Second Sunday B - Vocation
January 2009
‘Someone suggested that if Jesus had sent his twelve disciples for psychological testing this might well be the reply he would have received: Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have taken our battery of tests. We have run the results through our own computer. After having arranged personality interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant, it is the opinion of our staff that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the enterprise. They have no team concept. Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has no qualities for leadership. The two brothers James and John place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas shows a sceptical attitude that would tend to undermine morale. Matthew has been blacklisted by the Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, definitely have radical leanings, and registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale. One of the candidates however, shows real potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, understands finance, is ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man.’
When I joined the Seminary in 1957 there were 41 of us. We came from a broad cross section of Irish society and were moved to come by ‘God only knows’ what motives.
For our first year we were not allowed to go home and were in the charge of two priests who were regarded as ‘sound men.’ This meant that they were often seen on their knees and had very little imagination. They had no training whatever and were expected to learn on the job by trial and error. Anyway at that time training for this type of job did not exist. Of the original 41 only 18 were ordained.
Today things are different. People have to undergo all sorts of training and assessments - spiritual, mental and psychological - before they are entrusted with the formation of seminarians. The seminarians also are being constantly assessed by the same methods.
A joke among us ‘old hands’ is that if we had to undergo the same assessment as they do today none of us would have been ordained.
I know priests who are manic-depressives, I know priests who are alcoholics, I know priests who are paedophiles, I know priests who are schizophrenic, I know priests who are on the job 24 hours a day, I know priests who are seldom on the job. I know priests who are always approachable and others who are not. I know priests who are great with the sick and those who are useless with the sick. I know priests who are great catechists and others who would bore one to distraction. I know priests who are always seen praying and others who are never seen praying. And everything in between. Just as you would find in any job or profession.
1 Cor. 1:27-29. ‘God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.’
So no matter how unsuitable you are by human reckoning, Jesus is calling you to be a disciple of one sort or another.