A Homily on Grace (For people discerning their vocation)
This homily will be given during a vocation seminar.
“Why are you here?” This may be the question that has been asked of you several times today.It may also be the question that has been bugging you since you started this morning — “Why am I here?”Surely, it would not be because of the food, or because of a friend who has been pestering you for a long time to attend this vocation seminar. These may be some of your reasons but I am sure there is a more salient reason for being here.Even if you cannot still grapple on the exact word, or the exact term for it, you know that there is a reason for your being here.
You are here because you are called.You heard a call, and you heeded that call. For some of you, maybe this has been an incessant call that had made you so restless until you finally gave in to it.For others, the call may have been a tiny voice inside you that comes up every now and then.Whatever your experience was, you know in your heart, and you are sure of it, that you heard a call and so you answered it by coming here; hoping that in some ways, you could hear audibly how you are called, and what you are called for.
This is a moment of grace.The fact that you are here to find out for yourself the answers to these questions only shows that grace is working effectively in you.You may leave today still with a restless heart, or still with doubts, fears, anxieties on what’s ahead but you also have to realize that coming here is a moment of grace.You have to be sensitive on how grace is working in your life right now.You have to see grace as grace to experience it more fully. It is like going to a banquet, where the best meal, the best wine, the best champagne are being served to you.If you are not aware that only the choicest meat, the most expensive wine, the best china were served to you, you may just find the whole banquet just like any ordinary gathering you have attended to.You may just miss the privilege that comes with it.Not all are called in that banquet, but you are there.It is the same with grace.Grace is open to everyone, grace is available to everyone, but only few people can recognize it, can say that, “Ah, this is grace.”
Let me tell you something about my own vocation journey.And I will try to point out the moments I have recognized grace sustaining me.Two years ago, I used to have a successful career in marketing.I got good benefits, good pay, good training, good experience. Everything was good.And yet, somehow, I still felt that things could be better.The call came in the guise of a question, “Am I where I would be truly happy?” And from then on, the question haunted me until I entertained the thought that maybe, there is something else that would make me happy.I felt I was being invited to find the answer for myself.
When I left my job, a lot of people said that it was something they didn’t think they could do themselves.It would be difficult to leave security for uncertainty.I know how they felt, I also told that to myself a year before I made the decision.I knew it would be difficult to leave the security of a stable job, of a prestigious job title for pursuit of something uncertain.Even then, I did not know what I was pursuing.All I know was I had to find it out myself. But when I finally had the courage, it was so liberating.I felt like I offered something voluntarily and at the same time, I recognized that it was not just my own doing.It is hard to explain but that’s the best description I can give.The decision to leave my job and study theology is a gift from me to God, and a gift of God to me.Right then, I recognized that it was grace.Grace was given to me in the time I needed it most, to help me make a somewhat difficult decision and act on it.It was Grace who is God. It was God coming to help me.It is the Holy Spirit empowering me. And yet, although I know I was helped to do it, I also felt free doing it.I felt like it was also an offering from me.And I was offering it with a joyful heart.It is a grace that evoked joy and thanksgiving from me.Thus, I can resonate with a theology scholar, Henri Rondet, when he said, where there is more grace, there is more freedom.
My vocation story does not end there.Continuously, grace accompanied me in my journey.Having to study without any source of income for nine months may be difficult if there was no grace.But it was not something I have experienced.Grace sustained me in the next nine months that I was studying and had no job.I was like the Israelites when they were journeying in the wilderness — there was an outpouring of manna from heaven in the form of friends, relatives, families who offered financial help.I did not deserve the help but these people helped me out of their generosity. Again, two experiences of grace, grace that comes in the favor I received, and grace experienced out of the generosity of these people who have helped me.
The more I recognize grace, the more I am convinced that grace is all around me.The more I encounter grace, the more I become familiar with it, the more I become transformed by it.As I have mentioned, I experienced grace in all forms.Grace as God relating with me, grace as favors, blessings received, and grace as evoking joy and thanksgiving from me. There is another meaning of grace that I have just recently experienced and that is grace producing graced-effects on the person.This time, I have not just recognized its effects on other people as seen in their generosity, or graciousness but also its effect on me.I know I have been transformed by grace.I know that I have also been a channel of grace to others.
In one of my spiritual direction session, where I was accompanying someone in her spiritual journey, I was affirmed that I had been a channel of grace for this person.It was when she told me that she sees God in me, that in talking to me, she feels like she’s already talking to God.The comment was unexpected, it definitely surprised me.Prior to that, I know that what I did was to listen to her, to be a companion in her journey.Never have I thought that I would have that impact on her! Yet, it is not just me but the work of the spirit of Christ in me.It was at that moment that I realized that I was transformed.I am grace-filled.God worked through me.Grace worked through my freedom. Again, let me reiterate, where there is more grace, there is more freedom.You will only realize the abundance of grace around you when you learn to recognize grace in all its forms.Not just in the form of the gifts you receive, the answered prayers but also in joy, in thanksgiving, in your being instruments of grace for others, and most especially in your encounter with the Giver.
So as you heed the call, as you discern your vocation, as you consider everything you heard today, do not forget that grace is all around you.Start sensing, start experiencing, start recognizing grace in your life right now.Feel how God is working in your life, where God is in your life. Sometimes, our vocation does not terminate in heeding that call.It will never terminate in this world.The call is on-going.We are always being called.Fundamentally, we are called to know something.We are called to know, to believe, to experience that we ARE the Father’s sons and daughters in Christ.
“Ah, this is grace!”
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I grew up in the music of Francis M. So it is but fitting to pay tribute to a genius musician and artist that he was. In my facebook account, so many people’s status are related to Francis Magalona. Some prayed for him and his family, some prayed for his soul. My status read: “I believe Francis M is a modern day bayani for all Filipinos.” It is truly amazing then how this man touched so many people with his music, his art, his patriotism, his passion. He truly is a modern day hero for all of us. He was a no-nonesense guy as proof of his music that called for change and inspired others. True, the legacy of a man will live on even after him. His life, although may be short for some at 44 years, had been meaningful and relevant and lasting. He had left so much legacy in his music, in his art, in his life. In 44 years, he had already created a huge impact to people my age, and even maybe in the younger generation. Surely, we will miss an artist like him, who did not succumb to “commercialism” nor compromised his ideals. He loved Filipinos so much, he was proud to be a Filipino, he was proud of his heritage, which many of us have already forgotten. He left a good example to all of us — he believed that there are still good things about us that we can be proud of. He does not JUST deserved to be a national artist but I strongly believe he should be a modern day NATIONAL HERO.