Choices and Jesus' Promise

Vocational Choice:  “…[N]o one [in any walk of life],” Jesus says, “who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel ….will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and brothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.”

The pain involved in leaving that which is dear to us or which is difficult to set aside as we follow the Spirit’s lead or when we choose the vocation in life to which God is inviting us—marriage, religious life, priesthood, the single lifestyle—is richly compensated for by our loving God.  Jesus says that we will receive “hundred times more now in this present age…and eternal life in the age to come.”  There is never a time when we sacrifice for God in choosing that vocation to which we feel called or when we sacrifice for another in living life fully according to the Gospel and what Christian charity requires of us  that the “pay” is  not “a hundred times more” than we ever imagined.

What, today, am I willing to do to follow the Spirit’s lead be that in choosing a vocation in life or in making less weighty decisions to live life fully?

Facing Hardship when Making a Life Choice or any Choice that is Right for You

Like Jesus, Paul, in the liturgy’s first reading, Acts 20: 17-27, is looking back on his life as well and is about to go to Jerusalem, where, like Jesus, he faces hardships and imprisonment." He says to us: "I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the Gospel of God's grace.”

You, like  Paul and Jesus, have been given a task to do here on earth within a vocational call:  married,  single, a member of a religious community or as a diocesan priest.  Both Paul and Jesus were called to do the work the Father gave Him to do as single persons. Most of the apostles were given a work to do as married men but also as apostles.  In which vocation is God calling you "to bear witness to the Gospel of God's grace"? 

Both Paul and Jesus learned obedience from what they suffered (cf. Hebrews 5:8). Like Paul and Jesus, as we bring our wills into harmony with God’s will for us, as we give glory to God by  the Gospel values we embrace,  we will meet hardship, be mocked and ridiculed. We will, from time to time, be rejected on account of our beliefs, our choices, or confidence in what the Lord God, what Christ Jesus, is asking of us through the Spirit.  Some persons  are likely not to understand our choices and may object loudly while others may be supportive. 

When you are ridiculed, made fun of, questioned  about the vocation in life that is right for you, the partner in life that is right for you,  the religious community that is right for you; yes, the career choice that is right for you,  do you run away from that choice so as not to rock the boat, to avoid suffering?