Burying our spiritual gifts: praying for vocations not enough

Catholic New Times, Jan 26, 2003 by Austin Fleming

Editor's note: The following is a homily based on the readings from Prov. 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; 1 Thess. 5.1-6; and Matt. 25:14-30 by Rev. Austin Fleming for the 33rd Sunday in "Ordinary Time-Year A," Nov. 17, 2002.

A few weeks ago, group of Canadian Catholics spoke in opposition to the church's rule about celibacy for priests. This group of Catholics is concerned because, in their part of Canada, there are parishes where Mass is only celebrated three of four times a year, and they claim that one very significant reason for the drop in vocations is the celibacy requirement. This vocal group of Catholic Canadians wants change in the system, and they see the celibacy rule as one of the first things that needs to be changed.

Who are these Canadians? The group I refer to entirely consists of the Roman Catholic bishops of the seven dioceses comprising the northern two-thirds of Canada. They made their case in October (2002) at the annual meeting of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Unlike the third man in the parable in today's Gospel, these bishops have not, out of fear, dug a hole in the ground, to bury, for safe keeping, what was entrusted to them.

No, these are bishops who want, desperately, to take what they have been given and to make it into something more than they originally received.

These are bishops who see that their people are hungry, hungry for the Eucharist, for the food of the Lord's Supper, which they are being denied, in large measure, because the Roman Catholic Church has chosen to say that the question of a married clergy is simply not open to discussion. In the meantime, they, and we, are told to "pray for vocations."

You know, I'll bet that the third man in the parable, who buried his one talent in a hole in the ground, actually did some praying about it afterwards. He acknowledges that he knew his master was a demanding person, and that even as he dug the hole, he was afraid of what the master might think. I'll bet that, as he dug, he prayed that something good might come of his fear. But, rather than do something fruitful and beneficial with what had been entrusted to him, he buried it for safe keeping and prayed about it. How much has the leadership of our church "buried" for "safekeeping?" How much has our leadership failed to work with the realities of our time, to trade, to invest, to bring to harvest the heritage entrusted to them? How much of our heritage as Catholics is drying up in our hands, yours and mine, because we have allowed it to be buried out of fear? How much does the silence and the inaction of millions of Catholics make them complicit in the burial of spiritual treasures that we may one day find ourselves unable to pass on to future generations?

Last week, our American bishops met in their annual fall session. The news reports showed us a hotel ballroom filled with men seated at long conference tables--all men, every one in a Roman collar. No women at all were given a voice or a vote; no lay men, either; not a married person in the bunch; not one parent among them.

The majority of the membership of the church in the United States, the baptized, lay faithful, had no say in what was traded, what was invested, what was preserved or buried at the bishops' meeting.

Unlike Catholics of northern Canada (and many other parts of the world, as well), we take it for granted that Mass is celebrated here, in this church, not four times a year, but four times every weekend.

We take it for granted that the same thing happens just a few miles away at St. Bridget's in Maynard, at St. Elizabeth's in Acton and at St. Bernard's in Concord center. But the time will come in our lifetime when three priests will be available to serve the five parishes of the Concord Cluster, and eventually fewer than three for the five parishes.

And then, because some things will have been buried, out of fear, we, like our brothers and sisters to the north, will no longer be able to take the frequency of Sunday Mass for granted.

Before the Master returns, before fear and a desire for safekeeping bury the sacraments out of our reach, too, before we lose what has been entrusted to our care, we need to let our voices be heard. In prayer? Yes! But not just in prayer, in protest, too, speaking out like the Roman Catholic bishops in Canada.

May the food of the Lord's table which is readily available to us now make us as wise and productive as the woman in the book of Proverbs. May we, like her, be praised at the city gates because, in our I safekeeping, we did not allow anyone to bury our spiritual gifts but, like faithful, loyal servants, we saw to it that they were traded and invested and nurtured to a ripe harvest for the mission of the Catholic Church, which you and I love, and for the sake of the world that our church is called to serve.

Rev. Austin Fleming is a priest in central Michigan.