"How did I recognize God's voice?"

Second Sunday Ordinary Time

January 17, 2021 •

According to the traditions of the Church, there are three possible vocations for the Catholic: marriage, religious life, and the priesthood.... Well said by Pope Saint John Paul II - all three vocations are in essence a "vocation to marriage".

What distinguishes these three types of "marriage"?

The first vocation to the sacrament of matrimony is what we call a "natural" vocation. God doesn't have to go out of His way to call you to marriage because He made you that way. He designed your nature as a human with a body and a soul to be oriented toward natural marriage. If you choose to get married, presumably as a Catholic in the Church, then He sacramentalizes that choice and now, your natural marriage is a supernatural vocation and it'll help you get to heaven.

The second is to the religious life. This is of course religious brothers and sisters, nuns, monks,... this vocation is not so much a "calling" as it is an "invitation". Every single Catholic, according to the Bible, every disciple of Christ, is invited to live a celibate life dedicated to Jesus Christ. We know this because Saint Paul directly says it: "I invite you to live as I live, consecrated to the Lord." Each Christian is invited to discern this and to say, "Am I able, am I willing, to commit myself to a life of chaste celibacy in a life of service to Christ and His Church?"

The third is the most unique of the three because it is the most "unnatural" of the vocations. They are all supernatural because of God's grace and the life we share in Christ. ...(but) the ministry to which the man is called is such a unique conformity to Jesus Christ, that he can be Christ to his people.... That's the union that Christ shares with each priest in regards to the power of the sacraments. This unique and supernatural vocation is, strictly speaking, a "calling".

Where the other vocations are in service of Jesus Christ, the priestly vocation is in service of Christ's people.

Father goes on to share his own calling and the journey he took to the priesthood.

Please continue listening after the homily, Father offers words an overview of the vaccination issue and the morality of it. "Catholics make decisions not based on danger or fear, but based on truth."

1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19; Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10; 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20; Jn 1:35-42

Homily begins at 19:30