Jan. 19: Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Responding to the call

Is 49:3, 5-6; Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10; 1 Cor 1:1-3; Jn 1:29-34

The notion of vocation has evolved in Catholic parlance. Not long ago “having a vocation” meant being destined to become a priest or religious. A dramatic change came at the time of the Second Vatican Council. 

Early in the Council, the official working draft for a statement on the nature of the church was introduced for the bishops’ consideration. It began by describing the various roles of the hierarchical church, starting with the pope and the bishops, then priests and religious and, last of all, that of laypeople.

Although this was a standard way to describe the Catholic Church, many of the bishops protested. The starting point, they insisted, should not be its top-down order but the “universal call to holiness” that God extends equally to everyone in the church, no matter what their role or status may be. In this, all of us are one and all of us are equal. Thus, the term vocation is not confined to a few roles in the church or to any particular occupation but is a personal call extended by God to each of us, inviting us to a meaningful life of holiness and beauty whatever our occupation or role in life may be.

That idea of vocation is proclaimed in the Scripture readings for this Sunday. The first reading from the prophet Isaiah reflects his own experience of being called by God. Here Isaiah senses that God called him from the first moment of his existence, when God “formed me as his servant from the womb.”

The horizon of his vocation is broad, not confined to the “tribes of Jacob or the survivors of Israel.” God calls him to be “a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Proclaiming God’s love to the world beyond Israel would be the fundamental purpose of Isaiah’s life.

This passage was an important inspiration for Paul the Apostle. He cites these words of Isaiah in his Letter to the Galatians when describing his own powerful encounter with the Risen Christ. 

Paul, too, sensed that God had a purpose, a call for him, from the first moment of his existence. Like Isaiah, that call would turn his life in a new direction as the apostle to the Gentiles. The passage we hear today from 1 Corinthians reflects Paul’s abiding consciousness of his vocation: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.”

The Gospel selection today from John is a soliloquy of John the Baptist. When John sees Jesus, the “Lamb of God,” approaching him, his prophetic vocation becomes clear. His God-intended purpose in life was to witness to Jesus: “The reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.” 

In many ways, the vocation of John captures the fundamental meaning of every Christian vocation. By our words and example we help reveal to the world the infinite grace and beauty of Jesus Christ.

In a decisive way, the response today from Psalm 40 seems to have the last word: “Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.” With exquisite poetry, the psalmist describes the joy of realizing that God calls him to a life of meaning and purpose: “I have waited, waited for the Lord, and he stooped toward me and heard my cry. And he put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God.”

This Sunday’s readings invite us to think of our vocation as Christians as something deeper than any particular occupation or role we happen to have. In many ways, the work we do, whether in the marketplace or the church or the home, does not define the meaning of vocation in its fullest sense. Our fundamental vocation is a call to experience in our lives the unconditional love of God and to bring that experience of love into whatever setting we find ourselves in.