Transcript

When thinking about vocations, we begin with God's free choice to create.

Why then did God create us?

God, we know, had perfect enjoyment of boundless life in Himself.

He felt no lack.

He experienced no need.

Our creation is a fruit of His free gift.

You might say that He thought we might like it, or God had a secret too good to keep.

And so, it stands to reason that we're not slaves or servants of a needy God.

What we are is many expressions of His love.

It's as if God passed the white light of His divine life through the prism of reality, and what we get is a visible spectrum of creation.

So each of us is made to manifest the glory of God, to testify to our Creator and end.

And in so doing, we are destined to return to Him, to become sharers in His divine nature.

God, in His generosity, is not content to give just one way of pursuing Him, and so He gives an abundance that our return might be a drama, a discovery, and a kind of symphony of praise.

God's ineffable divine life cannot be exhausted by one human word, so He speaks many words, many vocations.

The variety of vocations on offer in the church are distinct testimonies or witnesses to the glory of God just as they are distinct ways of going to heaven.

Each vocation says something new and beautiful about the Lord.

The question for one discerning a vocation or living a vocation, then, is, How am I uniquely suited to tell forth the glory of God?

How am I uniquely suited to manifest His Majesty?

In the Church, we profess that God offers a universal call to holiness.

Each of our vocations arises from God's stirring to life within us virtuous desires to pursue Him and to glorify Him.

We know that we need grace in order to embrace a supernatural vocation.

Grace comes into our lives by way of virtue.

By virtue, God makes it easy and prompt and joyful for us to choose what is indeed best and most in accord with His will.

And so, we're able to detect a vocation in the very God-given desires of our hearts as they grow and mature.

You might just as well say, What am I called to?

Well, what do I love?

Vocations are different manifestations of the universal call to holiness.

All we know are called to the perfection of charity.

In the Gospel of Matthew, we hear, Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.

And when a scribe asks Jesus, What is the greatest of laws?

He says, You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole soul, with your whole strength, with your whole understanding, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

So all of us are called to love God with a kind of totality, with a kind of perfection.

And God offers grace in all vocations for just that.

Not that we could get by, or kind of survive, but rather that we might flourish, that we might burn brilliantly in the firmament with praise of His glory.

So the different vocations just represent different ways of pursuing that goal.

Let's pause then for a moment to consider the vocation of religious life.

Religious life is inspired by a desire for the great and noble service of God through a wholehearted devotion.

The religious endeavors to follow Christ more closely, like the Apostles, to enjoy a kind of intimate friendship.

A religious professes vows because they are perfect means to charity.

What he does is that he sets aside pursuit of secondary goods, like material wealth, or the good of marriage and family, or the good of dictating the terms of his own life, in order that he might direct himself wholly and undividedly to the one thing necessary.

In so doing, he offers the whole of his person, all of his possessions, all of his body, and all of his soul to the praise of Eternal God.

Religious life is also a kind of anticipation of Heaven.

We hear in the Gospel that we will neither be married nor given in marriage when it comes to the vision of God.

And so, what a religious does is he anticipates that, in a way.

He gives up marriage now in order to begin Heaven early, and in so doing, he testifies within the life of the Church to our common destiny.

All of us will be like this in the end.

All of us will, in a certain sense, be wed directly to God.

We will have the perfect enjoyment and vision of His love through no mediation.

Let's turn now to consider the vocation of priesthood.

Now, we saw in the religious life that it is primarily a matter of the sanctification of the soul of the religious, and then it has the additional effect of radiating within the life of the Church.

We witness a kind of opposite tendency in priesthood.

For the priest, by virtue of his ordination, becomes a kind of channel for the grace of God.

So God works through him to bless His people.

JAMES ALLEN

the priest is conformed to Christ as both priest and victim.

In the sacrifice of Calvary, the Lord serves as priest, in that He is the one making the offering, and as victim, in that He is the one offered.

And so, as the priest of Jesus Christ works to extend the Lord's work in the world, he too is both priest and victim.

He offers and is offered.

The priest serves as a kind of mediator between God and men.

On behalf of men, he offers prayer and sacrifices to the most high God.

But he also works to give divine things.

He is, as we said, a channel for the grace of God.

By the sacrament of holy orders, a man is given a priestly character, and in that, he is permanently configured to Christ by that spiritual mark on his soul, as we saw with baptism and confirmation.

It's fascinating and beautiful that the people of God expect the priest to give them the Lord.

We see this most especially in the sacraments.

Think of the Eucharist.

People come forward at Holy Communion such that the priest might put God on their tongue.

But so too, this is more true broadly.

So in preaching, it is the priest's responsibility, his duty, his vocation, to communicate the word of God as truly healing, saving, elevating, and challenging.

And in pastoral service, he himself is poured out like his Lord.

He empties himself, such that he might serve those entrusted to his care.

As Fulton Sheen once very beautifully said, A priest is not his own.

Each of these vocations testify in harmonious fashion to the glory of God.

Each enriches the church with the holiness of its members, building up within the life of the people a real sanctity, a real offering to the most high God.

So by the embrace of our vocations, we raise a joyful strain in one chorus of exultant praise to God, who himself is worthy of our whole heart's love.

This video marks the end of the RCIA component of credo.

Congratulations on making it this far.

It's been a privilege for us to walk with you on this journey, and many of you will soon be received into the church and receive the sacraments of initiation.

You're probably very eager to make the final step, but you may also be somewhat anxious or uncertain.

I just wanna leave you with some final words to put your minds and hearts at peace.

Know that God gives us immeasurably more than we can ask for or imagine.

His gifts are always greater than our expectations, so expect great things from God as you're received into the church.

Open your hearts to his grace.

He's already taken the initiative in your life.

He's called you and brought you to this point.

Know that He will continue to be faithful to you and bless you as you're incorporated into his mystical body.

And please know of the prayers of my fellow Dominican friars and I, that we will offer on your behalf.

We pray that the Blessed Virgin Mary and your patron saint be with you.

Now, you might be wondering why the program has seven more sessions.

The last part of credo is known as mystagogy.

And though you'll soon be a part of the Catholic Church, mystagogy is meant to help form you in your first weeks as a Catholic.

Our mystagogy program, entitled Pillars of Catholic Living, explores such subjects as mental prayer, the benefits of frequent confession, devotion to Mary and the saints, involvement in your parish, and the importance of stewardship, and other important topics.

Even if your parish is not going to offer formal classes for part four, I invite you to watch these videos at home and read the material found in the guide.

This will help you benefit from your new experience of the faith and set you on the path to a robust practice of the faith and a healthy spiritual life.

Again, thank you for allowing us to take this journey alongside you.

May God be with you and your families.