Friday, November 19, 2010

The Gospel of John, chapter 1:37-38

Mothers poke their head out of the door of the home and yell, “suppertime!” The children of the family know that mother expects all who hear her call to hightail it into the house. You and your brothers and sisters were all expected to heed the call.

God’s call is like a mother’s supper call. It may be directed to you, but God also expects to find others who hear His call. Each of us is called, but none of us is called alone, and not everyone answers God’s call.

Today’s scripture seems to say that the call to union with God is also a call to togetherness with others. The initiative is God’s. God values each and every one of us. Once I recognize that I am of divine worth, I must also recognize that all people are of divine worth, that all people truly are my sisters and brothers. To accept God’s call, then, means more than accepting a personal or private commission. Rather, it means accepting a life of solidarity with others.

I can test whether or not I am really responding to that call by the way I act in relation to others. I ask myself: “When God calls me, does God find a person committed to serving others?” If the answer is “no,” if I see my call as some sort of narrow selection, then I have not really responded.

Too often we relegate the term, “vocation.” to the special call of ministers of the gospel. The rest of us people have jobs or careers, but not “vocations.” But, vocation means more than a particular lifestyle and commitment. Vocation means responding to the call that God extends to each of us in our walk of life. It means embarking on a lifelong journey of love and service that issues in solidarity with others and with God. The specific way we respond to that call as a priest, a nun, a married or single person, is a matter of personal choice. In a sense, the lifestyle is secondary. What is primary is that each of us serves God according to our particular lifestyle. When we do this we build up God’s Kingdom by serving Him in different ways.

Everybody has a vocation to serve God, but each vocation has a different manifestation. May God enable each of us who are called by Christ, to understand what it is we are “looking for.”

Fr. Hugh Duffy