Persecution and Discernment

The eighth beatitude is:

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Mt 5:10-12)

A Christian is called, in this beatitude, to be a sort of counter witness to the anti-Christian values that pervade the world. As a counter witness, we would be persecuted. A priest is called to play that role more earnestly as a service to the Christians that he pastors. Thus, persecutions of the kind mentioned would come more intensely to the priest.

Often the persecutions we receive play a part in the discerning a vocation. We might have many ideals and be very willing to suffer injustices for the Lord. However, there is also a reality that we might be discouraged by these things we suffer. The key is not to desire something noble like suffering for Christ. The most important thing in discerning the call is to see what God wants. The Lord might want us to be in a situation where there is no real suffering at all. Our discernment is not choosing to become an exemplary Christian by our own efforts. Our discernment should lead us to the knowledge of God's will and then obey this will. Of course, the life of a priest would include many instances of persecution and misunderstanding. We need to be aware of this. However, this beatitude should lead us to consider that the call is more important than the consequences of following the call. Most people who do things for Christ’s sake would be able to understand that it is not the consequences of following Christ that are important but the fact that we follow Christ. Similarly, our discernment should not focus on whether what kind of priesthood we would live but whether we are called. There would be those who choose to enter the seminary because they have seen the standard of priests in our churches and want to improve the quality of priests. Whilst this should be a consideration during formation, it should not be a condition during discernment.

Peacemakers

The seventh beatitude is:

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Mt 5:9)

Peace in the Hebrew sense means wholeness; the Hebrew word is shalom. To be a peacemaker is to be one who provides the environment where God can give this shalom. This state of shalom is the original state of humanity at the point of creation. When we sinned, we lost this completeness, shalom. Thus, when we do reach this completeness we becomes like Adam — a son of God. Jesus came to restore this shalom to humanity. Thus, if we are able to provide the environment where shalom can be reached, we participate in what Jesus, the Son of God, did and we are also called “sons of God”.

When discerning a vocation, we should seek this shalom that God provides. Many people confuse this with the idea of ‘fulfilment’. ‘Fulfilment’ is what one feels about that which completes their being or purpose in life. Shalom is the completeness that God gives. Many people feel fulfilled when they achieve something they set out to do in life. That should not be a motivation for discerning a vocation. A vocation is God’s call to a state of life. It is not an achievement. We may feel contented when we answer God’s call, but it is not a sense of fulfilment that we feel, it is shalom that comes from God. Furthermore, this feeling is only one possible expression of shalom. The true sense of shalom is the knowledge that God has made us whole. Unfortunately, as sinners, it is not probable that we would have the sense of shalom continuously. This sense may be a feeling or an inner knowledge. We can sense or know, from within ourselves, that when we answer the Lord’s call, God completes us. That would be a description of what many people mean when they say, “The moment I said my ‘yes’ to the Lord, I felt peace.”

Pure in Heart

The sixth beatitude is:

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Mt 5:8)

We gauge how pure something is by judging how clear it is. This is especially true for water. When someone mentions pure water, we think of clear clean water, with no cloudiness or particles, even though the water may have something dissolved in it. In the same vein, someone who is “pure in heart” can be considered as one whose heart is clear. As we view the spiritual things more from the heart, someone who is “pure in heart” can see spiritual things clearly. He/She can see God clearly. As Christ says that he is Truth itself (see Jn 14:6), a person who is “pure in heart” is able to see the truth.

This is so important in discernment. Discernment requires us to seek the truth that comes from God. When I am discerning the vocation to the diocesan priesthood, being “pure in heart” is important. By clearing my heart of all impurities, i.e. those things that keep me from seeing God clearly, I will be able to discover his will for me. I would need to purify my heart of love before I enter the process of discernment so that I will not be clouded by doubts, worldy distractions and personal ambitions.

Mercy on the Merciful

The fifth beatitude is:

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” (Mt 5:7)

According to the online Catholic Encyclopedia, Mercy is said to be “a virtue influencing one’s will to have compassion for, and, if possible, to alleviate another’s misfortune.” If I were to put it in simpler terms, mercy is a habit (virtue) that has two functions:

• stirs one to have compassion for another person’s misfortune or misery


• motivates one to try to help remove the other person’s misfortune or misery

As mercy controls relations between two distinct people, it must also be linked to charity.

In discernment, we need a merciful heart. a heart that is habitually charitable and feels with the misfortune and misery of others. One of the reasons which many people are asked to pray for more vocations is that we have a shortage of priests and religious in the world. When making our discernment, we would need to ask if we are truly aware of the plight of our brothers and sisters in the Church due to the shortage of priests and religious. As the first function of the virtue of mercy suggests, we need to have compassion for those who experience this shortage. However, we should not volunteer ourselves for priesthood or religious life just because we feel pity for the situation. The virtue of mercy should motivate us to try to help remove this lack of vocations. If we have the call, then the virtue of mercy would motivate us to answer the call sincerely. If we do not have the call, then we would be motivated to promote vocations rather than ‘sacrifice’ ourselves.

While we can say that the priestly vocation (or any vocation, even marriage for that matter) requires a certain amount of sacrifice, it is primarily the sacrifice of our wills to the will of God. All other things that we give up, like an exclusive relationship with someone and a family, are not really sacrifices if we see them as choosing what God knows is best for us.

Even if we are not sure yet if God is calling us, we need to have that habit or virtue of mercy to help others in need. When we are in need, especially the need to know whether we have a call, then God would show us his mercy and indicate to us his loving plan.

Righteousness

The fourth beatitude is:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Mt 5:6)

Picture from Wikimedia. It is in the Public Domain.


Some verses down from the Beatitudes, Jesus talks about righteousness:

… unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Mt 5:20)

To “exceed” here does not merely mean “more severe” or “stricter”. It means to “go beyond”. We have to reach a higher or deeper level than what the Pharisees and the scribes taught. The Pharisees and the scribes were learned men whose faults lay in their inability to go beyond what was solely on the human level. Thus, we should hunger for the righteousness that properly belongs to God.

In discernment, we weigh our options. We see a similar image with Lady Justice with her scales. Unlike the physical scales we use in the world, which weigh quantitatively, we weigh that which are qualitative. We have the Lord’s will on one pan and our actions on the other side. Is what I am doing right now what the Lord wills of me? Could my willfulness be tipping the scales, causing it to be unbalanced? When Jesus speaks of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, He is speaking of those who truly seek God’s will. Even though our actions may be exactly what the Lord wills but if there is a little self-centredness or self-interest added, the scales will tip. When we want what God wants because we love Him, the scales will remain balanced. When we only do what God wants because “there is something in it for me”, then the scales will not be balanced. Whilst being the imperfect creatures that we are, the scales cannot be always perfectly balanced, we still have to try our best, submitting to the grace of God.

Blessed are the Meek

The third beatitude is:

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Mt 5:5)

The idea of meek takes on a negative slant if we think it means being ‘weak and timid’. I do not think that this is what Jesus means here. Look up the dictionary and we would see words like “humble”, “patient” and “not resentful despite being injured”. These are words that would describe Christ in His Passion! In His Passion, Christ was definitely not weak and timid. He was strong, courageous and able to deny himself, leading to the self-emptying that St. Paul would refer to in his letter to the Philippians (2:7)

In vocation discernment, being meek is a useful trait. We actively put down the self-serving inner voice within us to allow that which is humble and receptive in us to truly listen to what God wants. A true meekness will bring down the strongest spritual pride. Only when we know that we are empty can we allow ourselves to be filled with God's spirit. We must not think that this means we should blindly follow eastern meditative methods found in Hinduism and Buddhism. Instead, we should have the disposition of the person who wrote Psalm 8:

When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars which thou hast established;

what is man that thou art mindful of him,
and the son of man that thou dost care for him?

Yet thou hast made him little less than God,
and dost crown him with glory and honor.

We are nothing compared to the greatness of God. Yet God allows us to consider lofty ideals. This truthful assessment of who we are would allow us to deny ourselves and allow God to take over. In meekness we allow God to take over in our prayer. In meekness we listen more than we talk.

Those Who Mourn

The second beatitude goes thus:

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Mt 5:4)

When we mention mourning, we indicate that we have suffered a loss — usually the loss of a loved one. In every stage of our lives, we make choices. Choices always involves rejection and rejection always means a loss. Every loss has its impact. It may be very small or very large. It may be positive or negative. The intensity of mourning is dependent on the kind of impact resulting from a choice. (see here for my ideas regarding choice.)

In discerning a vocation, there is always a loss of something and we have to mourn that loss. Until we have made peace with ourselves regarding that loss, our intentions accompanying the choice in discernment needs purification. In the purification of intention during the journey towards the diocesan priesthood (indeed for any vocation), there is a great need to mourn and grieve the loss that results from a choice to answer that particular call from the Lord.

This is not to say that we need a hundred percent purified intention to make that final “yes” to the Lord. I was reasonably sure of the Lord’s call when I entered the seminary and was even more certain when I applied for the priesthood. Yet, I am still mourning the loss of the opportunity to form my own family. There are times when I wonder what it would be like if I had my own family. There is a small tinge of regret that indicates to me that my mourning is still not over. However, the important thing is to identify that loss and to begin the grieving process. As long as this is not done, we will be afraid to say “yes” to the Lord and whatever He wants of us.