Another Look at Call

          In her book, The Seeker and the Monk, Sophfronia Scott writes about call.  Even though I have thought a great deal about the notion of call and have even write a few pieces, it is good to take another look at what a call is and how does it work.  Scott offered me a fresh way to take this new look.  Scott’s book narrates a dialogue between herself, as the seeker, and the deceased monk, Thomas Merton.  Since Merton died in 1968, Scott never met him.  She only knows him through his writings and what a few older folks who did know Merton have told her.  When you read her book, however, it seems like she and Merton have been best buddies for quite some time!

            Oddly enough the context for Scott’s consideration of call is a section about gun control.  Scott and her family live in Sandy Hook, CT, the city where the horrific school shooting happened in 2012.  Scott’s son, Tain, was a third grader in that school that fateful day.  He was not physically hurt, but carries scars of some friends who were murdered.  Scott tells the story about meeting a woman who was active gun control lobbying and demonstrating.  Scott informs us she is not into big demonstrations.  She has this in common with Merton.

            Interestingly, when Sophfronia tells the woman she was not going to be participating in big demonstrations, the woman replied, “It’s all right.  We are here to do this work for you…You lived through it, and that’s enough.” (112) Scott reflects and makes this statement: “This is my calling, she was saying.”  Interestingly, Scott adds to this thought.  “I realized when I had responded to her earlier, I was speaking from a place of darkness and no hope.  She handed hope back to me, a butterfly with gentle, golden wings.” 

            Scott continues to reflect on the notion of calling.  She touches some familiar bases.  Often a call comes to us that we really don’t want, as it did when God calls Moses to lead the people out of the bondage of Egypt.  We think we are not up to the task.  We cringe because to obey the call is difficult.  Often it means that people don’t like us.  In fact, once the people did follow Moses out of slavery, the landed in the middle of the desert and began yelling at their leader.  They wanted to know why he brought them to this God-forsaken place!  Moses must have concluded you can’t win.  All of us have been there!

            I appreciate how Sophfronia gives the woman credit for what Scott calls “a much-needed piece for discernment.”  She continues, “Sometimes you answer a call because there is work to be done that others cannot do.” (113)  I find this intriguing.  I too feel like I have been called to particular tasks.  In none of those cases do I think someone else could also have done the task.  But no one would have done it the way I did it.  In that sense my calling and response were unique.  I am willing to believe that is why God calls us in particular ways and perhaps to particular places.

            As I think further about call, it seems clear that we use that language of call to point to some claim that is laid on me that comes from somewhere other than my ego or what I necessarily want to do.  In the world of religion call typically is associated with God.  Even folks who are not necessarily religious sometimes vaguely can talk about being called.  They will use some language like “feeling drawn” or “compelled” to do something.  The might allude to some “force” in the universe who prompts them to do something.

            If I follow this logic, it seems clear that authentic calls come from outside my own egocentric desires and, therefore, my call puts my self a the service of something other than my own ego fulfillment.  I think authentic calls are other-focused.  To obey a call means I accept it is not about me.  If it is about me, then likely it is not a call.

            The final thing Scott says is something I probably should have thought about, but had never considered.  She talks about callings in the plural.  According to her, in our lifetime we are likely to be given multiple calls.  In saying this, I don’t think she wants to imply that someone who feels called to the priesthood, for example, is not called for a lifetime.  The corollary is also true. Just because someone is called to the priesthood, it does not necessarily mean it is a lifetime call---even for a Catholic. 

            One important implication of this is the point that calling is not limited to those folks who go into religious vocations, like the priesthood and the like.  I have no doubt that some are called to be social workers and some are called to be Sunday School teachers.  Calls tend not to be sexy, lucrative or roads to fame.  Those more likely are driven by our egos.  In fact, calls are more likely to put us at odds with some of our neighbors and place us out of touch with what makes people popular. Calls are more likely to be prophetic.  No wonder Moses said, “What? Me?”  I can relate!

            The last question I would have for Sophfronia is one she does not answer.  I wonder how folks know their call is finished or over?  This becomes especially true if we receive multiple callings in our life.  Maybe I have simply ask the bookend questions of calling: how do we get a call and how do we finish and get out of the call?  As I ponder that, I realize I probably will have yet another look at call sometime down the road.  But for now, this is where I am…thanks to my friend, Sophfronia Scott.