Is there a limit to grow and mature in our life? The obvious answer is, “no.” We are not finished products as human beings and our potential to bear fruit is never over once and for all. Unlike mute living beings and non-intelligent beings, we humans are blessed with the capacity to envision the things to come or dream about what and how we want our life to be. We make plans to realize those dreams believing and convinced that what we dream we can achieve and possess!
It is in this process that each one of us realizes the particular vocation God has given us. But, do we know our vocation, recognized and accepted in faith, and which is guiding us to live our life in line with that vocation? Thanks be to God that by and large we have come out of that narrow understanding of vocation as a call to only priestly and religious life. All of us are called to live up to our God-given potential as human beings. As followers of Jesus Christ we are called to understand our life in Him and in the light of his teaching. Committed to Jesus Christ and His vision of life, our life has to manifest Him and the values he stood for, especially His self-sacrificing and self-effacing way of living.
Our joy in Jesus Christ is renewed through Christmas celebrations . In him we and our world are blessed with a saviour. God has not only entered into our world and into our history but is also journeying with the world and with humanity. This truth is recognized by those who see in faith the presence and action of Jesus Christ as true as He was physically present two thousand years ago, “I will be with you always,” he said, “even unto the end of time” (Mt 28:20). It is not only that his presence is proclaimed by the believers but they also strive to be in communion with this God made human being; they journey with Him! This is the meaning of following Him. That is why, Christians are called “the followers of Jesus Christ.”
At Christmas time these followers tell the story of the birth and infancy of Jesus Christ and it is narrated in so many different ways. We should also say that the story is narrated with great joy and it is there for others to see. In that joy there is that un-expressed and un-articulated experience of being blessed by this God become flesh! This is because there is in their life a connection, a relationship, with Him! The followers of Christ see their life as a call, a vocation, and this call/vocation is something given. In faith it is recognized and accepted, and one strives to live according to this call, following Jesus Christ!
One has to keep on learning from and about our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ? It is by seeing Him and listening to him, and by allowing Him to touch us and our life! This means, to spend time in His presence and spend time with His Gospel. Here we have to note that we and our life are always in a living context, existential context. So, when we are in His presence and with His Gospel teachings in our living context he would certainly speak to us. He will teach us and show us what to think and do in the given situation in matters connected to our own personal life and the mission entrusted to us and as well as the matters or issues connected with other people or the community we are with.
When we are in His presence as human beings we take with us what we are, how we are and what we are occupied with at the given moment in the given context. But, we have to be in His presence by a deliberate choice the community celebrations in which we are one among many. This in no way means to deny or undermine the value and importance of the community celebrations. But, joining in the community celebrations is no substitute to personally sitting at the feet of the Lord saying to Him, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening;” “Teach me Lord, your servant wants to learn from you!”