The Fourth Sunday of Easter is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” It is on Good Shepherd Sunday that the Church celebrates the annual World Day of Prayer for Vocations. All too frequently, for Catholics, the word “vocation” means only two things: the call to become either a priest or a consecrated member of a religious order.
Vocation comes from the Latin word vocare, a verb meaning “to call,” In the context of our faith, it means to discern or figure out how best to serve God. In Baptism you’re called. In Confirmation you’re strengthened for your call. At the end of every Mass, nourished by the Eucharist, you’re sent to fulfill your calling.
There is only one Christian vocation. It’s given to you in Baptism: follow Christ. This is your call, my call, Father Andrzej’s call, the call of Bishop Solis and Pope Francis too. It’s easy to forget that it is not the sacrament of Orders but the sacrament of Baptism that is the fundamental sacrament of Christian life.
When the ordained vest for Mass, the first liturgical vestment we put on is an alb. Albs are white because they are baptismal garments. Over the alb goes the stole, a symbol of ordination. Over the stole goes the distinctive vestment of office: a chasuble for bishops and priests or a dalmatic for deacons. Baptism is the foundation of the sacrament of Orders.
Just as hope is the flower of faith and charity is their fruit, Baptism is the font from which all Christian vocations flow. The Church is the field watered by those who faithfully respond to God’s call. And the world is the recipient of the bountiful harvest.
What the world needs now is not finger-wagging moralists, “prophets of gloom,” or culture warriors who engage in endless and fruitless political and ideological battles. What the world needs to experience is the witness of the new life you received in Baptism. The Fruits of the Spirit, which are born from the Spirit’s sevenfold gifts, are what characterize Christian life: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity.1
Pope Saint Paul VI noted that the Church’s “first means of evangelization is the witness of an authentically Christian life, given over to God in a communion that nothing should destroy and at the same time given to one’s neighbor with limitless zeal.”2 Each day, each moment is the decisive time for Christian witness. Each moment of witness is an occasion for Spirit-led discernment.
Considering this, the important question for all of us together and each of us individually is- What is God calling me to? If your first vocation, received in Baptism and reissued and strengthened by Confirmation, is to follow Christ, your secondary vocation is to determine to which state of life you are called.
Yes, priesthood is a vocation. Religious life is a vocation. But married and family life is also a vocation. Being single and not ordained and not belonging to a religious order can also be a vocation.
For most Catholics, your tertiary vocation is what you do for a living. Yes, your secular work, where you spend a lot of time, engage with people and, hopefully, strive to make the world a better place, should be part of your baptismal vocation. As Christians we seek to live integrated, not compartmented, lives. At the beginning of the chapter entitled “The Laity,” the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, teaches that “the laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God.”3
The laity, that is, baptized and confirmed members of the Church who are not ordained and who do not belong to religious orders, the Constitution continues,
are called by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. In this way they may make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope and charity4By way of example, it’s been noted that the Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes. This is one way a Christian gives glory to God in all things.
It's easy to see that the scriptural metaphor of sheep, even when written as coming from the mouth of Jesus, as in today’s Gospel, has its limits. While discerning one’s vocation is to seek to follow Christ, it is not a mindless, sheep-like undertaking. On the contrary, it requires the discerning person to engage with her/his entire being. Discernment starts with considering what you like, what you’re good at, and, yes, considering what you want, as long as what you really want is to do God’s will.
One of three kinds of people Saint Ignatius of Loyola identifies in the part of his Spiritual Exercises devoted to the process of prayerful discernment is the person who does everything except the one thing necessary.5 What is the one necessary thing, according to Saint Ignatius? The one thing necessary is not only to discern but to do God’s will. It is only by freely doing God’s will, Ignatius insisted, that you attain interior freedom.
Seeking to discover God’s call is an act of love. How better to love God “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” than by seeking God’s will for your life?6 What better way of loving your neighbor as you love yourself than by faithfully living out your God-given call?7
Echoing words Bishop Solis’ words to the young people of our parish who were confirmed in this church on Friday, for those of you here who are still deciding your state of life and/or your educational and vocational future, I urge you to give some thought, just some thought and maybe some prayer to whether you are called to the priesthood or religious life. No matter what, prayerfully and in collaboration with your parents, teachers, mentors, godparents, confirmation sponsors, and other trusted people, seek God’s will for your life. Then, trusting God, take the risk, and set out to do it.
Our second reading today, taken from the Book of Revelation, provides us with what we might call “a mystical glimpse” of the destiny awaiting those who respond and are faithful to God’s call. What else can the washing and the wearing of white robes symbolize except Baptism?
1 Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sec. 390.↩
2 Pope Paul VI. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, sec. 41.↩
3 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church [Lumen Gentium], sec. 31.↩
4 Ibid.↩
5 Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, sec. 149-155.↩
6 Matthew 22:37.↩
7 Matthew 22:39.↩
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