Page 148 - spiritual_accompaniment_montreal_archdiocese

HOMILIES

Our human life staying in the hand of God becomes rich in meaning. Separated from God’s
hand, we forget that we are created as the image of God. We forget that our deepest vocation
is the vocation to love! We forget who we are! We need Jesus Christ! We need to never forget
who we are in our own dignity as a human being. We need Jesus Christ to believe in our voca-
tion to love! Until the end Jesus Christ loved us, he loved us right until the Cross, and then He
rose to new life! We are called to that kind of love, to give everything to express a total gift of
oneself.

When we give ourselves totally in the context of family, in the work place, in society,
in religious life, consecrated life, in the priesthood, then we walk this path of self-giving, we
enrich our lives, we give meaning to our lives, and we serve. We serve the Church, we serve
society, we serve humanity! We participate in the building of the Kingdom of God by partici-
pating in His work of Creation and His work of Salvation.

In this time of pandemic, it is like we are frozen in time, and many things are on pause; it is a
time to reflect on our own life. Maybe some years ago, even some decades ago, you discovered
your vocation, got married, or became a priest, or begun consecrated life. But it does not end
there! Along the way, the desire to serve, to serve the love of God, to serve His Church, to
serve humanity grew in you. It is an ongoing process! It is not something that you do one day
and then it is over and done. You cannot say “I’m ok, I found my path, I can stop there, because
I know the meaning of my life!” It really is a process without end! A process of always looking
for what love am I called to today, here, and now!

So there is always the vocation inside the vocation! The vocation to be a husband, but what
kind of husband? A wife, what kind of wife? A nun, what kind of nun? A priest, what kind of
priest? There is always the vocation inside the vocation. It never stops. And as we move ahead,
vocation becomes not so much something that we know about us, but something that we live.
We live our vocation because we live every day in serving to the call of love. The call of Jesus
Christ to love here and now!

Vocation is about tomorrow, but it is also about today. Let us turn to God and ask for the Holy
Spirit to help us grow in our vocation to love, every day here and now.

(cont’d)

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 148