The International Theological Commission is an important “think tank” of the church, overseen by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Earlier this year, it published an important document “Quo vadis, humanitas?” (“Where are you going, humanity?”)
One particular section that I found fascinating was the document’s treatment of the importance of vocation. Properly understood, a vocation is not merely about a career choice, but about the fundamental approach toward God and others that has been given to each person. Vocation is a gift given to each person.
Yet, contemporary culture, the ITC observes, often views life as a self-directed project. We are forlorn, aimless and abandoned in the world, and need to create ourselves. In contrast to this, the document presents vocation as a gift received. We do not “invent” ourselves; we “discover” ourselves by responding to a call that originates outside ourselves, from God.
Moreover, as we are created in the image of God, our vocation is to mirror the relational nature of the Trinity, thus it is essentially social. Our vocation is the call to move away from the “isolated I” toward the “united we” of the community. As such, a vocation involves the responsibility to care for creation but also to use our intelligence and gifts to promote the dignity of all God’s children.
The document also makes clear the relationship between answering God’s call to become whom we were meant to be and the call to holiness. Responding authentically to God’s calling is the path to genuine holiness.
Becoming authentically human and becoming holy are one and the same. Thus, holiness is not limited to priesthood or religious life; rather, every state of life — marriage, single life, professional work — is a path for living out the radical call to love by ongoing conversion, turning away from “dehumanizing” paths toward the life of grace.
This insight is particularly relevant in an era when so many in our world are treated inhumanly. We can never fail to raise our voices against rhetoric that refers to immigrants in disparaging ways, commentary that reduces the deaths of human beings in a war to scoring on a video game or arguments that marginalize the value of human life in the womb. We must urge all to turn away from these dehumanizing paths.
In discussing the question of where humanity is going, the ITC calls us to reflect on our own calling from God. The path we are to take involves becoming who we were meant to be by responding to God’s love, serving the common good and journeying toward the fullness of life in the kingdom of God.
It also means doing everything possible so that everyone in our world has the freedom and ability to flourish as God intended. But the question, “Where is humanity going?” is not just an abstract subject to be examined in academic or parish settings. Rather, it is an urgent one each of us must answer.
Where are you going? Where does God want you to go?