Celebrating Vocations of Many Kinds

I'm in the middle of ordination season. Four services in six weeks has me thinking a lot about vocation and the places God calls us to as people of faith. Yet I'm ever more aware that not all of my brothers' and sisters' vocations are as celebrated by the Church as mine is, and that makes me sad.

Today I am sitting at a lakeside in Dallas, Texas, watching the animals play along the shore, and I am struck by the unique calling God has given to each one. A bald eagle soars overhead as a young squirrel explores his newfound independence. Two ducks of different breeds wander through shore debris and a a sandpiper tries to distract me from her babies. Each of God's creatures is so good, so perfect at what God has created it to be. The beetle doesn't desire to be a swan, and neither is the mockingbird interested in being a sycamore tree. Each has a unique calling and place in God's Texan creation and it is very good.

 

Humans, I think, are much the same. We have gifts and callings as a species: to care for the rest of creation, to reflect God's image, to love one another and to worship the Holy One. But God has also created us to be remarkably unique, just as each green plant is different from its neighbour. Some plants produce food, some shelter, some beauty; but we need them all, and together they create a magnificent patchwork more beautiful than any quilt.
 
I'm afraid that, as a Church, we haven't been too good at celebrating the diversity of these vocations among us. I am called to be a priest, and that is good; but you may likewise be called to be a biologist or a scholar or a stay-at-home mom and that is also good. It seems to me that some people are called to very specific places in life- such as a juvenile detention centre, say- while others are called to pursue their vocation in the midst of whatever circumstances they find themselves. Perhaps vocation is less about what we do and more about how we do it.

I'm reminded of a family friend who is undoubtedly called by God to his job as a CEO. There was a time when I would have considered such a vocation to be a bit less honourable, a little less Christian, than a career in “ministry.” But I was deeply wrong. As a CEO, a Christian can influence policy and trade practices in a way which honour Christ and his call to love others, to care for the poor, and to tend the earth. A Christian CEO can make money to feed the hungry and to effect positive change throughout the Church and across the globe.

My sister has a vocation to nursing. Nurses are charged with loving and caring for some of God's most precious and vulnerable in a way that not many of us are. Still another kind vocation is experienced by retired people: praying for the Church, visiting the sick, loving and teaching the young, among other things.

Each of our vocations is a deeply valuable part of God's world and deserves to be treated as such. How might we develop a way of discerning and affirming lay vocations as we have done for so long with clerical ones? Perhaps we could begin with celebration. Some of the healthiest and “home”iest communities I've read about or experienced are ones who know how to celebrate. Let's celebrate one another's accomplishments and calls and milestones. Let's learn to encourage one another in the new places God calls us to.

Next, we will need to learn to pray for one another. The discernment of a clerical vocation requires a great deal of prayer and contemplation which should not be restricted to religious professionals! As we learn to invite God into our plans for the future and the unfolding of our careers and ministries, perhaps we will learn to see them more as service we're called to rather than burdens required of us. I would like to learn to see all of life this way: why does God have me in this place at this time? What am I called to here? How can I honour Christ in the midst of this activity?

When I begin to see my life in this way, it helps me think less in terms of the rat race and more in terms of gift. And instead of pursuing wealth, prestige and comfort, I begin to find myself in pursuit of love, of peace, and of holiness. Because just as God has given each small bird and every green plant a purpose and goal for which it is perfectly suited, so too has God called each one of us to a way of life in which we are called to flourish, to bless others, and to bring glory to the Holy One.