VOCATION
499
VOCATION
state require some further remarks. Unlike the
observance of the evangehcal counsels, the ecclesias-
tical state exists primarily for the good of religious
society; and the Church has given the religious state
a corporate organization. Those who belong to a
religious order not only follow the evangelical coun-
sels for themselve.<i, but are accepted by the Church,
more or less officially, to represent in reUgious society
the practice of the rules of perfection; and to offer it
to God as a part of pubhc worship. (See RELiGions
Life; Vows.) From this it follows that the eccle-
siastical profession is not as accessible to all as the
religious state; that in order to enter the religious
state at the present day, conditions of health, of char-
acter, and sometimes of education are required which
are not demanded by the evangelical counsels taken
in themselves; and that, both for the religious and for
the ecclesiastical state, admission by lawful authority
is necessary. At the present day, it is necessary that
two wills should concur before a person can enter the
religious state; it has always been necessary that two
wills should concur before one can enter the ranks of
the clergj'. The Council of Trent pronounces an
anathema on a person who represents as lawful minis-
ters of the Gospel and the sacraments any who have
not been regularly ordained and commissioned by
ecclesiastical and canonical authority (Sess. XXIII,
iii, iv, vii). A vocation which is by many persons
called exterior thus comes to be added to the interior
vocation; and this exterior vocation is defined as the
admission of a candidate in due form by competent
authority. The question of vocation itself so far as
the candidate is concerned may be put in these terms:
Are you doing a thing which is pleasing to God in
offering yourself to the seminary or the novitiate?
And the answer depends on the preceding data: yes,
if your intention is honest, and if your strength is
sufficient for the work. X further question may be
put to the candidate for the priesthood: if you do well
in desiring to become a priest, would you perhaps do
better by becoming a religious? It is to be remarked
that the candidate for the priesthood ought already
to have the virtues required by his state, while the
hope of acquiring them is sufficient for the candidate
for the religious life. The question an ordinary of a
diocese or superior of a religious community should
meet is: Considering the general interest of the order
or the diocese, is it right that I should accept this or
that candidate? And although the candidate has
done well in offering himself the answer may be in the
negative. For Ciod often suggests plans which He
does not require or desire to be carried into effect,
though He is preparing the reward which He will
bestow on the intention and the trial. The refusal
of the ordinary or superior debars the candidate from
entering the lists of the clergy- or religious. Hence
his approval may be said to complete the Divine
vocation. Moreover, in this life a person often enters
into indissoluble bonds which God desires to see
respected after the fact. It remains therefore for the
man who has laid himself under such an obligation to
accommodate himself to the state in which God, Who
will give him the help of His grace, now wishes him
to persevere." This is the express teaching of St.
Ignatius in his "Spiritual Exercises": With regard
to this present will of God, it may be said, at least
of priests who do not obtain a disjien.sation, that
sacerdotal ordination confers a vocation upon them.
This however does not imply that they have done
well in offering them.selves for ordination.
This appears to give tis ground for the true solution of the recent controversies on the subject of vocation.
Two points have been made the subjects of contro- versy in the consideration of vocation to the eeclrsi- a.stical state: how does Divine Providence make its decrees known to men? How does that Providence reconcile its decrees with liberty of human action in
the choice of a state of life? Cassian exjjlains very
clearly the different kinds of vocation to the monastic
Hfe, in his "Collatio, III: De tribus abrenuntiation-
ibus", iii,iv,v(P. L., XLIX, 560-64). The Fathers of
the fourth and fifth centuries inculcate very strongly
the practice of virginity, and endeavour to answer
the text, "He that can take, let him take it " (Matt.,
xix, 12), which would seem to hmit the application of
the counsel. Saint Benedict admitted young children
presented by their parents to his order; and the canon-
ical axiom "Monachum aut paterna devotio aut
propria profes.sio facit" (c. 3, xx, q. 1), "A man be-
comes a monk either by parental consecration or by
personal profession", an axiom that was received in
the Western Church from the sixth to the eleventh
century, shows to what extent the religious life was
considered open and to be recommended as a rule to
all. A letter of St. Gregory the Great and another of
St. Bernard insist on the dangers incurred by those
who have decided to embrace the religious life and
still remain in the world. The necessity of a special
call for embracing the priesthood or the monastic
life is not treated by St. Thomas, but the reality of a
Divine call to higher states of life is clearly expressed
in the sixteenth century, notably in the "Spiritual
Exercises" of St. Ignatius. Suarez worked out a
complete theory of vocation (De religione, tr. VII,
I-V, viii). Independently of a natural progress
which brings new matters into discussion, two causes
combined to raise the controversy on this point, viz.
the abuse of forced vocations, and a mysticism which
is closely related to Jansenism. In former times it
was the custom for noble families to place their
younger sons in the seminary or some monastery
without considering the tastes or qualifications of the
candidates, and it is not difficult to see how disastrous
this kind of recruiting was to the sacerdotal and
rehgious hfe. A reaction set in against this abuse,
and yoimg men were exjjected, instead of following
the choice of their parents, a choice often dictated by
purely human considerations, to wait for a special
call from God before entering the seminary or the
cloister. At the same time, a semi-Quietism in
France led people to believe that a man ought to
defer his action until he was conscious of a special
Divine impulse, a sort of Divine message reveahng
to him what he ought to do. If a person, in order
to practice virtue, was bound to make an inward
examination of himself at every moment, how much
more necessary to listen for the voice of God before
entering upon the sublime path of the priesthood or
monastic life? God was supposed to speak by an
attraction, which it was dangerous to anticipate: and
thus arose the famous theory which identified voca-
tion with Divine attraction; without attraction there
was no vocation; with attraction, there was a voca-
tion which was, so to speak, obhgatory, as there was
so much danger in disobedience. Though theoreti-
cally free, the choice of a state was practically neces-
sary : "Those who are not called ", says Scavini (Theol.
moral., 14th ed., I,i, n. 473), "cannot enter the relig-
ious state: those who are called must enter it ; or what
would be the use of the call?" Other writers, such
as Gury (II. n. 14S-50), after having stated that it is
a grave fault to enter the religious state when con-
scious of not having been called, correct themselves
in a remarkable manner by adding, "unless they have
a firm resolution to fulfil the duties of their state".
For the general conduct of life, we know that God, while guiding man, leaves him free to act, that all good actions are graces of God, and at the same time free acts, that the happiness of heaven will be the reward of good life and still the effect of a gratuitous predestination. We are bound to .serve God always, and we know that, besides the acts commanded by Him, there are acts which He blesses without making them obligatory, and that among good acts there are
