We have all been extended a vocation by God. A vocation is a call from God to a distinctive state of life, in which a person can reach holiness. The catechism states that this can be the priesthood, religious life, married life, or even the single life. Thus through the embracing of this vocation they come to pursue holiness by how they come to order their life. Some have come to embrace this vocation, others have ran away from it, and still others are in search of it.
On this second Sunday of Advent we come to encounter Saint John the Baptist in our Gospel. Saint John the Baptist is the perfect example of embracing a vocation and allowing it to be the means to which he accomplishes holiness. Saint John the Baptist was not married and thus God had called him to embrace the single life. Through this God given vocation he was also called by God to be the precursor to the Messiah.
It was for this reason that we are told concerning him that he proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole life of Saint John the Baptist was oriented towards this encounter with the Messiah. As he proclaimed in the Gospel of Saint Mark: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.”
As we continue this Advent season and thus our encounter with the coming of the Messiah not only Christmas, but also the eventual second coming; may we begin to model ourself after the message and example which is extended to us by Saint John the Baptist. May we come to embrace our God given vocation and through it come to pursue holiness in our every day life. May we hear this message of repentance and come to purify ourself from our sinfulness in order may truly invite the Messiah into our life.
We live in the midst of a world which fears commitments, but Saint John the Baptist committed his whole life even to the point of death to the Messiah. We to then can commit ourselves to our God given vocation no matter the fear nor the struggle which may arise. God truly calls men to be priests, he truly calls people to the religious life, and he truly calls a man and a woman to enter into the bonds of Holy Matrimony. Commitment to such vocations may be difficult, but they are indeed possible.
It is not enough to simply accept a vocation, but we must also come to embrace it by how we live out our life. We are told of the way in which Saint John the Baptist came to embrace his vocation. It was not just an 8am-4pm job, but it was his WHOLE life. In the same way a priest, religious, married, or single person must embrace their vocation each and every single day. They must work at it and nurture their vocation through prayer, living out the sacramental life of the Church, studying their faith and scripture, undergo penance and sacrifice, and they must persevere with God’s grace.
