Look before you leap
“Look before you leap” this may sound like an advice given to a person who is afraid of jumping in to current of life. However, in such matters as choosing one’s vocation in life - the most important of all decisions, a careful thought, prayer for God’s guidance, and seeking advice, are not cowardice but true wisdom. Hence, one needs to sit down and take stocks of resources before he begins to build a house. Does he have the means and materials to finish the structure or even lay the foundation? If not then there are two possibilities; gather materials or do not build a house. So one should have some idea of what type of ‘character material’ is needed for the religious vocation. At first you may think, “this is impossible for me, I do not have any of these qualities”. Perhaps you may not have those qualities, but most of them can be developed and acquired, if you are called by God and if you have determined to work things out.
The qualities needed for the religious vocation cannot be attained at the very beginning itself. Like a flower or a tree, they grow slowly. Nevertheless, the good seed must be there, and we must tend and cultivate it. St. Ignatius says, “Even one has desire for the desire to join the society, should be admitted.” It is the work of a lifetime commitment. There is always more to do, always a higher peak to climb. So the most important thing in a religious vocation is the desire - an intense desire, to follow Christ and to do his will. This call is a grace from God.
Fr Pedro Arrupe has aptly described what would be the sign of a true vocation. He said about himself, “more than ever, I now find myself in the hands of God; this is what I have wanted all my life from my youth. And this is still the one thing I want. Now there is a difference; the initiative is entirely with God. It is indeed a profound spiritual experience to know and feel myself so totally in his hands.” [Message of Fr, Arrupe to the society,
One who wants to join the Society of Jesus should have one ideal that is to serve the Lord and his church with all his heart, from the beginning to the end. He should possess an attitude of loyalty and filial obedience towards the church. He should be available to the Lord. He must put God at the center of his life.
Though one may have all the intense desire and qualities, he has to fulfill certain requirements and commitments to the Lord and to the Society of Jesus. A soldier with weapons will withstand any attacks in a war, likewise a soldier of Christ needs weapons to fight against the evil forces in the world. The vows are the best weapons in the religious life. Vocation to religious life demands a total commitment and self-surrender. They are lived out by three vows, a vow of chastity, a vow of obedience, and a vow of poverty.
These three vows are the very foundation of the religious life. Hence, we will see them one by one.
Chastity
The religious vocation is from God. Chastity is the renunciation of sexual expression of love, in a more physical sense of the word. It is abstaining all lust, both interior and exterior. The vow of consecrated celibacy is an act by which a divine perfection is being achieved by transcending sexual expression of love. In order to be a man of God, one renounces being a man of the world with the wish that nothing in life should be explained by anything or anyone except God. when the man of God turns back towards the world, he appears above all as the man with no family. He is the one who has found no home so that he may entirely belong to God, and by belonging to God, he belongs to all. The religious vocation is then the gift of self in a response to the call of God. Religious celibacy is a celibacy by which right to marriage is renounced however good that may be. It is a vocation embraced with complete freedom of the will.
Poverty
MT : 19 – 21. Jesus said to him “if you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”
Religious poverty is one of the pearls of the religious life. A good religious can be recognized among other things by his love of poverty. To belong to God unreservedly, it is necessary first to renounce the family and after that to renounce the right to private property. If worldly goods hold a place in one’s life then slowly God is relegated to a second place. The aspect of poverty which we have in mind here consists in having God alone holding first place in one’s life. The mark of a good religious is his renunciation of worldly goods. If any object is placed at his disposal, he is always ready to part with it, for God is the only being that his soul desires.
Obedience
Obedience, along with poverty is the backbone of community life. Obedience means, it is no longer to do one’s will but the will of God. A perfect religious, it is true, is so identified with God that he is no longer has a will of his own. Obedience is often presented as the arch characteristic of the Society of Jesus. Even one can be sent to the ends of the earth without previous notice. Obedience calls for the most radical detachment of self. Obedience is thus the essential instrument for dying to self.
To a young man who wishes to be a Jesuit, Fr. Pedro Arrupe says;
“Stay at home if this idea makes you unsettled or nervous,
Do not come to us if you love the church like a step mother, rather than a mother;
Do not come if you think that in doing so you will be doing the Society of Jesus a favor.
Come if serving Christ is at the very center of your life.
Come if you have broad and sufficient strong shoulders.
Come if you have an open spirit, a reasonably open mind and a heart
larger than the world.
Come if you know how to tell a joke and can laugh with
Others and…… on occasion you can laugh at yourself.”
