To further deepen, by praying, the spiritual dimension of our Salesian vocation, Fr Juan J. Bartolomé offers us two schemes of prayer: the first, based on the Pauline account of his vocation; the second, on the only account in the gospel of a vocation that failed. Although quite different, both underline the fact that to follow Jesus one has first of all to find him and then leave everything including what is good for the call, both the law of God and the good things of God.
Describing to the Galatians the origin of his vocation Paul reveals to them the essential reason for his apostolic passion: he was ‘found’ by the Risen Lord, and he found his life’s mission;. a personal experience of God, which made him recognise His Son in his heart and led him to immediately preach the gospel. Without an encounter with God the
believer does not encounter his vocation.
The recollection of the good young man who could not follow Jesus because he did not want to detach himself from his goods, becomes a constant warning for those who are following him today. If the fact that Jesus has counted on us without our being able to tell him that we have kept all the things God expected of us ought to make us blush, we ought to be even more ashamed of the fact that we continue to follow him while remaining attached to our goods, and that we seek in Him the Supreme Good and at the same time we continue to accumulate other goods.
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