By Terry Lees
AS part of preparation for writing this column, I noted jobs held through my lifetime, from first job as a paperboy through to the most recent as School Chaplain – 24 positions across eight or more career areas.
I then considered the questions: Did the work or the careers define me? Am I who I am because of the work I did?
Emphatically no.
I worked to earn a livelihood.
And, yes, there was status involved with some roles and careers, but a job is only one tool for a successful life.
My work is only a piece of my life.
I had to be something to earn a living, but my work could never define who I am.
I was always more than a job title.
But what about my vocation? Does my vocation define who I am?
“Be who you are meant to be and you will set the whole world on fire” St Catherine of Siena wrote.
It is tempting to think of your vocation as something you do.
But St Catherine speaks of vocation in terms of being, not doing.
Vocation is not simply something that you do but is an authentic expression of who you are, of your very identity.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s explore what a vocation really is.
The English word “vocation” comes from the Latin “vocatio” which means “calling”.
For the greater part of the 20th century, many of us held the perception that only priests, religious brothers and sisters had a “vocation”, and that their lives were more favoured in God’s eyes than those who did not have a calling.
This understanding of “vocation” was reviewed and addressed during the Second Vatican Council, which reinstated the vocational theology of the early Christian community.
Everyone has a vocation.
No one vocation is better than another, but each is different.
And our qualifications and experience do not matter to God – God equips the called.
Vocation or calling involves hearing and responding to the “voice” which uniquely calls each of us to live purposeful lives that serve the world in all kinds of ways.
“We are all called to be committed followers of Jesus, who calls all of us to develop to our fullest potential, in order that we may be empowered to share our own individual gifts, talents, abilities and blessings as fully as possible, for the sake of others,” the Catholic Vocations Ministry Australia says.
Your vocation is the way God invites you to love and give yourself to others. As St John Paul II explained it in Familiaris Consortio, “Love is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being”.
Vocation is not something external to you as a person.
Margaret Silf in Landmarks calls it “God’s dream for us” and “the inner mystery of ourselves that is already known – has always been known – to God, that he is longing to bring to fulfilment.”
Throughout history, God has called his people. God calls us too. “I have called you by name; you are mine.” [Isaiah 43:1]
We discover our vocation as we come to learn more about God, ourselves and life.
As we come to know God through prayer, the sacraments and living our Christian life, we come to hear his call.
We learn to hear his voice and what he is inviting us to do.
We each have a vocation – a God-given calling – for our own lives. Each Christian is called into a life lived for Christ and is equipped at the Eucharist with the assurance of the very presence of Jesus as we respond to our calling.
But for all of us our shared vocation is to live as God desires us to live, to be holy.
To be holy.
Surely that’s only for saints and I am a sinner, not a saint.
Saints come from diverse backgrounds and some were far away from God at some point in their lives.
Because they were open to God’s call, grace was able to enter their lives and transform them.
God’s grace is not for an elite class, it is for all people including you and me.
Through serving others we act as God to others and we become more and more like Christ each day.
While we might sin and fall short of what God desires for us, God still calls us to faithfully live our vocations in the hope that we will be with God in heaven someday.
St Augustine said: “You contain within you what you should offer, draw from your heart … offer from the treasury of your conscience the sacrifice of faith … with charity set fire to everything you offer. For within you are these offerings.”
What is the gift you are to ‘fan into a flame’?
Have a golden day and treasure life!
