The Sunday readings for the last two weeks have spoken of vocation, Christ’s and ours. I was struck by the fact that our vocation isn’t really ‘ours’. Sometimes as individuals we are very aware of God’s grace calling us to a change or to fufill a particular role. Sometimes we can talk about our sense of vocation as being we possess. Our attitude can be that we decide the direction we go in and we own what happens. The results are because of our efforts. What the readings in the last few weeks remind us that we receive our vocation from Christ and exercise it through him. I found Mrg Mercer’s words at Fr Philip’s funeral came back to me: “And Jesus shares His priesthood with those whom He ordains. With Christ, through Christ, as part of Christ, in Christ, Philip now participates in the intercession of Christ. Or put another way, Christ now expresses His ministry through Philip, makes present His ministry in Philip.”

While thinking about this, I read a post on “The Love that Moves the Sun” blog by Antonia Lynn. The moon has no light of its own. It is not a source but provides light during the night time by reflecting the light of the Sun. In the same way our vocation is only reflecting Christ’s light. We only have a vocation through and in him. It is only in relation to Christ’s vocation that we discover who we are and to what we are called. It is only in relation to him that we live out our vocation. Whatever we are called to we are only reflecting the light of Christ.