By Fr. Joe Mannath, SDB –
Clara comes from a wealthy Japanese family. Her father was a director in the world-famous finance company, Mitsui. Her sister got married to an IBM executive, and had two children.
Clara too was in love with a very nice young man, who loved her sincerely. As the family was getting ready for her wedding, however, Clara began to experience a different call. She felt called by God to the religious life. Her father knew a community of sisters, and took Clara there for a look. The sisters invited her to stay overnight.
Coming from a wealthy family where she had so much—for instance, a grand piano for her birthday—she found herself miserable in the little room in the convent. There was nothing in the room but the bare walls and a bulb. The convent did not even have running water. “I cried the whole night,” Clara told me. She went back home.
In the week she spent at home, she realized this simple and profound truth: “I do not need any of these things to be happy. Jesus Christ is enough for me.” Clara went back to the same convent, to join religious life.
The man she loved did not understand her choice. “This madness—how long will it last?” he asked her. “If I choose it, it is for life,” she told him. “I will wait two years for you,” he replied—and he did. Later, finding that she really wanted this other path, he married someone else.
Clara is a happy, loving and genuine woman, who has impressed me and others for her sincerity, cheerfulness, depth, readiness to listen and learn. Intelligent and charming, she relates well and inspires. Right now, she is the provincial of her order in Japan. (She will be really surprised to know I am writing about her.)
* * *
The other story I want to write about is about a seminarian I knew well in Poonamallee. Let us call him Selvam.
Feeling convinced that seminary life is not where his heart was, he decided to leave. This decision was hard, for reasons quite different from Clara’s. Selvam came from a poor family in rural Tamilnadu. When his parents heard of his decision, they were deeply upset. His father scolded him for leaving. “What will the villagers say now?” he shouted. “Besides, we thought you would become a priest and help us, as other priests are doing.”
Selvam comes to meet me now and then. I know the tough times he has been going through—financial insecurity, lack of a decent job and a place to stay, uncertainty about the future. When we met last, all he had was a very small casual job, which brought him neither security nor a decent income. In spite of all this, he told me he was happy with his decision. “I don’t want to receive everything free, as in the seminary,” he said. “I want to work. It is true that I have lots of difficulties. I am also trying to send some money to my parents…”
I admire Selvam for his honest decision, which required courage and the readiness to face himself and a difficult family situation.
* * *
Both Clara and Selvam show a similar type of courage, honesty and trust in God—the desire to be true to one’s innermost convictions, even when others around might not understand; the readiness to let go of what is easy and provided by others; to trust God and one’s heart enough to make a leap of faith; to face the hardships of the untried setting.
In these very positive traits, both of them have inspired me.
Just as one person may find his/her true call in leaving the security of a loving home and giving oneself to another type of loving commitment, someone else may find God’s will in leaving the security of the seminary or religious house and taking up responsibility for oneself and one’s family.
Both paths can be lived with love, with joy, with real holiness.
Both paths can be ruined by selfishness, by superficiality, by lack of faith.
Under the different garbs, all of us have the same call—to respond to God’s incredibly tender love for us with a generous and ever-growing love, expressed in service, in forgiveness, in justice and integrity.
Entering God’s “inner circle” is light years away from the ways of the world. Right connections, or a badge on our shirt (saying, SDB, Mother Superior, Bishop, etc) will not get us in. Only authenticity counts.
Our vocation is far more than a question of “staying in” or making the profession or getting ordained. Who is more authentic, and how far each of us responds to God in our heart, is something known only to God. Both Clara and Selvam are good examples to follow—depending on what is really happening inside us.
May we go where truth and love lead us.
Father Joe Mannath, SDB is an associate professor in the University of Madras and an adjunct professor at the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. He is a member of Mensa International, Indian Theological Association and former President of the Association of Christian Philosophers of India and founder-member, Salesian Psychological Association, India. Fr. Mannath is also the National Secretary of CRI and the editor of CRI Magnet magazine. The article is used with permission from his blog http://www.joe-mannath.org/