Vocation

Everytime we speak of 'vocation' in our religious circles we most often mean 'vocation to priestly and religious life'.  It is as if vocation to married life or any other form of life is not a vocation.  When this partial outlook is pointed out we cover up saying that even they are vocations, but the former is the crowing of all vocations! 

However, I feel strongly convinced that unless and until we really understanding vocation in its universal and true sense, we will only be 'selling' vocation; doing recruitment rather than discernment.  As educators of the young, we are primarily called to help young people discover, discern and follow their vocation.  And every person's primary vocation is to love and be loved!  The vocational discernment is to help young people ask themselves basic questions about meaning and purpose of his or her life.  As long as we sincerely and passionately engage in this noble apostolate we are true to our own calling as Salesians. Otherwise we are only 'pedlars' or vendors of the Salesian career - all in the name of youth ministry and vocation promotion.  

The post youth synod apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis, Christus vivit no. 286 describes the great vocational question that every young person has to ask himself or herself as "for whom am I?"  This is more deeper and way too personal than merely asking oneself, "what am I to do?" or "who should I become?"

Jesus and the twelve

When the time came for Jesus to begin his public ministry, and he chose the twelve apostles, it is quite strange to see that he chose all strangers!  There is hardly any evidence that the twelve men knew Jesus before Him calling them out.  We only hear some anonymous person exclaiming, "Is he not the son of the carpenter?"  Had any of the twelve known Jesus earlier, I think at least one of them would have made that statement!!  

Nicolas Poussin

But did Jesus know them before hand??  

Jesus never went far or beyond Israel, or for that matter his hometown.  And so, during those 30 years that he spent in the same place, would he not have known most of those men?  He was a carpenter and surely he would have met and interacted with a lot of people of varied backgrounds.  Everyone would have sought the services of a carpenter at some time of their life, for some work.  My guess is that Jesus did have a rough list but not for long, perhaps just about the time he began his ministry.  And Luke records that he spent the night in prayer and when morning came, called out the twelve who were to be called his apostles.  

The reason(s) he chose those twelve and not some others, I guess were privy just to him.  We can only guess and theorize.  But none of those reasons would be applicable to all the twelve!! 

Another strange fact that find is that of the chose twelve none was a carpenter.  Jesus did not select anyone from among those whom knew him!! 

Jesus' team today

 If Jesus were to walk on this earth today and were to pick and choose his team of apostles from those living here and now, whom would he choose?  

I guess his criteria would be the same: common folk from everyday life... construction workers, teachers, journalists, nhs staff, delivery guys, social media users and so on. 

Surely there would be non-Christians as well.  Women, most certainly.  Members of the LGBT+ group. Among these would already be someone who has been or is a migrant or with a criminal record.  A politician, maybe (if not for any good reason, at least to replicate Judas!).  

Am sure that his choice would startle and shock quite a few Christians of today.  Even if he did choose any christians, he'd have to bear listening to them as to whom he should choose and why!  Given our fickle and narrow minds, Jesus' choice rather than open our minds to His Word and mindset, would lead us to question the authenticity and 'christian values' of Jesus himself!  

Wonder if he'd need the same number (12)?  Given the fact that women can bear witness more convincingly than men, and that there is the presence and use of social media... these would certainly cut down the work force needed.  But one never knows.  

All said and done, I don't think what one does and is capable of is of little value to Jesus here.  What matters is one's openness to the Kingdom.  

You be Jesus

Billy, aged four, and his brother Tommy, aged six, were arguing about who was going to get the first pancake that their grandmother was making at the stove. She took the opportunity to teach them a lesson, telling them that Jesus would let his brother have the first pancake.  Tommy turned to Billy and said, "Ok, Billy, go on then, you be Jesus."

Not just among children, most of us grown ups too have this tendency of 'letting or waiting for others to be Jesus'.  We'd rather not be one ourselves.  Admiring others be Jesus is good enough.  Becoming Jesus oneself is too complicated. 

On the other hand, perhaps we are not called to be Jesus.  Each of us has an identity, distinct from one another, distinct from Jesus.  Our vocation is to live that out to its best.  God calls each one of us, and the best we can do is to respond to him in the most generous and selfless manner.  

They followed him

The last line of the gospel this morning, left me wondering if the same call were to be given out today, how many would follow!  Leave alone, just drop everything, no goodbyes or settling affairs or  packing and what not... just follow.

The team fishing would have surely heard of Jesus.  They wouldn't have followed his instructions if he were not seen as someone whom they considered above normal.  Or else which fisherman would take instructions about fishing from a carpenter?  But this team did and when they realise for themselves, rather than the hearsay they relied on so far, that he was someone really special, they acknowledge him to be someone who is to be in better company than themselves.  Peter asks him to leave because they are not worthy to be in his presence.  Interestingly Jesus invites them to join him!  And when he invites, some of them follow him, right then and there! 

I wonder if we in our contemporary world have space for such a feeling of wonder, of being overwhelmed, of being called and promptly accepting.  We'd sit, reflect, consult, calculate, discuss, reason out, weigh the pros and cons, try to strike a bargain, ask a hundred and one questions... But Peter and company chose to follow him right away; all the above followed!  Of course, they did not at once leave their families and homes but they certainly did accept Jesus as master and were willing to do anything he asks of them, right after their first encounter with him.  

God loves everyone

The writing of Paul to the Corinthians about God choosing the weak, instead of the strong, the foolish instead of the wise can be interpreted as a 'privilege' by the clergy, the religious.  Unfortunately!

Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.

I've heard many a priests and religious use this quote to praise God for having gifted them with a religious or priestly vocation, in spite of not being the most brightest or best in his or her age group or village or class.  However, the passage can be used for better purposes.  The one that I like is where it can be used to prove that God stands by the weak, the marginalised, those ostracised and abandoned.  He is there with them.  However I would prefer the other version that occurred to me this morning.  That God in choosing the weak and the foolish, is expressing his love for all!  In choosing those less humanly gifted he is balancing the equation among the human beings so that we may complement one another for the good of all.  Rather than see God as loving some more (either the chosen or the 'abandoned') than the others, God when seen from this perspective loves all - equally!  Those not chosen are not bad people! Neither are those chosen good people!  It is just that God wishes the best for each one and therefore offers a level platform where each one can contribute his or her might and thereby complement one another for the good of all. 

Vocation Sunday reflection

Each of us has a vocation. Each of us belongs to the Good Shepherd's flock. Each of us has a call! I am a Salesian Brother, but that's not my primary vocation. That's merely how I live out my vocation.

Our primary vocation is to be with Him, and to bear witness to Him; to love God and love life. That's our basic vocation: to love and serve!

And so I constantly ask myself, do I find my life and the way I live it meaningful? Is this the best way that I can be useful to the most number of people? And if my life meets both these criteria, meaningful to myself and useful to others, I know I am living out my vocation well.

And since my vocation is deeply connected with God and others, I need to
constantly listen, be aware, be attentive, be open
be willing to discern, differentiate, interpret, put to test and finally,
be ready to make choices, not just comfortable choices but bold and appropriate choices.

Vocations to priestly and religious life

Vocations to priestly and religious life in the West are on the decline for decades.  Most congregations are either winding up or on the verge of closing down.  The same is the case for many Parishes.  Either merged or closed down altogether.  Here in this diocese of Arundel and Brighton, recently three parishes were merged or rather were being catered to by two priests.  And this is not a solitary case.

The Salesian province of Great Britain too has shrunk very much in numbers.  Naturally many would like to see more join the Salesians and continue the good work carried out by so many in former years.  However, the scenario at large has changed much.  So has the Church and the congregation too.  The recurrent questions one has to come face to face in the present times is: What next? How can we get vocations?  Very many ask and seek to find an answer to the question, 'Why are people not joining us anymore?'  However, I think prior to that question we Salesians need to ask ourselves, "Why is it that we want people to join us to become Salesians?"

If we have nothing distinctive or special or challenging to offer, why would any youngster want to join us?  If all that we presently do can be done without professing the vows or getting ordained, why then opt for priestly or religious life?  Where and how does God feature in our life, in our invitation to young people to join us?  If we have a relevant answer to that question then perhaps we can move to the next question of 'What more can we do to have young people join us?'

A proper understanding of 'consecration' will certainly do us a lot of good.  But am not sure if consecrated life is to be understood or interpreted as a counter-witness to the 'social' life. 

I will seek other shores...

A few days ago heard this particular hymn, and was immediately struck by the chorus:

O Lord with your eyes set upon me gently smiling, 
You have spoken my name. 

All I longed for I have found by the water 

at your side, I will seek other shores. 

A hymn with a strong vocational dimension.  The call.  The invitation and the response!

Lord you have come to the seashore,
Neither searching for the rich nor the wise
desiring only that I should follow.

The tension Paul expresses in his letter to the Corinthians, read yesterday for the second reading, wherein he speaks of being 'compelled' to proclaim the Gospel, is not something everyone can grasp.  How can one be free when one feels compelled?  How can one feel happy and thrilled when cannot but obey?  In a way, only one who has gone through such an experience can understand it.  The mental logic cannot really set to rest the tension such a compelling call creates. 

God's failure

God always does the right thing. His choice is never wrong.  Therefore he always succeeds.  Wrong!  Just because He does the right thing and his choice is for the good, does not mean that God always succeeds.  He does fail.  

The choice of Saul is a perfect example.  Yahweh chooses him from among all the Israelites to be the first king of the Jews.  Yet he does not complete his life-long tenure.  Within a dozen years (biblically and historically there is no definitive proof of the exact period of his reign) he is ousted by David, again chosen by Yahweh himself.  Saul a chosen protege of God does not live up to His standards and is therefore replaced by David.  One might state that it is Saul who failed, not God.  But couldn't have God chosen a better person, someone who would not fail so quick?  After all, when God did choose Saul, he was the best in the whole of Israel.  But was he? 

We often think that God chooses the best.  Therefore they are not bound to fail or fall.  The truth is far from it.  He actually chooses the most unlikely of all people.  His choice is based not on who they will be, but who they are at that moment.  And most certainly, his measurement of 'best' is way  different our human standards.  Moses was not a real prince.  Daniel a commoner.  Saul was an obedient son.  David was a simple shepherd.  John the baptist, a mendicant.  Mary, a nobody.  His choice and assignment of responsibilities empowers them with greater possibilities of actualising their potential.  God lets them be.  He does not circumvent situations and manipulate events to prove his choice right and best all the time.  He lets the one chosen chalk out his or her way, merely assuring them His abiding presence:  "The Lord is with him/you!"

Children and Discernment

"... in those days, the Lord did not speak often..."  Those are the words in the opening para of today's first reading from the book of Samuel.  Really?  The Lord did not speak?  Perhaps a better way of putting it or understanding it would be to say, 'People were not used to listening' or 'It was not common to hear people say that the Lord spoke to them'.

What makes this episode of the call of Samuel is that the Lord is 'speaking' to a child!  How often would an adult tell a child to be open to listen to God speaking? Worse still, acknowledge the testimony of a child stating that the Lord has appeared or addressed him or her.  We expect and teach the children to listen to us, and no one else.  We ourselves are not atuned or open to anything beyond what we want to listen.

Another related aspect that struck me today is that the whole notion of discernment, which is now the vogue term in Salesian circles (and rightly should be so), is not something that we grow up with.  It is only after we become 'adults' that this process of discernment is introduced into our life and living.  Some may say that children are intellectually incapable of discerning, especially matters beyond the physical.  But if they don't get a taste of what it means to discern and are thereby assisted meaningfully (as in the case of Samuel, by Eli), how will they ever acquire the habit of discernment, especially spiritual discernment?  Perhaps it is we adults who are not really willing to undergo the process of discernment and in turn, prevent children and not trust them enough.  

Will you come and follow me

Heard this lovely hymn in Church this morning... the words are very beautiful and meaningful.

Will you come and follow me
If I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
And never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
Will you let my name be known,
Will you let my life be grown
In you and you in me?

A call to responsibility

Reflection for April 22

"He reproached them..."

The years of formation or preparation we have before we take up a life-long calling is just the tip of the whole gamut. To think that the six to ten years leading to ordination or final profession are anything but enough for a lifetime of spirituality is immature! Jesus spent three years with the apostles, day in and day out. Yet after three days of His absence, they are back to square one. He appears to them and reproaches them for their incredulity and obstinacy in not believing those who had seen Him after he had risen. Perhaps they were thinking that if at all the resurrection was true, He would have appeared to them first. After all, they were His closest associates for the last three years! 

If at all, as priests and religious, we live under this great misunderstanding that the call to priestly or religious life is great vocation and thereby bestows on us great powers, then let us at least also have the complementary understanding that with great power come great responsibility. The Lord is always gracious enough to send us reminders, often through simple people and instances. Let us therefore be open to His reminders and not wait for His reproach.

Go fishing

Reflection for April 21

After all that happened, the crucifixion, death and even the resurrection, the apostles go fishing! It really seems odd. But that is exactly how each of us live. We prefer to get back to what we are accustomed to, to that what we are comfortable with. However great an event or tragic a loss, the regularity we are used to offers a soothing balm. But imagine a scenario where the apostles had resumed their professional works, what they were used to three years prior, and never took up another mode of functioning…!

Yet the Lord once again challenges them. Calls them forth to carry on, without His physical presence, what they together did for three years. To be His witnesses. This is something the apostles are yet to fully learn. There is uncertainty and anxiety as to how it would unfold. Fishing is safer. Predictable. 

However, the apostles make that shift. They opt to move out of their comfort zones and preach the risen Christ. The first reading where Peter boldly asserts the source of healing the cripple goes on to show their full fledged immersion in the task of being witnesses. They are still fishing… but it is not fish they are after.

Even today, the Lord constantly challenges us to move out of our comfort zones. To explore more ways of being His witnesses than what we are routinely used to; feel contented with.

A personal call

Reflections for April 18

“Rabboni...”

Mary Magdalene recognizes Jesus when He calls her by her name. It is in that face-to-face encounter with Jesus that Mary realises Jesus. And when she relays this incident and Jesus' message to the others they hardly believe her. Besides the fact that all of this was totally new and too much for their grief-stricken moment, it is also indicative of what a 'call' is: a personal invitation, not a common information.

Most often we mortals are so lost in our day-to-day lives that we barely hear His voice or call. Even at times when we are frantically searching for His will, just like Mary desperately pleads with the 'gardener' for Jesus' body, we do not recognize Him. That's because we have an image of Jesus that we are fixated with. Anything different from that would not be considered. Only those who have the patience to sift through human appearances, fixated ideas and pre-meditated results, will be able to hear His call – a call that is personal.

Moreover, Jesus did not entrust some monumental task Mary... just a simple message to be conveyed! That done well, is mission accomplished. To look for a great role, a grand activity is to miss the point of a call.

Man of God?

Reflection for April 7, 2017: Believe in the Father

In the movie 'Evan Almighty' there is a particular point where the protagonist, a reputed modern American politician-turned builder of the Ark (at God's command) is questioned by the reporters, “What makes you so sure that God chose you (to build the ark)?” Evan replies, “He chose all of us!” 

Most often we are so convinced that God only chooses the prophets and saints, we forget our baptismal grace by which, each of us is a child of God. That each of us have a vocation. Therefore everytime a person claims to be a messenger of God, we smirk, we frown, we mock. Jesus offers us a simple remedy to verify the authenticity claims of anyone: do the works lead me to understand and believe in the Father. Even if the answer is no, we can still take it to remind ourselves of the grace we already are blessed with: being a child of God. Or use the occasion to discern our vocation, what God really wants of us.

The tale of two trees

It is interesting to note that in the book of Genesis, especially in the creation narrative, God mentions of two trees in the garden of Eden.  There is the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Both are in the middle of the garden. However, while informing Adam of his new residence, God forbids him from eating the fruit only of one tree: the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  He does not exclude the fruit of the tree of life from his menu.

Why would that be?  Is it because Adam already had life and therefore didn't need that?  But then that would mean that Adam didn't have knowledge.  Or is it that he did have some knowledge but not the one needed to distinguish good from evil?  But then it is exactly that 'ignorance' of distinguishing good from evil that did him in.  For if he knew that what the serpent was telling him was 'not good' then he would not have tried it.  In his innocence he listens to the serpent.  Even to say that he was ambitious - and therefore wanted to be equal to God - would not be right, because he did not have the knowledge of good and evil.  So why knowledge?

Most importantly why not the tree of life?  Or could there be a story about how a monkey tricked him into climbing the tree and gulping the fruit before Adam could eat it?  And Adam never got to eat of that tree before he was expelled from the garden?

Or that he did eat from the tree and nothing happened, because God did not forbid him from eating of that fruit?  But then why did God mention it, if it did not matter? God certainly did not speak of a tree of freedom in the middle of Eden - at least it is not mentioned in the Genesis.

Dynamics of a call

Fr Sebastian used to say that one never knows for what reasons a youngster joins the aspirantate and says that he wants to be a priest or a brother.  The reasons could be varied and at times even idiotic - that is to us, grown ups.  But for the boy it means everything. Fr Sebastian would then ask us to recall and see what exactly brought us to the aspirantate before we rubbish or trivialize the motivation of a youngster.

I still remember my brother's great craze for riding the 'red bike' of Fr Jacob, the Parish Priest.  The only problem was my brother was only 8 or 10!  So his eagerness to grow up was that he could ride the bike.  It was a red yezdi and for him it was nothing short of a wonder.  (Somehow I don't even remember having looked at it a second time!)  His fascination for the bike went on for quite sometime.  Then Fr Jacob met with a series of accidents within a short time while riding the bike.  It was during one of these days that we visited him in the hospital.  He was badly wound up.  My brother's sole plan for future evaporated even before we left the hospital premises!

I know of someone who openly admitted that he joined the aspirantate knowing well that he could eat better breakfast than the one he rarely got at home.  Another confessed that he joined because he liked his parish priests car and one day wanted to drive a similar one.  Then there is Fr Ajay, a newly ordained priest for the Province of Mumbai who spoke of his dream of one day seeing the actor Aamir Khan and Rani Mukherji who were in Lonavla (as per a song in the movie, Ghulam).  And when he heard that the Salesian aspirantate was in Lonavla, there was no doubt, where he wanted to be!! Read about him and the story about others who were ordained with him recently here.

Looking back we laugh at those reasons.  However, if we were asked when those reasons were replaced with others, we would not know.  What exactly were those latter reasons, not all of us could spell out.  But that some of us continued to stay on and professed as religious or priests is nothing short of an interesting tale.

True indeed, every call is mysterious and different.

Religious life, narrated by a 'party-loving girl'

There is a new book on sale here in England. Written by a nun, Sr Agatha wherein she speaks of her life in the convent and related stuff.  There is an extract in today's newspaper wherein she describes her emotions and feelings about her fiance.  Just out of curiosity (and a break from reading Husserl!) I read this two page article.  Read the article here. It is refreshing indeed.

Sr Agatha, with her three siblings

The narration is very realistic and truly human.  Shirley (Sr Agatha) makes no pretense of her feeling for him, even till the day he dies.  No pious or patchy expressions to camouflage her feelings and sentiments for him, at various stages of not only her life but his as well.  No lying that love for someone dies or evaporates just because one has become a nun/monk, all the while knowing the implications of one's choices and living by them.

On the whole, the writing and her sincere expression of her deep felt sentiments and thoughts make religious life appear normal. Not some hyperbolic sacrificial saga or a tale of suffering and pain.  

God's will

The Gospel of the day is about the father and his two sons (Mt 21: 28-32). The eldest son is requested to go to the fields and he refuses. But later changes his mind and does go. The younger son who is approached next by the father agrees to go, but does not actually do so.  So who does the will of the father?

Well, it struck me today that this is a great lesson in understanding better the whole concept of 'God's will'.  There is often the clash between doing God's will and following our own free will.  How does one really reconcile both these?

The father, in the parable, merely asks his elder son to go to the fields.  He does not tell him which route to take, by what vehicle to reach the place, what exactly is to be done there, whom to meet, what to do and what not to do. The father trusts his son to know what is to be done and how best to do it. That part of it he leaves it to his discretion.  Moreover, when the son initially declines to go, the father does not impose his will on him.  Furthermore, once the son decides to go to the fields, there is only so much to be done, as is to be in a field!  He certainly will not be able to run a discotheque there!  Nor will he be betting on horse-racing.

Similarly when God invites us to a certain task, He does not specify each and every bit of it. That He trusts us to figure out, using the qualities of the head and heart we have developed.  He did not create us as robots with each and every step completely programmed.  He made us with His own breath to be creative, different, special - even commit faults and run into error.