Recruiting for the YCW
Christ came to herald, establish, and spread the Kingdom of God. He is essentially the divine recruiter for the Kingdom of God, and the trainer of recruits for this temporal and eternal kingdom. The essential activity of the Christian apostolate must always be to recruit, to appeal, to dedicate and to train members and those who will recruit further members. The apostle, following his Master, will be above all a recruiter, a multiplier, and a trainer of others who will also recruit. A burning desire, a passion for recruiting should always be the distinctive mark of the apostle – Da mihi animas!
Christ lived, preached, and recruited in Judea and in Galilee. They were countries of fishermen, of farmers, of vine growers, and of sheep farmers. The sermons and the parables of the Master were adapted to these people in a marvellous way – Come, I will make you fishers of men – The harvest is great but the labourers are few – Ask the Divine Master that he will send workers for the harvest – Go you also into my vineyard – I have other sheep which are not of this flock – These also I must gather in so that there will be one fold and one shepherd. The programme and the ambition of the Saviour was to recruit and to train these fishers of men, harvesters of souls, and shepherds of men.
The Divine Master paid special attention, in His recruiting campaign, to those whom the Pharisees despised and abandoned – I am not come to call the just, but sinners – I will leave the ninety- nine sheep who are safe to look for the hundredth which is lost. And we have the example of the Samaritan woman, of Mary Magdalen, of Levi, of Zachaeus, and of so many others to confirm what He spoke in the parables.
In order to recruit men and to gather them to him, Our Lord did not flinch before any kind of trouble, fatigue, suffering, or sacrifice – The Good Shepherd gives his life for his sheep – have compassion on the multitude — I have not lost any of those whom you gave to me – I thirst – Greater love has no man than this, that he gives his life for his friend.
If Our Lord had lived in 1949, in an industrialised country, He would have spoken of the different industries instead of wheat fields, vineyards, fish, and of sheep. “Come, you workers in iron, in wood, in coal, and in all the products of human work – I will make you the producers, the transformers, the restorers of souls. No longer will you merely transform metal, but you will form souls. You will no longer produce merely material wealth, but you will accumulate spiritual riches.”
Every part of life, every environment, the whole mass of people, instead of being completely occupied, devoted, and often at the service of matter—i.e., of industrial work, should be dedicated to the conquest of souls and to the production of spiritual wealth.
“The first and immediate apostles of the workers will be the workers themselves.” In the first place those who are on the spot must take on themselves this work of recruitment, of transformation, and of recovery. The fishers, the harvesters, the shepherds! Others will help them from without, will form them for this their first and immediate apostolate. They alone can exercise it on their neighbours, their comrades, their companions, and friends. Their comradeship, their companionship, even their friendship will become a source and means of the apostolate.
Catholic Action leads us to this fundamental and essential idea of the Kingdom of God, where all are called to collaborate in the work of recruiting, each in his own environment. The Master invited them all to become fishers, harvesters, and shepherds. This demands that their life, in their environment as part of the masses, should become the life of an apostle.
The YCW is essentially, above all else, a Movement for the recruiting of young workers for the Kingdom of God. Recruitment is the soul of the YCW—it is its touchstone. Recruiting, continuing and ever renewing recruitment is the essential mission of organisers and of leaders. This is the spirit with which the YCW should inspire all its members, young and old.
When enthusiasm for recruiting wanes, when pre-occupation with it languishes, the YCW will lose its soul, it will die.
Recruiting is the life of the YCW
YCW recruiting should take the young workers as they are. It should not be exclusive ; it is not for an elite. It is for the masses, and it is for the elite to conquer the masses.
Recruitment should go on where they are. You look for fish in the sea, you harvest wheat in the field, you gather grapes in the vineyards, you put your sheep to graze in pastures. Recruitment for the YCW should go on where the young workers live, where they work, wherever they are—at home, at work, in the street, anywhere at all.
Recruiting is done by the recruiters going to the young workers. They will never come by themselves. “No man has hired us.” One must go to them, one must run after them, one must become weary in their pursuit.
Recruitment cannot be done at a distance. It calls for contact, personal and frequent contact, simple and friendly contact. There is no contact between strangers. One must make their acquaintance and talk to them, talk to them about the things which interest them, their work, preoccupations, their interests. Thus, this kind of contact supposes that those who recruit will be of the same age, conditions, and preoccupations as those- whom they contact.
YCW recruiting is a form of the apostolate which is humble, obscure, thankless, and unrecognised. Nevertheless, it is the highest form of the YCW apostolate. It is much more satisfying to speak at big meetings, to write fine articles, or to study interesting problems. All these things can be useful and necessary, but they can never take the place of recruiting or the influence of personal contact. This is why the organiser and the leader, whoever they may be, must always remain, before all else, recruiters.
The apostolate of recruitment is more than anything else a prey to the temptation of scepticism and of pessimism. One can always find excuses for escaping from it, objections to doing it, and lack of success to despirit one. In it, YCW faith, YCW confidence, YCW perseverance are continually put to the test.
YCW recruitment, which is essential to the future of the Movement, is impossible without a genuine YCW Chaplain. He should be its animator and its inspiration, its watchful and persevering guardian. He must unceasingly call attention to, point out the value of the apostolate of recruitment. To form leaders one must inspire, develop, and maintain in them a burning enthusiasm for recruitment. It is the permanent and essential campaign of the YCW
The YCW has never launched more successful campaigns than at present. All of them have their immediate purpose, which is both useful and necessary, but all of them ought to have in common one lasting purpose – they must recruit new members, they must provide contact with more and more young workers, with workers’ families, and with the environments favourable to recruiting.
Here the work of a chaplain is irreplaceable. He must keep the idea of recruitment always before them. He must make everything fit in with this recruiting idea. Herein lies the essential fruitfulness of his priestly fatherhood: he trains, he multiplies, he supports, he sends out YCW recruiters.
Have we, perhaps, a little lost sight of this? Has our inspiration diminished somewhat? Then we must revive it, this supernatural apostolic spirit. The harvest is great, but the workers are few.
It is for us, Chaplains, to multiply them. It will be a blessing on the whole of our priestly apostolate.
Joseph Cardijn.
SOURCE
Joseph Cardijn, Recruiting for the YCW, in New Life, June 1949, 89 – 92.