Reflections on call
Pope Francis has proclaimed a Year of Consecrated Life on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, which speaks of religious in its sixth chapter, and of the Decree Perfectae Caritatis on the renewal of religious life. The Year has begun on November 30, 2014, the First Sunday of Advent, and will conclude with the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple on February 2, 2016.
Last summer, I told my coworkers, friends, and family that I was taking a week-long staycation in August. I shared my simple plans to relax in my apartment, cook “real” meals, endlessly browse Netflix, and exert as little effort as possible.
But these were lies.
In fact, I did the complete opposite of what I claimed to be in my plans. During this “staycation,” I was never in my apartment, didn’t cook a single thing, willingly abandoned my laptop, and enjoyed maximizing my efforts into learning and meeting new people.
I attended Catholics on Call during August of 2012 after urging on the part of my local Young Adult Ministry Leader - let’s call him Deacon Bob - because he thought that it would be a good experience for me to attend this vocational discernment conference. I, of course, rolled my eyes at the words vocation and discernment as any young Catholic man does when he isn’t ready to be shipped off to seminary. However, as I packed my bags to head to Chicago I could not comprehend the eye-opening experience that I would encounter.
Vocation. What does that mean? I often find myself pondering where my life is going, and what I am going to do in the future. Will I get the job that I want? Will I be able to pay off my college debt? Will I get married? Or will I follow a different path? These are all valuable questions that will inevitably be answered.
Roast turkey, prime rib, mashed potatoes with gravy, gingerbread cookies, chestnuts, champagne…Advent is upon us, and hopefully many of us will be blessed to take part in feasting with the ones we love. ‘Tis the season for our favorite comfort food. Cooking has become one of my favorite hobbies within the past few years, and I have seen parallels between my experience re-engaging with the Catholic church and my development into an amateur cook.
Advent is acknowledged as a time of preparation; however, in today’s commercialized Christmas environment we often fail to appreciate the intersection of God’s divine invitation and the reception of that invitation as an expression of free will. The most beautiful example of this intersection begins months before the first Christmas. It begins with a young woman’s decision to accept God’s will, transforming the course of history in the process. The story of Christmas begins with one word—“Fiat”.
Often when we speak of “being called,” the phrase is followed by another infinitive: being called to become a doctor, being called to work for justice, being called to go on a mission experience. While these active calls are important as we discover the persons God has created us to be, the focus of these phrases on what we do can give us an unbalanced view of vocation. Vocation has so much more meaning than the activity, line of work, or state of life in which we find ourselves.
Throughout our lives, we are often asked: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” When children are asked that, the answers are often amusing, and also rather inconsistent. Adults chuckle, and continue to ask at varying intervals. But at a certain point, we begin to be expected to have a plan, a specific idea of what we are going to do with our lives. Those who lack that are looked upon as unrealistic, not dealing with reality, “not playing with a full deck.” The pressure is immense.
A few months ago, during adoration after the Holy Thursday service at St. Andrew’s Church in Verona, Wisconsin, I found myself kneeling before a statue of the Virgin Mary and reciting a prayer asking to be made ready to do God’s work. I had no idea why I was saying that prayer, apart from the fact that it was taped to the donation box in front of me. But I figured it was as good as any other prayer I could have said in that moment. So I went with it. Maybe it would come in handy. Maybe I was praying for something I didn’t even know I needed.
My first year as a full-time Campus Minister is over, and now I'm spending the mornings of my first week of summer by going to class for my part-time Masters in Theology. My class is on parables, and during our 5 days of in-person class, we are discussing and exegizing those stories of Jesus from the Gospels.
