic live-in retreat , which I agreed to go to. When I arrived, there were other men there and we ate, prayed and worked with the monks. It was a great experience. The time that really affected me was the quiet time they gave us. Wondering what to do, I picked up one of the books there. It was the life of St Benedict by St Gregory. It was a very small book but in this little book there were fifty some odd chapters and each little chapter contained some miracle of St Benedict, from raising the dead to walking on water.
After reading this about St. Benedict’s life, I started thinking that God had done much for me but I had never done anything for God. I decided that instead of doing something for myself, I would do something for God for the next year of my life. As soon as I got home, my friend called me and invited me to join a travelling missionary team for a year. I signed up and hit the road with nine other young men and women. During that year, we prayed and went to daily Mass often. I learned how to make a good confession but I also started noticing that I liked talking about God and I was drawn to the altar. I took that as a call to the priesthood. I told my parish priest while I was home for Christmas (Monsignor Jerry) and he took me to see the bishop the next day. There was no real formality to it. Bishop Sabatini looked at me and said, “We know your family. You can enter in the fall.” I wrote Fr Peter,who was the vocations director at the time, and started my application.
Then came the problems. Seminary is a university level course and my schooling, my marks, were not even close to adequate. After going back and forth, and even thinking of upgrading, they called me down for a meeting and I had to do an intelligence test. I remember after completing it I thought, “Lord, if you want, I will upgrade but I really don’t want to.” However, I scored high on the intelligence test and they accepted me. It is interesting with the Lord that though you know on one level that you are being led, you still don’t know.
Seminary was eight years. I remember often hoping that I wouldn’t make it, that some priest would say, “What are you doing here?” But God made it my choice to stay or go and I stand before you today ordained almost twelve years. I can’t think of a vocation that would have challenged me to grow as a person as the calling to be a priest and I am thankful, most times, that I was called to serve in this way.
It really stood out to me in the Gospel where Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd and I lay down my life for my sheep.” I believe this is what a vocation is: a place to lay down your life. If we don’t lay down our lives, it will be simply taken from us by some impulse. This is what happened to the hired hands, they simply cared about their wages not their overall being. I know what it is like living like a hired hand, running after different things to make you happy and I have seen this in my own vocation. I firmly believe now that the only way to be happy is to freely lay down one’s life, though I admit, making the daily gift is a very hard thing.