 | The Universal Call To Holiness:
"Can you hear me now?" By Father Giles Conwill, Ph.D., professor of History at Morehouse College
Excerpts from the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Vocations’ WebpageThere is a rather annoying TV commercial promoting a certain telephone company which asks, "Can you hear me now? Can you hear now?" I really don't like that commercial, nor do I want to hear it again. I don't care whom he's calling, or whether or not the other person can hear him. Yet, the commercial does bring to mind that communication is a two-way affair which involves caller and called.
To Be Called
Vocations are like that. The word "vocation" comes from the Latin "vocare" which means "to call." In the ecclesial context, God calls, we hear/respond. The word vocation usually refers to vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, or vowed religious life as nun/brother.
In these cases, the person experiences an attraction from God to dedicated lives of service; and the church (after a period of training and discernment) then officially corroborates or confirms that call as authentic. Besides a close relationship with God and the desire for cultivating an interior life of prayer, one other definite criterion for discerning a religious vocation is to see whether one has the gifts and talents required for such lives of service. Emerson once said that, "The talent is the call." How so very true.
Our Universal Priesthood
However, this notion of vocation, which is restricted merely to "religious" vocations, is much too narrow. All of us have a vocation (a calling) to live holy lives. This universal call to holiness is predicated upon and rooted in our universal Christian priesthood. Yes, there is an ordained priesthood, but there is also a universal Christian priesthood. Each of us, who has been baptized, has been baptized into the priesthood of Christ. That is what allows us as Catholics to efficaciously participate in the holy sacrifice of the Mass/eucharistic meal.
The Universal Call
The universal call to holiness, which is predicated upon the "Universal Priesthood of the Entire Christian Community," means all of us who bear Christ's name, Christian, are called to holiness. This universal vocation to holiness means that each of us, not just priests, deacons, and/or religious, must self-consciously develop lives of prayer open to the spirit's guidance; lives that are not directed just to personal transformation, but to the transformation of the whole Christian community, and to that of the entire world. This universal vocation to holiness means that we must live virtuous lives which embody Gospel values. We are, indeed, to be the 'leaven' and the 'salt' of the earth. No matter what your profession or job in life may be we all have but one vocation, and that one vocation is to be Christ!
Yes, Lord
I also know that my task, as one of the world's 402,000 Catholic priests today, along with the 4,400 bishops, is to orchestrate ministries. We ordained priests are to assist our un-ordained brothers and sisters who participate in the Universal Priesthood of Christ, to realize and actualize their universal vocation to holiness. No matter what your profession or job in life may be we all have but one vocation, and that one vocation is to be Christ! Every one of our lives should be loud sermons that the world needs so desperately to hear.
Lord, may our lives become such holy sermons to the world that we might ask, with spiritual integrity and holy pride, "Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?" |