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Elements
of Discernment
Though 'discernment' is not the most important facet of a
successful vocational search, let us nevertheless insist that it is
necessary, and find a way to do it well.
Attitude. At the risk of repetition: if you are scared stiff of what a
vocation entails, you will find it harder to be open and accept that
it might be happening to you. But take heart, besides prayer there are
several other relatively simple and practical means that can be of
help to overcome this fear.
One is getting to know people in the walk of life (Community,
Movement, Seminary...) that you are thinking of. Visit them, see that
they are made out of the same stuff as you, that they had (and have)
their trials, and that still they are answering the call.
Another is to try the life yourself. A visit. Long enough to get a
good feel for it. If this is where God wants you, you will begin to
discover the aids that God has built into that way of life for a poor,
weak human being like you to be able to live it. This is a great
vocation enhancer.
Another is to shake off all spiritual narcissism. Stop thinking about
yourself and your gifts. Think about how best you can help others and
Christ. Do not seek personal comfort.
Read. But read inspiring things. The Gospels. The Acts of the
Apostles. Lives of saints. Their heroism can help us transform our
attitudes. They can set our hearts on fire.
Prayer for enlightenment. There is not much - as a matter of fact
there is nothing - we can do as regards getting in tune with God
without the help of the Holy Spirit. This enlightenment comes through
the exercise of faith, allowing faith to let us see everything in a
new light. (Without faith your birth was a chance event explicable by
the confluence of certain conditions; with faith your birth, life, is
a gift given you by God....)
Self-knowledge. we have a certain amount of self-knowledge, but in
order to be sure we are not deluded, we need the benefit of an
outsider's objectivity. We need:
Spiritual direction. We have to run by somebody else, someone we
trust, our thoughts and experiences. And then heed his advice.
Signs? We need them, but most especially we need to recognize the ones
we already have. This means:
Acceptance of the ordinary. There is a certain compulsion afoot to go
seeking for extraordinary signs and experiences. Here are some of the
ordinary ones that we risk missing, and are more compelling: the fact
that you are thinking about a vocation; your personal spiritual
journey and experience; God's providence in your life (from the gift
of life itself, to the circumstances in which you have had to live it;
the blessings God gave you; the trials he allowed you to go
through....), all of these mark us and show us the path God has been
nudging us along.
Shake off the scepticism. Idealism is no longer kosher. No wonder, in
an era that has reduced love to sex and happiness to self-indulgence.
To discover your vocation and accept it you must dream and hope at
least as much as the young man and woman who are getting married. You
have to dream even more.
To discern a vocation you have to loosen the ties that bind us to the
merely pragmatic, the distrust that our society breeds in us. You have
to believe in a dimension of life and of people that is not tangible
- the dimension of the spirit, the thirst for goodness and truth
there in each one's soul, untapped and unsatisfied.
You have to believe enthusiastically that Christ is more necessary to
your fellowmen than the new boat, the second house, the third car or
the next promotion. That society needs him more than NAFTA, the EURO
or IMF handouts. That success and happiness are measured in the next
life rather than in this. That eternity lasts whereas this life is
passing.
You have to be ready to do what almost without exception your friends
think is madness.
Balance in
Discernment
From the above it is clear that the step of discernment (which only
has value if it is a prelude to action) involves two different aspects
that could be interpreted as conflicting.
One is to intellectualize, turn it into a problem to be solved mostly
in my head - although perhaps, yes, with the help of prayer - but
the emphasis is on me figuring it out. The other is intuitive, an
inner recognition, guided more by the movement of my heart, with the
emphasis on faith, and which is often sparked by living example and
direct experience.
Both have to be present. The mix will depend on the individual, but
the analyst in me has to make room for the believer, and the believer
has to use God's gift of reason. And neither should forget that it
is where we put our treasure that our heart will be, and that our
heart more than our reason will determine our actions, at least in the
long term.
So it is ultimately a question of giving God his place, and making him
my treasure.
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