Word to the Wise
Saturday, February 4, 2023 - Saturday in the 4th Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 13:15-17, 20-21 and Mark 6:30-34]Through Jesus, let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have; God is pleased by sacrifices of that kind....May the God of peace...furnish you with all that is good, that you may do his will. May he carry out in you what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. [Hebrews]
A question that I often hear from devout students who are trying to make big decisions is: "How do I know I am doing God's will for me? What if I make a mistake?" I have to assure them that "God's will" for them is that they love God and neighbor. Big career decisions should be a matter of judgment based on the gifts and talents we have been given. We may have many "careers" but discernment is really about our "vocation." A career is what we do. A vocation is who we are!!! We have the assurance of the Letter to the Hebrews that God will provide the resources to make the necessary discernment. I recall the struggle I went through to decide whether or not to abandon my plans to go to law school and, instead, to enter religious life! I entered the Dominican order and God later on sent me back to law school after ordination!!! Discernment is not always a straight highway but a zigzag path. I have had several "careers" as an ordained Dominican friar - principally campus ministry and itinerant preaching of retreats/parish missions - but my identity as a Dominican friar has been my vocation.
Our vocational call in baptism is to love God and neighbor and to put skin on that call by using the gifts and talents we have to the best of our ability in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. If we do this, we can be confident that we are "doing God's will" for ourselves. AMEN