When I joint the seminary in 2005 along with me there were 59 others who came from all different corners of my state in India. I was the only person from my region all others were from the northern side. Though we spoke the same language yet our slangs were different that led to a lot of misunderstanding, humiliation and anger. In spite of all these differences there was one particular aim in all of us is to become a priest. I along with my companions had to endure a lot for example, learning a new language which was alien to us, had to eat the food which was not at all like homemade, asked to do the work which we never did before in our lives, even for smallest mistakes that we made we were punished severely. At the same time we learned many lessons for our life. After completing 13 years of formation out of 60 only 6 of us became a priest.
As I am being in my eighth year of priesthood I would certainly say that this calling to be a priest is something unique and special from all other professions or services. The point that I am trying to make here is that when I see the current situation of the church as a whole and the shortage of priests in our country I wonder what went wrong. Why the younger generation is not expressing any interest in the sacrament of priesthood and what keeps them away from entering the holy orders. Is it because of the influence of the mass media? Or is it because of the cultural change? Or is it because of the concept of individual freedom? I don’t know. But I can say one thing for sure that it is someone’s failure maybe as a responsible parents or responsible pastor or responsible church community or the family or the individual him/herself.
Lack of self-interest, self-motivation, lack of influence from the family especially from parents and godparents, lack of inspiration from the priest concerned, lack of encouragement from the parish community and the school or colleges above all the lack of faith in God himself. Or else fear of losing self-identity, fear of scandals, fear of rejection, fear of facing challenges and temptations. I feel these are some of the factors which could keep the younger generation away from the sacrament of Holy Orders. Having said that I also would like to remind that by not encouraging our sons and daughters to serve God as priest and religious we refuse the final commandment of Jesus who said in the Gospel of Matthew 28:19-20 “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” And refusing to acknowledge what Jesus said at the end of the Gospel that is “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Finally I strongly believe that when we fulfil our responsibility of following the commandment of Jesus by becoming his powerful instruments and ready to sacrifice oneself and offer our sons and daughters to be his Apostles only then there will be fullness of faith and accomplishment of Gods mission on this earth as a living witnesses.
