Some thoughts on Vocations

We believe that a vocation is an individual's sacred calling from God: the form of life that gives the person the greatest freedom and joy and which advances the Kingdom of God on earth. 

In western culture, we Catholics have been distressed that fewer and fewer give their lives to the vocations of priesthood and religious life. 

This has not been true in the global south.  Especially in southeast Asia, priests and religious are to be found in abundance. 

This got me to thinking... more than the call of individuals, what is our culture called to?  In the west, the culture has begun to radically disassociate sexuality from having children, seeing them as two separate categories.  This highlights the incredible importance of the vocation of marriage in the context of our own Catholic cultural identity.

Creating a family is a sacred task that requires much self-offering.  Far from simply provide for the needs of kids, parents radically lay down their personal projects and goals for the sake of being there for their children.  It is their self-offering that enables children to become agents of self-offering themselves.  Much as Christ's love for us enables us to love others. 

As a culture, we have become radically self-interested and we see the suspension of our autonomy for the sake of another as burdensome; or even unhealthy.  But this is the very foundation of parenthood and the first condition for human development.  As a consequence of the absence of this sort of loving vocation, huge swathes of the population grow up less than loved, feeling alienated, feeling that the goal of life is to grasp happiness but finding themselves unable to hold onto it.

I think happiness was never made to be grasped.  Our peace and joy are never complete until others place us above their own happiness... and until we lay our own happiness down for the sake of others.  Paradoxical but true.  And abundantly true in the vocation of marriage.

So perhaps the signs of our times are a call from the spirit towards a greater self-offering in the living out of our vocations.  I do not see the different states of life as in conflict on this point.  Self offering is key to marriage, priesthood, and religious life.  And the more it is found in one, the more it multiplies in others.  When we think about what our church and our culture need, let us be attentive to the voice of the Spirit.  What are people really being called to?  What are you called to?

We will always need priests to be a voice for the community.  But we should think about what vocations (and what attitudes towards them) are best suited to taking up the work of loving that the Spirit calls us to in our current context, here and now. 

A short homily: The Antidote to Fear

 Readings...
Romans 8:31-39
Psalm 109:21-22, 26-27, 30-31
Luke 13:31-35

The following address was made to my Jesuit brothers.  Our chapel is particularly shadowy in terms of lighting and my initial remarks made them laugh.  I like to write homilies in point form so I can extemporize a bit while keeping to key ideas.  I hope you like it... 

--This liturgical space freaks me out

--it's dark, and while I'm speaking to you, I cannot see you

--I cannot see whether you approve or disapprove of what I am saying

--and my imagination fills in the silence and the darkness, fills in the unknown with what I most fear

--An old Jesuit once told me: the antidote to fear is love

--Look at Christ in the Gospel today. Christ receives a message of fear and uncertainty: get away, they are going to try to kill you

--Jesus' response is full of life and courage:

“tell that old fox I am casting out demons and curing the sick!”

“On the third day I finish my work”

Jesus seems to say, “here I am... do your worst”

--I am struck by the vibrant humanity of Jesus' courage. He is laying his life on the line... and that resolve in his heart brings him delight and freedom... expressed in everything he says and does

--Christ does not have courage because he is powerful,

Nor because He can see the future.

--An earthly conqueror secures himself with armies and sends spies to gather intelligence. A earthly conqueror shows courage when he lays his life on the line for his empire and for his own ambitions

--Christ is more than a conqueror

--his awesome resolve in the face of danger does not come from security or intelligence... nor from his ability to rule

--It comes from the fact that he is laying his life on the line

for someone he loves. You.

--he is delighted and inspired to risk everything...

...because he delights in You and is inspired by You.

--You are the beloved children of Jerusalem that he longs to gather under His wing

--love is the antidote to Jesus' fear

Let us bring all our anxieties and concerns to Our Lord's table...

...where our fear finds its antidote.

Let us respond with love to Jesus who loves us so boldly

--and let us pray for courage and audacity in loving...

that we can lay our own lives on the line for others

--with freedom and delight... knowing that neither death, nor life, nor anything else in all creation... can separate us from His love

Thomas a Kempis - The Imitation of Christ

Monastic Life

  If you wish peace and concord with others, you must learn to break your will in many things. To live in monasteries or religious communities, to remain there without complaint, and to persevere faithfully till death is no small matter. Blessed indeed is he who there lives a good life and there ends his days in happiness.
If you would persevere in seeking perfection, you must consider yourself a pilgrim, an exile on earth. If you would become a religious, you must be content to seem a fool for the sake of Christ. Habit and tonsure change a man but little; it is the change of life, the complete mortification of passions that endow a true religious.
He who seeks anything but God alone and the salvation of his soul will find only trouble and grief, and he who does not try to become the least, the servant of all, cannot remain at peace for long.
You have come to serve, not to rule. You must understand, too, that you have been called to suffer and to work, not to idle and gossip away your time. Here men are tried as gold in a furnace. Here no man can remain unless he desires with all his heart to humble himself before God.

            -Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, ch. 17

Dialogue

Good morning.


Good morning.

How are you doing?


Not bad.  (Looks at crossword) I just can't seem to engage my brain today.

Well, if you develop your brain too much, you'll be the first one the zombies come for.

Hehe, I'll try to remember that.

No, don't!