Fr. John English, S.J. wrote in his article, "Discerning Your Vocation" that the "myriad voices beckoning [God's people] to give full attention" are everywhere. There are voices deep inside that call us for different things--often for the malevolent causes of sin. There are calls that sweetly summon us to emptiness--to absolute damnation. And these false calls are prevalent in our society today. Evil works so cunningly that everything else is under its horrid path. It tempts us to follow its deceptive moans in the night in order to conquer our spirit--and ultimately to remove us from God's warm love. One might wonder where God's voice has been, and if He has abandoned us entirely. Fortunately, God hasn't left our side--and He never will. His voice is as prevalent as the "voice of one calling: 'In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.'" (Isaiah 40:3)
God is the ultimate goal of our existence. He is our reason--and goal of our earthly life. We have been so subdued with earthly tendencies insomuch that we forget our Heavenly Father. As St. Ignatius puts it, "God's purpose in creating us is to draw forth from us a response of praise, reverence, and service to God, and in this way to experience the fullness of being." (Spiritual Exercises: Principle and Foundation) God has a unique dream for us--He created us as such that we perform our own tasks in life, to play our own unique songs for the eternal glory of God. He calls us to perform these tasks, in order to, in our own unique way, join Christ in establishing God's Kingdom on earth. Hence God calls us, His people, to be in service for His loving ministry. We cannot deny His call; He is a being superior to us, His ways are beyond human fathom. We can only respond to the call or ignore it--ultimately say yes or no.
At times, we do not hear God's call to His loving mercy. We are too embellished with worldly attributes so as to shun the call of love completely. St. Ignatius of Loyola was a nobleman--an egoistic self-centred man who does as he pleases. St. Augustine was an avid sinner--he is the total foil of his mother, St. Monica. We, too, in some form, intentionally or accidentally block God's voice calling our lives. How do we listen to God's call, then? How, more importantly, do we respond to His call? How do we recognize the inner movements of His will in our lives? How do we say "yes"?
While in a battle, St. Ignatius shatters his leg with a cannonball. He is bedridden for months. He cursed this time of his life for it brought only hardships, saying that he wouldn't be able to win battles and party afterwards. The womanizing knight became a bedridden patient. Without anything good left to do, Ignatius asked for some books to read. The only books available were "The Lives of Saints" and "The Life of Christ". As he read on, he experienced a spiritual emancipation: a realization of God's love working deep inside his heart. He felt a strong movement inside his heart, a tender call to serve God's holy cause. He then established the Society of Jesus, the largest Roman Catholic order to date.
God moves in the most uncertain ways. His love transcends earthly love. He calls us often in our most unlikeable, often depressive states of life. All we have to do is to listen carefully to his voice, and to be able to say a resounding yes to His call. What we need is a realization; an understanding of God's call. It is through our deepest remorseful stages that God acts in our lives. His ways are tender, yet poignant and "sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Heb 4:12)
How, then, do we decipher God's call from the other-worldly voices that merely tempt our souls away from Him?
It is through our lowest times, the times we don't seem to care about the world that we hear God's call the most. It is through our "Cannonball Experiences"--those tragic moments in our lives we feel most touched by God's loving hand. At times that we don't know where to turn to, God shows the way to His loving arms. St. Ignatius came to an emancipating realization that he was meant for things far greater than himself--he was meant to serve the Lord in his noble acts of charity. He was called to follow the Lord after his tragic encounter with the cannonball. Ignatius' cannonball proved to be the catalyst to knowing God's love and provenance. The former womanizing nobleman has transformed into God's faithful servant through a cannonball, a realization of God's call, and total acceptance and surrender to God's will.
thank God I found my calling without getting shot at. I need my legs! 