Discover YOUR Purpose by Being OPEN to God s Will St. Gregory once said: "Our Eternal Salvation depends principally on EMBRACING THE STATE to which God has called us. For the person who makes a mistake in their Vocation: Mistakes the way that has been set out for him by God to attain everlasting life Through these words, one can t help but get a sense that the longer we travel down the wrong path in life, the more distance we place between ourselves and the perfection of God's Will being accomplished. In the words St. Augustine; You run well, but on the wrong road Back when I was at St. Peter's Seminary in London Ontario, a day came when I found myself driving to Windsor for an event and I asked the seminarian I was driving with what his story was What had piqued my curiosity was the fact that Niaz Toma was a few years older than I which meant that, he and I had something in common both of us had lived a life in the world before answering the call to the priesthood. As it turned out, he was conceived 24 years following the birth of his sister. When he was old enough to understand, his parents, who were well aged in years: told him that he had been CONCEIVED BY MISTAKE. A mistake that they had planned to remedy through a scheduled abortion... The night before the operation, his mother had a dream in which she opened the door of her home to find an AGED MAN WITH A GLOWING FACE on her doorstep. At that very moment, even within the state of her dream, she knew that this was a Vision from God for the traveler emanated a sense of Wisdom as one who had journeyed a great distance. He emanated an aura that spoke of his having come from another world... She begged the traveler: "Please come in, let me fix something for you. Let me get you something to refresh yourself". "No, I cannot come in for I have been sent on a Mission and I have traveled great distances to see you." She continued to beg the stranger to come in until he finally said to her: "My mission entails giving you something. But when I give it to you, I fear that you will laugh and think of it as unimportant". "Well what is it?" She replied. The old man reached within his cloak and brought forth a shepherd's staff... She began to laugh and said "What do you want me to do with this? I have no use for this. I don't even know what it is". "I told you that you would laugh". As he was about to put the staff back inside of his cloak and walk away: she said. "Well give it to me anyways, seeing as you brought it I might as well take it". She took a hold of the staff, and without missing a beat: she threw it behind her into the house. At that very moment, she woke up from her dream... On June 18, 2010 - her son was ordained a Priest of Jesus Christ for the Chaldean Catholic Church Tradition... Just as it was True for Mary who was Visited by the Archangel Gabriel to Embrace Her VOCATION Just as it was True for Joseph who was also Visited by God s Angel to Embrace the Marital Vocation Just as it was True for the 12 apostles that Jesus, the Good Shepherd with STAFF in hand, HAND PICKED It s TRUE for every AUTHENTIC VOCATION: You did not choose me It was I who chose you. 1
It reminds me of the story of the Rich Young Man in Matthew's Gospel: remember what he cried out the moment he saw Jesus passing by "TEACHER, WHAT MUST I DO, TO HAVE ETERNAL LIFE?" (Notice the question, the I, not We, or all people )Jesus goes through the commandments with him and at the end, the young man replied: I ve already done all those things; what else do I still have to do?" We're told that Jesus then looked at him with love - and said: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have - give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then COME AND FOLLOW ME " Truly, on that day, our Lord rather than taking the time to go through each of the Commandments and invite the young man to sell his possessions, could have just as easily shortened up his answer and simply replied: For you to have Eternal life, YOU MUST come and follow me How many times throughout the course of our years growing up do we, just like that young man, ask our Lord for a CLEAR-CUT sign: O God, if you could just tell me what I m supposed to do with my life what my Vocation is THEN I WOULD DO IT If there s ONE THING to walk away from when it comes to the rich young man s encounter with the Son of God, it's that even if God himself stands before us, as he did for that young man 2000 years ago, and tells us exactly what we must do to have eternal life - the majority of us will follow in the footsteps of the young man and go away sorrowful; for very truly, these days, we have many a great possessions A married couple had a troubled teenage girl and a newborn son. The girl kept asking to be alone with the baby. But her parents were afraid to allow it - for they felt that she was jealous of her brother seeing as how he had been getting all the attention as of late - and that she just might use this as an OPPORTUNITY TO HARM HIM. Finally, they agreed to her request - but they set things up so that while seated in the living room, they might listen in from the receiver that picked up any sounds coming from the baby s crib. They heard their daughter open the door to the room, and at first, all was quiet. Then the parents heard their daughter say to the baby; "Could you remind me about Heaven; cause I'm beginning to forget The world, and the speed at which it comes at us I mean, all this noise around us all the time: Facebook, twitter, emails, texting, Internet, video games, sports, school and the list goes on!! All this stuff causes us LITTLE BY LITTLE to forget about Heaven Gotta get back to the basics of why we even exist!! WE ARE HERE ON EARTH TO LIVE LIFE IN SUCH A WAY SO THAT WHEN WE DIE, AND DIE WE SHALL, WE MAKE IT INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN FOR ALL OF ETERNITY! That's why God gave us the gift of life. The end the best way to make sure that we make it into the kingdom is by discovering the Vocation that God has created us to embrace cause that's where we re going to experience the most PEACE, the most JOY, and the most FULFILLMENT IN LIFE. We must do everything we can to discover the Pearl Of Great Price WHICH IS YOUR VOCATION! For most of you, that vocation will be marriage. For some of you sitting here tonight, that vocation is the priesthood. And for others among us tonight, your vocation is to the religious life as a sister, as a monk, as a brother. 2
A man by the name of Olympius felt at peace whenever he thought about a call to religious life. At the same time, because he was so attracted to women, he wanted to get married! In other words, this guy was normal!! It's normal to find people of the opposite sex attractive! That's not a bad thing that's how it's supposed to be. One day, as he was PRAYING ABOUT ALL THE CONFUSION IN HIS HEART, he heard the voice of God say to him: "Go, and take a wife." So he got up, went outside and found some mud. He made a mound of mud into the shape of a woman and the voice said to him: "Here is your wife now: you must work hard in order to feed her." And so for days on end, he started working harder than before because he had to provide not only for himself, but for her welfare. After a few weeks of this he took some more mud and formed it into a boy. The voice said to him: "Your wife has had a child, now you must work even harder so as to be able to feed her and to clothe your child. Olympius WORE HIMSELF OUT DOING THIS!! And after a few weeks, return to the Lord in prayer and said: "I can't bear this weariness any longer!" To which the Lord replied: "If you can't bear such weariness, then stop wanting a wife and EMBRACE YOUR TRUE VOCATION! Olympius surrendered himself to the will of God and lived the rest of his life in peace as a monk Unlike downloading a computer program from the web fulfilling the perfection of the Father s will is not something that automatically plays itself out but rather, like a buried treasure to which only you possess the key and the map, it is something that must be ARDENTLY prayed for in order to discover it!!! That s the REALITY of it the reality of "being and becoming the somebody that God wills for you to become" is a reality that will only be obtained by those among you who are courageous enough to yearn for, search for, and pray for discovering your Vocation in life. Notice what I said: DISCOVER YOUR VOCATION not your career!!! And that's because a Vocation is a GIFT FROM ABOVE while a career is a gift from below There is no such thing as a shortage of Vocations in this world - what we have is a shortage of young people who no LONGER hear and respond to the call of their Vocation arising within their hearts!! God has never stopped calling young men and women to Marriage. He s never stopped calling others to lay down their lives and embrace the Call to the Religious Life. As a matter of fact, I PROMISE YOU THAT RIGHT NOW: - WE have someone here with us who is being called to the Religious Life (PAUSE) - WE have someone here with us who is being called to the Priesthood (PAUSE) - WE have someone here with us who is being called to Marriage (PAUSE) Did you FEEL THAT in your heart?? Did you FEEL THAT in your heart??? 3
I know that some of you did And now you have a choice to make! Ignore what just spoke to you - or respond in TRUST! If you choose to respond in order to DISCOVER YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE, this will mean serious changes for you. And Change is always scary, difficult filled with challenges and uncertainty. In order to better illustrate this point, I want to compare your journey in determining your Vocation in life to a caterpillar s journey as it embarks upon the steps necessary for it to become a beautiful butterfly. And so let s listen as two caterpillars talk: Hey where are YOU going?? I m going to climb that tree over there. Why would you do that?? Because I want to CHANGE. YOURE CRAZY! No, No I m not, why don t you come up there with me? No way, I m staying right down here where there s lots of food to eat. So the little caterpillar makes his way to the tree. As he begins to climb, our little caterpillar notices that he is all alone. Some of us begin our journey towards answering GOD S Call in Life ALONE. When he is halfway up the tree our little caterpillar realizes that he is afraid. Afraid he s made the wrong decision... for all of us in life, there ll be times throughout our discernment process when we will wonder whether or not we have made the right decisions that have gotten us where we are at. Our little caterpillar finally reaches the branch he has been looking for. He crawls to the edge of it and then suddenly he leaps off the branch and hangs in the air, suspended by a thin thread. Once he finds his balance, he begins to spin a cocoon that will keep him safe over the next little while... This cocoon can be likened to the in BETWEEN time of Knowing your Vocation and actually beginning to LIVE IT OUT: a place or we find ourselves spiritually suspended between heaven and earth as the fire of the Holy Spirit purifies us through PATIENCE Though this can be painful at times, we must never give up hope For as St. Peter tells us: These trials occur in life so that the genuineness of our Faith, which is more precious than gold tested by fire, may resound with praise, glory and honor at the Revelation of Jesus Christ A few months pass by as our little caterpillar lays dormant in his cocoon. And then one day, he wakes up and begins to break his way through the cocoon. His formation period from a little caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly is almost complete. But there is still one more step left. And this last step is the most dangerous time for our little caterpillar 4
For you see, a new butterfly has to stay motionless for a number of hours after he has come out of his cocoon in order for his new wings to unfold and dry out. This is the most dangerous time of his life, because predators can come by and simply eat him up without thinking anything of it. If that were to happen, it would completely destroy all the little caterpillars hard work. Just like all of us gathered here, in a few hours we will leave these sacred walls and go back out into the real world seeking to share this weekends experience with others Inevitably, you will encounter some people who will sow seeds of doubts into your minds with their words. As a result, you might come to experience confusion and uncertainty about your calling. The best advice that I have for anyone fostering the idea of a Vocation to the Priesthood, Religious Life, and even Marriage is: BE CAREFUL WITH WHO you SURROUND yourself WITH 2x All of a sudden our little caterpillar begins to flap his wings and graciously begins to fly. Hovering above the earth, he contemplates all the hard work it took for him to reach this point when suddenly he looks down towards the ground and notices his friend still eating grass in the field; so he flies down to meet him. His friend looks up and says: Wow, is that you? You look great!! IT S ALL ABOUT CHANGE. Really!!! I want to change I want to be just like you... Will you help me? My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, thanks for taking the time to come here this evening to give God a chance! Chance to open up something inside of you that will lead you to discovering your purpose in life. We're here to help you! Fr. Myles, the Vocation Director of our diocese is here to help you discover God's plan for you should you feel an attraction to the Priesthood or Religious life! Your mom and dad, they are also there to help you as some of you discern your call to the married life. Keep close to the Lord in prayer and always follow the peace in your hearts when discerning what your Vocation is. That Peace is an internal compass from the Lord and He will NEVER lead you astray. Follow the example of Our Lady. Let it be done unto me according to they Word! Hail Mary, FULL OF GRACE 5