momentum of a vocation - christ the king A 2014

Why is it that it takes time for a running train to stop?  Why does it take time for a car driven fast to come to a full stop?  Because of a law in physics which we call momentum.  Momentum is mass times velocity.  An object has more momentum if it is bigger or if it is going faster.  For example gamay man lang ang football pero tungod kay ginsipa sing todo, dasig kaayo, then the momentum is higher and so it is harder to stop – the goalie will have to bear the force of the kick if he wants to catch the ball and prevent it from entering the goal.  Ang truck nga nagakambia sa neutral if it begins to roll, gamay lang iya velocity, indi gid sia madasig, pero tungod kay daku ang iya mass ukon bug-at sia, then budlay papundohon.  Pero kon bug-at na kag dasig pa pareho abi sang tren ukon eroplano ukon nagadalagan nga awto, mas mabudlay pa gid papundohon bisan naprinohan mo na.  Why because of the momentum which was created and determined by mass and velocity.  Bisan sanggon mo pa ang nagaligid nga awto, dal-on ka niya paidalom tungod sang iya momentum.  Pati ikaw ginatulod paidalom.  Kon sanggon mo ang football nga ginsipa sing todo, pati ikaw malabog.  And puwersa nga ginapunggan mo nagasaylo sa imo, ukon nagatulod sa imo.  This transfer of force of the momentum is called impulse.

This is what we call the law of momentum.  And this can very well be applied in a vocation.

When we started with our discernment, I asked our fourth year college to go back to their experience of God’s love for them.  Some are wondering, why should it matter?  Why should it matter when all I want to know is if indeed I am called to the priesthood or not?  Why is that important?

I say it is important because this is a very basic examination.  Kon ginahusisa mo kon bala ginatawag ka sang Dios sa pagkapari then it is important to go back to the experience that started the momentum, the impulse that transferred the force of the momentum to you – your experience of God’s love. Only the experience of God’s love, only the experience of self-worth that comes from the feeling of being loved by God, can form a momentum that would propel you to a particular vocation.  Kon wala ina mabudlay.  Ngaa mapari ka?  Kay para makabakal ako nami nga awto.  Ngaa mapari ka?  Kay natamaran ako mang-asawa kag magsagod pamilya.  Ngaa mapari ka?  Kay gusto ni nanay.  When Joshua was first year high school he told students in his school, pari kamo kay may malibre sa imo nga MacBook kag name nga awto.  That was first year.  If at 4^th year college that is still the momentum that motivates you to embrace a vocation, it would be tragic.

Our first reading today and our Psalms starts the ball rolling, it starts the momentum.  God keeps on saying, assuring – I will look after you; I will rescue you; I will pasture you; If you are lost, I will seek you out; I will bind you if you get injured; I will heal you if you are sick;  I will be there for you if all is cloudy and dark;  I will give you rest. 

Is this your experience of God?  Is your experience of God an experience of his constant and personal love for you? 

It is from this experience that real vocation follows.  Vocation happens when this impulse of God’s personal love, this momentum is transferred to us.  And this is what is proclaimed by our gospel. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.  For whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

This is the vocation.  This is the reason why people down there beginning with the Augustinian missionaries, the Vincentians the Mill Hill, the daughters of charity did what they did in our province – sacrificing many times even their families.  The momentum starts with I am loved by God, I am cared for by God, I am healed by God, when I was lost I was sought by God, and my wounds were bound by God.  Then the impulse, the transfer of force, the vocation begins - I will feed, I will give drink, I will visit, I will cloth, I will welcome, for whatever I do to the least I do for him who loved me from the very beginning.  What Christ did for me impels me to do things for love of him.

Today we celebrate His Kingship over us.  Jesus is king not because he imposes it as such to us, but because that is our experience of him.  It is not a ruling over.  It is not dominating, or subjugating.   It is a feeling of being cared for and loved – rule over us O Lord.

That is vocation -  It is a response of one who in his life, experienced how it was and how it is to be cared for and loved by God in a personal way.