1. There are many who think of becoming priests or entering the religious life.
This is encouraging news. Wishing to help them make a right decision, I would like to offer the little knowledge I have gathered on this phenomena.
When young people tell me they want to become a priest I tell them what the Cure of Ars said: “unless you be a holy priest forget it.” I guess that’s a good advice for nuns as well: “As long as you can be as holy as St. Therese of Lisieux, OK. If not, forget it.” Well, maybe not exactly like St. Therese. You could, at least, be like Catherine of Siena, Catherine Laboure, Bernadette Soubirous, Therese of the Andes. But not less.
2. A little confusion on the States of Life or vocations.
Spiritual writers describe the states of life as the single state, the married state, and the religious state and priestly state. These are sometimes confused with vocations. I don’t know of anyone who remained single because they heard a call from God. Perhaps they were just left behind. I never heard of anyone called to the married state. Many of my friends had to marry for many varied reasons. And I, myself, never heard a call to the religious life (as a Benedictine monk) or a call to the priesthood (I have been a priest for 41 years – if I recall my day of ordination right.) The canonical description of a vocation is when the bishop calls you for ordination. That would be ten years after seminary training. Should not the call be before and not after the studies in the seminary? Should you not enter the seminary because you were called? Though in an extraordinary case, a soul may be divinely called to such a state. This is not common.
3. These multiple states of life and vocations are as confusing as the multiple rights people are claiming these days…. which includes, I heard, the inalienable right to be entertained.
When I try to incorporate the states of life and vocations into the rest of theology I get brain dry. So let me try to simplify these concepts. There is a slight difference between States of life and vocations. Marriage and religious life are two different states of life. Though the religious life is superior, both are calls to holiness. I wish to deal with vocations sometimes referred to as Divine Calls.
4. The Divine Calls.
There are three calls from God. John Cardinal Newman has an excellent homily on this but he wrote it when he was an Anglican. So I would rather not refer to it. Suarez, the Jesuit, have a lengthy and complete description on the theory of vocation. But that is too lengthy. Ronald Knox has a comparative short explanation of it.
5. The three Divine Calls.
The first Divine Call or vocation is the call to enter the Church. The second is for those who have entered the Church to seek perfection. And the third call is for a few chosen one among those seeking perfection to serve the community as a priest. The first and second is for everyone. The third is for a select few.
6. Likening these calls to the way God called Abraham, the FIRST call is clear, as when God called Abraham out of Ur. The SECOND call of God to Abraham is not clear: God told Abraham to go to an unknown place. He didn’t tell him where to go.
St. Paul was first called on his way to Damascus. The next call was for him to receive further directions to something or somewhere unknown. Towards the unknown both “departed as the Lord had spoken unto them.”
7. When God calls He requires instant obedience. The second call for perfection is into the darkness of Faith that requires blind obedience and can be compared into a journey into the cloud of unknowing.
Our first call is when we realize we have sinned and have need to repent. Everyone has a need to repent since everyone has sinned, but not everyone realizes the need to repent. Everyone has that first call to repentance, but not everyone hears that call.
8. The first call is from a life of sin to a life of repentance. This is a call to leave the world of sin. Abraham was called out of Ur. The Israelites were called out of Egypt to be a people set apart. The apostles were to live in community apart from the rest of the world. The Holy Family lived the hidden life by themselves. And this setting oneself apart was carried over to the “fuga mundo” of monasticism. The first call is from the world of men into an ekklesia, from the world of men into the Church. The word Ecclesia means “a calling out.” A soul is called out from the world of men into the Catholic Church.
The second call is to a life of perfection. The Israelites, after leaving Egypt were perfected (though unsuccessfully) in the desert. Christ grew in wisdom and grace in a hidden life in obedience to Joseph and Mary. The monastery is a place where a soul works out his obligation “to be perfect.” In general, all men receive the first and second calls. Nuns receive their “vocation” within the second call and live in the religious state. Married couples (are supposed to) receive their vocation within the second call and live in the married state. Both should aim at the perfection of charity.
The third call is only for men, which is the Priesthood. My previous post explains this sufficiently.
These calls find their fulfillment in Christ’s command to ‘FOLLOW ME.’ The calls include a growth in obedience, knowledge, faith and charity.
9. MARRIAGE. It is within the second call, the call to the perfection of charity, that one discovers God’s will; to choose between the two states, either marriage or the religious life. One only needs to reason out if he needs one or the other. Both the single and married state is within the quest for perfection whichever would facilitate the quest for perfection. Within that quest, one finds out God’s will to remain celibate or to marry. This marriage within the context of seeking perfection is marriage, not according to the flesh, but by the will of God.
10. The Three Divine Calls in Samuel.
Samuel answered the first call from childhood. He left his house when he was offered to the Lord and lived in the temple. Then, in due time he was called to the perfection of his service. While seeking perfection, he was called, chosen to be priest and, later on, prophet.
At first, Samuel had to find out Who was speaking when he heard himself called “Samuel, Samuel.” We, too, must find out who is calling us from unbelief to belief, from a life of sin to a life of repentance. As Heli told him who was calling and what his answer should be, so must we know that it is Christ calling us. So as when Samuel heard the voice of God again and answered “Speak Lord, for Thy Servant heareth,” so must we answer God’s call with our “fiat mihi,” as He demands our prompt obedience.
11. Conclusion. The first two calls, the call to conversion and the subsequent call to a life of perfection, are for everybody: they lead to holiness. Religious life and marriage are states in life wherein to live that quest for holiness. (Painting is “The Sacrifice of Isaac,” by Jacob Jordaens the Elder, 1593-1678.)