Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Marie Kolbe Zamora shares the fruit of her reflection in struggling to understand the notions of “vocation” and “call”.
When I was young and in the process of discerning my vocation, it was common to ask young religious and seminarians who participated in vocation retreats to recount how they “got” their vocation. In my mind, it does not ring true to speak of vocations in the same way that we speak about ‘getting’ a new job. My thoughts are born out of much reflection as I struggle to understand the notions of “vocation” and “call”.
Vocation
The word “vocation: is related to words like VOICE and VOCAL. These words, in turn, are related to other words like SPEECH and WORD, which in turn bring to mind John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Wtih these opening words, John the Evangelist wishes to call to mind the first words God spoke in the Scriptures…
Then God said: “ Let there be light…Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters…Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear…Let the earth bring forth vegetation…Let there be lights in the dome of the sky…Let the waters team with an abundance of living creatures…Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures…Let us make man in our image and likeness…And so it happened! God looked at everything that he had made, and he found it very good!”
This familiar text from Genesis reveals that God created all things, including the human person, by his Word. This means that in a way, we can say that all of creation was “spoken” into existence. And lest we fail to notice, the creation that came into being at his Word is called good. With this adjective, Genesis reveals that both the speaker (God) and the word spoken (creation) are loving…for goodness reveals love. Click here to continue.
