75 — VOCATION

Presence of God. — My God, grant that to the privilege of Your call I may correspond with a deeply humble and fully generous heart.

Meditation

1 — In a general sense, every invitation of God addressed to souls can be called “vocation”; this is precisely how one speaks of “vocation to Christian life.” “Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...” exclaims St. Paul, “in that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight, having predestined us to be His adopted children” (Eph. 1, 3-5). Here is the most lofty vocation of every Christian, a vocation for which we will never adequately thank the Lord and to which we will never correspond enough. However, alongside this, which is the universal vocation of all Christians, there are others more specific, which designate a divine call to a state of life distinct from the ordinary one proper to the married or to those aspiring to marriage, and it is especially in this narrower sense that the term “vocation” is used. One says a person has a “vocation” when called by the Lord to a state of life “higher” than the ordinary state, a state inducing special relations between that person and God, making him or her a “consecrated” person, that is, reserved to God alone. Precisely for this reason God asks “called” souls to renounce that life in the world in which individuals unite and create between themselves a profound union and mutual belonging. Instead of binding life to that of another creature, the consecrated soul binds itself to God by the most pure bond of perfect chastity; thus it no longer belongs to itself or to creatures, but only to God. This total “belonging” to God is precisely the characteristic of the consecrated soul, whether its consecration is sacramental and charismatic proper to priesthood or that deriving from religious profession or also from private vow of perfect chastity. And not only is it its characteristic, but also its glory, the profound reason of its dignity. Insofar as God is superior to creature, so is the honor of belonging to Him superior in comparison with that of belonging to a creature.

2 — Vocation, that is, the call to consecrate oneself to God, means a privilege: a privilege due not to the merit of the one called, but solely to divine good pleasure. God chooses whom He wills, when He wills, and as He wills. “Not all understand this word,” Jesus said speaking of perfect chastity, “but only those to whom it has been given” (Mt. 19, 11), and it has been given solely because thus it pleased God, because thus He willed. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” (Jn. 15, 16). At the root of every vocation there is a choice by God, a wholly gratuitous choice, a choice due only to His love. Every one called must rightly consider himself a privileged one on God’s part, but a privileged one without any merit of his own, privileged solely because thus the Most High willed in the inscrutable designs of His will. Every one called can and must think that God could have called others far more deserving, more virtuous, more gifted than he, and before this mystery of divine choice fallen precisely on his littleness, he can do nothing but sink into gratitude and humility. Together with Mary, the great predilect, every consecrated soul can sing its Magnificat: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, because He has looked upon the lowliness of His handmaid” (Lk. 1, 46-48). God’s gaze resting with special love on a creature, here is the history of every vocation: that creature is poor, weak, miserable, no matter. God knows well of what He made it; upon its poverty He turns His gaze, drawing it to Himself: “With everlasting love I have loved you, therefore I have drawn you to Me full of compassion” (Jer. 31, 3).

God’s choice is absolutely free and cannot be determined by creatures’ merits or qualities; on the other hand, He, infinite Wisdom and Omnipotence, has no need of His creatures’ gifts and does not even seek them, indeed often His choice falls on the weakest, on those despised by the world. God seeks only hearts capable of corresponding to His predilection, hearts capable of giving themselves to Him with full generosity, without any reservation.

Colloquy

“O infinite Goodness, You chose us as Your creatures before giving us being and therefore You could well say: ‘It was not you who chose Me, for being nothing you had no power of choice, but I chose you.’

“You chose us by making us Your creatures and creating us in Your image and likeness, moved only by Your goodness. You chose us with a new election in holy baptism, making us Your children, while we, born in sin, could not aspire to so much if You had not called us to such a state.

“Always and only because of Your goodness, O my God, You then chose me and many other creatures, that we might consecrate ourselves totally to You; You chose us in many and many ways by interior inspirations and by a thousand paths. And in particular You chose us to make us capable of Yourself, to make us know You and to communicate to us Your being.

“O greatness of the creature chosen by You! To what sublime and lofty state has it been called, and how great is its baseness when, instead of corresponding to Your election, it yields to sin!

“O sweet Spouse, I continually want to ask You this grace, that all souls chosen by You may have light and perfect knowledge of their state and with good heart renounce themselves to give themselves to Your service.

“Oh, how necessary it is to make this supplication to You, my Lord! Oh, how necessary that You grant this grace, so that Your chosen ones may serve You with perfection!” (St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi).

“I come, I come to You, most loving Jesus, whom I have loved, whom I have sought, whom I have always desired. I come for Your sweetness, for Your pity, for Your charity; I come with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength. I follow You, because You called me. Do not mortify me, but deal with me according to Your meekness and according to the breadth of Your mercy” (St. Gertrude).