VOCATION ARTICLES

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By Rafael P. Gonzalez, mcci

"IT IS I! DON'T BE AFRAID"

A Definition of Vocation

On one occasion Jesus "forced" his disciples to get into the boat and to go out to sea (Mk 6:45-52). A few hours before this, they had been present at the miracle of the loaves. Their minds were still dull. "Who is this man?" they asked themselves. 'Why are we following him? How is it that his word sounds so different to us?" They were now situated in the middle of a storm and it was completely dark.
'Jesus saw his disciples straining at the oars," the text continues, "for the wind was against them, and before daybreak he came to them walking on the lake; and he was going to pass them by." The night then became full of cries, and cries at nighttime are the most terrible. These fishermen, accustomed to fighting against violent waves, were then terrified. "The disciples thought Jesus was a ghost," because men are not used to believing in God's constant presence.
The conclusion of this Gospel has always been for me a source of astonishment. These are words that, in very special moments of my life, have irrigated my soul in dryness with hope.
"But at once he called to them, 'Courage! IT IS I, don't be afraid! Then Jesus got into the boat with them and the wind died down." Dawn was coming.

A CHALLENGE FOR YOU

We believe that each person is called by God to fullness of life, that by sharing our lives and our faith, we are mutually enriched, that a vocation gives life its real meaning its highest value.
We will try here to clarify many of the questions that spring up among youth in search. Perhaps the only thing we will discover is that which has already been shown in the paragraph of the Gospel we read earlier: a vocation is the encounter between Jesus and each one of us.
The night and the storm are my doubts, my more intimate wishes, all those happenings that have imprinted their traces on my heart and that I am unable to understand the mystery of. The night and the storm are also my fears and my own solitudes.
These are the places Jesus "forces" us to go into deeply. In the midst of adversity our human securities are worthless. In the struggle for truth Jesus comes to us. Indeed, Jesus Christ wants to assure us that he is our God, our only Savior, and not just the ghost of our imagination. In this encounter I realize that Jesus is taking the journey along with me, in silence, but by my side.

WHAT IS A VOCATION?
It is well known that "vocation" comes from the Latin verb "vocare", meaning "to call." It is not something passive but dynamic: vocation is a call to live.
From the first page of Genesis till the last book of the Bible we find a continuous call. The one who calls is God. Man should answer in freedom. God calls everyone to participate in his plan of salvation. Man is invited to love; that is to say, to manifest the image of his Creator (Gen 1:26). When God calls, he creates, saves, forgives, transforms, gives strength and courage.
God calls through persons, particularly through our brothers and sisters who are suffering. He calls through his Word and Sacraments, through the events of our society, through nature, through our innermost desires.
A vocation is always a call to be happy, even though the cross is present, for it is a sign of authentic love.
Vocation is God's call to all persons and to the whole person. Vocation is an invitation to offer our life as Jesus did: dying like a grain of wheat in order to produce much fruit (John 12-24). Vocation is to discover the will of God for us, here and now.

ELEMENTS OF VOCATION

Every vocation has, in its origin, three essential elements: God, the person who is called, and people.

a) God is the one who calls. In fact the initiative belongs to him. Vocation is a gift that we receive gratis and so we should ask for and be grateful for it. Vocation is always a grace.

b) The man or woman who has been called remains radically free to accept or refuse. We are called to intimacy with God, to friendship, and that is only possible in freedom. A positive response to God's call develops through successive stages: this way a person enters into the process which fulfills his life. However, the answer has to be personal, responsible, conscious and generous.

c) The goal of vocation is to serve people. Every vocation is given in order to serve people. There is no vocation only to satisfy my own caprice. The beginning of a true vocation is the needs of our brothers and sisters. Actually we find the will of God for us when we are able to open our eyes and our hearts to the reality of others. The kind of love that God wants from us is that committed in a concrete service for our neighbors, especially the most abandoned. In the serving we find our own fulfillment.
If one of these elements is missing it is not a vocation. These are also three interlaced questions: Who is God? Who am I? Who is my neighbor? The one leads necessarily to the other.
Vocation is never an escape from reality or an evasion of our duties: on the contrary, it is a sincere search for truth. Vocation is an act (proclamation) of faith in God, in myself and in all humankind.

VOCATION IS FRIENDSHIP

There is no complete definition of vocation. Vocation is not something that I can possess like an object, neither is it a destiny, nor even the contribution of all my skills or my iron will to accomplish some design. On the contrary, vocation is a Person. Vocation is friendship with Someone; a gift unique and new that I receive. Vocation is a Presence.
Many times in my visiting with groups of young people, it happens that somebody asks me about my own vocation as missionary priest. 1, then, need to be sincere and to recall all the faces which have shone light on my pilgrimage. Vocation to me is all these persons with and for whom I have suffered and with whom I have enjoyed life. My vocation is all these faces who have shown to me the Face of God.
Our tendency is to stay indifferent or make vocation only a matter of studies or of false poetry. In reality, we sacrifice our lives for persons, not for abstract ideas. A true vocation begins when the hopes, joys, trials, miseries, illnesses, oppressions, hungers of others become mine. Vocation is a dangerous charity.
In short, every vocation is a storm during the night; we need a lot of love, a lot of prayer and a lot of humility to accept that Jesus is not a ghost but our Lord who is calling us:
"IT IS I! Don't be afraid."

PRAYER: FATHER