Although the following is a talk that Deacon Bob gave to the Seminarians at John Paul II Seminary, it is pertinent to all…

I will be speaking about the vocation of the laity and I’m going to focus on vocation in terms of our work, what we do in the world, rather than marriage and family because I think we all have a fairly good sense of our call in marriage and family but not so much in our work. I’d like to start by sharing my view of vocation/work that I learned growing up. I’ll start by saying that I grew up in a good Catholic home. We went to Mass every weekend. I went to CCD for all 12 years of school. My dad even taught some CCD including 12^th grade when I was in his class. 

My understanding of vocation in the early days was that you were either a priest, a religious, or a lay person, generally married. I could list those options and that was about it. I can’t remember if I ever had any catechesis on vocation beyond that.

My view of life was that it was important to do well in school so that when you graduated you could get a good job so that if you got married you could support a family. This really was my life. I worked hard so that I could get good grades. I was quite good at math and heard about a job for people who were good at math called Actuary. We had a family friend who was an actuary and earned good money so that’s what I did. I had a little detour when I entered the Seminary. I loved it but I was absolutely terrified of public speaking so after 2 years I quit and went back to studying for exams to be an actuary. I met an incredible woman who liked me and gave me the boost I needed to start passing the exams. We got married and our life had begun. I was working as an Actuary, which paid reasonably well, but was not in the least bit fulfilling, but that was okay because the goal of life was to have a good job so you could live a decent lifestyle.

The first indication I had that my view of life was a little off happened after I had a bit of a spiritual awakening in my life, and I was praying with Scripture and I came across the following in Jn 6:26-27. This is right after the miraculous feeding of the 5,000

²⁶ Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. ²⁷ Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you…

And I thought, hmm, laboring for the food which perishes is exactly what I’ve been doing, so that got me thinking that there must be a different way to live.

As a little side note, I didn’t really give my kids much fatherly advice because I really didn’t have any, but it was probably shortly after this that I told them don’ t go for the money. When you’re thinking about your future and what you’re going to do, don’t go for the money. Find something fulfilling. That’s one thing they all listened to really well. When they were in college, my son Logan came to me one day and said hey dad, check this out. It was a list of the 5 lowest paying majors at college. We had 4 kids; they had 4 of the 5.

So, now I’d like to talk about the Church’s view of vocation, and as I said, particularly in the area of work. I’m going to take as my guide an Apostolic Exhortation from John Paul II called CHRISTIFIDELES LAICI, ON THE VOCATION AND THE MISSION OF THE LAY FAITHFUL IN THE CHURCH AND IN THE WORLD. I’m going to focus on 3 topics from this document: a) the universal call to holiness, b) the sanctification of the world, and c) evangelization. 

The universal call to holiness is without question one of the major fruits of Vatican II. JP II quotes one of the most well known phrases from Lumen Gentium “All the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity”. This was revolutionary. You’ve probably heard but I know from my parents that prior to Vatican II there was a 2-tier system of holiness. The priests and religious were holy, but it wasn’t for the laity; the laity were called to do their best do avoid sin and if they did that, they would go to heaven. Vatican II said no, holiness is for everyone. In his Apostolic Letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte, At the beginning of the new Millenium, JP II gave 3 reasons why holiness was so essential. First, it’s just what it means to be Christian. It’s rooted in our baptism. If we ask do you want to be baptized, we’re asking, do you want to be holy? Second, even though the world has become totally secular, there is a hunger for the Spiritual. I think this is especially true among the young. Third, our culture no longer supports a life of faith, so we need to be holy just to remain people of faith. Karl Rahner, a key theologian of Vatican II, was asked after the Council what would the Christian of the 21^st century look like. He said the Christian of the 21^st century will be a mystic, or he will cease to be. So, we’re all called to holiness, but holiness for a lay person is different than holiness for a priest or religious.

Here, JP II quotes St. Francis de Sales and I’m going to give the whole quote because he says it so well.

“In creation God commanded the plants to bring forth their fruits, each one after its kind. So does he command all Christians, who are the living plants of his Church, to bring forth the fruits of devotion, each according to his character and vocation. Devotion must be exercised in different ways by the gentleman, the workman, the servant, the prince, the widow, the maid and the married woman. Not only this, but the practice of devotion must also be adapted to the strength, the employment, and the duties of each one in particular … It is an error, or rather a heresy, to try to banish the devout life from the regiment of soldiers, the shop of the mechanic, the court of princes, or the home of married folk. It is true, Philothea, that a purely contemplative, monastic and religious devotion cannot be exercised in such ways of life. But besides these three kinds of devotion, there are several others adapted to bring to perfection those who live in the secular state”

I.e., the ascetical and contemplative life of the religious is not the only way to holiness. Family life and work can be a way to great holiness. For me, some of the holiest people I know are couples with special needs children. I remember doing a house blessing one time. In the home was a married couple and they had a daughter who was sitting in a very specialized stroller. When I first saw her, I thought she was about 4 years old but I found out she was 10. She had serious developmental issues and caring for her was their life. That’s holiness. I was especially inspired by the father because I know a lot of men will say, hey, I didn’t sign up for this, but he was there, with his wife and child, and when we prayed, he was devout in his prayer.

So, we’re all called to holiness, but it’s different for a lay person than a religious, which leads to the second point I want to discuss which is the sanctification of the world.

I’m going to start with a quote from JP II’s document which totally threw me when I first read it. He says

The “world” thus becomes the place and the means for the lay faithful to fulfill their Christian vocation, because the world itself is destined to glorify God the Father in Christ.

Wait! Isn’t the world destined for destruction? What does he mean that it is destined to glorify God the Father in Christ. I asked Father Chris, and it still didn’t make sense to me at least initially, but after I re-read what Paul actually said in Romans 8 about creation, then I think I get it, at least partially. He says starting in verse 19:

¹⁹ For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God;^[b] 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; ²¹ because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; ²³ and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

There’s a parallel movement here. Along with our redemption, the world will also be redeemed. I think this is extremely important because I know for me, I tend to think of God’s place as heaven. My “worldview” if you will is the world is fallen, the kingdom of God is in heaven, and the Church is in both, but it’s separated from the world. And what JP II is saying is that for lay people, the world is their place of sanctification. It is precisely in the world that lay people become holy. Again, I think this is an incredibly important, and I would say generally unknown message.  

He goes on to say, quoting Lumen Gentium, the lay faithful “are called by God so that they … might contribute to the sanctification of the world, as from within like leaven, by fulfilling their own particular duties.” And again, they have a particular vocation of “seeking the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God”

So, not only is the world the place of sanctification for the laity, they have a mission, a calling, to sanctify the world.

I had a teacher during my diaconate formation, and we disagreed on just about everything, but what she said about vocation is the best thing I’ve ever heard. She said to know your vocation you want to answer the question, who am I called to love? Who am I called to love? That’s your vocation. Now, I think that’s primarily focused on the question of priest, religious, married, or single, but I think it can also apply to work. If I’m understanding this, then going back to Jn 6, work is to be the place, in addition to home and parish and wherever else we live, work is to be a place where we love. It’s where we exercise love.

So, here’s a couple illustrations of what this can look like based on my experience.

First, is my wife’s doctor, Dr. Henderson. First of all, he is an outstanding doctor. In fact, people literally come from all over the world to see him. He works out of a little community hospital in Lanham Maryland about 15 minutes from our house. Number 2, he is seriously interested in his patients. After Joni had one of her surgeries, he gave me his personal phone number and told me to call him if I needed anything. And I did because she was in terrible pain after this one surgery and I called him a couple times asking what can I give her, and he did what he could. Third, before going into surgery, he would ask her is it okay if I pray with you? The first time he did this, she grabbed his hand and said absolutely.

A second example I will give is my own dad. My dad isn’t perfect, but he worked with the highest level of integrity of anyone I know. He was very determined to do the best possible job he could do. He wasn’t obsessive but he would never just let anything slide. Even my mom used to say that dad didn’t help much with the chores around the house like cleaning, that was mom’s job, but she said when he did clean something, it was clean. He worked for the Navy at NavSea building ships. He eventually became the ship design manager; that’s the highest person in charge of building a ship. He was the only person who stayed with a project through all 3 phases of building a ship from the initial design to the actual building of the ship. I was at his retirement party. There were probably about 200 people there and you could tell that he was very highly respected. He would bring God into his work when he could. Just one small example, when his ship was christened, he was there and spoke and he said it is my hope and prayer that this ship will never have to be used. It’s very small and I’m going to talk a little bit more about this shortly, but I can tell you it can be very difficult for us to explicitly bring God into the workplace.

A third example was my best friend, Jim Sharbaugh, who died a little over 4 years ago. He started the Gabriel Network in Maryland. Jim was an amazingly Christ-centered guy. He was always joyful. He loved people and of course was dedicated to serving mothers who were in difficult circumstances. He truly did not go for the money. Luckily his wife was a nurse, so she brought in a decent income, but they lived very modestly. I remember one time he shared with me that every year he would go through his closet to see if there were any clothes there that he no longer needed, and if so, he would give it to Goodwill or someone. He was a talker. He just had a very outgoing personality. He was one of the very few, and maybe the only Catholic man I know who was comfortable sharing his faith with people. He went to a conference on evangelization with Sherry Wedell and he said the message from the conference was that we have to wear our faith on our sleeve, and he did. He was known as a holy man. People would call just to have him pray with them, including one time one of the local Protestant ministers.

As for me, I can say that what I’ve tried to do over the last several years is first, work with integrity like my dad, and secondly consciously try to love the people I work with, especially the difficult ones. There was a guy who was a good guy, good worker, but hard to work with. He’s the kind of guy who would send you an email, and then 30 seconds later send an IM asking me if I had seen his email. His manager once shared with me that Jim has a lot of very good ideas, but he interacts with people in such a way as to make no one want to work with him. So, I would frequently turn to Jesus and say okay Lord, be with me as I work with Jim on this issue. So, that’s basically how I have tried to bring my faith into the workplace and that leads to my 3^rd topic: evangelization.

Evangelization was a major theme of John Paul II so it’s not surprising that it’s included in this Exhortation as well. He says:

33. The lay faithful, precisely because they are members of the Church, have the vocation and mission of proclaiming the Gospel: they are prepared for this work by the sacraments of Christian initiation and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

That is certainly true, but, and I don’t think JP II would disagree with this, some practical steps are needed as well. For example, generally speaking, Catholic are not at all comfortable sharing their faith. I remember hearing a guy who was a convert say that when he was an Evangelical, it was nothing for a group of guys to get together and start sharing very personal stories about their faith. He said when he became Catholic, guys were comfortable sharing information about doctrine or praying vocal prayers like the rosary, but whenever they were asked to share their faith, it was dead silence. I think that may be changing, especially with young people. I know my son Eric, when he went to CUA, was involved with a group of students who would get together and pray lectio divina together. This is very positive. I know there are some, although I think it’s very few, but some Catholic parishes that are trying to foster small groups. Again, this is positive. But my point is that if Catholic are not comfortable sharing their faith among their own brothers and sisters, how are they possibly going to share their faith with their secular colleagues.

Again, JP II:

At this moment the lay faithful, in virtue of their participation in the prophetic mission of Christ, are fully part of this work of the Church. Their responsibility, in particular, is to testify how the Christian faith constitutes the only fully valid response-…-to the problems and hopes that life poses to every person and society. This will be possible if the lay faithful will know how to overcome in themselves the separation of the Gospel from life, to again take up in their daily activities in family, work and society, an integrated approach to life that is fully brought about by the inspiration and strength of the Gospel.

This is absolutely true, but how to make this happen??? I’m going to come back to this in a few minutes when I talk about what we need from our priests.

One more quote as a follow up to the previous:

This vital synthesis will be achieved when the lay faithful know how to put the gospel and their daily duties of life into a most shining and convincing testimony, where not fear but the loving pursuit of Christ and adherence to him will be the factors determining how a person is to live and grow, and these will lead to new ways of living more in conformity with human dignity.

This is very very good, and I have to confess that reading this in preparation for this talk is the first time I’ve heard this expressed so well – that the laity need to integrate faith and their daily life.

I think there has been tremendous growth in this integration in the area of family life and raising and forming children thanks to home schooling and the growth of classical schools and other movements like FOCUS. None of this existed when I was a kid. So, I think these movements and others like them are great illustrations of integrating faith into daily life. And God-willing, as more young people who have been living an integrated life move into the “world”, we will start to see more integration in the workplace, in civil government, and so on. But based on my experience, it’s not there. The workplace is totally secular, and that leads me to my final comments on what we’re looking for in our priests.

There are 2 things in particular that I think many of us are looking for, at least based on conversations I’ve had with other men. You might get a different response from a woman, but here they are.

First, does this guy really believe this stuff?  Does he really believe there’s an invisible world of spirits and God our creator out there? Does he really believe that people can go to hell for all eternity? Does he really believe that sprinkling water over a child’s head and saying some words transforms that child into a child of God, partaking of God’s own nature? Does he really believe that saying some words over bread and wine changes it into Jesus Christ? We (laity) live in a totally secular world, and to the secular mind, what we believe is really far-fetched. So, we very much look to the priest to strengthen our belief? And you can tell, especially how he prays, if he really believes. I remember one time a guy telling me he was so moved by the way the priest prayed the rosary, that he came into the church. My son shared with me how when he was up at Mercy, I think it was 2 guys, because of the way he and Father Beirn purified the vessels after communion, entered the RCIA. So for me, more than anything else, we need priests who really believe.

Second, we, and this is probably especially true of the men, we want to see that our priests are willing to take a little heat for Jesus. Because we do. Some of us pay a heavy price for staying true to Jesus, but all of us have to be willing to stand for Him, and if the priest is our leader, our father, in the faith, we need him to lead by example. An obvious example today is gender ideology. Now granted the trend has very recently started to move back, but it’s still very new and could easily change back. My employer, for example, is as woke as ever. Now with gender ideology, the bishops have published some catechesis and I know that Bishop Burbridge from Arlington explicitly says that the faithful should avoid using gender affirming terms or pronouns. In other words, if a male colleague at work wants to be addressed as a female, we can’t support that, but that’s going to cost something, maybe a lot. I’ve been lucky. No one I work with has wanted to change genders and so far, all I’ve seen is that everyone, except me, puts their pronoun as part of their email signature. My point is that we really need priests who will lead by example and give us the strength to suffer for Jesus if it comes to that. You remember a few years ago when a lot of people were destroying statues of our nation’s heroes? I remember being very inspired by a young priest in St. Louis. There was a crowd at a statue of St. Louis and there up by the statue was a young priest with a microphone speaking to the crowd. I didn’t hear much of what he said. I’m sure he was speaking about his virtues and why we honor him. But, just seeing him up there, willing to stand for goodness and virtue, was very inspiring to me.

So, to summarize, we’re all called to holiness but according to our station in life; the laity become holy in the world, and have been given a mission to sanctify the world, and closely connected to this they are also called to evangelize. In many ways they are on the front lines because they interact with the world and those who need to hear the gospel. Finally, we look to our priests to strengthen us in our vocation through their faith and their witness to living for Jesus.   God bless you!!