Nobody ever asked me!
- Fr Raphael Ma, CR
- Matthew 20: 1 - 6
A Resurrectionist Vocation Minute for September 24, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Nobody ever asked me!
For those of you who know me, you know that I am an only child – and I don’t even have first cousins. So while growing up, it never occurred to me that becoming a priest was even within the realm of possibility for me – I had a happy home life and my parents had what seemed to me to be a good marriage, and so unless that was all going to end, it seemed logical that it was my responsibility to continue this good thing by getting married one day and having a family of my own.
It wasn’t until my first year of university when someone first asked me if I had ever thought about becoming a priest. And the honest answer was – no I had never even considered. And the rest as they say, is too long for this short vocation reflection.
Often in our lives, the simplest things can be the most life changing. In today’s Gospel, the reply of the people standing around in marketplace is – nobody ever asked us. Too many of us think a “call from God” is some kind of dramatic experience you only see in stained glass or a renaissance painting. But God not only speaks to all of us, but also through us in ordinary ways. The Canadian Province of the Resurrectionists will soon be launching an exciting initiative to help equip and empower people to discern and invite young people to consider labouring in the vineyard as a consecrated religious. Stay tuned for more information!
~ Fr. Raphael Ma, CR
“We strive for that perfect obedience in which we seek to do God's will in everything. As our faith grows we will come to recognize that the Holy Spirit speaks to us in many different ways: Sacred Scripture, the Magisterium, the prescriptions of our Constitutions and Statutes, ecclesiastical and religious superiors, personal inspirations, the consensus we arrive at when we collectively seek God's will through dialogue and house meetings, the demands of common life and the apostolate, and the events of daily life.”