Prince Goddy G. Tan

Prince Goddy G. Tan

Bernardina G. Yalong

Ateneo de Manila University

MA in Religious Education

A Theological Understanding of the Family as the Seed-bed of Vocations

Statement of the Problem

“The grace of vocations needs good soil in which to be planted, and the proper conditions to develop under God's supernatural care. There is no soil more necessary and no conditions are more important than a good family life.” [1]

-Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ

What is a vocation?According to Merriam-Webster it comes from the Latin word “vocare” to call. It is a noun which means a strong desire to spend your life doing a certain kind of work. “The word “vocation” in today’s usage often means a person’s occupation, profession, or trade, in brief, how a living is made.”[2]Many of us think of a vocation as a calling in life. Vocation is beyond a call, it is not just an occupation, profession or trade. Our vocation is not the same as our career or profession. However, there can be an overlap between a vocation and a profession. A person has a job to earn a living, a career may be chosen for the sense of self-fulfillment but a vocation is aspiring for a higher good; as a service for others and for God. For example, you may choose your job as a teacher and you study further for a higher learning, for this reason, you teach effectively because you believe that it is a sign of following your calling to be of service to your students. “A job corresponds to work extrinsically understood. Career traces the progress of the peoples’ work. Work understood as a calling (or vocation) connects work’s purpose with the proximate and ultimate end of a person’s life.”[3]A vocation is a gift of call from God. It is important to realize that the primary and most vital call from God is a call to live a holy life.

…All are called to a union of love with God and with one another. In other words, all- without exception-are called to holiness, the perfection of charity, though not all do pursue the same path to holiness…[4]

The family is important in developing the vocation of each individual member. Since, it has a vital and specific role in the society, in view of its foundation. The family has a role of service to life because it is from the family where the society grows community. When there is a better community, there is a better family; when there is a better family, there is a better person. That’s why we should choose the better vocation for ourselves.

As what Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ had said:

Where the Catholic family is strong, the Catholic Church is strong. Where the family is weak, the Church is weak. Where the family is struggling for survival, the Church is struggling for survival. Where the Catholic family is dying, the Catholic Church in those cultures and countries is dying.[5]

What we will be trying to do is to show in a more practical sense the value of being a Catholic family. The central idea of this paper is that the Catholic family is the seed-bed of vocations. In this regard, the families are the living signs of the Church; we are the living signs of God’s undisputed reign. What would become of the family may be reflected in what they are doing in their chosen call.

By “family” I mean all sustaining networks of domestic life. Since there are many one-and two-parent families, blended and extended families, traditional and postmodern families, this definition seems broad enough to include them all. Also are family-like domestic communities that may not be headed by a legal parent.[6]

Each family has different contexts and experiences, from this point of view; they are confronted with questions such as: who has the right to choose the career, profession and vocation for their children? What are the factors affecting their choices? What is the significance of following one’s vocation? Do we really have the vocations? So, we came up with the question:“How can we understand the family as the seed-bed of vocation in the Catholic Church?” We would like to use this broaden meaning to signify how important is the role of the family in growing and deepening the vocation of a person. When the family is growing their true vocation they are sharing already in building the Kingdom of God here on earth. The reign of God is radiating in each every member of the family.

SCOPE AND LIMITATION

In this paper, we will focus on the understanding of the family as the seed-bed of vocations in the Catholic Church; this is an exposition on going back the basics of vocation especially with regards to the thesis statement:

24. The sacraments of vocation (Marriage and Orders) bring Christ’s vivifying, sanctifying, and strengthening presence in the Spirit to the Christian members’ state of life with in and service of, the Christian community. [CFC 1881-1992].[7]

This topic is relevant and timely because there is a great challenge facing the family.We will not discuss the broader aspect of its mission and the psychological difficulty and personal issues and problems in today’s perspective of a family.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM

Objective Significance

“In the light of this horizon of divine grace and human responsibility, the family can be considered a “garden” … in which the seeds of vocation, which God sows generously, are able to blossom and grow to a full maturity (cf. Optatam totius, n.2)”.[8]

The family is like a garden that needs to be nourished. How do we grow seeds in the garden and make it blossom and grow? The gardener prepares the seed-bed to make sure the seeds will be planted properly. The gardeners water and cultivate the soil. As we can see in the family, it has a vital role in influencing and guiding the children in choosing their own vocation. The environment in the home which the family provides is a very important factor which affects the choice of one’s vocation.

In light with the need of more priestly vocation and the growing number of dysfunctional/broken marriages, this paper in its modest attempt to give an exposition in the responsibility of the family as great influence in nurturing one’s vocation. “The family is meant by God to be the first school of discipleship where the parents are first catechist of their children, and where all the members mutually evangelize each other. It is also the first school of evangelization where the members learn to share with others the grace and light of Christ. It “ought to be a place where the Gospel is transmitted and from which the Gospel radiates.”[9]

Subjective Significance

This paper is valuable because it has a practical significance to the families, this study can be use as a baseline data for other religion teacher who would like to use this as a source for vocation awareness seminar.

This paper would be valuable specifically to the Religion Teacher and to the parents of St. Francis Xavier Catholic School. The setting would be in a rural Catholic School where most of them are “nominal Catholics”. Their being “nominal Catholics” means that as family they just attend only during the celebration of First Communion, Confirmation and when necessary for them to attend mass in school. Our school is providing quarterly seminar and workshop to give them on-going formation in the faith. This paper would be addressing and discussing the significant role of the family as meant by God to be the first school of discipleship or being the seed-bed of vocations. This paper will not discuss about the vocation of families without children.

“Whatever the structure or leadership of the household, the key is that it be one of faith.”[10]

-Thomas H. Groome

METHODOLOGY

Throughthe challenges post by the Formation Institute for Religious Educators (FIRE) with regards to writing, this paper was completed. To be able to gather the necessary information, the researchers utilized the descriptive method, using expositions of different Church documents, authors and journal. Herein, the chosen ideas are to support on clarifying and giving new insights on the family as the seed-bed of vocations.

Then, towards the completion of this paper the context of the Catholic family specifically the parents of St. Francis Xavier Catholic School is also considered. Moreover, we used the Vatican II LumenGentium, Familiaris Consortio, Christifideles Laici and Pastores Dabo Vobis of John Paul II to deepen our understanding on the family’s role in choosing one’s vocation. We also focused on the new ideas and context of the Acts and Decrees of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, the National Catechetical Directory for the Philippines and Catechism for Filipino Catholics.

We also consulted Harper’s Encyclopedia of Religious Education, Catholicism Volume Two by Richard P. McBrien and The Teaching of Christ, A Catholic Catechism for Adults for the broader definition and meaning of vocation in regards with the family.

The implementation of this paper is also included to give a framework to the religion teacher who may want to use to apply this in their own school.

II. CONTENT

Discovering One’s Vocation

How do you choose your vocation? A lot of factors may influence or affect one’s answer to this question. Mass media for example trivialize some of the profession. Some people just go with the flow and choose what is trendy. Some are persuaded by their friends. Some follow the pattern they have in the family. Moreover, some say they do not have a choice. “The Christian sense of “vocation” relies heavily on the etymology of vocare (Lat., “to call”), and sees it as the call to everyone to become members in the Church. This is the sense of Ephesians 4:1: “…lead a life worthy of the calling which you have been called.”[11] As members of the Church, we are called to be sharers and to be of service to one another. This is lived-out in the different vocations that we are called upon.

THE DIFFERENT VOCATIONS

Everyone has a vocation but living out the chosen vocation differs to some particular way of carrying it out. The calling of God for us “to be holy” in our specific vocation is also a call for us to be closer to Him. “Within this one universal vocation to fulfill the one mission of the Church, the various “vocations” in the one people of God have each particular role.”[12] Our different role helps us to nourish the vocation that we choose in life. The following specific vocations are:

A. CONSECRATED LIFE

For some individuals who had chosen the consecrated life, their pathway of following Christ is through their dedication and promise of chastity, poverty and obedience, they are called to live the life as Christ lived, to form their living on the life of Jesus as chaste, poor and obedient, building their hearts more open and free for prayer and service for others.

B. ORDAINED MINISTRY

For some individuals who have chosen the ordained ministry through sacramental ordination, they share in the priesthood of Christ more profoundly in a special way. Their very beings as ordained person are transfigured so that they can embody Christ the Good Shepherd and Christ as the Head of the Church. They just not simply offer their own lives to the Father, as what other Christians do, they are obedient minister to the faithful as Christ in person. Therefore, when they preach with the power of the Church then we experience Christ teaching, when they forgive sins in the sacrament of Penance then we can feel Christ forgiving, when they offer the Sacrifice of the Mass then Christ offering that Sacrifice, when they love, give support and offer care for God's people then Christ is present with his people.

The priest’s vocation is likewise grounded in the Trinity: “by virtue of consecration he receives in the Sacrament of Orders, the priest is sent forth by the Father, through the mediatorship of Jesus Christ…in order to live and work by the power of the Holy Spirit in the service of the Church”[13]

C. LAITY

“The world becomes the place and the means for the lay faithful to fulfill their Christian vocation.”[14] Those who are single and married persons use their talents and capabilities in the different fields that they are in. Some of them are practicing their professions as teachers, doctors, engineers and lawyers. Others are in the field of social welfare and development and non-government agencies. Others are in agriculture, business and among any other line or work. “It is in the world that they are to grow in holiness. It is there especially-in the family, work and recreation, in the vast fields of economics, politics and culture-that they are to evangelize others.”[15]

The state of life of the laity in particular are the:

SINGLE BLESSEDNESS

Those people who committed themselves to the service of others in their work and life of prayer. In this particular vocation of single life, the person is called to strive to follow Jesus in their daily lives though they did not formally take the vows of religious people such as poverty, chastity and obedience.

MARRIED LIFE

Those married couples follow Jesus by their covenantal and conjugal love. Through their vows, they promise to show their love to each other faithfully for the rest of their lives, even though some circumstances in life would bring joys and trials to them. They express their love ultimately through the marital act, which brings them to a more intimate and opens them to the gift of new life through their off springs. Together, they bring themselves in establishing their own family.

[Paragraph removed.]

THE FAMILY: SEED-BED OF VOCATIONS

The family should see the potential of each child; from there, parents may actually nourish and guide their children in choosing what he/she is capable of, in the intention that their potentiality may be put in actuality. That’s why in the end, the child and the parent may agree on making their choices.

The family can help in the discernment of their children to deepen their capacity to fully understand himself/herself. It is in their habit of family prayer and worship that strengthens this relationship with God; which in the end is the goal of our life, the whole point, purpose and joy of our existence. This process of discernment will help the children to the certainty of their choices in the future. In light with this, the family becomes the true seed-bed which prepares the members in choosing the right vocations for them, even if it is religious, priesthood, single or married.

The Holy Family is an image of a family which supports each other in discovering and nurturing their call from God. Like them, our family is challenged to follow their examples.

“The family is the Church in the home. It is the primary community of Christ’s disciples whose members are bound together not only by ties of flesh and blood but by the grace and obedience to the Father’s will. Jesus began his work of salvation within a family, the Holy Family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus himself. Thus, family life in the Lord is of greatest concern to the Church.”[16]

Christ calls us in some special way, whatever our vocation in life. The family is like a Church where we are united in love with each other. The members are in a journey towards God. Like Jesus, who grows in wisdom and obedience within His family with Joseph and Mary. Like them, our family should guide us in our maturity and growth, especially in helping us become closer to God. We establish our relationship with God through the constant faith practices within our family.

In the family the various ministries in the Church are awakened and cultivated. There are spirituality of the Christian is nurtured and rooted in the Word of God and finds its Filipino expression. As Pope John Paul II observes: “It is through the family that the history of salvation of the Church is wrought.” And again, he points out, “The future of evangelization rests in great part on this Church in the home.”(Familiaris Consortio 49) Called to reach out to its neighborhood and beyond, the family becomes a true foundation for Basic Ecclesial Communities.[17]

The progress of the society comes from the spring which the family is founded. That’s why the family is challenged to be true to its calling. Yes, the family has a great influence in every individual choice. Hence, this influence should be prepared from the beginning, because the family as a seed-bed for vocation really matters. The effects of our present choice really matters to what the future would be. Therefore, be the good seed planted in the seed-bed where you will flourish and be fruitful.