Humanity fully alive

A reflection on the meaning of vocation

By Shawn Daley
September/October 2012

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When I was asked to write about my vocation, it seemed a daunting task. My vocation is my loving relationship with God, which I’ve always known and which continues today, growing every day. I can thankfully say that the people, places and things I have experienced and enjoyed in my life have been images of God for me and I for them. They came about because of God’s love in and through each person and I would like to take this opportunity to give thanks to God for these blessings.

Vocation is now and forever; it is always ongoing. It is love and service to God. It is love and service to the “other” and in that love and service there is a growing in love and union with God. It is a calling from without (the transcendent God) and a yearning from within (the immanent God) which will go on forever. It is a long-term commitment. The Gospel tells us that God sent his Son and the Son tells us that he has come so “that we may have life and life in abundance.” Saint Irenaeus in the second century knew this when he said, “The glory of God is humanity fully alive.”

I recently saw a movie, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, which I think is the best symbol of vocation I have seen in a long time. I recommend both the book and the movie and would love to hear back from you about it. Why do I say that the movie is about vocation? Because it is about swimming upstream. The primary test of a vocation is if you are swimming upstream, if you are hearing and obeying that yearning inside of you, that calling of Love asking you to see more, learn more, explore more and try more. This movie is about what happens when you leave a life of conformity for a life of belief in something new, something bold, something (humanly) undoable. The Arabic words “Allahu Akbar,” (God is Great) echoes throughout the entire movie as each person leaves his or her comfort zone for more. The movie, like every true vocation, depicts a work in progress, the work in progress that is happening inside each of us.

In my loving relationship with God, will I let myself be loved? Can I let myself be called upstream to authenticity? Vocation is a calling and an answering. It implies Kenosis, the emptying of self so that we may love the “other” and, reciprocally, the “other” may love us. A vocation is something to live, in this world and in the next.

We all have but one vocation; it is our principle and our foundation. Everything we do is in reply to that yearning that calls us to love and be loved by God; that calls us to swim upstream, against the ways of the world, as we approach our Heart of Hearts who is forever calling us. It is “the universal call to holiness,” which Vatican II teaches us in the encyclical, Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church).

I end with the words of Saint Irenaeus. May it be as moving for you as it is for me:

“The glory of God is humanity fully alive, and the life of humanity is the vision of God. If the revelation of God through creation already brings life to all living beings on the earth, how much more will the manifestation of the Father by the Word bring life to those who see God” (Adversus Haereses IV, 20, 7).

After 16 years of monastic life as a Trappist in Rogersville, New Brunswick, Shawn Daley went on to serve six years in the Dominican Republic with Scarboro Missions in the parish in Bani. This summer he was ordained a transitional deacon for Scarboro Missions and is now assisting at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Weston, Ontario.

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