VOCATION
500
VOCATION
some which are better than others. We derive our
knowledge of the will of God, that will which demands
our obedience, which approves some of our acts, and
esteems some more highly than others, from Holy
Scripture and Tradition, by making use of the two-
fold light which God has bestowed upon us, faith and
reason. Following the general law, "do good and
avoid evil", although we can avoid all that is evil,
we cannot do all that is good. To accomphsh the
designs of God we are called upon to do all the good
that we are capable and all that we have the oppor-
tunity of doing; and the greater the good, the more
special our capability, the more extraordinary the
opportunity, so much the more clearly will reason
enlightened by faith tell us that God wishes us to
accomphsh that good. In the general law of doing
good, and in the faciUties given us to do it, we read a
general, or it may be even a special, invitation of God
to do it, an invitation which is pressing in proportion
to the excellence of the good, but which nevertheless
we are not bound to accept unless we discover some
duty of justice or charity. Often, too, we have to
hesitate in our choice between two incompatible
deeds or courses of action. It is a difficulty that
arises even when our decision is to influence the rest
of our hves, as, for instance, should we have to decide
whether to emigrate or to remain in our own country.
God also may help our choice by interior movements,
whether we are conscious of them or not, by inclina-
tions leading us to this or that course of action, or
by the counsels of a friend with whom we are provi-
dentially brought into contact; or He may even
clearly reveal to us His will, or his preference. But
this is an exceptional case; ordinarily the inward
feehng keeps and confirms our decision, but it is only
a secondary motive, and the principal part belongs
to sound reason judging according to the teachings of
faith. "They have Moses and the prophets", said
Christ in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus
(Luke, xvi, 29), and we have no need for any one to
rise from the dead to teach us our duty. According
to this simple exposition, it seems clear that each
good action of ours pleases God, that moreover He
specially desires to see us perform certain actions, but
that negligences and omissions in either sphere do not
generally cause a permanent divergence from our
right path. This rule is true even in the case of acts
whose results seem manifold and far-reaching. Other-
wise, God would be bound to make known to us clearly
both His own will and the consequences of our negli-
gence. But the offers of Divine Providence are
several or even many, though one may be more press-
ing than the other; and since every good action is
performed by the help of a supernatural grace which
precedes and accompanies it, and since with an
efficacious grace we would have done the good we have
failed to accomplish, we may say, of every good that
we do, that we had the vocation to do it, and of every
good that we omit, either that we had not the voca-
tion to do it, or, if we were wTong in omitting to do it,
that we paid no heed to the vocation. This is true
of faith itself. We believe, because we have received
an efficacious vocation to believe, which those who
live without faith have not received or have rejected
when their unbelief is their own fault.
Are these general views applicable to the choice of a state of life? or is that choice governed by special rules? The solution of this question involves that of the vocation itself. The special rules are to be found in Holy Scripture and Tradition. In Holy Scripture we read those general counsels of self- denial which all Christians are called upon to follow during their lives, while they are the object of a mure complete application in a .state which for that very reason may be {■ailed a state of perfection. Kthca- cious grace, notably that of perfect continence, is not given to all. "All men take not this word, but they
to whom it is given. ... He that can take, let him
take it" (Matt., xix, 11, 12). CathoUc interpreters,
however, basing their conclusion on the Fathers of the
Church, are at one in saying that God bestows this
gift either on all that pray for it as they should, or at
any rate on the generahtj' of those who dispose them-
selves to receive it (see Beelen, Kanbenbauer, on this
passage). But the choice is left free. St. Paul,
speaking of the same Christian, says "he that giveth
his virgin in marriage, doth well; and he that giveth
her not, doth better" (I Cor., vii, 38). On the other
hand, he must be guided by sound reason: "But if
they do not contam themselves, let them marry.
For it is better to marry than to be burnt" (I Cor.,
vii, 9). Moreover, the Apostle gives this general
advice to his disciple Timothy: "I will therefore that
the younger [widows] should marry" (I Tim., v, 14).
And yet, whatever his profession or condition, man
is not abandoned by Providence: "As the Lord has
distributed to every one, as God hath called every
one, so let him walk" (I Cor., vii, 17). Holy Scrip-
ture therefore applies to the profession of everj' man
the general principles laid down above. Nor is
there any trace of an exception in the Fathers of the
Church: they insist on the general ai>plication of the
evangehcal coun.sels, and on the importance of fol-
lowing them without delay; and on the other hand,
they declare that the choice is free, without danger of
incurring the loss of God's favour. They wish, how-
ever, that the choice should be prudently and reason-
ably exercised. See St. Basil, "On virginity", n. 55,
56;""Constit. monast.", xx; Ep. CLXXII; "Exhor-
tation to renounce the world", n. 1 (P. G., XXX,
779-82; XXXI, 626, 1394; XXXII, 647-49); St.
Gregory Nazianzen, "Against Julian", 1st discourse,
n. 99; "disc. 37, ahas 31 on St. Matthew, XIX, xi
(P. G., XXXV. 634; XXXVI, 298) ; St. John Chrysos-
tom, "On virginity"; "On penitence", Hom. VI, n.
3; "On St. Matthew", XIX, xi, xxi (P. G., XL VIII,
533 sqq.; XLIX, 318; LVIII, 600, 605); St. Cyprian,
"De habitu \-irginum", xxiii (P. L., IV, 463); St.
Ambrose, "De viduis", xii, xiii (P. L., XVI, 256,
259); St. Jerome Ep. CXXIII alias XI to Ageruchia;
"De monogamia"; "Against Jovinian", I; On St.
Matthew, XIX, xi, xii (P. L., XXII, 1048; XXIII,
227, 228; XXVI, 135, 136); St. Augustine, "De bono
coniugaU", x; "De sancta virginitate", xxx (P. L.,
XL, 381, 412); St. Bernard, "De pra?cepto et dispen-
satione", i (P. L., CLXXXII, 862). These te.xts are
examined in Vermeersch, "De vocatione reUgiosa et
sacerdotah", taken from the second volume of the
same author's "De religiosis institutis et personis",
suppl. 3. In comparison with such numerous and
distinct declarations, two or three insignificant
passages [St. Gregory, Ep. LXV (P. L., LXXVII,
603); St. Bernard, Ep. CVII, CVIII (P. L.,
CLXXXII, 242 sqq., 249 sqq.)], of which the last
two date only from the twelfth century, and are
capable of .another explanation, cannot be seriously
quoted as representing vocation as practically obhga-
tory. Neither St. Thomas, "Summa theologica", I-
II, Q. cviii, art. 4; II-II, Q. clxxxix, opusc. 17 alias 3,
nor Suarez "De religione", tr. VII, V, IV, n. i, 7, and
viii; nor Bellarmine " Demonachis", Controv. II;nor
Passerini, " De hominiun statibus" in Q. CLXXXIX,
art. 10, thinks of placing the choice of a state of hfe
in a category ap.art. .\nd thus we arrive at conclu-
sions which agree with those of Cornelius a Lapide in
his commentary on the seventh chapter of I Corin-
thians, and which reconnnend themselves by their
very simplicity. States of life are freely chosen and at
tlu- same time providentially given by God. The
higher the state of life the more cleiirly do we find
the positive action of Providence in the choice. In
tlie ca.se of most men, no Divine decree, logically
anterior to the knowledge of their free actions, assigns
to them this or that particular profession. The path
