generosity as sign of vocation - 33rd sunday A 2014

If you ask me what is the sign of a religious vocation in the individual, I would answer it is generosity, when a person lives not for himself but for others.

Love always begins as self-love.  A baby will always call attention to self without consideration for others.  When a baby is hungry it will not consider the fact that his mother might be doing something important and could delay in giving him attention.   A baby will demand immediate attention because his world is just himself.  He cannot see beyond himself and his needs.

But as the baby grows little by little he begins to see the wider world, that he is not alone, that there are other people beside him, that there are other needs besides his, that there are other necessities more important even than his.  And so he begins to think of others, he begins to take into consideration their needs, sometimes even more than his needs.  Little by little he becomes conscious that he is not alone, that the world is bigger than the tiny space he refers to as his bed and locker.  He begins to be conscious that the world is bigger than his cubicle, that there is a world outside his tiny space and that he could not just simply shut his door and mind his own.

As he grows he moves from self love to love of others, he moves from self-centeredness to other-centeredness, he moves from self to community.  And that is when a vocation begins to develop.

It is auspicious perhaps that vocation month falls on those days when our community is very busy – so many things to prepare - the PRISAA, the seminary week, the alumni homecoming, the major production which will coincide with the jubilee of our bishop in December.  These are busy days, days when we are asked to think less of our selves.  These are opportunities to grow in generosity, these are opportunities to grow in the vocation.

Vocation is a life lived for others.  One cannot equate a buried treasure with a vocation.  They are exactly opposite movements for one thinks only of himself while the latter thinks of others.  My participation in the PRISAA, my efforts in the seminary week, my contributions to our major production gives me the opportunity to work and invest myself for the community, not for myself but for others.  May our stay with Jesus in the blessed sacrament this night help us to be like him, to become a man for others.