Jan. 25: Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
Is 8:23—9:3; Ps 27:1, 4, 13-14; 1 Cor 1:10-13, 17; Mt 4:12-23
Think about the life choices you have made, the vocation you have followed and the relationships you have nurtured. What have been the costs and blessings of the path you have journeyed thus far? Are there decisions that you regret, rejoice over, grieve about or are grateful for? Likely, all of the above.
As we experience the impact of our life choices on ourselves and the people we encounter, it can be easy to segment our lives into “stages” or “phases.” And it can seem as if our fidelity to our vocation rises and falls based on how successful or fulfilled we feel in our occupations or social connections.
We often think our vocation is synonymous with our job description or our role in family or society. But our vocation is much deeper than that. Vocation is our response to God’s call, and God is nothing if not consistent. God’s perception of us doesn’t vary. From the moment of our conception, God sees us as we truly are and he calls us to adopt a particular identity.
For example, Jeremiah is told: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you” (Jer 1:5). Jeremiah would take on many tasks in his life, some were successful and some seemed to be utter failures. He built relationships with many people, some of whom embraced his mission and many who vehemently rejected it. But he never stopped being faithful to his prophetic identity, that is, to his mission of speaking God’s word to the people of Israel.
Now consider Jesus’ interaction with Peter in today’s Gospel: “Come after me and I will make you a fisher of men” (Mt 4:19). The fisherman will become a “fisher of men.” Notice that Jesus does not say: “You are a fisherman. Come after me and I will make you into a public official, or a carpenter.” In other words, he tells Peter that he will transform his vocational calling, but not obliterate it.
I don’t fish, but I can imagine that to do it well requires great patience and the ability to discern subtle changes in the conditions of the sea. Even then, one is entirely subject to the “will” of the fish! They may not be acting as the fisherman would like them to behave on any given day.
If a fisherman feels fulfilled in exercising his craft, he needs to feel satisfactorily engaged by all of these qualities. If he drops his nets and instead fishes for people, he will still engage those same qualities: patience, discernment of the social environment, respect for the free will of others, and so forth.
I think of vocation as a “golden thread” that runs throughout our lives. It is that fundamental calling that gives us meaning and a sense of purpose.
You may be fortunate enough to have a job that perfectly tracks that thread, but most of the time you will not. Maybe you were that kid who always cared for the bird with the broken wing on the playground, or comforted other kids when they were crying. Perhaps you grew up to work in one of the helping professions.
But even if your job seems far removed from those occupations, you will likely be unhappy and unfulfilled unless you can exercise that basic calling in whatever way you can: You might be a healing bus driver, or a nurturing pastry chef or whatever.
When I look at my own life transition from a practicing physicist to a parish priest to a seminary rector, the golden thread to which I had to remain faithful was a passion for engaging mystery. I have lived that passion in very different ways, but the fidelity to the call is consistent.
As we consider Jesus’ call to Peter to be faithful to his singular vocation, take some time to reflect on your own vocational golden thread. How would you name it? To what degree have you been faithful to it? What choices might you make in the way you are living your life now so as to be more faithful to it moving forward?