Discernment and Freedom in the Single Lay Vocation: SINGLE BLESSEDNESS PART III of V

Here let us repeat the fact that it is a vocation to be present to Christ.  It is precisely in living out the call to holiness, mission, contemplation, and communion that we present ourselves to him.  We know Jesus as the one who reveals the Father, for he said, “he who has seen me, has seen the Father (John 14:9), and so he is a kind of window to God, but if we look at him from a different angle we see that he is also a mirror, to reveal who we are to ourselves.

“The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light.” (Vatican II on the Church in the Modern World)

What is YOUR vocation?  Jesus!  He IS your vocation.  Be present to him and he will be present to you in your thoughts, words, actions, and even your life decisions, your vocation.  If you follow him every day in small things he will one day ask you to follow him in great things, i.e. larger decisions.  Simply do this, ask God what is it that he wants for you today and allow him to lead you by living a holy life and being present to him.  Then the excitement begins.  

So where every you are in the single life, a teen-ager, a middle-ager, not so young ager, whether you find yourself looking for a relationship, looking for a mission, discerning priestly or religious life, committed, promised, engaged, betrothed, separated from your spouse and living a single life although still married, single mother or father, happy, unhappy, healthy or hurt, widowed, living or dying - YOU ARE CALLED TO BE PRESENT TO CHRIST!  

All too often we think something monumental has to happen to us to reveal our vocation, like spilling the milk and it coming out in form of a cross or meeting the right lady or man and hear a voice saying, this is the one for you.  However, much of the time God does not relate that way with us because he wants us to develop our freedom.  Many times the answer to the question, “Lord what is it that you want of me?” might be silence, as if God smiles at you and allows you to hear clearly that he is not going to answer you.  In this case, which I find is frequent in the lay vocation one ought to hear in the silence of God:

My child, I have given you a mind.  Use it.  I am delighted when you gift yourself freely to the good, which I know you can perceive with the mind I gave you.  Exercising your mind and will, freely gifting yourself and growing in maturity greatly delights me.  

For God,

“created man in the beginning, and he left him in the power of his own inclination.  If you will, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.  He has placed before you fire and water: stretch out your hand for whichever you wish.  Before a man are life and death, and whichever he chooses will be given to him.” (Sirach 15:14-17)

Sometimes people ask me as a priest questions which I refuse to answer because I know that God would never answer them, but desire a person to use their head and chose wisely.  What stock should I buy?  What outfit should I wear?  What should I eat?  For some it may be frustrating to not hear God’s voice when they ask a question that they think God ought to answer, like is this the man you want me to marry?    Does he have some grave moral problems that won’t be resolved easily?  Does he treat his mum, sister, or other women in his life like dirt?  Is he married and still bonded to a person he doesn’t live with?  Use your head!  God gave you a mind.  Figure it out!  Don’t do anything stupid, and if you do something stupid, don’t do something even stupider to react to initial stupidity.  Begin again to live the Gospel and make sound decisions based on Gospel living.