Vocation

Retreat 2001

VOCATION

Fr. Honesto G. Geronimo Jr., SDB^[1]

Vocation comes from “vocare” - the Latin verb for call.

God calls some people to be special signs and bearers of his love for other people. Although he calls all of us to heaven, he does not call everyone to be bearers of his love to people. He selects only a few for this task. This means he chooses some but rejects the others to be his signs of love to people.

The choice is his. It is never ours.

“You did not choose me. I chose you” (cf. Jn 15,16).

If ever we are chosen, it is thus a privilege we could only be grateful for and not a right we could always claim to. Vocation therefore is more than a call. It is a gift. It is free. And though it is freely given it is not given to all but to just a few.

“Freely you have received, freely you give away. What you received freely as a gift, you must freely give away as a gift”(cf. Matt 10,8).

Vocation as any other gift is never bought but is always free. As a gift, it is also never deserved by the recipient. And as the gospel says, as any other gift it must only be shared in the same manner it was given - freely. It cannot be hoarded for one’s personal consumption. Vocation must always be passed on, handed down like any tradition.

Vocation is not a material gift that could be contained in a box, choked up with fancy ribbons, camouflaged under flashy wrappings. It is instead a living present. I repeat it is like our sacred traditions that remain through the passing of centuries because they are lived. Vocation must thus be likewise lived, if it has to pass on from generation to generation.

If it is God who calls and it is he too that chooses, it must also be he who puts the criteria in vocation.

The Church nonetheless recommends that we put rules for the admission of our candidates. There is nothing wrong with that. Not unless we forget that through these rules like our own ratio we are only trying to discern God’s choice. Is God calling this young man to be a sign and bearer of his love? That’s what we are trying to answer whenever we discern on the application of any candidate.

Fr. Houdek, SJ was my professor in the Art of Spiritual Direction, a course I took during my sabbatical year in Berkeley last 1995. Aside from being professor for many years, he had been novice master and spiritual director too for quite a time. What he told me once regarding discernment of vocations struck me. And this I’d like to share with you. He said that after years of spiritual direction particularly to novices he has only widened all the more his criteria in accepting candidates to the religious life. He did this after realizing that every vocation is after all God’s work. He shared that God could still be effective (maybe even more effective) in persons who according to his human perception might be less fit. In God’s plan the “more qualified" ones are also the more likely ones to meddle and muddle God's blueprint designs.

Working for vocation is like handing down one's life to another. It is like giving birth to another human life. Vocation thus also means communicating life. And life is not communicated simply through words. As someone said "life cannot be simply taught; it must be caught".

Take for instance the Preventive System of Don Bosco - which is in reality the very life of our father. Don Bosco never dared to write a treatise on his system of education. And when he was forced to finally write something, he could manage only 7 pages. Why is this so? It's because the preventive system is life, his life. And as such the only way to get to it is through actual contact with people who live that life.

"Get into the fever with Don Bosco forever" is a line from Fr. Ronel's song composed for the centenary of Don Bosco's death. Those words convey to us a similar message. Do you want to get contaminated with feverish excitement for Don Bosco? Get in contact with him.

There is always a need to invite young people to follow a religious or priestly vocation. Human as we are we tend not to see a lot of things huge as they may be unless someone points them to us. Like we might be standing or walking or even residing on top a huge whale without knowing it unless someone yells, "hey that's a huge whale you're stepping on!" Our daily and faithful living of our vocation could remain invisible forever. It needs always to be proclaimed like the gospel of Christ. After all our vocation is our gospel of Christ.

At this point allow me to share with you one of the many letters I got from my students in the past. It came to me in the morning I left Lawaan for a 3-month seminar in Bangalore. I quote here the whole letter.

02-02-97

Dear Fr. Nioret,

Peace!

It seems so hard to let go a person who is somewhat very close to you. You have been so good to us and to tell you "napamahal na kayo sa amin". If there is really a need for us not to let you leave "siguro hindi na kayo makakaalis". But somehow we got to leave our selfishness and let go. Just to let others experience what we experience, "your affection". We have encountered a lot of salesians "pero sa totoo lang kayo palang ang tunay na salesiano sa puso na nakita namin". Like what I told you last night, you are my "idol". I wish that I could serve boys the way you do. "In you I saw a true salesian, in you I saw a true father, in you I felt Don Bosco". Noong sinundo namin kayo sa airport the first thing I've said was "ayon ba si Fr. Nioret? Wow, kamukha niya si Don Bosco". And it somehow made me feel closer to you. I know you are studying for a reason and I know that you will be successful in it.

I think you have to go, so better end this letter immediately. Good-bye! Take care! You would always be a part of my intentions here in my heart. Thank you for once I have experience God in you. Thank you & I love you!!!

I remain,

KENT

P.S. Thank you sa drawings and signatures. Thanks a lot! Thanks for being a father. Sulat kayo ha!

In sharing this letter I only hope that you too have remembered the many times you also have inspired many boys to follow your example even to becoming salesians themselves all because they've come in contact with your life. We could best inspire the young only by living with them the salesian ideal.

In vocation proposal the community works best together and does not leave the task alone to the designated vocation promoter.

In our first Provincial Chapter here in the south I remember Fr. Andres Calleja^[2] sharing with us these thoughts in a good night. He said, "Where is Don Bosco now? Is Fr. Rector Don Bosco? No, Fr. Rector is not Don Bosco. But we see a little of Don Bosco in him. He is good and kind like Don Bosco. In the same manner we also see a little of Don Bosco in Bro. Economer and Fr. Catechist, in Bro. Assistant. We might not see the whole Don Bosco in each of them individually. But in all of them together we get in touch with the whole Don Bosco today!"

Vocation is a flowering of our community life. It is the fruition of living together as a salesians. Too often we have heard it said that if the youth see us happy living together despite of the simplicity and even the frugality of our life, then we'll never run out of vocation.

In the book Project of Life of the Salesians of Don Bosco ^[3]published from Rome in 1986 we read the following section which I quote here in its entirety.

"One of the finest fruits of the family spirit is vocations. The history of the Congregation amply demonstrates the truth of this in the case of both Don Bosco and the first salesians. Inserted as they were in the heart of a salesian community made warm by family affection, many boys learned to model their own lives on those of their educators; they became progressively aware of the germ of a salesian vocation that God had placed in their heart, and the family atmosphere led them little by little to identify with the ideals and the style of life of their teachers; slowly their sense of belonging to the Congregation matured together with the desire to take part in its pastoral activity.

This is the dynamic growth process which is characteristic of the salesian way of life; the atmosphere is one in which vocations naturally appear and grow; they then mature in the family spirit and a gradual insertion into apostolic work follows almost automatically.

A precise task of our communities is to involve our youngsters in our family life, to enable them to experience for themselves how wonderful is the salesian mission and be attracted to follow the Lord Jesus and work for his Kingdom: 'Come and see' (cf. Jn 1,39).

But it should be kept in mind that this will be possible only if the family spirit shines forth in our communities, and especially in formation communities; it is possible only if all the members 'form a family founded on faith and enthusiasm for Christ, united in mutual esteem and common endeavor' (C103)."

Many of the first salesians were oratorians. This was the way Don Bosco proposed vocations. I believe it still is the way to promote vocations. The best youth that could ever become salesians would be our own bosconians - those who in their young formative years have continuously suck the milk of our salesian tradition.

While we work for college seminarians, let us not neglect those younger: the aspirants, the day boys, the boarders, the oratorians, the club members, the youth leaders.

Fr. Calleja shared with us once this vocation story. When he went back to Spain for his first masses immediately after his ordination just before going for the missions in Indonesia, he met a member of the knights of the altar. This youth caught his special attention because they had the same name "Andres". He gave the boy a rosary as a parting gift and asked the boy to pray it whenever he could. They however continued to communicate through letters even after that. Almost 15 years after the younger Andres is now a seminarian of theology.

And Fr. Calleja concluded his testimony by saying: "No one is too young to be called by God. Mary was a mere teenager when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would be Mother of God. Dominic Savio was barely 15. Laura Vicuna too was young, so also were Francis Bessuco, Mickey Magone, Zefferino Namuncura and the 5 polish beati. God calls anytime. And salesians should be ready to help the young answer God's call whenever it comes."

No one is too young to be a sign and bearer of God's love.

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^[1]Fr. Honesto Geronimo Jr. is now ending his first term as rector of St. Louis School - Don Bosco in Dumaguete City. He is better known by everybody as Fr. Nioret.

^[2]Fr. Andres Calleja is now the rector of the Post-Novitiate community in Jakarta.

^[3]The Project of Life of the Salesians of Don Bosco, pp. 206-207.