Like most Catholics who love their faith, I spent some of my holiday break answering questions (and refereeing debates!) from family and friends about a lot of different things. These ranged from things about the Church, politics and sociology, my vocation, and the moral truth as taught by the Church.
Growing up in an Irish family, as those of you who are Irish already know, we love to talk. We also love to debate! The classic retort when someone does not see your point of view is, “You need to understand reason!” I found myself at the dining room table this year between two of my relatives disagreeing with one another about politics with one finally saying in frustration, “You need to understand reason!” And the other replied in a very “adult” way, “No, you need to understand reason!”
I bring this up because thinking about it brings a smile to my face. For the adults in my family bond in this way. We get stressed sometimes and “drama” occurs now and then with these discussions, but I feel like this happens in every family. Most of the time we just smile about how “fired up” we got about things, move on to drinking coffee, and eating my Aunt’s awesome cooking.
I imagine during the holiday break all families have certain recurring “dramas” that we face every Christmas and New Year’s.
Although the importance of winning a holiday political and social debate pales in comparison to living a moral life, this brings up an important discussion about faith and reason when discerning how to live one’s life, especially discerning a vocation to the priesthood.
There are many reasons to discern a vocation to the priesthood. The first is if you feel called. This is the biggest reason. If you feel like God is calling you, you very likely love Christ in a very special way, although you may have trouble articulating that relationship as I did when I first felt the calling. Seminary has definitely helped me grow even closer to God. The second reason is to serve your community through the Church. I think it is awesome God lets the priest be His instrument of the grace needed to live without sin! God knows how hard it is to live a sinless life! It is tough! This is why he gave us the sacraments. The Eucharist, Reconciliation, are two major gifts of grace that transform our hearts. The third reason is the sense of fulfillment you feel from performing your duty. Think about it like this: if you are truly called, God put you on this Earth to do this! And you are doing it! How cool is that?! Even if you discern out of priesthood, God called you to seminary formation to make you a better man. This seems to me like a win-win for anyone discerning God’s call.
I could go on and on with these excellent reasons, but I want to mention the other side of the same coin and that is faith. In my experience, our culture not only lacks faith, but also ridicules faith and gives primacy to reason over faith. This is a mistake. Both reason and faith are important, especially when discerning a vocation to the priesthood. I listed some pretty good reasons above for discerning the priesthood, but when faith is lacking, the devil (and negative people around us) bombard us things “clothed” in reason that make us feel like we should not do something which is a really good thing to do! Being open to God’s call is good for you, good for the Church, and good for all of society!
Everyone has a calling to a vocation, whether to marriage, religious life, holy orders, or celibate single life. No vocation is better than another vocation. However, if you feel called to a religious vocation that is awesome! I pray you exercise faith and reason in your discernment. One way to do this is for you to pray, that is so important. But also, do not discern alone! Call Father Michael Romano our Diocesan Vocation Director, and come to a discernment meeting. Many people are out there feeling the same way, battling the same battles in your discernment and Christ does not want us to fight this battle alone!
I pray that Our Lady Seed of Wisdom intercede for us that we all “listen to reason” and the Holy Spirit bring us the gift of Faith!
Father Christopher Myers
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