Vocation:
gift and offering
World Day of Consecrated
Life Feb. 4
by Sr. Margaret McHugh, DSMP
An article in the spring 2006
issue of Horizons by Gil Ostdiek, OSF, "Theology of Vocation from a Liturgical
Perspective" made a beautiful connection between vocation and the
offertory procession during
Since the annual World Day
for Consecrated Life will be observed this month on February 4, I felt it
especially significant to focus on the rhythm of gift and offering found in the
Eucharist as we strive to create a "culture of vocations" and help
our young people to be more conscious of God’s calling.
Have you ever noticed the
connection between call and response and our daily interchanges? These simple interactions include calls and
responses like, "Knock, Knock":
"Who’s There?"; "How are you?": "Fine
and you?" "The Lord be with you!":
"And also with you." Call it social mores or good etiquette,
but these seem to be woven into our social fabric and our sense of meaning in
our relationships.
In his article, Gil Ostdiek, OFM explained that the Liturgy of the Eucharist is
also built on a cadence of call and response. In the Liturgy of the Eucharist
the simple elements of bread and wine are caught up in a long cycle of giving
and receiving; first as gifts we have
freely received from God’s goodness, then, as gifts received from the earth and
finally as gifts given to us from human labor.
A further and even more
important transformation is to come, as these simple gifts become the bread of
life and cup of salvation. Here in the Liturgy of the Eucharist unfolds the
spiritual significance of presenting the gifts. The gifts we present express
the dialogue of giving and receiving in which we are called to be co-workers
with God in drawing food and drink from the earth. Secondly, these elements are the work of
human hands, condensed symbols of the labor of every one who has had a hand in
production. So what is presented at God’s
table are not just the physical elements of bread and wine but the sum and substance
of our lives. As the gifts are brought up, all in the assembly are called to
walk in procession in spirit, to carry up the gift of their lives and place it
on the altar. God’s call and our response are now expressed, not in words, but
in the symbolic act of giving the gifts we have received from God and the hands
of others.
Can we detect the same pulse
of gift and offering in our relationships?
We were conceived during an act of gift and offering. Our primal
relationship as an infant at our mother’s breast was sustained by her gift and
offering. This first relationship sets the tone for a long cycle of giving and
receiving. This reciprocal give and take, gift and offering become the way we
relate to others and others respond in kind. In responding to this call, we
find ourselves as life giving and receiving because a vocation is always in
relationship.
There’s nothing we have that
has not been given to us in some way, shape or form. To move beyond a clinging
and clenching posture of life means to enter into the rhythm of the offertory
procession. As we surrender to God’s plan for our lives, we find ourselves
lifted up and transformed to become bread for others.
Sr. Margaret McHugh, DSMP is a Vocation Team Member
for the Diocese of New