We are experiencing an ecclesial phenomenon such as the shortage of vocations to follow Jesus in a more radical way. This reality worries us all, we question ourselves and ask ourselves: Why do we not have vocations to religious and priestly life?
I imagine that it is because we ourselves, as consecrated men and women, are not motivating young people to follow Jesus. We know that it is a lifestyle that is not for everyone, because following Jesus in a radical way is for a part of humanity, and that it really is a lifestyle as Jesus lived it, and who or who wants to live like that, surely almost no one, it is very difficult, since it complicates your life and compromises you. St. Teresa already said it looking at Jesus crucified: “that’s why you have few friends, because your following is demanding”.
If we want to find young people who risk their lives for the gospel, we have to make the gospel proposal about following. I think we have insisted in our pastoral plans only on believing in Jesus and not on following Jesus, since the evangelists speak more of following than of faith in Jesus. And to speak of following means to walk behind or with someone who marks the itinerary, maintaining closeness to him; it is an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus himself, a unique and totalizing relationship that embraces the whole of life and is also the force that gives meaning to your life.
Moreover, the encounter with Jesus was not so much about faith, but about following; rather, Jesus reproaches the disciples for their lack of faith. The key is in the following, since the various encounters with Jesus occurred because they listened to the invitation and followed him. In several passages we read: “great multitudes followed him”. When the evangelists refer to Jesus’ relationship with his friends, what stands out most is Jesus’ command: Follow me (Mt 8:22; Mk 2:14; Lk 5:27; Jn 1:43). The same thing Jesus said to the rich young man, “follow me” or the same thing Peter said: “we have followed you“. In all these cases we are not speaking of a theory or rather of a belief, but of a concrete fact, it is a leaving everything to respond to Jesus’ invitation; they lost all security, they had only one option left: to live with Jesus and to live like Jesus, in other words: the one who is called has no other security than communion with Jesus.
In reality, the following of Jesus is at the heart of the Gospel, and this demand encompasses three fundamental pillars of human life that are those that give “security in life”: property, that is, what we have to live and enjoy in this life; dignity and family. These are indispensable things for the life of every mortal, which many do not want to give up, out of fear or panic of insecurity, and Jesus invites us to follow him leaving all these things, we all want to secure everything. Jesus does not give us that security, because when it comes to following him, he tells us: we must give up everything, to the point of not having even the little that the vermin of the field have, a burrow, not even a nest like the birds have, not even a stone on which to lay our heads to rest.
Moreover, in order to follow Jesus, one must abandon all family ties so as not to be conditioned even by the burial of one’s own father, or even to say goodbye to relatives and friends. These radical demands of discipleship in the time of Jesus were also inconceivable, and in this time of history it is the same. Today we seek to have those same assurances, and feeling called to follow Jesus is difficult to give that answer, but for God it is possible, because it is a vocation and it is a gift from God, it is not only a matter of ourselves.
In short, the call of Jesus is not for a privileged few, but it is the condition and the way of life of all the baptized; it is one thing for us to follow him and another thing for us to remain installed in our false securities.
To follow Jesus it is necessary to listen to his voice, through his word, to discern through a companion and to give a courageous and generous response like the disciples, and here the freedom of the human being plays an important role.
Fr. Wilmer Moyetones, OAR