17th Sunday After Pentecost Homily

Saint Paul instructs, “that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called.”

In the Church some are called to enter into marriage, others to religious life, and others to the priesthood. No matter the calling that we have received we are called to pursue holiness in our everyday life. By taking up our vocation we share in the same common vocation of building up society in a matter that reflects the love of God.

In our Gospel we were told of the importance of this love. We are thus to “love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind” and you are to also “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

These words express the goal of this common vocation of love. Love is begotten out of self sacrifice. We see this perfect expression of love presented to us upon the cross when the Lord laid down His life for us. Through living in service to others we act as God to others and model ourself more closely after Christ each day. When we faithfully take up our vocation we live in the hope that we will join with God one day in Heaven.

For our prayer we must discern what is our vocation and what is current state in life. Once we understand this we can better reflect upon the love that we are being called to show as we embrace that vocation and state of life. A married person’s response to this will be different then that of a priest then that of a child. In the end each of us are called towards holiness in our everyday life.

If we have the desire to be holy then we must desire to love. Love is not something which is optional for love is something that must be present in every vocation. It is love which draws us into union with God. We should have love for Him and should realize the need to enter into relationship with Him. We must also love our neighbor because a vocation calls us outward to share that love that we have with others.

In order to heed Saint Paul’s words and to be found “worthy of the vocation in which you are called” there must be love in the midst of all that we do. Whenever we fail to love God or our neighbor we cannot claim that we have fully lived out our vocation. Our vocation to love is displayed right here at the Mass.

As Saint Josemaria Escriva remarked concerning the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: “The Mass is long, you say, and I add: ‘Because your love is short.” The Mass serves as a lesson in love for through it we enter into Christ’s love for us upon the cross. By entering more deeply into these Sacred Mysteries we grow in our love not only for God, but for one another. 

Let us walk worthy of the vocation in which we have been called by embracing all that God has extended to us in a spirit of love and self sacrifice. This world in which we live is greatly in need of such love for the love in which we so often profess in our society is far from a love of God and a true love for our neighbor as one created in the image and likeness of God. May we live such love for God and neighbor in all that we do.