Vocations

"How do I know whether I have a vocation or not?" How often this question has risen to the lips of many a young boy or girl, who has come to realize that life has a purpose, only to be brushed aside with an uneasy "I am sure I have not," or a secret prayer that they might be saved from such a fate! How little they know the happiness they are throwing away in turning from God's invitation, for such a question, and such a feeling, is often the sign of a genuine vocation. In the first place, a vocation, or "a call to the priesthood or the religious life," in contradistinction to the general invitation, held out to all men, to a life of perfection even in the world, is a free gift of God bestowed on those whom He selects: "You have not chosen Me," He said to His Disciples, "but I have chosen you," and the Evangelist tells us that "Christ called unto Him whom He willed." Often that invitation is extended to those whom we would least expect. Magdalene, steeped to the lips in iniquity, became the spouse of the Immaculate; Matthew, surrounded by his ill gotten gains; Saul, "breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the Christians," each heard that summons, for a sinful life in the past, St. Thomas teaches, is no impediment to a vocation.