On Friday, June 26, I will ordain to the Order of Presbyter Deacon Tyler Dennis. While Deacon Tyler will have much to celebrate, having completed his long seminary training, distinguishing himself both in the classroom and in pastoral settings, it is also a day for the whole Church in western South Dakota to celebrate and an occasion to reflect on what it means for any of us to respond to the call of God. Our Judeo-Christian faith has many insights to offer all of us, in that we all have a vocation from God. Three come to mind as I prepare for Tyler’s ordination.
First, at the heart of our Catholic tradition is the belief that God calls his people, inviting them to enter into a special relationship formed by an agreement, a covenant. The terms of the pact with God are straightforwardly put in Leviticus 11:44: “… be holy, because I am holy.” In their work, Character, Choices and Community, Russell Connor and Patrick McCormick explain this vocation from God this way: “In that most secret core of our being we are haunted by a moral siren summoning us to become more and more fully human, to transform ourselves into increasingly loving and principled adults, indeed to become saints.” Or again, being attentive to God’s call is about “finding a purpose for being in the world which is related to the purposes of God,” as Walter Brueggemann writes in Covenanting as Human Vocation.
But the call from God is about more than our personal destiny. The noted Christian writer, Frederick Beuchner, observes in his Wishful Thinking: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” True discernment about what God is calling us to involves both listening to the voice of God in that “secret core of our being” and also to the voices of those in need, those suffering in the world. God’s invitation calls for a response, to be responsible both personally and socially.
Finally, Catholic tradition time and again reminds us that God’s call and our response is ongoing. “Vocation is a gradual revelation – of me to myself by God. It is who we are, trying to happen,” according to James and Evelyn Whitehead in Seasons of Strength. Like the rising of the sun, it is a daily occurrence. Listen to the prophet Isaiah: “Morning by morning, He awakens me. He awakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.” (50:4-5)
The ordination on June 26 is a cause for rejoicing, both for Deacon Tyler and the Church. His coming forward with generosity to serve the people of God for the rest of his life has the added promise of rekindling in each one of us a deeper appreciation of our own calling from God.
Statement by Bishop Blase Cupich
on the Murder of Dr. George Tiller
On Sunday, May 31, a man entered a church in Kansas to end the life of Dr. George Tiller, the nationally known abortion doctor. Long before the gunman carried out this act of violence, violence was in his heart. He bought into a system that says violence is an acceptable means to solve a problem. It is a system that plagues society in street crime, in child abuse and spousal battering, in the easy resort to war, in the use of the death penalty by the state, in the euthanizing of the elderly and sick and in the taking of the life of a child in a mother’s womb. It is all the same system. The approach to a problem is the same – violent behavior.
It is important to unmask the system of violence in all its forms both in action and in word. As the chair of our U. S. bishops’ Pro-Life Committee observed, “Our bishops’ conference and all its members have repeatedly and publicly denounced all forms of violence in our society, including abortion as well as the misguided resort to violence by anyone opposed to abortion. Such killing is the opposite of everything we stand for and everything we want our culture to stand for: respect for the life of each and every human being from its beginning to its natural end. We pray for Dr. Tiller and his family.”
Let us pray and work for an end to violence in all of its forms. Let us pray for Dr. Tiller and his family.
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