Fourth Sunday of Advent
Fr. Joseph Eddy, O. de M.
MP3 – Homily Audio
I have attended Life Teen camps for the past few summers. These are large camps run by “missionary” college age men and women. These twenty-somethings give up a summer or even two years of their lives to evangelize teens. They are coming together as like minded Catholics to serve Christ and often love blossoms. Several have “fallen in love” and are now in serious relationships. Others are even engaged to be married.
One day they will no doubt have beautiful Catholic families. No one doubts this “process” of falling in love. It is not complicated. But we sure do doubt the discernment of a priestly or religious vocation. Some agonize over this decision for years. But…a “call” is a “call” whether it is to marriage or priesthood or religious life. It is not meant to be agonizing, but a beautiful self-gift like marriage. In today’s Gospel, Mary is “called”. She is told that she is called to a supernatural vocation, to give birth to the Messiah “God-with-us”.
Questions are not necessarily a lack of faith
Mary is not to be afraid because “with God all things are possible”. She has been given sufficient grace to do this. Mary’s response is to “ponder” praying and trying to understand the depth of this great call. She has some questions. These are not signs of a lack of faith, but only a lack of understanding. Once God’s will is made clear, Mary says, “I am the handmaid (servant) of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word.” She submits to this vocation with a self-gift.
The same is true of a supernatural call to a religious vocation. God calls and makes it clear to the person over a period of time. There is no need to complicate this! It is a supernatural call to a life of many joys and unbelievable grace. Let us who are called to this life embrace it as a gift, praying for the grace to respond to it and appreciate that we have been specially chosen. We must not torture ourselves with endless question and minute by minute discerning. Instead may we embrace the mystery of the call each day with Mary. Give her “fiat” or yes to a divine vocation.