CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH

 

Get Moving

 

As the discernment of our vocation comes to a close, we must proceed forward to that vocation with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. We must give our whole selves, holding back nothing of ourselves or for ourselves. Nothing can be worse to one’s vocation than a half-hearted effort. Jesus is not pleased with a lukewarm response to following him, “if you are lukewarm I will spit you out of my mouth”! He invites us to be hot or cold, no half measures. Either do it or don’t do it.

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These words may seem strong. However, they are the words of our Blessed Lord. Recall what he says in the Gospel, “He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven”. If we choose to follow the Lord and yet keep looking back to our old lives, our old way of doing things, the things of the world, then we are not only not fit for the priesthood and religious life, we’re not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. Our Lord clearly warns us that if we follow our vocation only half-heartedly we can risk our very salvation.

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Does this frighten us? It should! But, it should not scare us away from our vocation, that was not Our Lord’s intent. It should motivate us to live out our vocation with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength. Let me be clear in saying that fear should not be our motivation for following our vocation with the fullness of our person. But fear does help us in times of trial and when some other fear, like the “lies” of friends, family, possessions, begin to deter us from following God’s loving plan for our lives. Let us the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit that helps us to reach, not only our salvation, but also blessedness, holiness of life.

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Ultimately, fear will not sustain us, especially if that fear is not the proper fear of the Lord we already mentioned. Love sustains us! We are called by love, for love, with love, so that we may be in love, stay in love and persevere in love. That love that motivates us IS God. As we live out our vocation it is this penetrating love of God that must envelop us and motivate us to proceed forward with joy, peace, trust and total surrender to God’s plans for us. We must never take our eyes off that loving glance of Christ that calls us and sustains us.

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After careful discernment of a community, having fulfilled all the essential elements of religious life and truly believing it’s God’s call for you, apply to enter without looking back. Don’t waste any more time. The acceptance process will be the crowning of your discernment. In other words, if you really believe this community or the diocesan priesthood is your vocation, then proceed forward with the application process. Their acceptance or rejection of your application will either confirm or deny that the particular community or the diocesan priesthood, is or isn’t for you.

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If you are accepted, then move swiftly. If God opens the door go through it at your earliest ability. One should never hesitate in fulfilling the will of God. There will always be reasons to delay or wait. These delays or that waiting must also be properly discerned. Are they really causes to wait or are they just stall plans? Or, if they are legitimate, then do everything humanly possible, along with relying upon the assistance of God and our Lady, to remove that obstacle A.S.A.P.!

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If you are not accepted by that community, or by the diocese, don’t be disheartened. It will hurt at first, and you’ll go through some real painful moments wondering if God even cares about you. Fear not, He does! A rejection by a religious community or a diocese is not a bad thing. Some saints were

rejected by religious communities, and others by their diocese. St. Joseph of Cupertino and St. Benedict Joseph Labre were both rejected by the Capuchins. The rejection may or may not be a sign that you don’t have a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. However, it is a sign from God that you need to look elsewhere. A rejection is just that, a sign from God leading you on to where His will is for you.

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Do not hold back because you fear rejection. That is not a fear of the Lord, but rather a fear of a painful result. If you want to do the will of God you must risk rejection, accept it if it comes, and see it not as a personal rebuke of your person, but a clear sign that a particular community is not where God wants you. Remember the Gerasene Demoniac. After the Lord drove out the demons from him into the pigs, he wanted to follow Christ. Jesus told him “No”. Jesus sent him back to his people so that they, who were asking Christ to leave them, might come to faith. Upon our Blessed Lord’s next visit to Gerasene, He received a very warm welcome. The rejection of the formerly possessed man, was for the greater salvation of the people of Gerasene, Jesus did not reject him, He simply sent him on a different sort of mission.

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If there is clarity in your heart towards the diocesan priesthood or to a religious community and there is an open door on their side, then run through it. Unnecessarily delaying our vocation can be detrimental to our vocation and to the salvation of souls. We must remember that our vocation is not just about us. Sure, it is about following the Lord, growing in holiness and giving Him my all while allowing myself to be His all. However, it is also about the salvation of souls. So many souls depend upon my gift of self to the Lord. If you are called to the cloister and are not there, how many souls will not receive the graces of the prayers offered by your consecrated soul? If you take your time in entering the seminary and take that much longer to get ordained, how many Masses will not be

said? How many confessions will not be heard? How many people will not hear the preaching of the Gospel in a way that has been given to you to preach? In the same way, if you are called to be a sister or brother, how many souls will not be served in schools, hospitals, soup kitchens, shelters and the like? All not done because we dragged our feet along the way of our following Christ. All because we unnecessarily had “other things to do or get done” first.

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This leads us to ask, what things are we putting before the Gospel? Before God? What are, if any, the things that we unnecessarily put “first” before the following of the Gospel? One last Christmas at home? One last summer at the beach? One more semester at school? We must carefully discern if they are truly things we “need” to do first or are they personal “wants” or desires. Honestly, if they are not real necessities then let them go and go! Recall how St. Therese of Lisieux knew that she was called to the Carmelite cloister and so desired it, that at 15 years old she went to the Pope himself to get permission. Eventually, before her 16th birthday, she became a Carmelite nun. It was a good thing she moved that swiftly. She died at age 24 having only spent 9 years as a Carmelite. How different the world would have been without her 9 years in the cloister. Tomorrow is promised to no one. We never know the day or the hour that we will be called home to give an account for how we spent this precious gift of time.

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Earlier we mentioned not looking back. Many times people will enter religious communities or seminary with an alternate plan, a back door. They have the subconscious, sometimes very conscious, thought that says, “Well if this doesn’t work out I always have such and such”. They may even daydream of an alternate life. It is kind of like saying, “Ok, I will do God’s will, but what I would really like to be doing is ‘X’.” This is a half-hearted gift of self. It’s similar to going into marriage with a prenuptial agreement. You have an emergency backup plan. When one chooses to do the will of God it must be a choice, a true choice, for the will of God and not with an alternate backup plan.

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Our culture has a very hard time with this. We always need a way out of the contract. We always want to make sure that if we don’t like something, we can get out of it. This goes back to our earlier reflections on commitment. It is true that fear of commitment can negatively affect our discernment, but it can also destroy the commitment we have made. Once we enter that community we cannot allow fear of commitment to rule over us, nor can we allow hard times, struggles and dryness in prayer to feed our fear of commitment.

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In discerning our vocation and coming to a deep knowledge of the charism that God has bestowed upon us, we must be faithful to that call, that gift, that charism. If the community is solid, faithful and true to both the Church and their charism, and you know that you have that charism, then you have a sincere obligation before God to let go of all you have left behind and leave it behind.

Once again, put your hand on the plow and don’t look back. Hard times, dryness in prayer, interior struggles and painful moments where you begin to see yourself for who you really are will come to you in your vocation. They must come! It’s all part of getting holy and allowing the Lord to refine you with the fire of His love. The temptation to run away in these times will be great! However, if you enter a community with a steadfast heart you will endure. It is important that you have the marriage vows as a helping guide to keep your commitment. In good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer. Love requires us to be prepared to give when it doesn’t feel good to be giving. Bad times, sickness, poverty and hard times are when love is not only tested, but proven. The Lord will send us those times so that we may strengthen our love and prove (to ourselves-God knows already) our love for Him and His people.

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As your entrance date gets closer you may experience “cold feet”. Don’t worry, that’s normal. Let’s not discount the fact that the evil one is not happy with our willingness to follow God’s call and he will do anything and everything to dissuade us. Often he wants us to focus and concentrate on what we are “giving up” and not what we are gaining. The rich young man, called to be a disciple of the Lord “went away sad” because “he had many possessions”. He could only see what he was giving up. Soon after the rich young man left, St. Peter piped up and made note to the Lord that he and the others gave up everything. He wanted to know what they would gain. Our Blessed Lord assures St. Peter and the others of what they will gain, “Eternal Life”. Jesus wanted them to look not at what they had left behind, but at what they were gaining. Keeping what we are “gaining” by “giving it all up” will keep us from faltering when the evil one tries to tempt us to delay, or even put off our entrance.

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Let me be clear and say that there are times when we enter a religious community, believing it to be God’s will for us, and it’s not. We find out that perhaps it was not our charism, or the community is not what it said it was. Don’t be afraid of this. Even these “mistakes” are formattable moments of our life. To discern that I don’t have the charism of a Trappist Monk is God telling me to look elsewhere. Or, discerning that the community I joined doesn’t really live the charism could be God telling me to go find out where I can best live out that charism. In the second instance, it’s God confirming the gift of the charism and giving us clear instructions to live it out in a more faithful community.

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So what’s holding you back? Attachment? Fear? Commitment? Legitimate or illegitimate things that need to be taken care of? Cautious? Prudent decision-making or fear of rash decisions? Try your best, in silence before the Most Blessed Sacrament, seeking the maternal help of our Blessed Mother, and seek deep into your heart to discover what it is that is not allowing you to take the next necessary step in your discernment. Once you have discovered what that is, ask yourself, honestly, if that is really a good reason, it may very well be. On the other hand, it probably isn’t.

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Don’t look back, move forward! Plow the field without distractions. “Let the dead bury the dead” as our Lord put it.

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Lectio for Chapter the Fifteenth

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Luke 22:14-20

And when the hour came, he sat at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And he took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after supper, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.