Peter began to say to Jesus,
‘We have given up everything and followed you.”
Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you,
there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or lands
for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.”……. (Mark 10: 28-30)
Last night, Fr. Tim Birney, vocations director for the Archdiocese of Detroit, spoke to my 8th grade catechism class. “Every one of you has a vocation in life, a calling from God,” he said.
When they asked how they would know what God was calling them to do, he replied that they should ask God, through prayer, what he wants them to do with their lives. One student earnestly raised her hand and asked, “But what if I don’t want to do what God wants me to do?”
Fr. Birney tried to answer her question as best he could in the short time he had. But all I could do was wonder, as a parent of four children, why this student, or any Catholic young person for that matter, would have to ask that question. Why would a person not want to do what God was calling them to do?
During my own journey as a young person, a very wise person once told me that whatever God was asking me to do with my life, this would be my path to happiness.
As Catholic parents, this simple fact is what we should be teaching our children. Whether they are called to be married, to be a priest or a religious brother or sister, or to remain single and “giving” of their gifts and talents to those around them in some unique fashion, this is how God will bring them to fulfillment in this life into the next one. If we, as parents, do that much, then it will be much easier for our children to be open to God’s call.
