Peace be with you!
In this session, Fr. Freeh explores the relationship between our spirituality, our vocation, and our acceptance of God’s love.
Since we’re talking vocation, I want to highlight that this week is (in happy accident) National Vocation Awareness Week. Please help those who are discerning a vocation to the priesthood and religious life (and our Church) by praying that they will hear and respond generously to God’s call.
I think it’s worth doing a quick (and paraphrased) summary of the major elements of vocation:
- An active relationship with God
- An awareness of a calling, or a response to some need
- An understanding that we don’t work alone; God empowers us
- A willingness to leave other things behind in pursuit of your calling, seeking first the Kingdom of God
- Vocation is applied spirituality, called to do something of significance.
The way I typically approach writing these posts is to watch the video a couple times, taking notes. Then I go away for awhile and see what comes back to me, while keeping an eye out for inspiration. (Side note: The greatest gift of my unexpected role as a spiritual blogger is that in my daily life, I am much more attuned to possible messages from God that just might be useful here.)
Here’s what stuck in my head: “Our spirituality is only as deep as our desire for God” and “You have to be willing to leave everything else behind.”
I had to smile when I heard these themes again in this morning’s Gospel reading recounting Jesus’s message to the “great crowds” following Him to Jerusalem. How many of them followed not because they were attracted to His message, but because they wanted healing, they wanted bread? All of a sudden, He turns and tells them that they cannot come to Him without hating their father, mother, siblings, children…even their own life. They must pick up their crosses and follow Him.
Jesus is painfully clear: If our first concern is our own wellbeing, the wellbeing of our family…we have missed the point. We must pick up our crosses. Now remember, this was no millenia-watered-down metaphor. He was talking to a crowd who knew about, or even witnessed, actual crucifixion in all its terrible agony and gore. “Pick up your cross?” Really? And then, in the parable of a man who began to build a tower he couldn’t finish because he failed to take into account the effort and the cost, He warns them about beginning what they can’t finish. I wonder how many of that “great crowd” did the proverbial fast fade.
Listening to this Gospel, I had to wonder…why do I follow Christ? Is it all about what He can give me? Or what I can give Him? Do I really desire Him? And how willing am I to pursue my desire, despite the cost? What am I willing to leave behind?
(I had a sudden image of myself as the spiritual equivalent of those not-so-bright pioneers who, striking out into new territory, couldn’t leave their treasures behind. They loaded their Conestoga with all the comforts of home, often with disastrous consequences.)
But if following Jesus is more about cost, effort, and sacrifice than it is about free bread and healthcare…there is also unexpected, and abundant, blessing. And this is where God’s empowering grace comes into play.
Peter’s “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” and his decision to leave his nets has to be understood in the context of Christ’s call to him. In answering Jesus’s first simple request (“Hey, can I borrow your boat?”) Peter hears His teaching, sees His power, and recognizes Jesus as Lord. Encountering Jesus, Peter knows there is something greater..and his heart burns with a new desire. He leaves his nets behind because he wants to.
In a nutshell: The more you get to know God, the more He becomes important to you, the more you want to serve Him. Or…
Spirituality is only as deep as God is important to you. Desire is key.
Good News Spirituality 