OK! So far so good. We have already covered two of the letters in the word Advent and we are onto our third. If you have not already read the first two, then I suggest that you do so now. Please see the links below:
Attend Holy Mass regularly and
Devotion to prayer.
Today we will be looking at Vocation. Not vacation but vocation. Many people when they hear the word vocation, would immediately begin to cower and start thinking of the priesthood and religious life. While these are vocations, they are but a small part of what vocation really is. Simply put, vocation is us answering God’s purpose for our lives. Every single one of us has been created by God for a particular purpose. None of us are here by accident. By the way, I must put in a plug for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Amidst all the clutter of noise in our world today, God continues to call men and women to the priesthood and religious life. If you think that you may be experiencing that call, then please do not be afraid. Speak to your parish priest or the team responsible for formation in your area. They have organized sessions and retreats that will help you to discern God’s call. If you happen to be in Trinidad and Tobago, then you can reach out to Fr. Matthew D’hereaux.
The catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that our number one vocation is to follow Christ. It tells us in paragraph 1694, “Incorporated into Christ by baptism, Christians are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus and so participate in the life of the risen Lord. Following Christ and united with him, Christians can strive to be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk-in love by conforming their thoughts, words, and actions to the mind which is yours in Christ Jesus, and by following his example.“
Many of you I am sure, will be familiar with Jeremiah 29:11 where God tells us, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” This is God speaking. This is God’s word to his people who were in exile in Babylon. This is God’s promise to them. It is God‘s promise to us as well as we too are in exile. We are in exile from this terrible pandemic called COVID-19. Many of us are unable to celebrate the beautiful season of Christmas with our loved ones because of this pandemic. We are unable to do many of the things that we would normally do because of this pandemic. This pandemic has forced us in a very real way to be less than ourselves. Apart from the pandemic, we have major issues with crime all around us both here in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as internationally. In all of human history, I do not think there was ever a time when there are so many persons seeking refugee status. I do not think there has ever been a time when so many people have been forced to flee from their homes because of violence or threats against their lives or because of natural disasters. Then there is the ongoing struggle against those who want to assume the right to take the life of unborn children simply because they can. There is murder, human trafficking, drug trafficking, pornography, corruption, insane crimes against children, broken families, attempts to redefine family life, attempts to re-define marriage, and the list goes on and on. There is darkness all around us. We too are in exile. The word of God in Jeremiah 29:11 also speaks to us. For sure, God is telling us today, “Yes, I know what plans I have in mind for you, Yahweh declares, plans for peace, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
There is a word that is used very often in today’s business world. It is collaboration. This is where for example, one person creates a document, the document is shared with others and they can add to it, subtract from it, comment on it, all towards creating a complete document. In a very real sense, we are all collaborators with God. He created us for his kind purpose and he does not force anything on us. We can choose to collaborate with God and his plan for us or we can choose not to. Every human person is important. Kinda reminds me of when I was a child, we would sometimes get these puzzles to put together. I don’t know if people still put the jigsaw puzzles together anymore, but it was something that our family used to do. One of the most annoying things I found as a child was when you got to the point of putting the pieces together you came to the realization that some of the pieces were missing. That is not fun. In a very real sense, so it is with us. We are all part of a big puzzle called life where each one of us has a specific role to play. We are all interdependent. When we cooperate with God‘s plan for our lives, when we cooperate with the vocation to which he has called us, it impacts the lives of those around us. Similarly when we choose not to cooperate with God‘s plan for us, and we reject his vocation on our lives, this too has a negative impact on others around us.
From what I have said so far, it should become clear that there is a difference between a vocation and a job. In many instances, your vocation and your job can be one in the same. Your vocation should drive your job and how you live.
One day someone came to Jesus and asked him, “Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law? Jesus said to him, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22: 36 – 39) This my dear friends is vocation. When we get vocation right, everything else will fall in line. This is very parallel to the scripture passage that says, ‘seek first the kingdom of heaven and everything else will fall in line’ (Matthew 6:33). When we are open to God’s purpose for our lives, which is our vocation, then we are seeking to do God’s will. When we seek to do God’s will, blessings will always flow.
Another contrast between our vocation and our job is that our job should not define who we are but our vocation should. Being a doctor, or a lawyer, or a teacher shouldn’t be our defining point, but being an honest doctor who really seeks to serve his patients and not gorge out their eyes with high prices, or being an honest lawyer who does not exploit the poor nor take advantage of loopholes in the law to acquit the guilty: these should be your defining characters. Our baptism should be the starting point of what defines us. Before anything else, as a baptized Catholic, I am a child of the Most High God. I am made by him and for his purpose. I am made in his image and in his likeness. That is who I am. My profession on the other hand may be a doctor or a lawyer or an IT specialist. When my baptism or rather our baptism drives who we are, it makes a huge difference in the way we live. When we recognize God‘s calling on our lives through our baptism, it changes our perspective on life, and on those around us. When we recognize God‘s vocation for us we see life as a gift, and those around us as our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we recognize God‘s calling on our lives, we cherish every day that we live, and we treat those around us the way God wants us to treat them, loving our neighbor as we do ourselves.
Our vocations are tattooed onto our souls and until we get to the point where we are living our vocation, there will always be a restlessness in us. God‘s purpose for every single one of us is inscribed in us. It is part of who we are. We cannot escape it. It is very much like buying a brand new car. The car would have been manufactured for specific conditions and to be used in specific ways. For example, the car would have been designed to run on either diesel or high premium gasoline. It would’ve been designed to have a particular size and type of tires on which to run. If we decided to try to be different and to try to develop our own fuel made from recycled materials; that may not work and may damage our new car. If we decided that the tires the car came with were too small, and we decided to put on much larger tires on it, say the tires that were designed for a SUV, then while the car may run, it will not do so properly and efficiently because we are using the wrong size tires, and it was not designed for that.
We are made by God and for him. Trying to live our lives outside of his design, his will, and his purpose simply will not work for the same reason that the car will not work if the wrong fuel is placed in it. I believe it was Saint Augustine who said that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. This is not just applicable to our religious life, but rather this is applicable to our entire lives. It is our openness to God’s will that should guide our profession. If we are not open to God’s will, then we can easily fall into the trap of materialism and running after the highest paying jobs for all the wrong reasons. Think for a moment what the world would be like if they were only mechanics and no Doctors. Or what would the world be like if we were all doctors and there were no scavengers? Or what the world would be like if we were all lawyers and they were no police. I think you get the message. Our entire lives I meant to be a vocation. Our whole lives are meant to be about us answering God’s call on our lives. It is in answering this call that we find true happiness and peace.
So how do we get to a place where we can discern God‘s call upon our lives? How do you know that how you are living is in keeping with God’s vocation for you? The answer to this can be found in Jeremiah chapter 29. After God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah saying, “Yes, I know what plans I have in mind for you, Yahweh declares, plans for peace, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope,” He continued by saying, “When you call to me and come and pray to me, I shall listen to you. When you search for me, you will find me; when you search wholeheartedly for me.” So we are able to discern God‘s plan and his purpose for our lives, – which is our vocation – through prayer which we discussed under the second letter in the word Advent – Devotion to Prayer. When we seek God, when we cry out to him he will answer us. He will show us the way we ought to go when our hearts are completely open to him. Not only will he show us but he will guide us and grant us the grace to do and to be all that he is calling us to. God does not just point to a mountain, he shows us the way around it, he gives us grace and the strength to overcome it, it takes us into his arms and carries us over it.
The season of Advent presents us with some amazing persons as examples of vocation – doing the will of God. These are John the Baptist, Mary mother of God, and Joseph the foster-father of Jesus. They all lived their vocation really well! John the Baptist’s role was to prepare a way for the coming of Jesus Christ. When asked whether he was the Messiah he made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t. John the Baptist was an incredibly humble man whose desire was to do exactly what God had inscribed on him. John the Baptist was not afraid to point the way to Jesus. Neither was he afraid to decrease so that Jesus may increase. That is an incredible example of vocation.
Then there is Mary the mother of God, who at an early age, had a visitation from the angel Gabriel who announced to her that she had been chosen by God to be the mother of the Savior of the world. Even though Mary was betrothed to Joseph, they had not yet come together. In those days, when a woman was found to be with child outside of wedlock, or if she was found to be unfaithful, she would be stoned to death. The announcement made by the angel Gabriel to Mary would have placed her well within the bracket of being pregnant outside of marriage, but we all know that this was a very very special case. Mary fully aware of the law, but also fully aware of who God is, said yes to his will. For me, that is one of the most amazing and incredible examples of answering your vocation, and it tells us that sometimes, doing the will of God by answering his call on your life may, to the outside world, seem to be self endangering. God will not call us into a lion’s den unless he will be glorified in it. God did not call mother Mary to be pregnant outside of marriage without himself being glorified through her ‘yes’.
And then there is Joseph. Joseph was a humble, God-fearing man. He must have been hurt when he realized that Mary, the woman who he was going to spend the rest of his life with, was pregnant before they came together. When Joseph realized this, the word of God tells us that he was going to quietly divorce Mary. This is Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus –
This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being an upright man and wanting to spare her disgrace, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1: 18-20)
Joseph is a tremendous example for men of today. After he learned how Mary conceived Jesus, the word of God tells us that he did exactly what he was told. He did not doubt, he didn’t question, he just submitted himself and obeyed. Joseph was no ordinary man. He was a God-fearing man. He placed God’s will and purpose for his life above his own personal desires. He too, like Mary and John the Baptist, is an excellent example for vocation. He is a marvelous example for men for doing God’s will.
Finally, one of the famous sayings of Saint Catherine of Sienna, a Doctor of the Church was, “Become who God created you to be and you will set the world on fire.” Simple as that statement may seem it is quite profound. I want us all to really think about it and let it challenge us all to become better versions of ourselves. Let this very profound statement challenge us to ask, Am I who God created me to be? Am I allowing the Hand of God to mold and fashion me as he wants? Am I cooperating with God’s plan for my life? What is preventing me from becoming who God created me to be? “Become who God created you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
Dear God, I have not always been open to your will and to your purpose for my life and in so doing I have blocked out your grace and your blessings for me and for those around me. For this, I am truly sorry. Help me Lord to trust you more. Help me Lord as we journey through Advent to be more open to your will for my life. Help me Lord to always know that you desire what is best for me and that you desire to prosper me and not harm me; that you desire to bring me peace, joy, and true happiness. Grant me the grace to let go and to allow you to reign in me. Grant me God the grace to seek your face, to seek your purpose in my life. Grant me the grace to place you high above all else in my life. In Jesus’ name, I pray.
Amen.
