On vocation

What makes someone today want to follow in the footsteps of the Master?  Dare we to believe that the answer lies in the same place as it always has ... hearing the call, listening for guidance, and daring to respond in faith.  The classic role model: Jesus' call issued to the disciples of his time, is repeated in today's scriptures.

Here's my take on how to interpret it for today.  As always, it's available in podcast and text version:

Catch their attention

In the readings we have heard, both this Sunday and last, there is a common theme: they all speak of vocations.  Last Sunday, the scriptures spoke of the call of Samuel and about Jesus’ invitation issued to John’s disciples.  In today’s gospel, Jesus invites fishermen from the seashore to leave their nets and follow him, and in the first reading, we heard some the details of the call of the prophet Jonah.

Before reciting the Angelus after last Sunday’s morning Mass in the Vatican, the holy Father used the example of Samuel and the call of John’s disciples to speak of the importance of the role of a spiritual director, one who is able to accompany us in faith, helping us to listen to the voice of God, helping us to discern the call that is offered, helping us to perceive how we are being invited to be disciples in the world.

Each vocation, each call from God is an intimate, personal invitation which is gentle enough to reassure the questioning and seeking heart, and confident enough to hold a note of promise.  One of the characteristics of an authentic call to vocation is that it often begins as a gentle whisper, difficult at times to hear because of other more dominant voices, but persistent enough that eventually, when the promises of the more dominant voices prove to be shallow, the whisper is still there.

This whisper sometimes invites us to radical change.  It must have been difficult for Simon and Andrew to believe the words spoken by Jesus: Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of my people.  These were fishermen, accustomed to setting out in their boats, to casting nets, to hauling in the bounty of the sea.  The imagery of Jesus words must have made them sit up and listen, or at the very least, it made them curious about what he might mean.  In any case, it was enough for them to leave their boats, to walk away from the livelihood they had known, and to embark on a new road. 

Another of the characteristics of an authentic call of this nature is that it often challenges us to grow, by inviting us to consider something we’ve never considered before, or something that we’ve always thought of as beyond our reach.  The prophet Jonah was still a young boy, when the word of the Lord came to him: Get up, go to Nieveh.  Here again, the invitation might have seemed to him to be something well beyond his wildest imaginings.  Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, so the voice of one young boy would have seemed rather insignificant, yet God asked him to call out a warning, and they listened.

Children in our elementary schools look up to the adults in their lives, especially those who are sincerely concerned for their wellbeing.  Teenagers in our high schools can quickly decipher the peers and adults in their lives who are genuinely committed to helping them to become all they can be.  There is a truth at the heart of discernment that cuts through all the layers of life, through every smoke screen that can ever be erected.  This truth speaks to the heart.  This truth inspires confidence.  This truth is the heart of every authentic call to vocation, whether that is for a poet to write, for a musician to sing, for an artist to paint, for a craftsman to craft, or for a disciple to put down his fishing net and follow in the footsteps of an itinerant preacher who calls him to a new stage in life.

Today, if this truth is being spoken in our hearts, we must not ignore it.  We must listen to it.  We must follow it, even if it calls us to leave everything behind.  The Sea of Galilee, upon which these first disciples were fishermen, is today all but void of fish, yet the words spoken by Jesus and by his disciples, the example of their actions and the lives they gave to spreading the gospel still speak to our generation.  In quiet and not so quiet voices, Jesus still calls to the hearts of today’s disciples, Come, follow me and I will make you fishers, miners, artists and craftsmen of and for my people.  The question is, what will it take for him to catch our attention?