VOCATION IS A CALL BY NAME
Life is a vocation and it is one which God calls us by name! Our vocation is to know God, love Him, and serve Him in our fellow brothers and sisters. Every state of our life is a calling from God. We are called to life when we were born. We do not exist by accident.
We were also called to the Christian life in Christ Jesus when we were baptized. We have specific vocations to marital life, consecrated life, or to live life in singlehood. Whatever our state or calling, living fully within God´s plan for us is a vocation. A life, God intended for us to know, to love, and to serve Him in others.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ORDINARY TIME OF THE CHURCH LITURGICAL YEAR
The Ordinary Time of the Church´s liturgical calendar is a moment of hope, growth, and development of our Christian vocation or calling. There is no definite time or moment for the Christian vocation. As this could be at the conception life of Prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5), in childhood like Samuel, (1 Samuel 3:3-10, 19), at a youthful stage like King David (1 Samuel 16: 1-13), or an adult stage like Matthew (Matthew 9:9–13) or Paul (Acts 9:1-19). Equally, even at a very late age like Abraham (Genesis 12:1-9). Vocation is vacation at whatever age God calls or invites, all we need do is respond favourably.
OUR THEME
The readings of this Sunday invite us to reflect on our vocation. Truly, God always calls or invites us to live a life in him. What matters is our responses to this inevitable invitation or calling. Life has a purpose, a higher or divine purpose, and until in our searching, we find, recognize, and respond to that purpose. Life will always be a series of endless meaninglessness.
Our vocation needs a moment of searching, discovery, discernment, accompaniment, and decision-making. Hence, it is not just a personal journey. It is also one that needs someone to help and guide us to respond to God.
The readings this Sunday put before us three people, Eli, John the Baptist, and Andrew, each of whom, in different ways, pointed others in the right direction, and led others to the one who is the source of life.
FIRST READING 1 SAMUEL 3:3-10, 19
God´s call of young Samuel through the accompaniment and discernment of the Prophet Eli. This is one of the great vocation stories. Like Samuel God knows and calls each of us by name and awaits us to respond favourably through discernment and guidance of the Holy Spirit as well as human directors.
Ultimately, like Samuel, we do not need to have the full details of God´s calling before we can respond to it. All we need is disposition and availability to do God´s will.
God calls us irrespective of our status or significance by intimacy: name. The boy Samuel heard the Lord calling and mistook it for his master Eli. Eli helped him through discernment to respond positively – here I am Lord, speak for your servant is listening.
The Psalmist in Psalm 39 invites us to always and everywhere respond to God´s invitation like this: “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will”.
SECOND READING 1 CORINTHIANS 6:13-15, 17-20
According to Saint Paul, the Christian vocation is a spiritual call to answer and live through a human body or medium. Hence, we are not only members of Christ’s body, but we are also the temple of the Holy Spirit. A redeeming price was paid for our bodies to be freed from sinful nature and corruption. Especially, the sins of impurity and fornication.
Through St. Paul, God renewed his faithful calling of the people of Corinth to the sanctity of life in the spirit and the flesh as part of the living body of God in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
a. Paul is not writing a systematic treatise or writing to satisfy an examiner in logic. He is preaching to save the Corinthians in body and soul.
b. Hence, he postulated that God’s Spirit dwells in us. Therefore, we have become a temple of God; and so our very bodies are sacred.
c. More so, Christ died to save not a bit of a man, but the whole man, body and soul. Christ gave his life to give a man a redeemed soul and a pure body.
THE GOSPEL: JOHN 1:35-42
John the Baptist presents Jesus Christ as the sacrificial Lamb whose vocation is to save the human race. This rang some sort of urgency and profundity about Christ that made John´s disciples leave him to follow Christ.
That is, in the Gospel, John the Baptist helped the first disciples of Jesus respond positively to their vocational search in a profound and personal way.
1. This is another amazing story of the Christian vocation to follow the higher cause: Jesus Christ himself. Where, the disciples led by curiosity, attempted to know details and God´s specificity to know why?
2. Here we have the symbol of the divine initiative. It is always God who takes the first step. When the human mind begins to seek and the human heart begins to long, God comes to meet us far more than halfway.
3. Our vocational journey is always one of asking questions: “What am I looking for?” This tells life is a search for meaning. It is a search for purpose- “What’s my aim and goal?” or “What am I trying to get out of life?”
4. Like the disciples, it is a calling that requires conviction, action, and decision. “Where are you staying?” They went with Jesus, they saw and stayed with Him henceforth.
5. Our vocation is personal and communitarian. One of the disciples Andrew who asked Jesus followed him saw and remained with Him. Subsequently, based on his conviction he invites his brother Simon to experience whom he found: Christ, the Messiah, and the Anointed One of God.
Our vocation transforms, changes, and configures us with a new identity based on our personalities to fulfil God´s purpose for our lives. This was Simon´s case. Personally, Jesus changed and configured him to be the rock and the foundation of his salvific mission.
THERE IS ALWAYS A CALL FROM GOD
The fact is that there is always a call from God. He is always calling us, but all that makes the difference to God´s call is our response: our answer to his constant invitation.
God´s call to come to us is always direct, but cloudy too. Hence, there is always the need for guidance, discernment, clarity, and decision to respond.
Hence, one of the most doubtful feelings in life is to feel called by God. It is full of a deep sense of uncertainties, insecurities, and the unknown. Yet, God’s grace always reaches us through certain persons like Eli, Paul, and John the Baptist who will help us to respond adequately and positively.
Today, we pray for God’s unfailing grace to help us respond to invitations or calls without reservations and fears.
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Lamb of God charged with the vocation of saving the world and the whole human race. In our Christian vocation of responding to your always free and sure calling, help to not only respond with a grateful and generous heart but to be like Eli, Andrew, and John the Baptist helping, directing, and guiding others to answer their calling. Amen!
