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We have covered the Vocations of the Institutions of marriage, consecrated life, ordained ministry. But before we embark on the season of Lent, we should look once more at those who do not fit into these categories. Whether widows, divorced, unmarried, youth, displaced persons, or all other groups that don’t seem to “fit in,” there is a real sense that these people could feel like modern lepers – isolated, unclean, and abandoned. And this isolation, this way that our culture breeds separation in the midst of technology, breeds fear of your neighbor in the midst of so many freedoms, this is perhaps the greatest disease of our developed world. It is a spiritual sickness, not a physical one; and as Jesus makes clear for the leper today, it is nothing to be ashamed of, and the leper is not guilty of any sin. So too the isolated of our day needs to be welcomed into the community of the church so that they can be healed.
We have covered the Vocations of the Institutions of marriage, consecrated life, ordained ministry. But before we embark on the season of Lent, we should look once more at those who do not fit into these categories. Whether widows, divorced, unmarried, youth, displaced persons, or all other groups that don’t seem to “fit in,” there is a real sense that these people could feel like modern lepers – isolated, unclean, and abandoned. And this isolation, this way that our culture breeds separation in the midst of technology, breeds fear of your neighbor in the midst of so many freedoms, this is perhaps the greatest disease of our developed world. It is a spiritual sickness, not a physical one; and as Jesus makes clear for the leper today, it is nothing to be ashamed of, and the leper is not guilty of any sin. So too the isolated of our day needs to be welcomed into the community of the church so that they can be healed.
But what about the
vocation of those who are not part of the main institutions we covered over the
last few weeks? We see their vocation in
light of the universal vocation, and in a parallel way from the other
vocations. Let’s start with a text that
outlines a basic truth of Christianity. In
a homily for a priestly ordination in 1993, the future Pope Benedict noted how
important it is for us to find the truth of the human person not in
self-actualization, but rather in self-gift:
[T]his self-abandonment, this allowing the ego to be
immersed and to disappear in him, and so too this placing of my own will in
his, very profoundly contradicts our attitude toward life—and I suppose this
has been the case in every age. For, indeed, this ego is precisely what we want
to assert; we want to fulfill it, put ourselves forward, have ownership of our
life, and thereby draw the world into ourselves and enjoy it and leave a trace
of ourselves in such a way that this ego persists and keeps its importance in
the world. It is characteristic of the present era that [there is] an ever
greater, ever more dominant sector of the population made up of persons who
enter no lasting relationship but are just “I” and lead only this life of their
own. And, indeed, there is something like an almost traumatic fear of
fruitfulness, because the other might take our place away, because we feel that
our share of existence is threatened. And ultimately this retreat into wanting
to be only myself is fear of death, fear of losing life, all that we have and
are. But as the Lord tells us in the Gospel: Precisely this desperate attempt
to possess the ego entirely after all, to possess at least this and as much of
the world as can possibly fit into this ego—leads to it becoming withered and
empty. For man, who is created in the image of the triune God, cannot find
himself by closing himself up in himself. He can find himself only in relation,
in going out, in self-giving, in the gesture of the dying grain of wheat.
So truly here we
can see the reality not only of priesthood, but of all vocations. It is a reality that Jesus expounds for us
clearly when he said “He who saves his
life will lose it; he who loses his life for my sake will find it.” All of us, no matter what our vocation is,
must give ourselves away, must lose ourselves in something greater, ultimately
losing ourselves in God.
One of the huge
traps of our super-individualized culture is that we are tempted to shy away
from permanence. We see the world as
changing too fast, and in ways that are too hard to predict, so therefore we
fear making choices that will tie us down and trim our options. How can I remain my true self (worldy wisdom
would say) if I am stuck in a certain way of living?
This spiritual disease
of our culture looms most dangerously over those whose vocation is not
concretely tied up with lots of obvious things.
The priest, the married man or woman, and the religious brother or
sister have a clearer sense of how they are to give of themselves from day to
day. The single person, the divorced,
the widowed, etc. do not have that clarity, and the temptation to remain free
from some kind of commitment is powerful.
I think it is important for these people (and for all of us in many
ways) to not be afraid to step one bit at a time into a deeper commitment to sacrificial
self-gift: whether in the parish, in your families, in your friendships, in a
volunteer organization, in your prayer. The
question should be: God, how are you calling me to give myself in a committed
way to building up your kingdom? Lord, give
me the courage to walk where you lead me one day at a time.
Let us finish with
a poem, a prayer, by Cardinal Newman, when at a dark time in his life he had
trouble seeing the way but knew who could show him.
Lead,
Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom
Lead Thou me on!
The
night is dark, and I am far from home—
Lead Thou me on!
Keep
Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The
distant scene—one step enough for me.
I
was not ever thus, nor pray'd that Thou
Shouldst lead me on.
I
loved to choose and see my path, but now
Lead Thou me on!
I
loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride
ruled my will: remember not past years.
So
long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on,
O'er
moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone;
And
with the morn those angel faces smile
Which
I have loved long since, and lost awhile.
