Father Koch: As we grow disciples, we grow vocations
July 4, 2025 at 8:00 a.m.
Gospel reflection for July 6, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
In order to prepare his disciples for the mission which they will need to accomplish after he ascends to the Right Hand of the Father, Jesus needs to give them the opportunity to exercise ministry under his own direction. As he sends them forth he instructs them: “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.”
This reality is abundantly clear again in our own time. While the Lord continues to call men to priesthood and diaconate, and both men and women to consecrated life, many refuse the call, preferring the way of the world to the way of the Gospel.
In a world that hungers for meaning and yearns for a sense of salvation, an increasing amount of noise and constantly shifting mores make the ability to discern and understand a call to faithful discipleship becomes more and more challenging. Our hunger is being sated by social media and other forms of streaming entertainment, though they leave us only hungering for more and not truly satisfied.
The Lord challenges all of his disciples to a pattern of simplicity and to strive, not for the most, but for the least. We learn that more is not necessarily better, and that thriving where we are leads to more satisfaction than constantly looking for more. This is especially true for our spiritual journey.
The Gospel provides us with the essential message and the means to respond to the world without becoming immersed in the world. A lack of true fulfillment as offered by the world leads to various responses. For some it is the desire to consume more and more in an attempt to find meaning. Others become so engrossed that they even fail to see their longing and desire. And yet others find their disillusionment with the world and discover the satisfaction that comes from a relationship with Jesus and his Church.
The recent increases seen in churches throughout the world of young adults -- singles and families -- who are receiving the Sacraments and growing as disciples is a testimony to the failure of the world to offer the satisfaction they seek.
The harvest is indeed abundant but the laborers are few. The dramatic decline in the number of active, priest, deacons, and consecrated religious is a stark reminder to us that there is yet much work to do.
A significant majority of Catholic School students have never met a religious sister, the painful reality is that in the near future many Catholics will have only occasional encounters with priests. Mass may well become an uncommon experience and Communion Services will become more normative. Access to the Sacraments will be limited in dramatic ways.
What we need are families who value priesthood and religious life who are open to vocations from within their family. We need prayerful support for the men who are taking up the cross and making the sacrifice in response to the call and to reinvigorate a culture of vocations within the Church. The harvest is indeed abundant, yet we are losing so many souls to the wiles of secularism because we lack the means to feed the needs present within. Let us then, not only pray for the priests we have, but for the ones we need.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.
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Gospel reflection for July 6, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
In order to prepare his disciples for the mission which they will need to accomplish after he ascends to the Right Hand of the Father, Jesus needs to give them the opportunity to exercise ministry under his own direction. As he sends them forth he instructs them: “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.”
This reality is abundantly clear again in our own time. While the Lord continues to call men to priesthood and diaconate, and both men and women to consecrated life, many refuse the call, preferring the way of the world to the way of the Gospel.
In a world that hungers for meaning and yearns for a sense of salvation, an increasing amount of noise and constantly shifting mores make the ability to discern and understand a call to faithful discipleship becomes more and more challenging. Our hunger is being sated by social media and other forms of streaming entertainment, though they leave us only hungering for more and not truly satisfied.
The Lord challenges all of his disciples to a pattern of simplicity and to strive, not for the most, but for the least. We learn that more is not necessarily better, and that thriving where we are leads to more satisfaction than constantly looking for more. This is especially true for our spiritual journey.
The Gospel provides us with the essential message and the means to respond to the world without becoming immersed in the world. A lack of true fulfillment as offered by the world leads to various responses. For some it is the desire to consume more and more in an attempt to find meaning. Others become so engrossed that they even fail to see their longing and desire. And yet others find their disillusionment with the world and discover the satisfaction that comes from a relationship with Jesus and his Church.
The recent increases seen in churches throughout the world of young adults -- singles and families -- who are receiving the Sacraments and growing as disciples is a testimony to the failure of the world to offer the satisfaction they seek.
The harvest is indeed abundant but the laborers are few. The dramatic decline in the number of active, priest, deacons, and consecrated religious is a stark reminder to us that there is yet much work to do.
A significant majority of Catholic School students have never met a religious sister, the painful reality is that in the near future many Catholics will have only occasional encounters with priests. Mass may well become an uncommon experience and Communion Services will become more normative. Access to the Sacraments will be limited in dramatic ways.
What we need are families who value priesthood and religious life who are open to vocations from within their family. We need prayerful support for the men who are taking up the cross and making the sacrifice in response to the call and to reinvigorate a culture of vocations within the Church. The harvest is indeed abundant, yet we are losing so many souls to the wiles of secularism because we lack the means to feed the needs present within. Let us then, not only pray for the priests we have, but for the ones we need.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.