Vocation

VOCATION COMES FROM the Latin vocare, "to call," and means the work a person is called to by God.

There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of society, say, or the superego, or self-interest.

By and large a good rule for finding out is this: The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need to do and (b) that the world needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you've presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing cigarette ads, the chances are you've missed requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you're bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a), but probably aren't helping your patients much either.

Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. 

-Originally published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words

Virtue

NEXT TO THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, the seven cardinal virtues are apt to look pale and unenterprising, but appearances are notoriously untrustworthy.

Prudence and temperance, taken separately, may not be apt to get you to your feet cheering, but when they go together, as they almost always do, that's a different matter. The chain smoker or the junkie, for instance, who exemplifies both by managing to kick the habit, can very well have you throwing your hat in the air, especially if it happens to be somebody whom for personal reasons you'd like to have around a few years longer. And the courage involved isn't likely to leave you cold either. Often it's the habit kicker's variety that seems the most courageous.

If you think of justice as sitting blindfolded with a scale in her hand, you may have to stifle a yawn, but if you think of a black judge acquitting a white racist of a false murder charge, it can give you gooseflesh.

The faith of a child taking your hand in the night is as moving as the faith of Mother Teresa among the untouchables, or Bernadette facing the skeptics at Lourdes, or Abraham, age seventy-five, packing up his bags for the Promised Land. And hope is the glimmer on the horizon that keeps faith plugging forward, of course, the wings that keep it more or less in the air.

Maybe it's only love that turns things around and makes the seven deadly sins be the ones to look pale and unenterprising for a change. Greed, gluttony, lust, envy, and pride are no more than sad efforts to fill the empty place where love belongs, and anger and sloth just two things that may happen when you find that not even all seven of them at their deadliest ever can. 

-Originally published in Whistling in the Dark and later in Beyond Words  

Virginity

THERE IS NO SPECIAL WORD for people who have never fallen in love, or had major surgery, or learned how to swim, but virginity is the special word for people who have never had sex with another human being. They have heard about it. The chances are they have dreamed about it. If they are honest, they will probably admit there have been times when they have come close to it. But for one reason or another, they have never given it a try.

In the old days virgins were considered purer and holier than other people. In our day they are apt to be snickered at. The plain truth of the matter is that they are simply people who for one reason or another have never set forth on one of life's great adventures. Who knows where the adventure might lead them? Who can predict the dangers and delights along the way? Who can foresee the endless consequences?

Maybe uncertainties like those are among the reasons why virgins hold on to their virginity. And who can foresee the consequences of that either? 

-Originally published in Beyond Words

Virgin Birth

THE EARLIEST OF THE FOUR GOSPELS makes no reference to the virgin birth, and neither does Paul, who wrote earlier still. On later evidence, however, many Christians have made it an article of faith that it was the Holy Spirit rather than Joseph who got Mary pregnant. If you believe God was somehow in Christ, it shouldn't make much difference to you how he got there. If you don't believe, it should make less difference still. In either case, life is complicated enough without confusing theology and gynecology.

In one sense anyway, the doctrine of the virgin birth is demonstrably true. Whereas the villains of history can always be seen as the products of heredity and environment, the saints always seem to arrive under their own steam. Evil evolves. Holiness happens. 

-Originally published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words

Vashti

KING AHASUERUS OF PERSIA, better known as Xerxes, decided to throw a party. He invited not only everybody who was anybody, but everybody who was nobody in particular too, and as far as expense went, the sky was the limit. It was to last for seven days, and the palace was turned upside down getting ready for it. New blue-and-white curtains were hung in all the windows, silver couches were moved in by the cartload, and drinks were served in goblets of pure gold. Vashti, the king's wife and queen, decided that the boys shouldn't be the only ones to enjoy themselves, so she threw a party of her own and asked in all the girls.

By the time the seventh day rolled around, the king was feeling no pain. Having shown off all his other treasures, he decided the moment had come to show off Queen Vashti too. She was a raving beauty, and he wanted to see the rest of the boys turn green with envy when he paraded her around in front of them for a while. So he sent word to her through a couple of eunuchs to get down there in a hurry. On the grounds that she was a human being rather than a silver couch and that a woman was as good as a man any day, she refused to be trotted out as a sex object and turned the king down flat.

Needless to say, the king was fit to be tied. Not only had he and his friends been personally insulted, but if Vashti was allowed to get away with a thing like that, who could tell what the girls would be up to next. Maybe even asking for the vote. Therefore he divorced her on the spot and married a lady named Esther instead.

That is how Queen Vashti lost her throne but kept her self-respect, and there seems to be absolutely no question as to which of the two she valued more highly.

Esther 1-2 

-Originally published in Peculiar Treasures and later in Beyond Words