Bible Challenge Day 148: Vocation (1 Chronicles 25-27)

Yesterday my son graduated from high school. As part of our family celebration, we did a ritual blessing of him. We celebrated what he has already accomplished and expressed our hopes for his future. Part of those hopes is that he will find his calling, the thing gives his life passion and purpose. So I am thinking about vocation—calling.

That helped a little bit with the reading for today from Chronicles, which was pretty dull. King David is planning all the roles for the temple that his son will build. Most of the reading was lists of names. So, for example, David appointed families of musicians and assigned them particular duties by lot (chpt 25). In theory, those families would remain in charge of music at the temple down through the generations. The same went for the gatekeepers and other roles (chpt 26), and military divisions (chpt 27).

That makes for a very different way to think about vocation than we were doing in my family last night. Children are born to a vocation. If my father was a musician, I would be a musician. (A frightening thought for anyone who knows my musical limits!)

Being born to a vocation would be hard in the sense that a young person might not find that particular work satisfying. On the other hand, it would eliminate the uncertainty that I still remember feeling when I was in my early twenties, that sense that I could do whatever I wanted but I had no idea what I wanted.

On balance, I much prefer the opportunity to discern my own vocation. After five generations of lawyers, I became a priest, so I have to like that freedom!

But I do like one thing about the idea of being born into a vocation. People born to a particular vocation know that they do not choose their vocation. They simply live into it. Sometimes in our culture we celebrate individual choice so much that we lose sight of the idea of calling as something that comes to us from outside, something to which we respond well or poorly, something that is given to us rather than something we make for ourselves. I want my son (both of them!) to discover his vocation, which requires patient listening and not just self-exploration. I am not sure how well he understands that. I cannot blame him because I am still working on it myself!
Fr. Harvey