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 VOCATION

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VOCATION

state require some further remarks. Unlike the observance of the evangehcal counsels, the ecclesias- tical state exists primarily for the good of religious society; and the Church has given the religious state a corporate organization. Those who belong to a religious order not only follow the evangelical coun- sels for themselve.<i, but are accepted by the Church, more or less officially, to represent in reUgious society the practice of the rules of perfection; and to offer it to God as a part of pubhc worship. (See RELiGions Life; Vows.) From this it follows that the eccle- siastical profession is not as accessible to all as the religious state; that in order to enter the religious state at the present day, conditions of health, of char- acter, and sometimes of education are required which are not demanded by the evangelical counsels taken in themselves; and that, both for the religious and for the ecclesiastical state, admission by lawful authority is necessary. At the present day, it is necessary that two wills should concur before a person can enter the religious state; it has always been necessary that two wills should concur before one can enter the ranks of the clergj'. The Council of Trent pronounces an anathema on a person who represents as lawful minis- ters of the Gospel and the sacraments any who have not been regularly ordained and commissioned by ecclesiastical and canonical authority (Sess. XXIII, iii, iv, vii). A vocation which is by many persons called exterior thus comes to be added to the interior vocation; and this exterior vocation is defined as the admission of a candidate in due form by competent authority. The question of vocation itself so far as the candidate is concerned may be put in these terms: Are you doing a thing which is pleasing to God in offering yourself to the seminary or the novitiate? And the answer depends on the preceding data: yes, if your intention is honest, and if your strength is sufficient for the work. X further question may be put to the candidate for the priesthood: if you do well in desiring to become a priest, would you perhaps do better by becoming a religious? It is to be remarked that the candidate for the priesthood ought already to have the virtues required by his state, while the hope of acquiring them is sufficient for the candidate for the religious life. The question an ordinary of a diocese or superior of a religious community should meet is: Considering the general interest of the order or the diocese, is it right that I should accept this or that candidate? And although the candidate has done well in offering himself the answer may be in the negative. For Ciod often suggests plans which He does not require or desire to be carried into effect, though He is preparing the reward which He will bestow on the intention and the trial. The refusal of the ordinary or superior debars the candidate from entering the lists of the clergy- or religious. Hence his approval may be said to complete the Divine vocation. Moreover, in this life a person often enters into indissoluble bonds which God desires to see respected after the fact. It remains therefore for the man who has laid himself under such an obligation to accommodate himself to the state in which God, Who will give him the help of His grace, now wishes him to persevere." This is the express teaching of St. Ignatius in his "Spiritual Exercises": With regard to this present will of God, it may be said, at least of priests who do not obtain a disjien.sation, that sacerdotal ordination confers a vocation upon them. This however does not imply that they have done well in offering them.selves for ordination.

This appears to give tis ground for the true solution of the recent controversies on the subject of vocation.

Two points have been made the subjects of contro- versy in the consideration of vocation to the eeclrsi- a.stical state: how does Divine Providence make its decrees known to men? How does that Providence reconcile its decrees with liberty of human action in

the choice of a state of life? Cassian exjjlains very clearly the different kinds of vocation to the monastic Hfe, in his "Collatio, III: De tribus abrenuntiation- ibus", iii,iv,v(P. L., XLIX, 560-64). The Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries inculcate very strongly the practice of virginity, and endeavour to answer the text, "He that can take, let him take it " (Matt., xix, 12), which would seem to hmit the application of the counsel. Saint Benedict admitted young children presented by their parents to his order; and the canon- ical axiom "Monachum aut paterna devotio aut propria profes.sio facit" (c. 3, xx, q. 1), "A man be- comes a monk either by parental consecration or by personal profession", an axiom that was received in the Western Church from the sixth to the eleventh century, shows to what extent the religious life was considered open and to be recommended as a rule to all. A letter of St. Gregory the Great and another of St. Bernard insist on the dangers incurred by those who have decided to embrace the religious life and still remain in the world. The necessity of a special call for embracing the priesthood or the monastic life is not treated by St. Thomas, but the reality of a Divine call to higher states of life is clearly expressed in the sixteenth century, notably in the "Spiritual Exercises" of St. Ignatius. Suarez worked out a complete theory of vocation (De religione, tr. VII, I-V, viii). Independently of a natural progress which brings new matters into discussion, two causes combined to raise the controversy on this point, viz. the abuse of forced vocations, and a mysticism which is closely related to Jansenism. In former times it was the custom for noble families to place their younger sons in the seminary or some monastery without considering the tastes or qualifications of the candidates, and it is not difficult to see how disastrous this kind of recruiting was to the sacerdotal and rehgious hfe. A reaction set in against this abuse, and yoimg men were exjjected, instead of following the choice of their parents, a choice often dictated by purely human considerations, to wait for a special call from God before entering the seminary or the cloister. At the same time, a semi-Quietism in France led people to believe that a man ought to defer his action until he was conscious of a special Divine impulse, a sort of Divine message reveahng to him what he ought to do. If a person, in order to practice virtue, was bound to make an inward examination of himself at every moment, how much more necessary to listen for the voice of God before entering upon the sublime path of the priesthood or monastic life? God was supposed to speak by an attraction, which it was dangerous to anticipate: and thus arose the famous theory which identified voca- tion with Divine attraction; without attraction there was no vocation; with attraction, there was a voca- tion which was, so to speak, obhgatory, as there was so much danger in disobedience. Though theoreti- cally free, the choice of a state was practically neces- sary : "Those who are not called ", says Scavini (Theol. moral., 14th ed., I,i, n. 473), "cannot enter the relig- ious state: those who are called must enter it ; or what would be the use of the call?" Other writers, such as Gury (II. n. 14S-50), after having stated that it is a grave fault to enter the religious state when con- scious of not having been called, correct themselves in a remarkable manner by adding, "unless they have a firm resolution to fulfil the duties of their state".

For the general conduct of life, we know that God, while guiding man, leaves him free to act, that all good actions are graces of God, and at the same time free acts, that the happiness of heaven will be the reward of good life and still the effect of a gratuitous predestination. We are bound to .serve God always, and we know that, besides the acts commanded by Him, there are acts which He blesses without making them obligatory, and that among good acts there are