Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 17, 2016
“What do I want to do with my life?” This is a question young people are faced with at the end of their time at school. It is a hard question to answer because nobody can really know what our world will look like 20 years from now. Professional councillors may test you to find out what you are good at and you may have some expectations and hopes to help you in your choice of a profession. But is this good enough to know what your true vocation is? To discover my vocation means to find out what God has created me for. What is His intention for my life? Every person is unique and has not only a biological DNA, but also a spiritual DNA, a unique way to relate to God, to people, to the world around them. Nobody can ever replace you as a person. Searching for my vocation means to look for my true identity, for my place in God’s plan. How can I find my vocation? There is no single way to go about it. For some, it may come as an instant insight in a split second like for Paul on the road to Damascus. For most it is a long search and a gradual discovery. Some questions may help us on the road to self-discovery. “What is the deepest desire of my heart?” is such a question. This desire refers not simply to my wishes like the wishes children write to Father Christmas or the answers people give in opinion polls like having good health, a happy family, a well-paid job… These are external circumstances of life that may be favourable or not. They are not your vocation. St. Francis of Assisi, for example, lived a deeply fulfilled life although he broke with his family, was in poor health and chose a life of poverty. But he lived in harmony with God, with everybody around him and with God’s creation. The realisation of a vocation often starts with a sense of dissatisfaction. You may have been successful in life and yet there remains this nagging sense of being unfulfilled. Is this really all there is to life? Am I going to live like this for the next 50 years? You feel a deep desire for something more, which you often can’t even put into words. Many find their vocation when they allow themselves to be personally confronted with some grave injustice. Martin Luther King Jr. could no longer stomach the revolting discrimination suffered by coloured people in his country. He had to do something about it. His namesake Martin Luther could no longer accept some scandalous abuses in the Church. He knew it was a call from God to invest his life in the reform of the Church (even if that went wrong at one point.) Many find their vocation when they are profoundly touched by the person of Jesus or by his word. St. Francis Xavier heard one day the word: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but loose his soul.” It changed his life and he became one of the greatest missionaries. The people who listened to Jesus said: “Nobody has ever spoken like this man.” A word all of sudden reveals to me what my true desire and my vocation is. To find our vocation we need moments of silence, of reflection on our experiences, of prayer
Fr. Wolfgang Schonecke MAfr