Call and Vocation
The Old and New Testaments are filled with stories of God or Jesus calling individuals (who are often reluctant) to some greater purpose. As Christians, we are all called to evangelize, although each of us is called to do so in a unique way defined by our own personal vocation.
In Redemptor Hominis, John Paul II characterizes the Church's mission as enabling Christ to "walk with each person the path of life" so that all may be united with Christ. To do so, the Church must walk with each person and it does this primarily through lay people walking with those they meet while living out their vocation. As we walk with others, we make Christ known in our witness to and sharing of the gospel, and particularly in our service. |
Accepting the Call
Moses is called to be a leader, despite his limited speaking ability (Ex. 4:10-17). Mary, amidst youth and confusion, accepts God's will and gives birth to Jesus (Lk. 1:26-38). Jesus called out individuals to follow him throughout his earthly ministry (e.g. Mk. 1:16-20). Saul, a Christian persecutor, is dramatically confronted and becomes the apostle Paul (Acts 9:1-19a). God called each of these individuals in unexpected ways.
These examples and others in scripture give us insight into the typical characteristics of call. Accepting a call is often difficult, so a key part of overcoming resistance is to recognize that the call comes from God. The call also is usually urgent and not for some indeterminate point in the future. The call is for the here and now. The call is also always a personal one. Discovering one's call must begin with God, rather than oneself. Evangelical Protestant Rick Warren has built a whole industry around his book The Purpose Driven Life (a #1 New York Times bestseller), in which he encourages readers to identify and commit to the God-given purpose for their lives. "Many people try to use God for their own self-actualization," he writes, "But that is a reversal of nature and is doomed to failure. You were made for God and not vice versa, and life is about letting God use you for his purposes, not your using him for your own purpose." |
Call In Community
A primary way we can discover our authentic God-given call is to search for it in the midst of Christian community. The personal nature of call does not mean it should be considered or expressed in isolation from other Christians. On the contrary, stress the U.S. Bishops, "Vocations are communicated, discerned, accepted, and lived out within a community of faith which is a community of disciples; its members try to help one another hear the Lord's voice and respond." [USCCB, Stewardship: A Disciple's Response, 12]
Our sacraments of initiation remind us of our call and how they are connected to our experience of God. In baptism we are called by name, becoming Christian and accepting the associated responsibilities. In confirmation, we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit for service in the world. Pope John Paul II notes the connection shown between Eucharist and vocation in the story of the disciples traveling to Emmaus (Lk. 24:13-35): When "in the breaking of bread," done by the "stranger," the eyes of the disciples are opened, they realize that their hearts were burning in their breasts while they were listening to Him explaining the Scriptures. In those hearts that burn we can see the history and the discovery of every vocation... [John Paul II, Message of the Holy Father for the 37th World Day of Prayer For Vocations] Eucharist can focus us on our vocation and give us sustenance for our journey living out our vocation.
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Personal Call
As Christians, the basic nature of our call is to be a disciple—a follower of Jesus—but there are many ways to do so. God has unique plans for the persons he called and his or her unique gifts and circumstances. In this sense, one's call is personal and points to an individual vocation (derived from the Latin vocare, "to call"). In Christifideles Laici, his apostolic exhortation on lay vocation, Pope John Paul II writes:
Being "members" of the Church takes nothing away from the fact that each Christian as an individual is "unique and unrepeatable". On the contrary, this belonging guarantees and fosters the profound sense of that uniqueness and unrepeatability, in so far as these very qualities are the source of variety and richness for the whole Church. Therefore, God calls the individual in Jesus Christ, each one personally by name. In this sense, the Lord's words "You go into my vineyard too", directed to the Church as a whole, come specially addressed to each member individually. [#28] Following our call means living out our lives most fully and true to ourselves, as we discover where God is leading us. John Paul II continues:
[O]nly in the unfolding of the history of our lives and its events is the eternal plan of God revealed to each of us. Therefore, it is a gradual process; in a certain sense, one that happens day by day. [#58] We also need to be clear that all are called, not just those who have had dramatic encounters with God.
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Vocational Lifestyle
The scope of vocation is one's entire life. One key part is one's vocational lifestyle—single, married, or celibate. These ways of living out our lives are all-embracing and fundamentally affect how we interact with others. Each carries unique possibilities for ways to serve God and others. Marie Theresa Coombs and Francis Kelley Nemeck write:
Marriage, celibacy and singlehood as Christian vocations have this in common: Each postulates its own spiritual imperative. Spouses, celibates, single persons experience from within themselves the following truth: "I can best become myself transformed in God by freely embracing my particular calling." [Discerning Vocations to Marriage, Celibacy and Singlehood, 16] When most Catholics hear the term "vocation," they think of the ordained priesthood or vowed religious life. Few consider how marriage—much less singlehood—is a religious calling. The church has extensive theology around the vocation of marriage, but it is rarely voiced in parishes and those living it out are supported in very limited ways. Similarly, in One Like Jesus: Conversations on the Single Life, Debra K. Farrington notes that "the church has a problem with singles," not knowing how to support those with this vocation, and goes on to reflect on scripture for insights on the single life.
Another key part of vocation is one's occupation, whatever activities one primarily engages in to occupy his or her time. This includes paid employment, job seeking, volunteer work, study, homemaking, parenting, care giving, and many other activities. God calls some to particular occupations, but for others an occupation may express and shape their vocation. In other words, an occupation could in itself be our vocation or it may be another arena in which we live out our vocation (providing opportunities to serve others) and a means to support it (such as providing salary, insurance, or education). |
Occupation
The term "spirituality of work" was coined by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical On Human Work. In it, he explains how occupational work exists for people—so that they can live out their vocations—rather than the other way around.
Work is a good thing for man—a good thing for his humanity—because through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes "more a human being." [Laborem Exercens, 9] For these reasons, it is essential that workers maintain dignity in their occupations, and that work remain subordinated to the vocation and rights of the people performing it.
A disciple's occupation does not have to be particularly "noble" in the eyes of mainstream America, such as working for the Church or in health care. William L. Droel and Gregory F. Augustine Pierce argue: The ordinary work of people on their jobs, with their families and in their neighborhoods is as much a part of the function of the church as is Sunday Mass or Tuesday evening Bible study. This daily fidelity to work sustains and improves the human community, and thus advances the kingdom of God. [Confident and Competent: A Challenge for the Lay Church, 22] The apostle Paul, for example, continued to work as a tent-maker after he became an evangelist (Acts 18:3). God calls us to collaborate with God's self in the continuing work of creation, performing everyday tasks.
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Discernment
As Christians, we must continually discern the next step in understanding and answering our call. If one were to analyze the pros and cons of pursuing a vocation by society's standards for choosing a profession, most vocations would not appear to be the right choice. Few would choose to become a teacher or a poet if they are focused on salaries and the potentials for career advancement. James VanOosting writes:
Vocation offers a radical alternative and a more ancient approach. Professional thinking may be necessary to ensure economic success. But vocational thinking is necessary to ensure personal fulfillment— [N]ot to use one's gifts, regardless of excuse, is to live an anguished life apart from creativity. ["Vocation Education," America, 1 July 2002, 25.] The biggest obstacle for living out one's vocation is often reflecting on what it might be. Many of us have a tendency to resist God's call, and the strong voices we hear in our society may be counter to that call. The Catholic tradition provides many insights on how one may use scripture, prayer, and specific practices (e.g., Ignatian discernment) to gain insights on one's life direction.
One way to gain perspective on one's personal call is to focus on one's spiritual gifts (or charisms), abilities given by God to an individual for the sake of others. Various programs have been built around spiritual gifts, including "Called and Gifted" by the Catherine of Siena Institute. These programs help Christians identify which gifts they may have, and how those gifts may give insight into their call. God calls us by name, and we are each invited to respond uniquely by the way we live our lives. God calls us for a purpose, and gives us the gifts we need to live out our vocations and serve the world. When we do so, as we will consider next, we love our neighbor. |
See Discernment
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Serving Others
Embracing one's vocation is done not only for God and oneself, but also to serve others. The workplace or environment where a person lives out a vocation is a mission field for evangelization, and both witnessing to and sharing our faith there is a way to serve others.
The specific focus of one's occupation can be one way of serving others. For some occupations, the connection is obvious: spouses serve each other, parents serve their children, and medical caregivers serve their clients by providing for their health. For other occupations, the connection may be less direct. For example, an accountant can keep a company solvent, supporting its work and empowering others to live out their vocations. Doug Sherman details how pallets made by a friend's company are used to deliver food that ultimately ends up on his family's table, as are the contributions of everyone from the truck stop operator to farm equipment dealers and bankers that contribute to the process [Doug Sherman and William Hendricks, Your Work Matters to God, 88-89]. Most occupations are not uniquely Catholic or Christian, but they can still be vehicles for loving our neighbor through service. Accepting and embracing one's call directs a person to do God's will, which ultimately is in support of the common good and builds up the Church in her mission. |
Competence
An essential way of serving others through one's call is to perform that call competently. If we are truly called to a particular vocation, we are not called to do it in a mediocre way. "Confident laypeople, doing what they are supposed to be doing and doing it well, are as holy as any monk on a mount," write Droel and Pierce. Martin Luther King Jr. expressed the same sentiments:
Whatever your life's work is, do it well. ...If it falls on your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, "Here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well." |
Opportunities To Witness
Witnessing in the workplace is often less about the specifics of our particular occupation than the manner in which we fulfill it. Living as a disciple means seeking out opportunities to love our neighbor wherever our call takes us. Some examples include:
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Morality and Ethics
Christians are called to live out their call morally and ethically. Catholics in corporate leadership positions should consider the implications of the Church's social teaching in how their decisions affect their workers and those outside the company. Corporate scandals, from Enron's accounting fraud to various companies' use of child labor, could have been prevented by Christians within those companies. A common challenge is also to allow Christian values to take priority over the common values or expectations of a company, industry, or society as a whole. People should apply gospel values wherever their calls take them.
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Evangelization
We are also called to share our faith as part of our vocations. This may most naturally be accomplished by simply making one's church affiliation known and responding to inquiries. Since I pursued my theology degree part-time while working full-time at companies specializing in software development, my need for a flexible schedule meant that my co-workers knew I was Catholic. I have been surprised how many co-workers have approached me to discuss my faith and the Church, including one CEO. Some fallen-away Catholics expressed interest in returning to the Church, wanting to get parish recommendations or know if they would be welcome. Some wanted to vent about ways they were hurt by the church or felt excluded, for which I could offer apologies. Others without Catholic background had questions about Catholicism and were happy to have some of their misconceptions corrected. These are all primary opportunities to evangelize.
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Quotations
Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out. Oliver Wendell Holmes
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The place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. Fred Buechner
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There is no passion to be found playing small -- in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. Nelson Mandela
1918-2013 |