Last week, most of us in North America celebrated Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time when we celebrate with friends and family, while enjoying own recipe of basting and roasting the turkey, our own twist on the stuffing and dressings, and a plentiful table of food unique to our own experience. It truly is a wonderful time of year. The celebration itself is something to be thankful for. And right after Thanksgiving, there is the tradition of Black Friday, in which we scrimmage at the mall for the best deals and discounts.
At the novitiate, our Thanksgiving mass reminded us to be thankful for the many things which we often take for granted. But how can we be thankful when we feel like we don’t have enough. Our hunger for more, as shown by our vicious trampling over one another during Black Friday, prevents us from feeling thankful. I am usually thankful when I think that I have enough, but when I want more and more, I don’t feel so thankful for what I already have. Living in our consumerist world, it is hard to be thankful, because we always want more! And when out of a blue moon, when we do feel thankful, we usually give thanks only for the material things we have.
Of course, I am very thankful for the material environment that I live in. I am provided for: I have a roof over my head, food on my table, clean water in my faucet, and clothes in my closet. I am thankful for the friends and family who support me and give life to my existence. But there is one more thing I am thankful for: my vocation.
We all have our own vocational calling, and mine right now is the calling to religious life. I am thankful that I have had the encouragement to discern this calling. I am thankful for having the courage to answer this call. And I am thankful for the ability to continually hear the call, though sometimes it may be as faint as the whispering of the wind. And I am thankful for the companions who travel the same journey of self-discovery to the religious life.
I am happy with where I am today. And I know that many of you, my readers, are also happy with your own vocational calling. I hope that you don’t simply see your vocations as employments that “bring home the bacon.” If you are truly happy with your vocational calling as a teacher, someone in service works, office works, being a student, or any other vocations, I hope you see what you do as a special gift and call from God. Our vocations are callings and gifts from God, who God wants us to be happy as we work in service of others. And if we have found the work that really bring us happiness, work that we look forward to everyday, work that brings us closer to other people and to God, then is that not our calling, our gift, something to be thankful for?
I encourage all the young people who may read this, to take the time to discern what is it that God calls you to do? What is it that will bring you happiness, in your work, in your relation with others, and your relation with God? When you do, it will be like having found an everlasting treasure. For you will wake up every morning, thankful for the having answered your calling, and you will look forward to each day, to the work you do, the people you meet, and to the God who accompanies you in your vocational journey always!