Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
They left their father, Zebedee, in the boat along with the hired men and followed Him. Zebedee, the father, seems to have put no obstacles in the way of his son's following Jesus. And parents shouldn't put obstacles in the way of their children following our Lord.
It's not frequently that I meet people who have that obstacle - parents opposing a vocation to their religious life or to their priesthood. It happens every once in a while, although not frequently. Recently, I did meet a priest who almost lost his vocation, because of the really staunch opposition of his father for years and years and years, opposed it as much as he could. Thanks be to God he did become a priest in the end. But again, it doesn't happen frequently, but sometimes does.
And it's a serious thing to oppose a religious vocation. And I thought this Gospel was a good opportunity to just look at that subject. And a while ago I found this little booklet published by a priest of the Congregation of the Mission, the Vincentian Fathers, St. Vincent de Paul. And he gives just very, very classic Catholic doctrine on this subject of the importance of a vocation and how parents shouldn't oppose it. Nobody should really oppose it when God calls somebody.
And, this author says that "many parents, having allowed their own faith to become deadened by contact with the world, lose sight of the snares and pitfalls before the feast, before the feet of their children." So sometimes it happens. Parents' faith isn't very strong, very fervent. They become comfortable in the world don't realize it's dangerous. And they think, well, nobody else should leave the world, especially not my own children. They should be as happy in the world as I am.
And then in question and answer format, this little booklet about vocations teaches us some serious things. Again, it's classic Catholic doctrine, succinct, again, and good to review. So what do the Fathers of the Church say of parents who oppose children that wish to enter the religious state?
So St. Thomas Aquinas says that, "Frequently our friends according to the flesh are opposed to our spiritual good." St. Alphonsus Liguori, he's a Doctor of the Church, says, "Parents often prefer to see their children damned with themselves rather than to see them saved away from them."
St. Bernard exclaims, "O hard-hearted father, cruel mother, unfeeling souls! You are not parents, you are murderers, for you grieve to see your son saved and you rejoice at the sight of his eternal perdition." This is one of the ways in which, as our Lord tells us, "a man's enemies shall be they of his own household." Hence the touching admonition of the Holy Spirit is particularly applicable to a person called to the religious state: "Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear. Forget thy people and thy father's house." And again, our blessed Lord says, "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me."
And so, serious things. So a vocation to the religious life is a serious thing. There's a serious grace, both for the person called and for his family. And again, that's why the saints, you know, lament so much and with such strong words when parents, of all people, when parents are the ones that put an obstacle to somebody's vocation. Our Lord calls them to follow more closely, again, to be a priest or a religious. When parents put on an obstacle, again, that is truly lamentable.
So, our anonymous author, this Vincentian priest, says, well, how bad is it? Do parents commit sin in preventing their children from entering their religious state? And the answer, well, lays down a principle: "If children themselves incur imminent danger of losing their souls by neglecting a divine vocation, parents that prevent a vocation to the religious state incur the danger of damning both themselves and their children. Such parents will have to answer also for the eternal loss of all those souls that their children would have saved in their religious state." 
St. Alphonsus Liguori, now, gives the following answer, not only as his doctrine but as the teaching of theologians in general: "Parents who, without a just and certain cause, prevent their children from entering their religious state cannot be excused from mortal sin." And not only parents but anyone who prevents another from following a religious vocation.
So, yeah, obviously a very serious subject here and very serious, serious admonition from the saints. But it just reminds us of how precious it is for our Lord to call somebody to follow Him more closely as He did with the apostles. How great it was for Zebedee not to put up any obstacle. And it reminds us how big of an obligation we have to follow our, of course, whatever calling we have, we have to follow it. But the greater the calling, the greater our obligation to follow. And we have to follow it with joy.
So may all of us here seriously discern God's will, whatever it might be. And it might not be, again, a religious vocation. That is a very narrow calling. But just, again, a reminder of how important it is to follow God's will, whatever it might be.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.