I Abide in You

I Abide in You

If you want to find your vocation, where should you go to look for it?

Discerning your vocation means you will have to go out. 

To discern a vocation to marriage, you have to actually go out with someone, spend time with them, and see if this relationship is one you could see yourself in for the rest of your life. 

To discern a vocation to the priesthood, you have to actually go and visit a seminary, talk to priests and seminarians, and see if this kind of life is one you could see yourself in for the rest of your life. 

To discern a vocation to consecrated life, you have to actually go and spend time with consecrated people and see if theirs is the kind of life you could see yourself in for the rest of your life.

Without going out, your discernment will not be based on reality, but only on thoughts and impressions in your head.  But once you have begun to go out and have these real experiences, you then also have to go in – within yourself – and listen to what Jesus has to say to you.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says: “Abide in me as I abide in you.”  This is really the source of every Christian vocation – it is how Jesus wants to live in the world through us.  One of the other misconceptions people have about vocations – other than thinking we can figure it all out on our own in our heads – is thinking that a vocation means being someone other than you are.

Some think that considering a vocation means giving up who they are, so they avoid the idea altogether.  Others think entering a vocation means leaving everything behind – including who they are – and they welcome the idea.

But the truth is, Jesus does not call us to be someone other than who we truly are.  He knows who we are, because He abides in us, in that deepest place of our identity, of who we are.  The vocation that God is calling you to is nothing more and nothing less than becoming who you are.