To discern

37. "And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, who said: 'The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!' Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread" (Lk 24, 33-35).

So that the journey to Emmaus might become a vocational itinerary a conclusive passage is needed after the series of "recognitions" and "self-recognitions": the effective choice of the young person, to which corresponds, on the part of the one who has accompanied him along the vocational path, the process of discernment. A discernment that will certainly not finish during the time of vocational orientation, but must continue until a definitive decision is reached, "for the whole of one's life". (¹⁰⁵)

a) The effective choice of the one called

Decision making ability

In the Gospel passage that has guided our reflection the choice is well expressed at verse 33: "And they rose at that same hour..."

The indication about the time ("at that same hour") clearly explains the determination of the two, provoked by the word and person of Jesus, by the meeting with Him, and courageously put into action by a choice that is a break with what they were or did before, and indicates newness of life.

It is precisely this decision that is often lacking in young people today.

For this reason, with a view to "helping young people to overcome indecision in the face of definite commitments, it would seem useful to prepare them progressively for assuming personal responsibilities, (...), to entrust them with tasks appropriate to their abilities and age, (...), to encourage a gradual education in the small, daily choices regarding values (gratuitousness, constancy, moderation, honesty...)". (¹⁰⁶)

On the other hand, it should be remembered that very often these and other fears and indecision signal weakness not only of the psychological make-up of the person, but also of the spiritual experience and, particularly, of the experience of vocation as a choice that comes from God.

When this certainty is lacking the subject inevitably trusts in himself and his own resources; and when he has realised their precarious nature it is no wonder that he allows himself to be overcome by the fear of making a definitive decision.

The inability to make decisions is not necessarily characteristic of the present generation of young people: it is often the consequence of vocational accompaniment that has not sufficiently underlined the primacy of God in the choice, or that has not prepared people to allow themselves to be chosen by Him. (¹⁰⁷)

"Return home"

The choice of vocation indicates newness of life, but in reality it is also the sign of a recovery of one's own identity, almost a "return home", to the roots of the I. In the Emmaus story it is symbolised by the expression: "and (they) returned to Jerusalem".

It is very important, in the preparation for the choice of vocation, to reaffirm the idea that it represents the condition necessary for being oneself and realising oneself according to that singular project that can only give happiness. Too many young people still think the opposite about the Christian vocation, they look at it with diffidence and fear that it cannot make them happy; but they then end up being unhappy like the sad young man of the Gospel (cf Mk 10, 22).

How many times have the attitudes of adults, parents included, contributed to creating a negative image of a vocation, especially to the priesthood and to the consecrated life, even creating obstacles to its realisation and discouraging those who feel themselves called to it! (¹⁰⁸)

However this problem will not be resolved with a banal propaganda against it, which would emphasise the positive, satisfying aspects of a vocation, but most of all by underlining the idea that a vocation is God's reflection on the creature, it is the name He gives to the person.

Discovering and responding to one's vocation as a believer means finding that rock on which one's name is written (cf Apoc 2, 17-18), or returning to the springs of the I.

Personal witness

At Jerusalem the two "found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, who said: 'The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!' Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread" (Lk 24, 33-35).

The most significant element of this passage, in relation to the vocational choice, is the witness of the two, a particular witness, because it comes in a community context and has a precise vocational meaning.

In fact when the two arrive the assembly is proclaiming its faith with a formula ("The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon") which we know to be among the most ancient testimonies to objective faith. Cleopas and his companion add, in some way, their own subjective experience, which confirms what the community was proclaiming, and confirms too their own believing and vocational journey.

It is as if that testimony were the first fruit of the vocation discovered and re-found, which immediately, as is the nature of a Christian vocation, is put to the service of the ecclesial community. Accordingly we recall what has already been said regarding the relationship between objective ecclesial itineraries and subjective personal itineraries, in a relationship of synergy and complementarity: the witness of the individual helps the faith of the Church to grow, the faith and the witness of the Church supports and encourages the vocational choice of the individual.

b) Discernment by the guide

In the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores dabo vobis John Paul II affirms that: "Knowledge of the nature and mission of the ministerial priesthood is an essential presupposition, and at the same time the surest guide and incentive towards the development of pastoral activities in the Church for fostering and discerning vocations to the priesthood and training those called to the ordained ministry". (¹⁰⁹)

The same could be said, by analogy, when dealing with the discernment of any vocation to the consecrated life. An essential presupposition for discerning these vocations is, first and foremost, to be aware of the nature and mission of that state of life in the Church. (¹¹⁰)

This presupposition comes directly from the certainty that it is God who calls, and therefore from the search for those signals that indicate the presence of the divine call.

There now follow some criteria for discernment, distinguishable in four areas.

Openness to the mystery

If being closed to the mystery, a characteristic of certain modern mind-sets, inhibits any vocational openness, then its opposite, openness to the mystery, is not only a positive condition for the discovery of one's own vocation, but also indicates a healthy vocational option.

a) Authentic subjective vocational certainty makes space for the mystery and the sensation that one's decision, even if firm, must remain open to a continual investigation of the mystery itself.

Certainty which is not authentic, on the other hand, is not only weak and incapable of encouraging a decision, but is even the opposite, i.e. the pretence of having already understood everything, of having exhausted the depths of the personal mystery, a pretence that can only create inflexibility and a certainty that is often betrayed by later life.

b) The typically vocational attitude is the expression of the virtue of prudence, more than ostentatious personal ability. Precisely for this reason the sureness of this reading of one's own future is that of hope and entrusting which arise from having faith in Another, in whom one can trust; it is not deduced from the guarantee of one's own abilities perceived as responding to the demands of the role chosen.

c) Another good vocational indication are the capacities for welcoming and integrating those opposed polarities which constitute the natural dialectic of the I and human life. For example, a young person possesses this capacity who is sufficiently aware of his positive and negative aspects, of his ideals and contradictions, of the healthy part and the less healthy part of his own vocational project, and who does not presume nor despair in the face of his negative aspects.

d) The young person is well familiar with the mystery of life as the place for perceiving a presence and an appeal who discovers the signs of his call by God not only in extraordinary events, but in his history; in the events that he has learned to read as a believer, in his questions, anxieties and aspirations.

e) Also in this category of openness to the mystery there is another fundamental characteristic of the authentic call: that of gratitude. A vocation is born of the fertile soil of gratitude; and is interpreted with a slant of generosity and radicality, precisely because it is born of the awareness of the love received.

Identity in the vocation

The second order of criteria rotate around the concept of "identity". In fact the vocational option indicates and implies precisely the definition of one's own identity; it is the choice and realisation of the ideal I, rather than the actual I, and must bring the person to have a substantially positive and stable sense of his own I.

a) The first condition is that the person shows himself capable of cutting himself off from the logic of identification at the corporeal level (= the body as the source of positive identity) and the psychological level (= one's own abilities as the only and pre-eminent guarantee of self-regard), and discover instead the radical positivity related in a stable way to being, received as a gift from God (this is the ontological level), rather than to the precarious position of having or appearing. The Christian vocation is what brings this positivity to fulfilment, realising to the greatest extent the possibilities of the subject, but according to a project which regularly surpasses him, because it is thought out by God.

b) "Vocation" fundamentally means "call": therefore there is an external subject, an objective appeal, and an interior openness to letting oneself be called and recognising oneself in a model that the one called did not create.

c) The fundamental criterion about the motivation or the modality of the vocational choice is that of totality (or the law of totality); that is that the decision be an expression of a total involvement of the psychological functions (heart-mind-will), and be a decision that is at the same time mental-ethical-emotional.

d) More particularly, there is vocational maturity when the vocation is lived and interpreted as a gift, but also as a demanding call: to be lived for others, not only for one's own perfection, and with others, in the Church, mother of all vocations, in a specific "sequela Christi".

A vocational project rich in believing memory

The third area on which the one discerning a vocation should concentrate attention is that related to the quality of the relationship between past and present, between memory and project.

a) Above all it is important that the young person be substantially reconciled with his past: with the inevitable negative aspects, of whatever kind, that are part of it, and also with the positive, that he should be able to recognise with gratitude; reconciled also with the significant figures of his past, with their richness and weakness.

b) Next, attention should be given to the type of memory that the young person has of his history, such as the interpretation he gives to his own life: as a grace or a lament? Does he consciously or unconsciously feel that life owes him, and therefore is still waiting to receive, or is he open to giving?

The young person's attitude to more or less serious traumas from his past is particularly significant. Planning to consecrate oneself to God means in every case re-taking possession of the life that you plan to give, in all its aspects; to try to integrate the less positive aspects, recognising them with realism and assuming a responsible attitude, and not simply feeling sorry for oneself in their regard. The "responsible" young person is the one who is dedicated to assuming an active and creative attitude when faced with a negative event, or who seeks to benefit in an intelligent way from a personal negative experience.

Much attention should be paid to vocations that are born of sufferings, delusions, or various incidents that are not yet well integrated. In this case a more attentive discernment is necessary, even making use of specialists so as not to lay impossible burdens on weak shoulders.

Vocational docibilitas

The last phase of the vocational itinerary is that of decision. In reference to this phase the criteria of vocational maturity would seem to be the following.

a) The fundamental requirement is the person's level of docibilitas, or rather the interior freedom to let himself be guided by a bigger brother or sister; in particular in the strategic phases of re-elaboration and re-appropriation of one's own past, especially the most problematic, and the subsequent liberty to learn and to know how to change.

b) The requirement of docibilitas is basically the requirement of being young, not so much as a biographical quality, as more a global existential attitude. It is important that whoever asks to enter seminary or the consecrated life be truly "young", with the virtues and vulnerabilities typical of that time of life, with the will to do and the desire to give his utmost, able to socialise and appreciate the beauty of life, conscious of his own defects and his own potential, aware of the gift of having been chosen.

c) An area particularly worthy of attention, today more than ever, is the affective-sexual area. (¹¹¹) It is important that the young person shows himself able to acquire the two certainties that make the person affectively free: the certainty that comes from the experience of having already been loved and the always experiential certainty of knowing how to love. In concrete, the young person must show that human equilibrium that allows him to know how to stand on his own two feet, he must possess that security and autonomy that will facilitate his social interaction and cordial friendship, and that sense of responsibility that lets him live the same social interaction as an adult, free to give and receive.

d) Regarding inconsistencies in the affective-sexual area, a prudent discernment must take account of the centrality of this area in the general evolution of the young person and in present day culture (or subculture). It is not strange, nor is it rare that the young person exhibit certain weaknesses in this area.

Under what conditions can we prudently welcome the vocational request of young people with this kind of problem? The condition is that there also be present these three requirements:

1° that the young person be conscious of the root of his problem, which often is not sexual in origin.

2° The second condition is that the young person feel his weakness as something extraneous to his own personality, something that he does not want and that jars with his ideal, and against which he will struggle with his whole being.

3° It is also important to verify whether the subject is able to control these weaknesses, with a view to overcoming them, either so that in fact it happens less and less, or so that these inclinations will less and less disturb his life (also his psychological state) and allow him to carry out his normal duties without creating excessive tension nor unduly occupying his attention. (¹¹²) These three criteria must all be present to permit a positive discernment.

e) Finally, vocational maturity is decided by an essential element that truly makes sense of all: the act of faith. The authentic vocational option is to all effects the expression of believing adhesion, and the more genuine it is, the more it is part of and conclusion to a journey of formation towards maturity of faith. The act of faith, within a logic that makes space for the mystery, is precisely that central point that holds together the sometimes opposed polarities of life, continuously drawn between the certainty of the call and the consciousness of one's own unsuitability, between the sensation of losing oneself and finding oneself, between the greatness of the aspirations and the weight of one's own limitations, between grace and nature, between the God who calls and the individual who responds. The young person who has truly been called must show the solidity of the act of belief while at the same time maintaining these polarities.