Thursday, October 9, 2014

What is your calling?

Recently, a friend of mine, a Protestant, married for over twenty years, said to me that he felt called to drop everything and go to Africa to help the poor and the sick.

I said to him, "That's not a calling from God.  That sounds like a calling from Satan who is trying to destroy your marriage.  If you answer that call, you will wreck the vocation of matrimony and fatherhood with which God has already blessed you."

Coincidentally, around the same time, my youngest son said to me, "Everyone is telling me I should be a priest.  But I don't want to be a priest.  I don't know what I want to do.  How does anyone know what God wants them to do?"

I said to him, "God wants you to be a good person.  From that point on, its up to you what you want to do.  If you want to be a farmer, if you want to be a singer, if you want to be a fireman, first, keep the Commandments.  Be a good person.  That is what God wants you to do.  The rest is up to you.  If, at some point, you recognize a desire to be a priest, answer it.  Til then, keep the Commandments and do what you enjoy doing."

Folks, we all have the same calling.  That calling is righteousness.  We are all called, by God, to keep the Ten Commandments.  That's it.

If you're a plumber, and you do your best to be righteous in the eyes of God, you will become the best plumber you can be.

If you are a hairdresser and you do your best to keep the Ten Commandments, you will become the best hairdresser you can be.
Discerning God's Will
If you are a Priest or a Nun and you keep the Ten Commandments, you will become the best Priest or Nun that you can be.

Whether we are Catholic, Protestant, pagan or anything else.  If you keep the Ten Commandments, you are answering God's call.

Keeping the Ten Commandments, being righteous, is our first and major duty.  Once we do that, everything else will fall into place:

Matthew 6:32-34New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

32 All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. 34 Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.

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