Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 8
Thursday, November 25, 1999
God’s dream and yours
converging as vocation
By H. Richard McCord Jr.
Catholic News Service
Kt.
_y son will graduate from col
lege next spring. He tells me he’s
already “stressed out” by thoughts of
landing a job and beginning to make
his way in the world. I offer what
advice and encouragement I can,
aware how confusing it can be for a
young person today to gain a sense of
direction in life.
There are so many options. New
fields of work are created all the time.
Experts say a person should be pre
pared for several major career
changes in a lifetime. Parents may be
reluctant to steer children into cer
tain life choices, thinking they have
little knowledge of what is involved or
no guarantee that things will work
out.
In the face of all this, it’s no won
der some young people find ways to
valuable light on the process of get
ting launched after college gradua
tion.
No matter what our situation, it
can make a major difference to begin
viewing life in vocational terms and
not just as a series of smart or dumb,
short-term or long-term decisions we
make.
Where have all the vocations gone?
This question is often asked by people
wondering why there are fewer
priests and sis
ters now than
40 years ago.
These are im
portant mat-
tiers, and serious
new efforts have
begun to ad
dress the need
for priestly and
religious voca
tions.
There is some
imaginative understanding of being
called personally by God and of con
necting such a call with what we
could do practically with our lives?
Pope John Paul II has urged the
Christian community to promote a
new “vocational culture” in young
people and families. He uses “cul
ture” in the broad sense of values,
attitudes and behaviors that com
bine to stir up in a person the free
dom to actually feel called by God.
All contents copyright©1999 by CNS
—Our life has a meaning.
—The Lord calls us in the midst of
this life to be his disciples and wit
nesses.
—And, saying yes is not a re
striction on freedom but helps
freedom to mature.
St. Paul wrote, “There are differ
ent kinds of spiritual gifts, but the
e felt God loved us enough to have a plan
for us that required reaching beyond ourselves
and dreaming and possibly even sacrificing.”
avoid making commitments to a ca
reer, to another person or to any sig
nificant choice.
How might we view this situa
tion through the eyes of faith? The
concept of “vocation” is the place
to begin.
To believe in a God who calls people
is to say, in effect, that God has im
portant and special work for you to
do. The opening paragraphs of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church use
the word “call” five times when speak
ing about the meaning of life in
Christ.
All of us could probe this belief
more deeply. It is fundamental to
faith. For some it might also shed
F00DF0RTH0UGHT
evidence that
the picture is
improving. But
beneath this cri
sis there exists a
deeper, more ex
tensive problem.
We no longer
talk or preach or
teach as much
as we once did
about every per
son having a vo
cation, a call
from God, to be
and to do some
thing with one’s
life.
Today people in the church appear
to have a diminished vocational con
sciousness. Do we lack a broad and
CNS photo by Bill Wittman
To describe the daily work we do as a vocation is to suggest it is more
than a job, more than tasks we fulfill in exchange for a paycheck — that it
has value in God’s eyes. The problem is that many can barely imagine
God taking any interest in the work they actually do.
What’s a person to do?!
Would it help to attempt to see our work — and our workplace — from
God’s perspective?
From God’s perspective, this surely is more than a place of stress,
more too than a context for achieving “success.”
From God’s perspective, grace is central; Christians can act to share
grace wherever they are.
Thus, it might help to view the workplace as a situation that needs the
spirit of generosity and to recall the Gospel’s teaching that in the others
we encounter we somehow also encounter Christ.
Some workplaces might not welcome much by way of preaching. But
would they welcome people — leaders too — with a positive vision, a gift
for reconciling human beings and a willingness to act justly?
David Gibson, Editor, Faith Alive!
41
Among the many components of a
“culture of vocation” — gratitude,
openness to mystery, a sense of indi
vidual incompleteness — I found one
particularly striking: the ability to
dream and think big.
More than 40 years ago when I was
in Catholic elementary school, I re
member vividly how our teachers pro
moted a culture of vocation, though
they would not have called it that.
They left no doubt that some of us had
a vocation to priesthood or religious
life, some to the single life and most to
marriage.
It was a simple, straightforward
message — and an inspiring and en
ergizing one at that! Why? Because
we felt God loved us enough to have a
plan for us that required reaching
beyond ourselves and dreaming and
possibly even sacrificing.
If a vocation involves our dream for
our best selves, it is just as accurate
to talk about vocation as God’s dream
for us. Ideally, the two dreams should
converge.
The concept of vocation conveys a
deep sense that:
same Spirit; there are different forms
of service but the same Lord; there
are different workings but the same
God who produces all of them in ev
eryone” (1 Cor 12:4-7).
Whatever our vocation, I think it
is important not to regard it as
static — as a pigeon hole, so to
speak. A vocation can lead one into
the state of marriage or into conse
crated life, but an essential part of
that commitment is the necessity of
continuing to grow.
It is legitimate, in fact, to speak
of a “call within a call.” Mother
Teresa of Calcutta understood her
special call to serve the poor, while
living her religious vows, in these
terms.
I believe there is an urgent need to
renew our image of vocation. Doing so
will benefit all types of specific voca
tions and could energize a generation
of young people searching for mean
ing and direction.
(McCord is the director of the U.S.
bishops’ Secretariat for Family, La
ity, Women and Youth.)