HEARING OUR OWN VOCATION CALL
The Gospel stories don’t dwell too much on the description of Jesus’ baptism. They give more importance to the experience lived out by him at that time, and which is undoubtedly a determining factor for his future activity.
Jesus will not again return to his house in Nazareth. Nor will be remain among the Baptist’s disciples. Empowered by the Spirit, he will start a new life, completely given to the service of his evangelizing mission.
We can say that the hour of Baptism has been for Jesus the privileged moment when he experiences his prophetic vocation: he has been conscious of living possessed by the Spirit of the Father, and has heard the call to announce a message of salvation to God’s sons and daughters.
To hear one’s own vocation call isn’t a matter of a group of men and women, called to live out a privileged mission. Sooner or later, we all have to ask what is the ultimate reason of our daily living and why do we get up each morning. It’s not a matter of discovering grand things. It’s simply knowing that our own small life can have meaning for others, and that our daily living can be life for someone.
Nor is it a matter of listening one day to a definitive call. The meaning of life must be discovered through out our days, morning after morning. In every vocation there’s something uncertain. It always asks us to have an attitude of seeking, availability, and openness.
Only to the extent that a person goes about responding faithfully to her mission, will she discover precisely from that response, the whole horizon of demands and promises that are enclosed in her daily duties.
We frequently live a rhythm of life, work and occupations that disturbs us, distracts and dehumanizes us. We do all kinds of things through our life, but do we know exactly why and for what? We constantly move from one place to another, but do we know where we’re walking to? We hear many voices, slogans, and calls, but are we capable of hearing the voice of the Spirit, that invites us to live faithfully our mission of each day?
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
