The Jesuit Guide To (Almost) Everything - James Martin [156]
But at heart it is simple. Ignatian discernment means trusting that through your reason and your inner life, God will help to draw you to good decisions, because God desires for you to make good, loving, healthy, positive, life-giving choices. So find whatever works for you, whatever draws you closer to God, and whatever helps you make good decisions. Most of all, trust that God is with you as you choose your paths in this life.
Chapter Thirteen
Be Who You Is!
Work, Job, Career, Vocation . . . and Life
WHEN I FIRST MET John, he was already a revered Jesuit spiritual director in New England. A ruddy-faced man in his seventies with a snow-white beard, John was a friendly presence at the Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
John was one of those unruffled people in whose presence you always felt calmer. My spiritual director in Africa, George, who had helped me in my struggle with obedience, was like that as well. So was Joe, the elderly priest living in our novitiate whose refrain was “Why not?” If I were upset about anything, just a few minutes with any of these older men would make it seem as if any problems were manageable.
Why is that? First, thanks to their advanced age, they had experienced much and now possessed a wealth of wisdom—and compassion. Second, because each was a spiritual director and had spent years immersed in Ignatian spirituality, each grew to embody the lessons of the way of Ignatius—compassion, generosity, and, especially, freedom.
And they knew who they were. After decades of formation, retreats, prayer, and spiritual reading, and after facing the natural struggles of life, they knew themselves and understood their place in creation. They radiated a sense of peace.
One day at the retreat house, John gave a homily on the idea of vocation. That day the Gospel passage was the one in which Jesus asks Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, “What do you want me to do for you?” John was talking about how our desires help us to find our vocations; they help us to be who we are.
At the end of his homily John neatly summed it all up with a saying he heard from an old gentleman living in the Deep South: “You gotta be who you is and not who you ain’t!” he said, letting out a rumbling laugh. “Because if you ain’t who you is, then you is who you ain’t. And that ain’t good!”
CALLED
In the last chapter we talked about making decisions according to the way of Ignatius. We talked about good everyday decisions. Now let’s talk about two big decisions:
What should I do?
Who should I be?
In other words, let’s talk about vocation. Let’s look at how Ignatian spirituality helps us know what we’re meant to do in life and become the persons we are meant to be. To quote John’s friend, let’s look at how the way of Ignatius helps you to “be who you is.”
Vocation is a word that is easily misunderstood. In some Catholic circles to “have a vocation” still means being “called” to the priesthood or religious life. Some Catholics used to think that a real vocation was confined to those two areas, while the rest of life’s choices—getting married, being single, being a parent, working as a doctor or lawyer or businessperson, and so on, were “less than.”
That’s a holdover of an older theology that placed the lives of priests, sisters, and brothers above those of married and single lay-people. In Sunday school my class was once given a little drawing to color. On the top of the sheet was written the word Vocations. On the left side was an image of a married couple. Under that image it said, Good. On the right side was an image of a priest and a nun. Underneath it read, Better.
But ever since the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s, which stressed the “universal call to holiness,” Catholics have been reminded that everyone has a vocation. This is something that we could have easily learned from other Christian denominations: their