What is "Vocation"? The call of the personal God to persons. But that kind of summary might well be questioned today, by some who would reduce Christianity to a string of metaphors. They might deconstruct "vocation" by saying that this word is only a metaphor. So the
rationalist asks, "But how can God 'call' us?" Of course we use metaphors and similes in religion, from the Johannine symbols through
to the analogy of faith. But there is no metaphor here, because vocation is a description of a basic reality. The personal God calls
persons.

In the experience of millions of Christians, vocation is the dynamic process whereby the Church lives, grows and constantly renews herself. We find that we cannot use another word except "call" to describe the personal relationship between God and mankind, God and his beloved Church. Reflecting on this mystery in the light of Revelation, Scripture and Tradition, we may discern a series of calls, of
vocations, in the lives of individual believers - and in whole communities of believers.

Our first vocation is to be a human person, indeed that is the fundamental vocation of everyone on the planet. I am called to be, called out of nothingness into existence. I am created and called to image God. We start with that understanding of creation. Then we can
respond to the question: "Is there meaning in life?" -- the crucial question in the post-modern world -- either life has meaning, or it is
meaningless. The middle ground does not hold. Only believers in God can find plan, purpose and meaning in their lives.

The second call of the personal God to persons is Baptism, to come to the waters of new life, to be born anew as a Christian. This call is a
divine choice, and here touch upon the mystery of election and predestination, about which the Church does not dogmatise, while
recognising that this is another reality of God's plan.

The Baptism of the elect is at the same time a corporate vocation, the call to be the People of God. That call began long ago with the
vocation of Abraham, "our father in faith", the father of God's new nation. Then came the call of Moses, and that was not simply addressed to an individual but to a chosen people. The Exodus was God's call for slaves to break free from Egypt and to go out into the wilderness and, specifically, to offer worship there to the one true God. This is what being free from a well-fed slavery meant. That Exodus call anticipated what happens to us in Baptism, which is why we celebrate it in the Easter Vigil.

Each of us has to leave an Egypt. Each of us has to let go. Letting go of those "fleshpots" in Egypt was not easy for the Hebrews. I suppose the Egyptian casseroles were delicious, and we know that the wandering Hebrews looks wistfully back to the juicy vegetables of the Nile valley. But God has a better invitation in store, an invitation to his banquet of life, his call to them and to you and me.

The challenging Gospel of this Mass is anticipated in Israel's call to enter the wilderness, a call to suffer, to endure, to face dangers,
ultimately to take up the cross. Here we confront the challenge of particular vocations within the Body of Christ. However, only when
Catholics understand that Christian life itself is a vocation, will they make sense of the particular vocations within the church,
beginning with the call to marriage and family life.

Jesus Christ calling his apostles is the great paradigm of particular vocations. We often reflect on how he called and formed his disciples,
for that is the pattern of seminary life. They learnt how to recapitulate and extend his own vocation, the divine call and mission he lived perfectly in his human nature, the call to the cross. They had to learn that their own efforts would not suffice. Only the work of the Holy Spirit in them, only grace would make their vocation and mission possible.

This is why, not only in the call of Christ to his apostles, but elsewhere throughout the Scriptures, we may discern a pattern for vocation. There are three moments: being called, being empowered and being sent. Whether it is the vocation of prophets, priests or kings,
or the calling of chosen disciples who became apostles, the pattern is much the same. But the three moments run together and are inseparable. The specific call continues each day. The empowering grace of God is ever at hand and it is a sanctifying grace. The apostolic mission is with us always wherever we work. Thus in the permanent consecration of priesthood we discern an irrevocable call, an eternal empowerment in the Holy Spirit and a mission, being sent to lead, reconcile and serve God's People.

Confronted by such a divine call, like Amos we almost stutter - "Why me, Lord? I just look after animals and trim sycamore trees." Little
Zacchaeus could have stayed up that tree. Many people spend their lives stuck up a tree. Paul did not like being thrown off that horse
(which only exists in works of art; Luke did not mention it). He had to be led, blind and confused, into Damascus. His vocation involved
suffering, the breaking of the safe parameters we set around ourselves, or to return to the Exodus model, a call to go into the
desert, there to wait and learn and pray, and Paul tells us about that mysterious desert phase of his life in his Letter to the Galatians.

The journey of a particular vocation is never neat and clear cut. Your vocation and mine is never tidy, yet running through our tangled lives we sense what the Venerable John Henry Newman called a "particular providence". What does this mean? You recall a chance meeting and it was no coincidence, or there was a visit to a church, not planned, but
it just happened that way and somehow life was different ever after. Perhaps there was a particular book or film, and it struck a chord in
your heart. Then there was that priest, the one who lived the priesthood of Jesus day by day. Perhaps he was there for you at a
moment of need. Perhaps he said something in a homily that he immediately forgot, but those words stayed with you, for, in God's
particular providence, you were never meant to forget.

Persons are important factors in the call of Christ, in the providential plan. But we cannot reproduce or imitate the vocation of
another person. Indeed attempting to do that can be insidious or even disastrous. Each of us is unique, unrepeatable as the Servant of God, Pope John Paul often said.

Like the baptismal call, there is also a communal dimension to priestly vocation, obviously in terms of the hierarchy of service
within the Church. But i think now of the fraternity of priesthood, the presbyterium, friendships that flourish, mutual support given
freely, the bearing of one another's burdens, the celebration of one another's joys. All this fellowship and charity is intensified by our
shared celibate commitment. Having given up marriage and family we find a new family and many families.

The call is actualised in the sacrament itself, the call of the Church, the moment when one enters the apostolic succession by prayer
and the laying on of hands. I believe that the unbroken chain of the apostolic succession is as empirical matter as the effects of original
sin. But picture that succession also as entering an becoming part of a mighty procession of thousands of men, who have gone before us and who will come after us. These are the men called to heal the fractured world. The procession of their lives is no passing parade. It is a transforming work, a great project, a divine mission of reconciliation and peace.

The ministerial priesthood is the work of redemption, leading the wounded into God's new creation. But priestly co-redeemers serve by
emptying themselves for others. Like the Lord who emptied himself, thy are empowered by suffering. At ordination, the bishop says to the new priest, "model your life on the mystery of the cross", the sacrificial mystery that passes through anointed hands. Take up that cross day by day. While you are never alone, there is a solitariness in priestly life, being set apart from others. See that in the light of
reconciliation and peace, because in ordination you are set apart to come closer to others. That is the unique service of priesthood.

There is yet another call, to all the baptised, to all the ordained, the universal call to holiness, perhaps the greatest teaching and
message of the Second Vatican Council. As consecrated men, priests are called to holiness, to be men of prayer, leaders in prayer at the
altar and in their daily lives. We all learn from the example of others and the holy priest should be our ideal.

We need ideals, so by all means "set the bar high". Value the romance, the mystique, the chivalry if you like, of the Catholic priesthood.
Let us never dumb down the priesthood, or let the failures or scandals of a few besmirch this sublime calling, which is lived so well by many others. In the recent past we have surely had enough boring social-worker models of priesthood just as we have had enough of dull
and dreary liturgies.

Look rather to the great lights of priestly service and sacrifice, to heros such as St. John Vianney, Archbishop Oscar Romero, St.
Josemaria, St. Pio of Pietralcina - or that old priest you knew who built a parish from a dusty outer suburban paddock. Look to them,
admire and love them, lean from them. We need these models, heroes and ideals, but never imagine that you will turn into one of those great priests, well not exactly. But in the journey of priesthood God has surprises in store - and that is where this great adventure really
begins.