PART TWO: THEOLOGY OF VOCATION - "There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit..." (1 Cor 12, 4)

The basic purpose of this theological part is to try and grasp the meaning of human life in relation to God the Trinitarian communion. The mystery of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit underlies the full existence of mankind, as a call to love in the giving of self and in holiness; as gift in the Church for the world. Every anthropology cut off from God is illusory. This is about understanding the structural elements of the Christian vocation, its essential architecture which, evidently, must be theological. This reality, already the object of much analysis even by the Magisterium, is rich with a spiritual, biblical-theological tradition which has formed not only generations of calls, but also a spirituality of the call.

14. At the school of the Word of God the Christian community welcomes the highest answer to the question of meaning which rises up, more or less clearly, in the heart of each person. This response does not come from human reason, even if it is always dramatically provoked by the problem of being and one's destiny, but from God. It is He who gives the key to clarifying and resolving the big questions which make man a questioning subject: "Why are we in the world? What is life? What is there beyond the mystery of death?" It should not be forgotten, however, that in the culture of distraction, in which the young people of today find themselves, fundamental questions run the risk of being stifled or removed. The meaning of life, today, rather than being sought out, is being imposed: either from what is lived in the immediate or from what satisfies our needs, the conscience becomes ever more obtuse and the truest questions remain elusive.(27) Therefore the task of pastoral theology and spiritual accompaniment is to help young people to question their lives so that, in the decisive dialogue with God, they can formulate the same question as Mary of Nazareth: "How is this possible?" (Lk 1, 34).

15. In listening to the Word, with wonder, we discover that the most comprehensive and fitting biblical-theological category for explaining the mystery of life, in the light of Christ, is that of "vocation".(28) "Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling".(29) Therefore the biblical figure of the community of Corinth presents the gifts of the Spirit, in the Church, as subordinate to the recognition of Jesus as the Lord. Truly Christology is at the basis of every anthropology and ecclesiology. Christ is the project of man. Only after the believer has recognised that Jesus is Lord "under the action of the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 12, 3) can he welcome the statutes of the new community of believers: "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one" (1 Cor 12, 4-6) The Pauline image clearly highlights three fundamental aspects of vocational gifts in the Church; these three aspects are strictly connected with their origin in the bosom of the Trinitarian communion and with specific reference to the individual Persons. In the light of the Spirit the gifts are an expression of His infinite gratuitousness. He himself is charism (Acts 2, 38), the source of every gift and expression of the irrepressible divine creativity. In the light of Christ vocational gifts are "ministries", which express the different types of service which the Son has lived even to the gift of his life. In fact "he came not to be served, and to give his life..." (Mt 20, 28) Jesus is therefore the model for every ministry.

In the light of the Father the gifts are "operations", because from Him, the source of life, every being receives its own specific dynamism. Therefore the Church, as an icon, reflects the mystery of God the Father, of God the Son and of God the Holy Spirit; and each vocation carries in itself the traits characteristic of the three Persons of the Trinitarian communion. The divine Persons are the source and model of every call. Indeed, the Trinity, in itself, is a mysterious interconnection of calls and responses. Only there, within that uninterrupted dialogue, can each living person find not only his roots but also his destiny and his future, what he is called to be and to become, in truth and freedom, in the reality of his history. In fact these gifts, in the ecclesiological statutes of 1 Corinthians, have a concrete, historical destination: "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (1 Cor 12, 7) There is a higher good which regularly supplants the personal gift: to build up in unity the Body of Christ; to make visible his presence in history "so that the world may believe" (Jn 17, 21) Accordingly the ecclesial community, on the one hand, is seized by the mystery of God and is a visible icon of it, and on the other, it is totally involved with the history of mankind in the world, in a state of exodus, towards "the new heaven" The Church, and every vocation in it, express an identical dynamism: to be called for a mission.

16. The existence of each one is the fruit of the creative love of the Father, of his efficacious wish, of his generative Word. The creative act of the Father has the dynamics of an appeal, of a call to life. Each person comes to life because he is loved, thought and willed by a good Will who preferred him to non-existence, loved him before ever he was, knew him before forming him in his mother's womb, consecrated him before he saw the light (cf Jer 1, 5; Is 49, 1.5; Gal 1, 15) Vocation, then, is that which explains in depth the mystery of an individual's life, and is itself a mystery, of absolute predilection and gratuitousness. a) "...in his image" In the "creative call" a person appears suddenly in all the richness of his dignity as the subject called to relationship with God, to stand before Him, with others, in the world, with a face which reflects the same divine features: "Let us make man in our own image and likeness" (Gen 1, 26) This triple relation belongs to the original design, because the Father "chose us in him — in Christ — before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him" (Eph 1, 4) Recognising the Father means that we exist in his way, having been created in his image (Wisdom 2, 23) In this, therefore, the fundamental vocation of man is contained: the vocation to life and to a life immediately conceived in the likeness of the divine life. If the Father is the eternal spring, total gratuitousness, the eternal source of existence and love, the individual is called, in the small and limited measure of his existence, to be like Him; and therefore "to give life", to assume the life of another.

The creative act of the Father, then, is that which provokes the awareness that life is a consigning to freedom of the individual person, who is called to give a response which is personal and original, responsible and grateful. b) Love, the full meaning of life In this perspective of the call to life one thing is to be excluded: that people might consider existence to be something obvious, necessary, casual. Perhaps it is not easy, in today's culture, to experience wonder before the gift of life.(30) While it is more difficult to understand the meaning of a life given, which will benefit others, a more mature conscience is needed, some kind of spiritual formation, in order to understand that the life of each one, in every case and before any choice whatsoever, is love received, and that in this love is already hidden a subsequent vocational project. The simple fact of being should fill all of us with wonder and great thanksgiving towards Him who, in total freedom, created us from nothing by speaking our name. And then the perception that life is a gift should not only give rise to a thankful attitude, but should slowly suggest the first big response to the fundamental question of meaning: life is the masterpiece of the creative love of God and is in itself a call to love. A gift received which, by its nature, tends to become a good given. c) Love, the vocation of every person Love is the full meaning of life. God has so loved man as to give him his very life and to make him capable of living and loving in the divine manner. In this excess of love, the original love, man finds his radical vocation, which is a "holy vocation" (2 Tim 1, 9), and discovers his own unique identity, which immediately makes him similar to God, "in the image of the Holy One" who called him (1 Pet 1, 15)

"Creating the human race in his own image and continually keeping it in being, — says John Paul II — God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion. Love is therefore the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being".(31) d) The Father who educates Thanks to the love that created him no-one can feel "superfluous", because he is called to respond according to a plan that God considers appropriate for him. Then each person will be happy and fully realised, standing at his post, welcoming the divine educational proposal, with all the fear and trembling that a similar claim raises up in a heart of flesh. God the creator who gives life, is also the Father who "educates", who draws out of nothing what does not yet exist to bring it into being; he draws forth from the heart of man what He himself has placed there, so that he may be fully himself and what God has called him to be, in His way. Hence the nostalgia for the infinite which God has placed within each one as a divine seal. e) The call of Baptism This call to life and to the divine life is celebrated in Baptism. In this sacrament the Father tenderly reaches down to the creature, the son or daughter of the love of a man and woman, in order to bless the fruit of that love and make him or her fully his child. From that moment the creature is called to the holiness of the children of God. Nothing and no-one can ever extinguish this vocation. With the grace of Baptism, God the Father intervenes to illustrate that He, and only He, is the author of the plan of salvation, within which every human being finds his personal role. His act is always precedent, anterior, it does not await man's initiative, it does not depend on his merits, nor is it based on his abilities or dispositions.

The Father knows, designs, inserts the instinct, places a seal, calls even "before the creation of the world" (Eph 1,4) And then He gives strength, He walks beside, He gives support, He is Father and Mother always.. In this way the Christian life acquires the significance of a responsorial experience: it becomes a responsible reply in the building up of a filial relationship with the Father and a fraternal relationship with the great family of the children of God. The Christian is called, by means of love, to encourage the process of similarity with the Father which is called the theological life. Accordingly, fidelity to one's Baptism urges one to ask ever more precise questions about one's life and oneself; above all in order to encourage oneself to live life not only based on human aptitudes, which are also gifts of God, but based on His will; not according to worldly perspectives, so often of little matter, but according to the wishes and plans of God. Fidelity to one's Baptism, then, means looking above, as children, in order to discern His will for one's own life and future.

17. "Lord show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied" (Jn 14, 9) This is Philip's request of the Lord on the eve of His passion. It is the yearning for God, present in the heart of every person: to know his own roots, to know God. Man is not infinite, he is immersed in the finite; but his desire turns towards the infinite. And the disciples are surprised by Jesus' response: "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14, 9) a) Sent by the Father to call mankind The Father has created us in the Son, "who reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature" (Heb 1, 3), predestining us to be conformed to His image (cf Rom 8, 29) The Word is the perfect image of the Father. In Him is the Father made visible, the Logos through whom "he has spoken to us" (Heb 1, 2) His whole being is in "being sent", to bring God, as Father, close to men and women, to reveal His face and His name to them (Jn 17, 6) If man is called to be a son of God, therefore no-one better than the Incarnate Word can "speak" to him about God and portray the image of a son. Hence, the Son of God, coming to this earth, has called us to follow Him, to share His life, His word, His death and resurrection; even His sentiments. The Son, the one sent by God, is made man in order to call mankind: the one sent by the Father is the caller of mankind.

Therefore there does not exist a passage of the Gospel, or a meeting, or a dialogue, that does not have a vocational significance, that does not express, directly or indirectly, a call of Jesus. It is as if His human engagements, provoked by the most diverse circumstances, were for Him an opportunity for confronting the person with the strategic question: "What will I do with my life?", "What is my path?" b) The greatest love: to give one's life To what does Jesus call us? To follow Him so as to be and act like Him. More particularly, to live the same relationships that He has with the Father and with all people: to welcome life as a gift from the hands of the Father in order to "lose" and pour out again this gift on those to whom the Father has entrusted it.(32) There is a unifying trait in the identity of Jesus which constitutes the full meaning of love: mission. It expresses its oblational nature which attains its supreme epiphany on the cross: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jn 15, 13) Therefore every disciple is called to repeat and relive the sentiments of the Son, which are synthesised in love, the decisive motivation of every call. But, above all, every disciple is called to make visible the mission of Jesus, is called for the mission: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (Jn 20, 21) The structure of every vocation, indeed its maturity, lies in continuing Jesus in the world so as, like Him, to make of one's life a gift. The sending-mission is in fact the instruction of the eve of Easter (Jn 20, 21) and is the last word before ascending to the Father (Mt 28, 16-20)

c) Jesus, the formator Every person called is a sign of Jesus: in some way His heart and hands continue to embrace the little ones, to cure the sick, to reconcile sinners and to allow Himself to be nailed to the cross for love of all. Being for others, with the heart of Christ, is the mature face of every vocation. Therefore it is the Lord Jesus who is the formator of those who call, the only one who can mould in them His same sentiments. Every disciple, responding to His call and allowing himself to be formed by Him, expresses the truest traits of his own choice. Accordingly "the recognition of Him as Lord of life and history, brings with it the self-recognition of the disciple (...) The act of faith necessarily brings together ?Christological recognition' and ?anthropological self awareness'".(33) Hence the pedagogy of the Christian vocational experience evoked by the Word of God: "And He (Jesus) appointed twelve, to be with Him, and to be sent out to preach" (Mk 3, 14) In order to be lived in its fullness, as gift and mission, the Christian life needs strong motivations and, particularly, profound communion with the Lord; in listening, in dialogue, in prayer, in the interiorisation of sentiments, in allowing oneself every day to be formed by Him and especially in the ardent desire to communicate to the world the life of the Father. d) The Eucharist: the instruction for the mission In all of the catecheses of the early Christian community the centrality of the Paschal Mystery is clear: to proclaim Christ who died and rose again. In the mystery of the bread broken and the blood poured out for the life of the world the believing community contemplates the supreme epiphany of love, the giving of the life of the Son of God.

Therefore in the celebration of the Eucharist, the "summit and source"(34) of the Christian life, the greatest revelation of the mission of Jesus Christ in the world is celebrated; but at the same time is celebrated the identity of the ecclesial community brought together in order to be sent, called for the mission. In the community celebrating the Paschal Mystery every Christian takes part and enters into the style of the gift of Jesus, like Him, becoming bread broken to be offered to the Father for the life of the world. In this way the Eucharist becomes the source of every Christian vocation; at the Eucharist every believer is called to conform himself to the risen Christ totally offered and given. He becomes an icon of every vocational response; as in Jesus, in every life and in every vocation, there is a difficult fidelity to be lived even to the extent of the cross. He who participates in the Eucharist welcomes the invitation-call of Jesus to "do this in memory" of Him, in the sacrament and in life, to live "remembering", in the truth and liberty of daily choices, the memorial of the cross, to fill one's existence with gratitude and gratuity, to break one's own body and to pour out one's own blood. Like the Son. In the end the Eucharist generates the witness, prepares the mission: "Go in peace" We move from the encounter with Christ in the sign of the Bread to the encounter with Christ in every person. The believer's commitment is not exhausted in going into, but in coming out of the temple. The response to the call encounters the history of the mission. Fidelity to one's own vocation springs from the source of the Eucharist and is measured in the Eucharist of life.

18. Every believer, enlightened by the knowledge of the faith, is called to know and recognise Jesus as Lord; and in Him to recognise himself. But that is the fruit not only of a human desire or the good will of mankind. Even after having lived a prolonged experience with the Lord, the disciples continue to need God. Indeed, on the eve of the Passion, they experience a certain anxiety (Jn 14, 1) and are afraid of being alone; and Jesus encourages them with a promise that had never before been heard: "I will not leave you orphans" (Jn 14, 18) Those who were first to be called in the Gospel will not be left alone: Jesus assures them of the enduring company of the Spirit. a) Consoler and friend, guide and memory "He is the 'Consoler', the Spirit of bounty, whom the Father will send in the name of the Son, the gift of the risen Lord",(35) "so that he may remain with you always" (Jn 14, 16) In this way the Spirit becomes the friend of every disciple, to make them countercurrent witnesses to the most confusing event in the world: the death and resurrection of Christ. In fact, he is a "memory" of Jesus and his Word: "He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (Jn 14, 26); indeed "he will guide you into all the truth" (Jn 16, 13) The enduring newness of the Spirit consists in guiding towards a progressive and profound understanding of the truth, the truth that is not an abstract notion, but God's plan in the life of every disciple. It is the transformation of the Word into life, and life according to the Word.

b) Vocational promoter and accompanier In this way the Spirit becomes the great promoter of every vocation, He who accompanies the journey in order to reach the goal, the interior icon that, with infinite imagination, moulds the face of each one in the likeness of Jesus. His presence is always close to every man and woman, in order to lead all to the discernment of their own identity as believers and as people who have been called, to mould and model this identity exactly according to the model of divine love. As the patient artisan of our souls and the "perfect consoler", the Spirit sanctifier seeks to reproduce this "divine imprint" in each one. Above all the Spirit enables those called to bear "witness": "He will bear witness to me, and you also are my witnesses" (Jn 15, 26-27) This way of being of each one called is the convincing word, the very content of the mission. Witnessing does not consist only in suggesting the words of the proclamation as in the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 10, 20); rather in keeping Jesus in your heart and proclaiming Him as the life of the world. c) Holiness, the vocation of all And so the demand for a leap in quality for pastoral ministry today becomes a question that without doubt commits us to listening to the Spirit: because He is the one who proclaims "the things that are to come" (Jn 16, 13), who gives a new spiritual intelligence for understanding history and the life that flows from the death and resurrection of the Lord, in whose victory is the future of every person.

Therefore it is legitimate to ask: where is the Holy Spirit's call for our time? Where must we adjust our directions in our vocations programmes? But the response will come only if we welcome the great call to conversion, addressed to the ecclesial community and to everyone in it, as a real path of asceticism and interior rebirth, so that each one may recover fidelity to his own vocation. There is a primacy of life in the Spirit, which is at the base of every vocations programme. It requires us to overcome a widespread pragmatism and a sterile exteriority that leads one to forget the theological life of faith, hope and charity. Attentive listening to the Spirit is the new breath of every pastoral action in the ecclesial community. The primacy of the spiritual life is the premise for responding to the nostalgia for holiness, which, as we have already said, is also current in this era of the Church in Europe. Holiness is the universal vocation of every man,(36) it is the main road onto which converge all the little paths that are particular vocations. Therefore the great appointment of the Spirit for this period of post-conciliar history is the holiness of those called. d) Vocations at the service of the vocation of the Church However, proceeding effectively towards this goal signifies adhering to the mysterious action of the Spirit in certain precise directions, which prepare and constitute the secret of a real vitality for the Church of the year two thousand. Firstly the eternal, central role of communion, which is reflected in the icon of the ecclesial community, visible in the plurality of gifts and ministries,(37) is suitable to the Holy Spirit. In fact it is precisely in the Spirit that each Christian discovers his absolute originality, the uniqueness of his call and, at the same time, his natural and indelible tendency towards unity.

It is in the Spirit that vocations in the Church are so many and, at the same time, are one single vocation, to unity of love and witness. It is also the action of the Spirit that makes possible the plurality of vocations in the unity of the ecclesial structure: vocations in the Church are necessary in their variety in order to realise the vocation of the Church, and the vocation of the Church — in its turn — is that of making possible and practicable vocations of and in the Church. All of the different vocations, therefore, are directed towards bearing witness to love, towards the proclamation of Christ, the only saviour of the world. This is the originality of the Christian vocation: to integrate the fulfilment of the person with the realisation of the community; this means — yet again — to make the logic of love prevail over the logic of private interests, the logic of sharing over the logic of a narcissistic selfishness with regard to one's talents (cf 1 Cor, 12-14) Holiness, therefore, becomes the true epiphany of the Holy Spirit in history. If each person of the Trinitarian Communion has his face, and if it is true that the faces of the Father and the Son are familiar enough because Jesus, in becoming man like us, has revealed the face of the Father, then the saints become the most expressive icon of the mystery of the Spirit. In this way also everyone who faithfully believes in the Gospel bears and reveals the face of the Holy Spirit in his own particular vocation and in the universal call to holiness. e) The "yes" to the Spirit in Confirmation The sacrament of Confirmation is the moment that expresses in the clearest and most aware manner the gift of and the meeting with the Holy Spirit.

The one to be confirmed, in the face of God and His gift of love ("Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit"),(38) but also before his own conscience and the ecclesial community, answers "amen" It is important to recover at the formational and catechetical level the rich meaning of this "amen".(39) Above all it means "yes" to the Holy Spirit and, with him, to Jesus. This is why the celebration of the sacrament of Confirmation provides for the renewal of baptismal promises and asks the one to be confirmed to renounce sin and the works of evil, which are always ready to disfigure the Christian image; and above all the commitment to live the Gospel of Jesus and, particularly, the great precept of love. This is about confirming and renewing the vocational fidelity to one's identity as a child of God. The "amen" is a "yes" also to the Church. In Confirmation the young person declares himself ready to undertake the mission of Jesus continued in the community. Committing himself in two directions, so as to make his "amen" more concrete: to witness and to mission. The one who has been confirmed knows that faith is a talent to be used; it is a message to be transmitted to others through one's life, through the coherent witness of one's whole being; and through the word, with the missionary courage of spreading the good news. And finally the "amen" expresses docility to the Holy Spirit in reflecting and deciding on one's future according to God's plan. Not only according to one's own aspirations and abilities; not only in the spaces which the world allows; but above all in harmony with the plan, always hidden and unforseeable, that God has for each one.

19. Every Christian vocation is "particular" because it questions the freedom of every person and generates a most personal response in an original and unrepeatable history. Therefore each person, in his own vocational experience, finds an event that cannot be reduced to a general schema; the history of every person is a little story, but is always a unique part of a greater story. In the relationship between these two histories the human being plays out his liberty. a) In the Church and in the world, for the Church and for the world Every vocation is born in a precise place, in a concrete and limited context, but it does not turn in on itself, it does not tend towards private perfection or the psychological or spiritual self-realisation of the one called, rather it flowers in the Church, in that Church that journeys through the world towards the Kingdom, towards the realisation of a history that is great because it is the history of salvation. The ecclesial community itself has a profoundly vocational structure: it is called for the mission; it is a sign of Christ, the missionary of the Father. It says in Lumen Gentium: "the Church, in Christ, is in the nature of a sacrament — a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all men".(40) On the one hand, the Church is a sign that reflects the mystery of God; it is an icon that goes back to the Trinitarian communion in the sign of the visible communion, and to the mystery of Christ in the dynamism of the universal mission. On the other hand, the Church is immersed in human time and lives in history in a state of exodus, is in mission to the service of the Kingdom to transform humanity into the community of the children of God.

Therefore history asks the ecclesial community to listen to people's expectations, to read those signs of the times that make up the code and language of the Holy Spirit, to enter into critical and fruitful dialogue with the modern world, sincerely welcoming traditions and cultures to reveal in them the plan of the Kingdom and plant there the seed of the Gospel. In this way the small great story of each vocation intersects with the history of the Church in the world. Just as it is born in the Church and the world, so every call is at the service of the Church and the world. b) The Church, community and communion of vocations In the Church, the community of gifts for the one mission, is realised the movement from the condition of believer inserted into Christ through Baptism to his "particular" vocation as a response to the specific gift of the Spirit. In this community every vocation is "particular" and is specified in a life project; there are no generic vocations. In its particular nature every vocation is, at the same time, "necessary" and "relative" "Necessary" because Christ lives and makes himself visible in His body that is the Church and in the disciple who is an essential part of it. "Relative" because no vocation can exhaust the witnessing sign of the mystery of Christ, but expresses only an aspect of it. Only all of the gifts together can reveal the whole body of the Lord. In the building every stone needs the other (1 Pet 2, 5); in the body every member needs the other in order to allow the entire organism to grow and for the common good (1 Cor 12, 7) This requires that the life of each one is planned around God who is its only source and provides everything needed for the good of all; it demands that life be rediscovered as truly significant only if open to following Jesus.

However it is also important that there be an ecclesial community which will help each person called to discover his own vocation. The climate of faith, prayer, communion in love, spiritual maturity, courage in proclaiming, of intensity in the spiritual life all contribute to making the believing community into terrain that is appropriate not only for the flowering of particular vocations, but also for the creation of a vocational culture and a readiness in individuals to receive their personal call. When a young person recognises the call and decides in his heart the holy journey for realising it, there is normally a community there that has created the premises for this openness and obedience.(41) So, we note that: the vocational fidelity of a believing community is the first and fundamental condition for the flowering of a vocation in the individual believer, especially in the youngest. c) Sign, ministry, mission Accordingly, every vocation, as a stable and definitive choice of life, opens up in three directions: in relation to Christ every call is a "sign"; in relation to the Church it is a "ministry"; in relation to the world it is "mission" and witness to the Kingdom. If "the Church, in Christ, is in the nature of a sacrament", then every vocation reveals the profound dynamic of the Trinitarian communion, the action of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as the event that makes those called be in Christ as new creatures modelled on Him. Every vocation then is a sign, is a particular way of revealing the face of the Lord Jesus. "The love of Christ urges us on" (2 Cor 5, 14) In this way Jesus becomes the moving force and the decisive model of every response to God's appeals. In relation to the Church every vocation is ministry, rooted in the pure gratuity of the gift. The call of God is a gift for the community, for the common good, in the dynamism of many ministerial services.

This is possible in docility to the Spirit who makes the Church a "community of gifts"(42) and generates love in the heart of the Christian, not only as an ethic of love but also as profound structure of the person, called and enabled to live in relation with others, in an attitude of service, according to the freedom of the Spirit. In the end, every vocation, in relation to the world, is mission. It is life lived to the full because it is lived for others, like Jesus did, and therefore it is life-giving: "life generates life".(43) Hence the intrinsic participation of every vocation in the apostolate and mission of the Church is a seed of the Kingdom. Vocation and mission constitute two faces of the same prism. They define the gift and contribution of each person to God's plan, in the image and likeness of Jesus. d) The Church, mother of vocations The Church is the mother of vocations because she gives birth to them, with the power of the Spirit, she protects them, nurtures them and sustains them. She is mother, particularly, because she exercises a precious mediating and pedagogical function. "The Church, called by God, established in the world as a community of those called, is in her turn an instrument of God's call. The Church is a living call, through the Father's will, through the merits of the Lord Jesus, through the strength of the Holy Spirit (...) The community, which is aware of being called, is aware that at the same time it must continually call".(44) By means of this call, in its various forms, and at the same time as it, there also runs the appeal that comes from God. The Church exercises this mediating function when she helps and stimulates each believer to be aware of the gift received and of the responsibility that the gift brings with it.

She also exercises it when she acts as the authoritative interpreter of the explicit vocational appeal and herself calls, presenting her needs for the mission and the demands of the People of God, and inviting them to respond generously. She also exercises it when she asks the Father for the gift of the Spirit who raises up an assent in the hearts of those called, and when she welcomes them and recognises in them the same call, explicitly giving and entrusting with faith and trepidation a concrete and always difficult mission among men and women. We can add, finally, that the Church manifests her motherhood when, in addition to calling and recognising the suitability of those called, she also provides them with an appropriate initial and ongoing formation and ensures that they are accompanied along the path of an ever more faithful and radical response. Certainly the Church's motherhood can not be exhausted in the moment of the initial appeal. Neither can that community of believers be called mother that simply "waits", entrusting totally to the divine action the responsibility of calling, as if she were afraid of making the appeal; or that takes for granted that children and young people, in particular, will know how to welcome immediately the vocational appeal; or that does not offer considered pathways for the proposal of a vocation and the welcoming of it. The vocational crisis of those called is also a crisis, today, of those calling. At times they are reticent and lacking in courage. If no-one calls, how can anyone respond?

20. Europe today needs new saints and new vocations, believers capable of "building bridges" that shall help to unite the Churches. This is a typical aspect of newness, a sign of the times of the pastoral care of vocations at the end of the millennium. In a continent marked by a profound desire for unity, the Churches must be first to give the example of fraternity that is stronger than any division and is to be built up again and again. "Pastoral care of vocations in Europe, today, must have an ecumenical dimension. All vocations, present in every Church of Europe, are committed, together, to taking up the great challenge of evangelisation on the threshold of the third millennium, and giving a witness of communion and faith in Jesus Christ, the one saviour of the world".(45) In this spirit of ecclesial unity, the sharing of the goods that the Spirit of God has sown everywhere and reciprocal help between the Churches shall be promoted and encouraged.

21. The Catholic Churches of the West must pay greater attention to the spiritual and formation programmes of the Oriental Catholic Churches; this can only be of benefit to vocations ministry in all the Churches. Of singular importance in the formation of vocations for the Oriental Churches is the Sacred Liturgy. It is there that the proclamation and adoration of the Mystery of salvation is made and where communion is born and fraternity among believers is built up, to the point where it becomes the true formator of the Christian life, the most complete synthesis of its various aspects. In the Liturgy the joyful confession of belonging to the tradition of the Oriental Churches is joined to full communion with the Church of Rome. It is impossible to promote vocations to the priesthood and to the monastic life if there is no return to the sources of one's own original tradition, in harmony with the Holy Fathers and their profound sense of the Church. This far-reaching process requires time, patience, respect for the sensibilities of the faithful, but also determination. Therefore the Bishops, religious Superiors and pastoral workers of the European Oriental Churches are requested to be aware of the urgency of the situation for all of their Churches, recuperating and maintaining their respective liturgical patrimonies, which contribute in an irreplaceable way to the birth and development of theology and catechesis. This, following the example of the mystagogical method of the Fathers, opens people to the experience of the call and the spiritual life, and brings to maturity a sure and strong ecumenical spirit.(46) Within the various ecclesial experiences, and by means of studies that present the historical, theological, juridical and spiritual patrimony of the Churches to which they belong, Oriental young people can find educational environments appropriate for helping them bring to maturity the universal sense of their dedication to Christ and the Church. It is the Bishops' responsibility to promote, to approach sympathetically and accompany with fatherly care those young people who, individually or in groups, ask to dedicate themselves to the monastic life, highly valuing the charism of the monastic communities, which are rich with formators and spiritual guides.

22. "In many particular Churches, vocations ministry still needs to clarify the relationship between ordained ministry, vocations of special consecration and all other vocations. A unitary vocations ministry is based upon the vocational nature of the Church and of every human life as call and response. This is at the base of the Church's commitment to all vocations and particularly for vocations of special consecration".(47) a) The ordained minister Within this general sensibility, a particular pastoral attention would seem to be needed, today, for the ordained ministry, which represents the first specific way of proclaiming the Gospel. It "represents in different times and places the permanent guarantee of the sacramental presence of Christ, the Redeemer",(48) and expresses precisely the Church's direct dependence on Christ, who continues to send His Spirit to her so that she may not remain closed in on herself, in her cenacle, but may travel the paths of the world proclaiming the Good News. This vocational organisation is expressed in three grades: episcopal (to which is related the guarantee of the apostolic succession), presbyteral (which is the "sacramental representation of Jesus Christ.. the Shepherd")(49) and diaconal (the sacramental sign of Christ the servant).(50) To Bishops is entrusted the ministry of calling those who aspire to Holy Orders, so that they might become their collaborators in the apostolic office. The ordained ministry makes the Church to be, above all in the celebration of the Eucharist, "the source and summit"(51) of the Christian life and of the community called to remember the Risen one. Every other vocation is born in the Church and is part of its life. Accordingly the ordained ministry enjoys a service of communion in the community and, because of this, has the compulsory duty of promoting every vocation.

Hence the pastoral translation: the ordained ministry for all vocations and all vocations for the ordained ministry in a reciprocity of communion. The Bishop, therefore, with his presbyterate, is called to discern and cultivate all the gifts of the Spirit. But in a particular way the care of the seminary must become a preoccupation of the whole diocesan Church in order to guarantee the formation of future priests and the establishment of Eucharistic communities as the full expression of the Christian experience. b) Attention to all vocations The discernment and care of the Christian communities is extended to all vocations, whether to those already traditional in the Church or to the new gifts of the Spirit: religious consecration in the monastic life and apostolic life, the lay vocation, the charism of secular institutes, the societies of apostolic life, the vocation to marriage, the various lay forms of association related to religious institutes, missionary vocations, new forms of consecrated life. These different gifts of the Spirit are present in different ways in the Churches of Europe; but all of these Churches, in every case, are called to give a witness of welcome and care to every vocation. A Church is alive to the extent to which its expression of the different vocations is rich and varied. In a time like our own, then, in need of prophecy, it is wise to encourage those vocations that are a particular sign of what we will be although it has not yet been revealed to us (cf 1 Jn 3, 2), such as the vocations of special consecration; but it is also wise and necessary to encourage the prophetic aspects typical of every Christian vocation, including the lay vocation, so that the Church, in the sight of the world, may be an ever clearer sign of the things to come, of the Kingdom which is "already but not yet".

23. There is a creature in whom the dialogue between the liberty of God and the liberty of man takes place in a perfect way, so that the two liberties can interact, fully realising the vocational project; a creature given to us so that, in her, we can contemplate a perfect vocational plan, that should be implemented in each one of us. She is Mary, the image that has emerged from God's dream about the creature! In fact she is a creature like us, a small fragment into whom God has managed to pour all of his divine love; a hope given to us so that, seeing her, we too may welcome the Word, so that it may be fulfilled in us. Mary is the woman in whom the Most Holy Trinity can fully manifest its elective liberty. As Saint Bernard says, commenting on the Angel Gabriel's message at the Annunciation: "This is not a Virgin found at the last minute, or by chance, but chosen since before time began; the Most High predestined her and prepared her".(52) This is echoed by Saint Augustine: "Before the Word was born of the Virgin, He had already predestined her as His mother".(53) Mary is the image of the divine choice of every creature, a choice which was made from eternity, and was totally free, mysterious and loving. A choice that regularly goes beyond what the creature can imagine for himself: which asks him for the impossible and demands only one thing, the courage to trust. The Virgin Mary is also the model of human liberty in responding to this choice. She is the sign of what God can do when he finds a creature free to welcome His proposal. Free to say "yes", free to walk the pilgrimage of faith, which will be also be the pilgrimage of her vocation as a woman called to be the Mother of the Saviour and Mother of the Church. This long journey will be completed at the foot of the cross, through an even more mysterious and sorrowful "yes" that will render her fully mother; and then again in the Cenacle, where, today, she continues, with the Spirit, to generate the Church and every vocation. Mary, finally, is the perfectly realised image of woman, the perfect synthesis of the feminine genius and the fantasy of the Spirit, who in her finds and chooses His spouse, the virgin mother of God and man, daughter of the Most High and mother of all the living. In her every woman finds her vocation, as virgin, as bride, as mother!

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Final Document of the Congress on Vocations to the Priesthood and to Consecrated Life (1998)

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