CHAPTER THE THIRD

 

Vocation - Not just another occupation

 

The question often arises whether someone must be a priest or religious to serve the Church. Do I need to be a priest, brother or sister to evangelize? Can’t I do that as a lay person? Certainly the laity have a responsibility to spread the Gospel, don’t they? Can I not have a family, work a regular job and serve the Church?

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The simple answer to all these questions is simple – Yes! Of course! Every lay person has not only an option, but an obligation to put their gifts at the service of the Church. Today we call this stewardship of time, talent and treasure. The world needs good and holy men and women salting the work place and culture. The world needs the brilliant light of holy marriages and saintly child rearing. What a testimony is a devout faithful family!

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However, although these questions are good ones and lead us to re-affirm the lay Catholic place in the modern world, it is still the wrong questions to be asking when discerning one’s state in life. Yes, they are necessary questions. But, the question is not about how I will use this or that talent, but rather, how is God calling me to be most generous with my life. It could be that He is asking my generosity as a father or mother and parent in the world and among the normal day-to-day life of a lay person. But He may be calling me to the generosity of a priest or religious.

 

I once saw the front cover of a popular vocation magazine and the picture was of several young people dressed doctor, a nun, a priest, a monk, and I think a mailman. The picture and the story inside gave not only the impression, but the clear message that these were all equal vocations which we can choose from. All of them are good, one can become a saint as any of them.

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Now, I take no issue with the fact that being a fireman or policeman, nurse, doctor or mailman are good things. Nor do I deny that any of them can reach sanctity. These roles are noble, and all who take them on are not only called to serve as Christ would serve, but they are also called to holiness. They are beautiful roles of service that God calls individuals to do for their sanctification and for the good of others and society. However, as good and noble as they are, they cannot and must not be put on the same level as a call to marriage, priesthood or religious life.

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This type of modern mentality sees priesthood and religious life, and marriage for that matter, as simply other roles of service. This modernist view is a degradation of all three states in life. Being a husband and father, being a wife and mother, being a priest or a religious is NOT AN OCCUPATION. Nor is it simply a role of service. Marriage, priesthood and religious life are states in life. It refers to how one lives, day in and day out. It has to do with a consecration of the whole person in the form of a vow.

 

The distinction between an occupation and a state in life must be re-emphasized in a culture that basis the value of a person on what they do as opposed to who they are in themselves! Many married men and women have been and continue to be police officers, nurses, doctors, firemen and so on. Many religious have also been teachers, nurses, doctors and social workers. It was the Capuchin Franciscans who were the first firemen and established the fire department system. What one does should never be confused with who one is. I may teach, I may preach, I may even put out a few fires.

 

But, these are things that I do. They do not define my person. I am a Priest. I am a religious. Priesthood is not something I do. Being a Franciscan is not a job or a role of service. Being a Franciscan Priest is who I am. It defines my person and every aspect of my life is touched by it.

The difference has to do with not only doing verses being, but with the perpetual gift of self in the state of life. One may die working as a doctor or policeman, teacher or nurse, but not necessarily and more than likely not. Most of those occupations will end with retirement or in a change of occupation. Even religious can retire from teaching or nursing, but they can never stop being religious. Many priests teach in high schools and universities, but the day will come when they can no longer teach. However, they will never stop being a priest, even in Heaven. As the scripture says: “You are a priest forever”.

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Although we can be called to serve the Lord and His Church as a teacher or policeman or many of these roles, they must never be confused with a state of life vocation. A married person will be married until death, no matter their role in the world. A religious priest will be so in the eternity of Heaven no matter what role they took on in life. Perhaps we should start by asking children, not what they want to be when they grow up, but rather ask: what job would you like to do? We can then help them to see the beauty of each vocation to marriage, priesthood and religious life and instruct them to always ask God, “What do you want for my life, Lord?”

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There is a story of a pig and a chicken walking down the sidewalk of a bustling city. Along their stroll they see a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk begging and starving. The pig and the chicken are moved with deep compassion for the man. So the chicken turns to the pig and says, “Hey, let’s help this man out”. Confused, the pig asks how they can help. The chicken responds, “let’s make him some breakfast.” “How can we feed him breakfast?” the pig protested. “Let’s whip him up some bacon and eggs!” With a deep sigh the pig said, ”That’s easy for you to say, for you it’s just a donation, for me it’s a life commitment!”

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I have always enjoyed this story. For me it exemplifies the difference between an occupation, which can be good and holy, and a state in life, which is a life commitment. Roles of service, occupations, are all donations, even if done by a priest or religious. The occupation does not require a total gift of self. Although one may lay down his life in the line of duty, without diminishing the value of the self-gift, it is still a duty. Duty, which may at times require laying down one’s life, still notates a temporary act.

The vocation requires, like the pig, a total life commitment. There is no off duty or on duty. By its very definition it necessitates laying down one’s life. Whether that be for one’s spouse or children or Christ and His Church. Here I don’t mean martyrdom by shedding ones blood. I mean a perpetual way of living as a gift to another or God by way of a vow. I have not vowed to work for God, but to live for God. Every moment of my day, waking or sleeping is dictated by my priesthood and my religious consecration. It dictates my thoughts, actions and my very will. My free will is given over to the one whom I am vowed and consecrated. As I mentioned before, I may not be doing the “work” of a priest right now, “off duty”, but my actions are still a priestly act because a priest is what I am, not what I do.

Although, so far, everything we have said about priesthood and religious life we have also said about marriage, there is a radical difference in the self-gift of these vocations. They are similar in that each life vocation requires an entire death to self and a 100% self-gift to the one to whom we are vowed. They are different in that marriage is a “temporary” state of life, where religious and priesthood are eternal.

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We can call marriage a “temporary” state of life because its vow ends when one or both of the spouses die. Despite what may be said in popular culture or in the movies, there is no marriage in Heaven. Yes, the spouses will know and love each other more than they ever loved here on earth, but they do not remain in the marriage covenant. Christ fulfills for both the love that they would seek from the other. Their covenant, having been fulfilled, now reaches for each of them personally the fulfillment of the image that their marriage was to symbolize. The union of Christ with His Church and with each of them.

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This should not surprise us considering that spouses vow that they will love, honor, respect each other, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, UNTIL DEATH DO THEM PART. Their own vows state that there is a temporal end to their union. This is also why marriage is one of the four sacraments that you can receive more than once. Once a spouse is deceased they are free to marry. The Church bases her teaching on this by Jesus Himself when He responds to the Sadducees and lets them know that, “In Heaven the children of the Kingdom neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels”. Obviously in Heaven, all, including the angels practice chastity.

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It is from this teaching of Jesus that spurs St. Paul on to say that it is better not to marry. Paul himself took a vow of chastity as a witness to the state that we shall be living in Heaven. We religious, upon our deaths, do not see the ending of our vows. But rather the fulfillment and continuation of the state we have already begun to live. In the glory of the Kingdom I will continue the chastity I have begun here on Earth. I will continue in my vow of obedience and my poverty will be even richer than it is now. To put it quite plainly, we religious live Heaven on earth now! Our vows will not end with death as a marriage vow does. Our vows will continue only enhanced and glorified. With a religious it is not, “to death do us part”. Our vows proclaim, “to death do us perfect union”.

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The same should be, and can be said, of the priesthood. However, there is an added gift to the priesthood, and that is being a priest forever, even in Heaven. In order to do the priesthood justice I would have to spend a whole book reflecting solely upon this great mystery, which I have neither the time nor the competence to achieve. Let it suffice to say, that the promises of a priest to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, celibacy and obedience along with his priesthood ordination will reach into eternity in union with Jesus, the Great High Priest.

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So, as you discern religious life, priesthood and marriage, make it clear in your heart and mind that you are not choosing an occupation among many others. Be sure that you see these three vocations as states in life, the generous, 100% gift of self expressed in a vow to someone. A vow to either a spouse or Christ Himself. Also, do not forget that it is for you to discover what God wants for your life. Not what you want to be when you grow up. Sure, that want of ours could very well be the stirrings of our vocational call to a state in life. But, it needs to be discerned carefully, prayerfully and with guidance.

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Lectio for Chapter the Fourth

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Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.

 

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.