JESUS in his preaching compared the Kingdom of God to a treasure hidden in a field. The man who finds it doesn’t hesitate to sell everything he owns to acquire that land. This image has often been used to illustrate not only the call to follow Christ, but also the experience of a more specific calling that God sometimes addresses to people. God has reserved a treasure for each of us, and to find it we need to sell everything we have. However, a question naturally arises: How do I begin to search for that land where the treasure might be waiting for me? How do I choose the land I need to buy? Or, more directly: How can I discover my own vocation?
To answer this question, Saint Josemaría often said that it isn’t possible “to offer prefabricated formulas, or rigid methods or rules.” That would be like trying “to put rails on the ever-original action of the Holy Spirit,”[1] who blows where He wills. The paths to God are as varied as the number of people. The Gospel shows us a common trait in all those who are sincerely interested in discovering the land where the treasure is found: their restless heart. Nicodemus, upon hearing about Jesus’ teachings, wanted to know if this man was truly the Messiah; his heart was filled with doubts and uncertainties, and therefore he only dared to approach Jesus at night in search of an answer. The rich young man, on his part, felt dissatisfied with the upright life he was leading, and so he went eagerly to Christ to ask what he had to do to attain eternal life.
These persons, like so many others, were “seekers;” they were waiting for something that would change their life and fill it with adventure. When the saints discovered a specific path as their vocation, they eagerly opened their hearts. They dreamed of greater intimacy with God, and were excited about helping the Church grow; they longed for a life in which they could use their talents, and desired to help alleviate the suffering in the world. And they gave free rein to this restlessness through their dialogue with God: “What do you want from me? What do these desires and longings in my heart mean?” In our own lives, God leaves us signs that, when brought to Him in prayer, form a recognizable pattern that can show us where the hidden treasure lies.
ONCE we have bought the land, another concern can arise: how do I know if the treasure I’ve found is truly mine? In other words, is this the right path for me? The beginning of a vocation, like the start of any project, usually brings with it some degree of uncertainty. Underlying this doubt is often a fairly common fear: we don’t know for sure what will happen in the future, where this path will lead us, because we haven’t traveled it before. Furthermore, the awareness of our own fragility can also make us think that perhaps we won’t be up to what God is asking of us.
But it’s not a question of waiting for a plan that is set out to the last detail. God has given us a field, but He also counts on our initiative, on what we think, on what we really want and do. To live means to accept adventure, risks, limitations; it means to leave behind the small world we can control in order to find the beauty of dedicating our lives to something greater than ourselves, something that satisfies abundantly our thirst for happiness. Of course, we will need to think things through. This is what the Church calls a time of discernment. But it’s important to keep in mind that “discernment is not a self-absorbed self-analysis or a form of egotistical introspection, but an authentic process of leaving ourselves behind in order to approach the mystery of God, who helps us to carry out the mission to which he has called us, for the good of our brothers and sisters.”[2] Vocation entails broadening our horizons beyond territory that is familiar, beyond our own “comfort zone” that provides us with personal security, and to set out along paths of giving and receiving ever more love.
“You realize that your path is not clear,” Saint Josemaría wrote. “And that it is not clear because by not following Jesus closely you remain in darkness. What keeps you from making up your mind?”[3] Only if I choose the path is it possible to walk along it, to live what I have chosen. Every vocation has a dose of uncertainty that God has wanted in order to safeguard our freedom, so that we take the first step. To see the star, like the Magi, it is necessary to set out on the journey, because God’s plans always surpass us; they go beyond our own limitations. Only by trusting in Him do we become capable of traveling along the path. At first, it seems impossible: one still needs to grow. But to grow, we need to believe: “Without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5), but with me you can do all things.
THERE IS a third question that one might ask once that treasure has been found: what can I do with it? The riches discovered offer a wealth of possibilities for improving one’s own life and the lives of others. Similarly, the discovery of a vocation enriches our own existence, opens us to a happiness that surpasses our expectations, and also illumines the lives of those God has placed alongside us.
To those who care for this treasure and make it multiply, God has promised to receive them in his Kingdom: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master” (Mt 25:21). But our Lord doesn’t wait for Heaven to reward his children. Already in this life, he introduces them to that divine joy with fruits of holiness and virtue, drawing out the best in each person and their talents. The principal gift He offers us is Himself, his friendship and presence within our heart: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (Jn 14:23). “Our Lord has wished to deposit in our heart a most precious treasure,” Saint Josemaría said. “God our Lord dwells in us, with all his greatness. In our hearts we find a Heaven.”[4]
We can bring that Heaven we have within us wherever we go. “Nowadays, when an absence of peace is frequently found in social life, at work, in family life, there is an ever-greater need that we Christians be, in the words of Saint Josemaría, ‘sowers of peace and joy.’”[5] We know from experience that this peace and joy are not our own. That is why we strive to foster the presence of God in our hearts, so that He may fill us with his gifts and help us to share them with those around us. Our Lady, whose faithful response made the treasure of her vocation bear such abundant fruit, will help us to savor the great things that God will work in our lives and in the lives of others through our own faithfulness in searching for that same treasure.
[1] Saint Josemaría, Letter, 6 May 1945, no. 42.
[2] Francis, Gaudete et exsultate, no. 175.
[3] Saint Josemaría, The Way, no. 797.
[4] Cf. Salvador Bernal, Msgr. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer. A Profile of the Founder of Opus Dei, p. 361.
[5] Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, Homily, 12 May 2017.