Calling (religion)

Under appeal in religious - spiritual sense perceiving / feel is understood an inner voice that urges one to a particular mission in life. One speaks of a vocation to love and to life (in abundance), which is deeply anchored in the heart of every single person.

Vocation from a religious-spiritual point of view

In this sense, so-called vocation stories can be found in the religious writings of almost all religions . It usually tells the story of religious founders , prophets or priests . The appointed religious specialists of many non- scripted ethnic religions are called shamans .

Calling from a biblical point of view

In both the Old and New Testaments, people were called to serve. Based on these appointment histories, the following characteristics of the appointment can be worked out:

• The prophets were called by God even before they were born ( Judges 16.17  EU ; Isa 49.1  EU ; Jer 1.5  EU ).
• God appeals can not repent him ( Rom 11:29  LU ).
• God did not call to uncleanness, but to sanctification ( 1 Thess 4,7  LU ).

The apostle Paul writes about the calling of Christians that they are called to freedom, but that freedom should not be misunderstood ( Gal 5:13  EU ). Rather, it is about the freedom of asceticism and charity ( Gal 5,14  EU ).

This understanding of the prophetic calling is shared by the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions.

Vocation from a Roman Catholic point of view

At the latest with the Second Vatican Council , the Roman Catholic Church (again) knows a general vocation to holiness , i.e. H. also of the laity, by virtue of baptism (and confirmation), who impart a universal priesthood to every believer. Unlike the Protestant churches, the Catholic Church also has an ordained priesthood for the ordained priest and / or a special vocation as a religious.

The general vocation of every believer to holiness

According to the dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium of the Vatican Council , “It is clear to everyone ... that all believers in Christ of all rank or rank are called to the fullness of Christian life and to perfect love” invited and committed to their level of perfection. "

Following on from this, Pope John Paul II says in Christifideles laici (December 30, 1988): “The assertion is not exaggerated that the meaning of the whole life of the lay person consists in the knowledge of the radical ones contained in baptism as the sacrament of faith To arrive at the novelty of the Christian in order to respond to the calling he has received from God and to fulfill the duties connected with it ”(n. 10). “The laity take part in their own way in the threefold ministry of Christ - priestly, prophetic and royal” (No. 14). “The novelty of Christianity is the foundation and legal ground for the equality of all the baptized in Christ, for the equality of all members of God's people” (No. 15). “The dignity of the laity is fully revealed to us when we consider the first and fundamental vocation which the Father in Jesus Christ addresses to each of them through the Holy Spirit: the vocation to holiness, that is, to perfection in love. The saint is the most perfect testimony of the dignity bestowed on Christ's disciple. The Second Vatican Council said decisive things about the universal calling to holiness. It can even be said that this is the most important commission of a council which had as its aim the renewal of the Christian life in the spirit of the Gospel (41) to all the sons and daughters of the Church ”(n. 16).

In the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (KKKK) (2005) it says in n. 188: “The special vocation of the lay faithful is to seek the kingdom of God by illuminating and arranging temporal things according to God. In this way they carry out the vocation to holiness and apostolate that goes to all the baptized. "

The vocation to religious life and priesthood

The Church sees the vocation to the priesthood and to religious life as a special grace . A classic definition of the vocation is given by St. Alphons Maria Liguori : In order to be called to the class of seminarist or religious , one needs a pure intention and the firm determination to use all available means to realize this intention. According to this definition, calling is not a feeling but a good intention. God gives grace to accomplish this goal through the help offered by the Church. There are two constraints on this: the candidate must have the health and character traits to embark on the intended path, and he or she must be approved by the superiors appointed by the Church.

Obstacles to a vocation can be health-related or determined by the need of the parents. Likewise, a spiritual guide should prevent a candidate from entering the rank of religious if it is clear that it is about an escape from the world or the desire for a comfortable life. It must also be investigated whether the candidate was not forced to take this step by his parents. However, as long as the intention is fair and there is no insurmountable obstacle, the candidate should not be prevented.

Quotes

Joseph Ratzinger emphasized: “One cannot choose one's own priesthood. It cannot be thought of as a way of achieving security in life, earning a living, achieving social status. One cannot simply choose it as something with which one finds security, friendship, security; how one would like to build a life. It can never be just your own care, your own choice. Priesthood, when it is right, one cannot give oneself or seek for oneself. It can only be an answer to his will and his call. "

Vocation from a Protestant point of view

Martin Luther developed his conception of profession and calling primarily from the Pauline invitation that everyone remain in the calling in which he was called ( 1 Cor 7:20  LUT ) and removed any priority of a religious calling over secular activities. Every external vocation of a person is therefore based on an internal vocation by God and each individual experiences this vocation due to very special qualities and abilities to serve one's neighbor and thereby for God. From this point of view, speaking to Luther, the stable maid is like the prince. Any professional fulfillment in the narrower as well as in the broader sense, for example also voluntary work, is understood by Luther as worship. In Protestant ethics, clerics and religious do not have the right to a religious vocation privilege.

Religious and ecclesiastical vocation from a sociological point of view

In a purely sociological context, the religious vocation is also closely related to the choice of profession . As early as 1972, the Catholic religious sociologist and pastoral theologian Hermann Steinkamp referred to a more distant relationship to church-clerical professions due to the progressive "democratization and secularization of the traditional ethical-vocative professional concept and the individual achievement and advancement ideology inherent in it. [...] In the modern professional consciousness, the classic church profession is a non-profession. ”He correctly predicted that sociologically speaking, the late calling would be the normal case of a calling in the special church sense.

See also

• St. Lambert Study House
• St. Matthias Waldram , Wolfratshausen near Munich
• Vocation

literature

• Burke O. Long, Falk Wagner: Art. Appeal I. Old Testament II. New Testament III. Dogmatic . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie 5 (1980), pp. 676-713
• Antier, Yvette and Jean-Jacques: Escape from the world? How people live in monasteries today. Questions to religious, Freiburg i. Br. 1982.
• Michael Höffner: Calling in the field of tension between freedom and necessity (Studies on Systematic and Spiritual Theology, Vol. 47). Wurzburg 2009.

Web links

• Materials on the subject of appointment (Archdiocese of Freiburg)
• Materials on the subject of religious vocation with the possibility to ask questions in the vocation forum (Salesians Don Boscos)
• What does “calling” mean?

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lumen Gentium , No. 40 [1]
2. ↑ Lumen Gentium , No. 42 aE [2]
3. ^ Pope John Paul II: Post-Synodal Writing Christifideles Laici. [3]
4. ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church. Compendium. Munich: Pattloch 2005, No. 188
5. ↑ Alphons von Liguori, Praxis Confessarii, Chapter 7, No. 92, in: Theologia Moralis, Volume 4, pp. 578-579.
6. ↑ Thomas Aquinas, Quodlib. 3, art. 14th
7. ↑ Joseph Ratzinger: Calling , in: ders .: sich give in seine Willen (1986), Gesammelte Schriften 12, p. 474 (477 f.), Quoted from: Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference (ed.): Der Glaube der Kirche. A theological reader based on texts by Joseph Ratzinger. Bonn 2011 (Working Aids; No. 248 (dbk.shop.de) , p. 17.
8. ↑ Wolfgang Huber, Social Responsibility and Entrepreneurial Action, April 10, 2008, II. ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ Steinkamp, ​​Hermann, Youth and Church Professions - seen from a sociological point of view, in: Werkheft zur Berufungspastoral 10/1972, pp. 14, 18 and 22.