(Ako) si Keith.

#whatweknowaboutlove

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Apr 9

Love and Vocation

Following my own trajectory

Standing, I get a chalk and decide to throw it away to the other corner of the room. When I throw the chalk once more, I know that it really follows the physical laws of the universe. I can actually generalize that like chalks, all objects follow the same and only one kind of trajectory when thrown. That trajectory is what our understanding of gravitational pull of the earth gives us. Now, how about man? Maybe yes but not quite. When I was thrown here on earth, do I follow a certain trajectory? It is not just a matter of physics asking this question.

As individual, my different personalities determine the kind of trajectory I follow. There is one trajectory for being a man, one for being a son, one for being a Christian, one for being an Atenean, and so on. These personal images I portray shape the steepness and the curvature of my trajectory.

Actually at the instance that God calls me to exist is when my trajectory begins. I found out that I am God’s greatest creation, making me in His own image and likeness (Gen 1:26). He shows me that my life is neither a mistake nor a mismatch. I am thrown in the Philippines and not in any other part of the world. I am thrown in Ateneo because He chooses it for me. I am thrown to a family that He intended for me. He knows me by name and He has a plan for me.

By name He knows me, I reiterate. For this reason, God calls me to become both His co-creator and partner in covenant. My existence does not end up existing and existing for nothing. Similar to the fact that the act of creation is not complete until the creature has been named, my existence is not complete until I have discovered in myself why I am called to be human. The task of naming ends when the essence of being a human is named. This seems so hard to attain but what is more important is how I try to define being a human or define humanity as a whole through my everyday thoughts and actions. By so doing, my existence will lead to my essence. My existence, as said, signifies the start of my trajectory while my discovery of the essence signifies the best ending appropriate to my trajectory.

Scriptures constantly reveal that I am indeed God’s partner in covenant: “I will be your God and you will be my people.” In this sense, to be union with God is the point between the launching and the ending of my trajectory. I can only achieve the highest peak of my trajectory once I found out what is my best specific response to God’s general call to me. I know that there will be points of inflection as well as minimum points as I try to search for that response. And I am thankful that by baptizing me, I already know and share with the other members of the church the God’s calling to me. I feel not afraid to start searching in and immersing myself in order to figure out what has God intended for me.

How can I fulfill my response to God’s call for vocation? This is when love begins to enter the scene. By choosing to love, I can begin to launch my trajectory to the right direction which God wills. By extending myself for the purpose of nurturing another’s spiritual growth, I can start to play my part in God’s plan He has already revealed since the time of creation. Loving God means loving God’s creations too. This is so because God wants to reveal that He is indeed love. Now I understand why choosing to love is compared to a road less traveled: we are so much blinded with all misconceptions about love that we fail to realize love’s importance to our search for the essence of being human.

Love is so effortful that it is said to be a circular process. I have to extend myself to others so others will grow in faith. Basically, I have understood already that being a priest or a religious person like a minister is just as important to God as being married or even a single individual. It is already given that a priest extends himself to become Jesus’ image who will head the mission of reconciling the people of the church to God. But it is equally important, I recently found out, that even married couples have the duty to extend themselves for their partner and for their children. Through love, I can now launch my trajectory to the path of my vocation. I do not know yet, or shall I say I cannot decide yet, on what vocation I will lead into but I have already understood that by choosing to love is just the same as fulfilling my commitment in the sacrament of baptism. And in fact, it is the start of my vocation.

But then, the most important and controversial factor is that it is I who has the free will to choose or not to choose to launch my trajectory to God’s chosen path for me. Whatever choice it may be, it is my responsibility. When I was thrown for existence, God is there to guide me but up to the extent of not interfering with my freedom to choose. God reveals Himself to me as love and so I am also love. While traversing through my trajectory, let me fall in love with God — as this is the beginning of an authentic love. And how? What God wills, then let it be so.