Answering God’s Call: A Reflection on What Vocation Means in Today’s World

The call of Samuel (1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20) is a beautiful text for a theological reflection on what vocation might mean in the world of today. I provide a context regarding the concept of vocation in general and focus specifically on vocation in particular ministries.

What is Vocation?

Vocation (from the Latin voco, vocas, vocare, etc.) means to call (or to shout). Vocation is not just about a call but also an answer to a call. God calls. We answer. When we answer, God leads us through our participation in his invitation to the ultimate plan he has set forth. The process from the call to our acceptance, leading through grace, is a vocation, also.

Therefore, vocation isn’t simply about being called to be a married person, a single person, a clergy, an exceptional leader, or someone with spectacular ministry or charism. God calls everyone in unique ways, no matter their career paths. Thus, vocation is part and parcel of any person’s life; and embracing why you are human, invited to lead in your unique ways, is the joy of vocation.

I say unique ways because vocation involves not just one straight path to the goal, but many times, the detour, and zigzag routes to your God-invited mission.  It’s a journey. You feel the joy more, confident you’re where you’re supposed to be.

A Narrow-Minded Question about Vocation

In that sense, do not ask: does this person or that person have a vocation? Such a question limits the idea of vocation only to one’s narrow view of what is classified as vocation such as the religious or clerical state of life. It’s myopic. A better question is: have you identified your vocation?

Once born, each person has been called for a specific mission in life. Fulfilling that vocation is being holy, sanctified; and identifying and following through with it, makes life more fulfilling. As Lumen Gentium, the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, chapter five, richly discusses, vocation is a “universal call.”

In principle, children aren’t aware of their vocation, for a child is still developing self-awareness skills. But as they grow, they begin to see the signs and hear the whispers in their spiritual ear, inviting them to follow the divine invitation in their life.

The Reality of Early Exposure to Vocation

Hearing or knowing divine call comes easier to some people than others, partly due to their childhood experiences. When a child is nurtured in a good home where parents are constant witnesses of divine whispers, children tend to be disposed early to hear and listen. If the child is born in a home that is broken or constantly living in fear and tension, abuse, or lack of palpable experiences of affectionate relationship, from day one, the child could shut out their receptivity to divine whispers in some ways.

Painful childhood experiences–at home, in schools, or in the environment where the child lives–mar the tenderness of listening to divine loving gestures. Proof of this correlation is much research on the relationship between childhood trauma and adult violent behaviors. What happens to a child early in life makes or mars the child’s healthy life, which includes spiritual growth.

Consider These Examples

Imagine how a child whose dad is abusive–to his mom and violent to his siblings or other people–could have a healthy sense of God as a father. Do you think that child would want to hear God (as Father) speak to him or her? When there is a biblical message of God’s fatherhood, the noise, the filter through the listening skills of the child, would be that of violence. The voice would meet complete rejection. The child would go into aversion, if not a protection mode.

Another example is to consider the experience of the child who read literature or heard news of corruption from religious or spiritual leaders. How could that child appreciate what it means to live a religious or spiritual life? Even if God were to speak loudly to that child, the noise from such a subliminal message of religious leaders’ corruption and abuse would make the child cringe to the message of that voice. 

Another example is training a child in an overprotective environment where they see the world, or their neighbor, as mean. The controversial Goerge Garbner’s research on mean-world syndrome could be a hint to what might be the child’s view of the world. If the mean-world signals fill the child’s memory to the brim, how could the child distill God’s voice of the good?

What I Advocate

Am I advocating that we should shield the child 100% from challenging situations? Not at all. Instead, I advocate for a healthy exposure. Reality that isn’t simply evil or simply pleasant. This is because when conflicts, crises, and pains dominate the child’s mind, we risk rupturing their innocence and early exposure to a healthy spiritual life.

Positive Reinforcement Helps, God Speaks

The opposite would likely be the case if a child experiences healthy, loving gestures from family and environment. The noise that distracts or detracts from the pure, divine whisper, which often is more silent, is averted, and the child can hear and listen more.

The metaphor of the child above relates to adults, too. As a clergy for more than two decades, a teacher and a non-profit leader, I’ve seen how a loving gesture from those around us in the family, church, community, and workplace can quieten noise around and within and make us want to listen. Do you bother to listen to someone who does not care about you? I doubt so.

God is real. But we do not see God physically as we see each other. We see people. As Scripture tells us, people are the God we see today. The love of the people we see is the love of God, who we can’t see (1 John 4:20). If this is the case, then the same applies to hearing and listening.

God Speaks through People and Events

Yes, God speaks through revelatory gifts. He speaks authoritatively through Scripture and through the living experiences of the body of Christ.

Also, God speaks through special graces and charisms such as vision, prophecy, and others. I’ve been privileged on many occasions to benefit from such gifts. But unique charisms of this sort are exceptions, not the rule. This claim is equally valid in the life of someone who has the revelatory charisms. The frequency of these divine promptings is far less frequent compared to other ways through which God speaks to us and calls us, one of which is through our everyday experiences with people and events.

People are at the heart of experiences and events–the microphone for the echoing of God’s whispers in our ears. An adage alludes to this reality, although with a veneer of the Whigs’ politics (1709) –vox populi, vox dei (the voice of the people is the voice of God).

A Catholic perspective is the sense of the faithful (sensum fidelium), which reflects the workings of God in events and peoples. One might ask, does it mean that every voice from the majority is the voice of God? Not at all.

The voice of the people isn’t necessarily the voice of God, for often the crowd opposes God’s plan, as in the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) and the Golden Calf (Exodus 32). The Holocaust and the Apartheid are examples closer to our generation.

The Irony and An Answer

To the contrary, we know that the enemy of God hits harder where it knows God is much present. This claim has a biblical justification–sin abounds where grace is lavish (Romans 5:20-21). If you want to see where evil invests much of its attack, causing havoc and pain, go no further than the faith community or a good family. Also, go no further than a nation or people who wish to lead ethically. These are prime candidates of evil rapid attacks. Why? Because their very ideals are opposed to the reign of evil, and hence, evil would make them Enemies No. 1.

In the same way, God’s call is often found within life’s most broken, challenging, complex events. Listen deeply, and you will hear. How would one make sense of the paradox of the crucifixion, an epitome of human weaknesses and pain, if not that within that, God speaks– “It’s complete.”

God’s voice echoes through people. People aren’t that voice. In fact, many times they oppose God’s whispers. Instead, people and events are the environment through which God continues to speak today.

God’s Whispers in Strange Ways

The claim that God has left a people doesn’t mean that God isn’t still in their midst nudging them for change. It simply means that their eyes and ears have shut out and shut down listening and seeing of Divine promptings. Scripture shows us the way God continues to speak amidst shut doors–standing, knocking, and waiting for those who shut the door to open for a dinner with him (Revelation 3:20).

You can’t hear unless you look and see, as God works in strange ways among people and events. In the mangled evil life, God shows the glow of his power to save, which the called would easily see. For vocation is an invitation not to settle but to change things, renewal for the glory of God. What needs changed are people, and through them, events. In the same way, we can hear God utter his word addressing the needs for the people and we the called, saying yes to lead in our unique ways.

Running to the Quiet of the Chapel Isn’t the Answer

Thus, do not seek to hear divine whispers only in the quiet of the chapel. To be sure, the solitude of the chapel avails much. Nevertheless, God also speaks through those “mean” men or women who stare at you with the most obnoxious faces of hate. What is God saying about that man or woman, or what are you hearing as you see through their dark souls seeking healing or freedom, which they lack what it takes to embrace? How might you hear God in the billboard that confronts you with the audacious claim that–God is dead?

How can you hear God speak in bloodied walls, smeared with human parts who are victims of murder, mass shootings, or religious violence? One might also wonder: How could God possibly speak amidst events where people or government made policies that robbed you of your life and future?

God is also speaking through the divisive and red-hot cultural and political conversations around you. Are you ready to hear what God has to say? Or do you imagine that God lives only in paradise, where there is eternal peace?

Unique Opportunity to Hear God Speak

You see, the charged divisiveness or the congealed pain is an invitation to reflect, for example, on how God brought order in chaos. From the very beginning of the biblical story of creation, the sequence of events in time did not flow from order. Instead, it was chaos, and then the order came.

Indeed, God is order, but once he thought of the created world in time, he allowed chaos to precede order. How do you expect this sequence to change in your terms? How do you expect to see God only in order?

I believe that a reflective acceptance of vocation amidst chaos is meant to transform me. My vocation is crucial for becoming an agent of order for others. Order becomes real when I accept to adapt to it. In that sense, vocation is a cooperation with order in my existence as a creation.

Agents of Order, A Call to Everyone

How about this: Can you be a messenger of God in bringing about order in a chaotic setting? How is God speaking, calling you to do so?

God seeks those who will accept his invitation daily for unique tasks and ministry. His invitation amplifies in moments of need and in events that are chaotic. In those, the candidates who accept the invitation are indeed courageous, for it takes courage to say yes when things around us would suggest a nay.

Saints who paved the way for us praise courage, that is the virtue of fortitude. Fortitude makes sense when one is going against the grain. How?

Because the person sees the more profound meaning, the divine voice, locked, mangled, and meshed in the very texture of the grains. One must distill them through the bleeding experience of endurance and perseverance. If you can’t hear God in challenging events, how can you hear when you are in your element because everything works well for you? Have you forgotten that leisure dulls spiritual insight, and for the greats, leisure is rest for more work and not the end of it? Hard work is painful.

Qualities of those Called and Chosen for Special Ministries

Therefore, God extends his call through his grace that permeates every facet of creation, whether clerical or religious. It could also be in the secular world, among those involved with day-to-day activities in society and in the home, whom he wants to use to show forth his glory. God is anticipating your ‘yes’ and your unique contribution to bless the world. Have you thought about this much?

When I was a student in the minor seminary, many of the teachers involved with our training cited the biblical story of Samuel as a classic text for vocation discernment.

Serve First

From Samuel, we learn some qualities of those called and chosen. First, we learn that Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. Eli was the High Priest, and Samuel was serving under him. Did you notice how Scripture summarized the boy’s (Samuel) attitude and disposition? It is one of service. It is about a heart that has come to serve and is already serving. He wasn’t waiting to be called before he began to serve. He was already serving, so grace chose him for more service.

Worship

Samuel’s service was unique because it was also worship. Worship is vital to unlocking the glory in our lives, and this truth is the second lesson to learn. Our journey on earth is to worship the living God. Prostrating (sleeping) in the temple before the Ark of the Covenant, as Samuel did before he was called by the Lord (1 Samuel 3:3), is a classic example of the highest prayer, the highest praise, the kind that submits and kneels before the Lord in worship. It is resting in the Lord’s presence, a miniature sabbath (rest).

Ratzinger’s (Pope Benedict XVI) The Spirit of the Liturgy beautifully describes how our journey on earth is a call to continuous worship, a journeying in the Eternal Sabbath. A similar idea is expressed in the much-debated Rahner’s theology of grace. Rahner gave various examples of how grace is expressed as being within, in every facet of our lives and affairs, prompting us to worship in everything we do.

Listening Ear

Third, Samuel had a listening ear. This sort of listening flows from inner attention to the promptings and inspirations of God. God speaks often, and we do not hear because we are distracted.

Samuel was focused. It takes listening to hear and answer God’s call. This disposition is urgently needed today with so much digital, technological, AI, political, and cultural noise. We need some solitude to hear.

Seek Counsel

When the voice was not clear, Samuel sought the advice of Eli, the High Priest. Eli’s role speaks to the importance of a spiritual director in our spiritual life. The spiritual director has to direct the person to connect with God’s word in their unique situations. The summary of the duty is to train the pupil to say, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

Seeking advice is the fourth disposition of those who answer God’s call. They ask questions. When they aren’t sure, they aren’t afraid to ask. The Lord says, ask and seek; you will find and receive (Matthew 7:7). The most successful people, if not the most brilliant, often ask more questions than they provide answers.

At the heart of scientific inquiry, to say the least, is this attitude of curiosity–asking questions. The better the questions, the finer the results.

This disposition includes the desire to seek help from those who have traveled the road before us, unlike the imprudent who believes that only they know their destination. “Resting on the shoulder of giants” is a piece of advice that applies to everyday life. Those who answer God’s call always seek support from the discerning community. God’s call flourishes within the community, relations, and support groups.

Do Not Ignore the Lessons of Your Experience

Here, we also notice how experience can help in our spiritual life and it is the fifth disposition to listening to the call. You may have observed that the more you mature in the things of the Lord, the more precise you can understand his promptings. Blessed are those who open their hearts to those promptings.

Refrain from treating your experience as a clean slate. Instead, tap from them and improve and mature. The scars of past experiences help us see what better options are ahead of us. Draw from them to further a better future.

How could one change something if they do not know what is wrong with what they must change. Experience is a rich reservoir for what works and what needs changed.

Following Through

Finally, Samuel obeyed, and when God called a third time–the number three is always symbolic–he responded as advised, and God spoke. Following through with God’s promptings is the desired action for the call. Samuel had matured into the skilled ear to hear and to understand.

Any call is not simply about the come. It is also about the see. The Lord responded to John the Baptist disciples’ question, ‘Where are you staying?’ by saying, “Come and see.” His response is an invitation to them (John 1:35-42) to listen and to journey with him to the promise. We come and see when we act on the promptings of God within us and around us and most importantly, guided by his Word. 

The Lord extends the same invitation to us. God calls us to come and follow him. He invites us every day through his Word and the Sacraments to see his vision for us. Are you able to see what God is calling you for?

An Invitation to All

What is God asking of you? If you know it, will you allow God to lead you to its fulfillment? Are you willing to cooperate with God? After all, we are the temple of the Lord (1 Corinthian 6:19), members of Christ’s body (1 Corinthian 6:15). Shouldn’t we allow the Lord to use his temple as he pleases? All the Lord desires is our joy–salvation.

How about this? Let’s hear God amidst the messiness of our lives, career, and the environment in which we live. God whispers from within the bosom of the cross and human brokenness. Listening, we could understand better what the future holds for us.