What’s a Good Life?

Good Questions for Young Adults

Fr. Frederick Edlefsen

How do you want to live?   Do you want a family?  Do you want a mission as a single person?  In Aristotle’s words, “What is a good life?”  The Church asks the same question but with a twist, “What’s your vocation?” “What’s your calling?”

Young adults often ponder careers, as they should.  College students ask, “What do I want to do after college?”  Graduates ask, “What do I do now?”  Good questions.  

Take it to another level.  What do you have the grace to do?   “What I want to do” is a good question.  But “what I have the grace to do” is a deeper question, potentially in agreement with “what I want to do”.  What “I want for me” is about your career.   What “gift I have to to give” is about your vocation.  To be sure, “what you want” and “what you can give” are not necessarily opposites.  Grace purifies “what you want” and turns it into generosity.  You get back from what you give.  That’s how love works.  Welcome to the wonderful world of being human!

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 becomes a lonely pit of “me and myself.”  A vocation transforms a career into act of love for God, family, neighbor, and the world.   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 suggests vocation 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, here and now, through your life.  What’s your calling?

Learn more about vocations here:   https://www.arlingtondiocese.org/vocations/