By Fr. Frederick Edlefsen

Plato asked, “What’s a good life?” How do you want to live? The Church reframes the question: “What’s your vocation?” What’s your calling?

When we graduate high school and college, we rightly consider a career. We ask, “What do I want to do with my life?” A great question.

Take it to another level, “What do I have the grace to do?” Or, “What do I desire?” What you have the grace to do might be the same thing as what you desire to do. But it’s not that simple. What “I want for me” is about a career. What “I can contribute to the world” is about a vocation. To be sure, “what you want” and “what you can give” might be the same thing. If so, that’s good. If not, think it over. Here’s a tip to solving this puzzle: Is what “I want” also about what “I can give”?

The Holy Spirit (i.e. grace) purifies “what you want” and turns it into generosity. In a vocation, you get back from what you give. That’s how love works – at least among us mortal humans.

There’s no sharp dividing-line between career and vocation. But there’s a difference. A vocation flows into a career, like a river into a desert. A career receives new life when you reflect and meditate in silence, making yourself available to the grace of your Confirmation. Confirmation turns Baptism into a vocation – Christ’s mission.

A vocation transforms a career into a labor of love, a life-giving gift to the world. Without a vocation, a career risks becoming a lonely path to “me” alone. A vocation transforms a career into act of love for God and others. Vocations purge careers of selfishness. Vocations bless careers with generosity.

“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul” (Matthew 16:26). Christ reveals vocations in the Greatest Commandment, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” and its sequel, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). Our world needs careers formed by vocations. Vocations create friendships and solidarity. Vocations are love in real time. Vocations are Christ in action. What’s your calling?