Divine Intimacy

76 — CORRESPONDENCE TO VOCATION

Presence of God. — O Lord, who unceasingly call me by drawing me to You, grant that unceasingly I may answer You with renewed generosity.

Meditation

1 — God calls, but does not force; He leaves man full freedom to give his consent, to accept His divine invitation. “If you wish to be perfect... come, follow Me” (Mt. 19, 21), the Lord says to every chosen soul, leaving to it, as to the young man of the Gospel, responsibility to answer or not to His call. Yet, when God calls, it is terrible to close one’s heart to His voice and reject His invitation. Who would dare to turn away from himself the gaze of predilection the Most High has turned upon him by calling him to follow Him?

To the divine voice that calls, the creature’s voice must answer, saying with humility and joy, with gratitude and promptness, its full and total yes: Ecce venio, “behold I come to do, O God, Your will” (Heb. 10, 7). To God’s choice, by which He reached the creature first, there must follow the creature’s choice which in turn elects God as its sole portion, sole possession, sole love, above all things and all earthly affections. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Mt. 10, 37): God, our Creator and absolute Lord, has every right to ask us renunciation of the holiest affections, to require that for love of Him one abandon father and mother, brothers and sisters, home and goods. Besides, if God established that “a man leave his father and mother to unite himself with his wife” (cf. Gen. 2, 24), why should one think it too much to do this when it is a matter of giving oneself not to a creature but to the Creator?

The first duty imposed on the called soul is therefore to renounce earthly affections, goods, enjoyments in order to follow God, free from every bond. In practice, the measure of effective renunciation will not be equal for all; much more will be asked of the religious than of the simple priest, much more of the cloistered nun than of the soul consecrated to God in the world, but from the point of view of affection, the renunciation or, better, the detachment of heart must be equal for all and is sufficient only when total and without any reservation.

2 — To correspond to vocation it is not enough to leave the world, enter seminary or religious life; it is not enough to be ordained priest or profess vows; one must strive, day by day, to live at the level of one’s vocation, that is, to adapt one’s life ever more to the demands of the divine call. Everything in man is progressive; everything in us, as long as we live here below, is susceptible to perfection. In this sense it can be said that consecration to God too, though made stable by Sacred Orders or by bond of vows, is subject to progress, that is, it must become ever deeper and more perfect. In general, at the moment when the soul binds itself to God, though sincerely intending to give itself to Him definitively, it has not yet realized full and total consecration; in practice, that soul is not yet wholly “consecrated”; in it there are still tendencies, movements, affections that escape God’s full dominion: there is still self, the human element not entirely subjected to the Lord, not wholly “consecrated,” that is, not wholly sacrificed to Love and committed to His service. Well then, each passing day must mark progress in realization of one’s own vocation, until not one fiber remains in the soul that is not entirely God’s.

Besides, vocation is not static even on God’s part, since He, adapting Himself to our nature, calls the soul in progressive fashion; that is, to the first invitation, if the soul is faithful, He makes others follow, more pressing and more concrete, which engage the soul ever more deeply. Fundamentally it is one call - call to priesthood, to religious life, to consecration to God in the world - but one that, through life’s various circumstances and above all through new occasions of sacrifice, God addresses to the soul in ever more precise and determined way, making it see better how far it must carry self-gift in order to attain fullness of consecration. If the soul is faithful and answers with generosity to the progressive divine call, God will not cease addressing ever new invitations that will open to it ever wider and brighter horizons, so as to make it live its consecration in perennial youthfulness of fervor and love.

Colloquy

“I possess You by love, O most loving Jesus, nor will I leave You any more. O Word of God, love and life-giving life, enliven me by repairing in me all that I lost through lack of love. O God who created me, create me anew in Your love. O God who redeemed me, supply Yourself what in me has decayed in love, redeeming me anew. O God who purchased me in Christ’s Blood, sanctify me in charity. O loving God who adopted me as daughter, sustain my soul according to the generosity of Your heart. O God who chose me for Yourself and not for another, grant that I may not be another’s, but belong to You alone. O God who loved me freely and freely chose me, grant that I may love You with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength.

“O my Brother and Spouse Jesus, supreme King, place such a seal on the face of my soul that it may choose nothing in this world, desire nothing, love nothing outside You. May it prefer You to all and to everyone for love, and for love serve You.

“In You, whom I desire to love above all things, I find everything, and for love may I always keep what I have promised.

“Grant that I may be admitted into the number of wise virgins and remain awaiting Your coming with lamp lit and filled with oil, so that I may not be troubled at Your sudden arrival, but secure and joyful follow the procession of virgins who preceded me. O spotless Lamb, grant that I may not be excluded from the banquet hall with the foolish virgins, but admitted with the wise into Your following, by merit of perfect fidelity” (St. Gertrude).