2.2. Identity and Vocation Plan

The process of vocational growth is inserted into the path of maturation and integration of the person. The becoming “vocational” proceeds apace with the formation of the personal and cultural identity; it is interwoven with all the vicissitudes, difficulties and crises that this growth involves. The vocation plan is developed in connection with self-definition and the self-plan, and depends, often in adolescence, on the identification with persons, communities, environments and life proposals which serve as reference models to arrive at making a choice consistent with one’s life plan.

Identity and vocation plan, therefore, are two coordinates closely connected and interdependent on each other. In this viewpoint,  we understand how it is that many vocation plans do not mature-- maybe they die before being born--and also the reason for so much skepticism regarding the very possibility of vocation identification on the part of the young.  This explains the phenomenon of the so-called weak consecration, that is, the inability of lasting faithfulness to religious commitment. In fact, it is not rare to meet persons in whom the vocation project is built on an “identity vacuum”, and that is problematic for religious perseverance. ¹⁹

Moreover, vocation is a dynamic and historical reality, which is inserted into the development and growth process of a personality; it develops and solidifies over time and in a human and relational context. God’s gratuitous and mysterious call happens normally through mediations, both individual and community-social, so that vocation remains subject to different personal or socio-cultural conditioning and evolves in relationship to the challenges or calls of the living environment, or the history or culture in which the person lives. The way for reaching a fullness of vocation identity always remains that of assuming in a mature way the possible difficulties or conditionings of a changing society, without fear of facing change,  trusting that the identity will consolidate rather than be lost if one remains in an attitude of openness and constant seeking.