Jesus was walking along the shore of the lake Galilee when he saw two fishermen in a boat out in the water, Simon and Andrew. He called to them and asked them to be fishers of men and come with him, they didn't ask any questions and they followed Jesus. Further along the shore he saw two other fishermen, James and John, sons of Zebedee. He asked them to join him and be his disciples, and they went with Jesus, again without asking any questions, just leaving their father behind in the boat.
These four fishermen were like peasants, they were illiterate, and knew nothing about religion or philosophy etc, but yet Jesus chose them, this shows that he wants normal people as his disciples. The message for us today is that ordinary people like us are called to God, not just prime ministers and Arch Bishop's etc. When we hear it we must act upon it immediately and help Jesus to "catch people". It is our way of seeing and protecting God, he wants to see us achieve and become fully developed human beings in whatever we do, be it school or work, we are on a road to fulfilment.
We are drawn to what is said by God, and by commandments, it is our duty to server him, just like his disciples did in Jesus' day. They helped him let people know and realise what Christianity is, to serve God and lead a good life so when you are judged at the end of time you can go to eternal reward in heaven.Vocation (from the Latin word meaning "calling" means a calling from God to be followers of Jesus, to be members of the church, and to make their pilgrimage on Earth. From "Vocare" - to call, a calling from God to achieve our potential and fulfilment in using our gifts to do his work (talents Matthew 25:14-30). Christians believe they have a vocation. There are three different varieties of vocation, but one is not superior to the other.
In vocation, people are called to do something, and different people are called in different ways, those could be the laity, religious orders or holy orders.Laity are people who are not called to live in a specific state of life, this could be an everyday job such as a nurse, a manager, or someone at the till at Sainsbury's, etc. Religious orders include nuns, monks and brothers, these people dedicate their lives to fulfilling their vocation as one of God's brothers/sisters. The final type of vocation is Holy Orders; these are priests, so they would, like nuns, monks and brothers dedicate their life to following God, but they would serve the people, in masses etc.
Vocation is a far more complex issue than talking about priests and nuns today than in the past.Some people, like the older generation in Ireland, still treat Priests as superior to everyone else. They think that because they server mass and dedicate their life to God, they should be treated like royalty. The younger generation of Ireland don't think this anymore, along with England, who stopped this hundreds of years ago.
Priests have to be celibate, and serve the people and God. Nuns, monks and brothers have to live by chastity, obedience and poverty, they only server God, but not a community, like priests do. They still had the respect by the older generation and the superiority but not as much as Holy Orders because they don't serve the people.Vocation is various, all are needed (1Cor12), one vocation is not superior to another vocation, if someone is a priest, they are just as equal in God's eyes, say as a woman working a till at ASDA. It may not seem like much of a job, but she could be a mother of 3, and just working the extra hours so she could to afford to look after her children better.
If their job is the best they can do, to their full potential, then it is a right vocation for them. Everyone thinks that vocations could only be things like religious orders, holy orders, nurses, doctors and other important jobs.The laity (ordinary people like Jesus' disciples in his day) can apply, defend and teach their faith; this is how they follow Christ in their daily lives. Examples of applying could be:Stopping violence* Preventing harmful drugs* Preventing crime* Feeding the hungry* Housing the homeless* Healing the sickThere were all Christ's teaching's in his time, applied by us, the laity in our time, a good example to cover a few of them could be either a police officer or a missionary.We also have to defend Christ's' teaching though:* Hope and prayer* Faith* LoveA good example of defending our faith in the modern day could be Ghandi, Martin Luther King or Mother Teresa.
The first two, Ghandi and King went around preaching about God and their faith, they got people to listen, and that made the difference.Principles of Christ could be taught by:* Reading in church* Missionary work* TeachingA good example would be being a R.E. teacher, or a missionary. Christians could also preach in the streets about their faith, quite a few people would listen.
