Parents often play a role in helping their children discern on a natural level. When done well this can be very helpful, but often I have seen this go very wrong. I often observe parents pushing their children to achieve the parent’s own dreams about the future, and they are sometimes not being sensitive to the talents and desires of the child. The child may end up feeling controlled, and not affirmed in who they really are.
Perhaps a side note to parents is the fact that children owe obedience to their parents while living at home but the Catechism notes that this shifts to respect and no longer obedience once they are adults (CCC 2217). If the parent’s advice is considerate, understanding and insightful, they may continue to have influence, but adult children are free to make their own choices about their vocation and future.
When thinking about our spiritual vocation, perhaps it would be helpful to distinguish first our common vocation in Christ from the special vocation that God has specifically given to each one of us. Every Christian without exception, by virtue of our common Baptism, is called to a life of holiness. The church has called this the universal call to holiness.
The church wants to make it clear that there are not two classes of Christians: ordinary lay Christians, and those who have a special higher calling to holiness. In the past, many people came to believe the error that only priests and religious received a special call to holiness.
On the contrary, holiness is our common vocation. As the fathers of the Second Vatican council remind us, “all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity; by this holiness” (LG 40).
Each one of us is universally called to be holy. (Lumen Gentium, 39-42).
The graces we receive in baptism transform us so that we are conformed to the image of Christ. Baptism imparts to us a permanent and indelible change to our very nature. We become a new creation. St. Paul tell us,
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Yet, in order to experience God’s purpose in this gift of grace, we must cooperate with these graces and submit our hearts to him. As the Catechism reminds us, “Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high” (CCC 1989).
The essential elements of Christian initiation are; “proclamation of the Word, acceptance of the Gospel entailing conversion, profession of faith, Baptism itself, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and admission to Eucharistic communion” (CCC 1229). Our cooperation through personal faith and repentance are an essential part of the process. As the Catechism reminds us, “The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is ‘conversion’” (CCC 1989).
What is conversion? The US bishops have reminded us,
Conversion is the acceptance of a personal relationship with Christ, a sincere adherence to him, and a willingness to conform one's life to his. Conversion to Christ involves making a genuine commitment to him and a personal decision to follow him as his disciple. (National Directory for Catechesis, 2005, p, 46)
Conversion is both an initial decision to cooperate in following Jesus, and then an ongoing commitment to continue experiencing this conversion. This leads to a life of intentional discipleship. For the majority of Christians this enables us to live this life of discipleship in our secular careers, and in our daily life. For laypersons, this primarily takes place outside the walls of the church, and in the midst of the world and in our daily lives.
Our Gospel today has often been seen as a vocation narrative. It is both about the pattern of our common vocation to holiness and about a special vocation for Peter and the other apostles.
For practical reasons, because of the crowds, Jesus climbs into Peter’s boat and speaks to the crowds from the boat. When he is finished speaking, he asks Peter to “put out into the deep” and to “lower his nets.” Simon Peter protests a bit at first. Clearly, Jesus is not a professional fisherman. Yet Peter is docile to Jesus and says,“at your command I will lower the nets.”
A miracle takes place and he catches so many fish, Peter’s nets are breaking. He signals for help from his partners, James and John.
This miracle causes Peter to experience a profound encounter with Jesus. Peter falls to his knees and experiences deep conviction for his sins. Quoting St. John Paul II, the Catechism reminds us, the Holy Spirit acts like “a physician who probes the wound before treating it” By the Word of God and by his Spirit, God casts a living light on sin. The Catechism notes, “Conversion requires convincing of sin.”
This conviction is both an interior judgment of conscience and proof of the action of the Spirit in our inmost being, which results in a new grant of grace and love in our hearts. [John Paul II, DeV 31 § 2] (CCC 1848).
In terms of our cooperation, many saints have told us about the necessity of humility and detachment to begin this journey. Normally this takes place through encountering God in Scripture and in personal conversational prayer with God.
Jesus then gives Peter a special vocation, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men” (Luke 5:10). Peter’s response, and that of the other disciples, is a complete submission of heart and will to God. They literally dropped their nets and followed him. Luke tells us, “When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him” (Luke 5:10).
What can we take away from this for our lives? First, we should note that Peter allowed himself to be in the boat with Jesus. We cannot encounter Jesus ourselves, if we do not spend time with him in the Word and in prayer. We can ask ourselves, “Is Jesus in my boat?”
In a world filled with so many distractions, this takes effort on our part. If we begin as Peter did in docility, and humility, I am convinced that we will also have a profound encounter with Jesus of our own.
Many times, however, we are looking for a voice from heaven such as we saw in our first reading from Isaiah.
I heard a story this week about a local priest who was trying to discern something important. He went away on a weeklong silent retreat. During the retreat, he heard God say to him in the quiet of his heart, “I really love you!” Later he heard from God again, “I really, really love you!” Finally, near the end of the week God spoke to him again, “No, I really, really, really love you!” He never got the answer to the question he was discerning, but he completed the week with a sense of profound peace and a renewed knowledge that God was good and loved him very deeply.
The knowledge that God is good and that he loves each of us personally and deeply is the very core of our Christian life with him.
I would like to issue a challenge today. Every day we live, we are typically awake for about 960 minutes. We probably work half or more of that time. If we gave God just 15 minutes of our time, that would only be about 3% of our remaining time. I would like to challenge you to make an effort to put Jesus in your boat this week.
Imagine what would happen in our lives, and what would result in our parish community, if each one of us spent just 15 minutes a day reading the Bible and talking to Jesus in our prayer.
FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME --YEAR C
Isaiah 6:1–2a, 3–8, Psalm 138:1–5, 7–8, 1 Corinthians 15:1–11, Luke 5:1–11
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