Cardinal William Goh urged young Catholics to discern their vocations not as career choices but as deep and compelling calls from God.
Speaking at the Mass for the World Day for Consecrated Life early this month, he cautioned against weighing the pros and cons of different vocations based on material benefits.
“For many people, discernment is for them to see which is a better ‘job’ – will they have more benefits by being a priest or religious, or out in the world where they have greater freedom and resources to do what they want,” the prelate said.
Instead, he emphasized that a vocation is about recognizing God’s call so profoundly that one cannot refuse it.
“It’s so intimate and so compelling that we just surrender ourselves,” Catholic News SG, the official news site of the Church in Singapore, quoted the prelate.
Cardinal Goh delivered his message to an audience of approximately 120 religious priests, brothers, and sisters from 18 congregations, along with 650 lay faithful at the Blessed Sacrament Church, which the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary administers.
The World Day for Consecrated Life was established by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1997 to coincide with the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord on Feb. 2.
The day, also known as Candlemas, traditionally includes the blessing and lighting of candles as a symbol of Christ as the light of the nations.
Pope John Paul II described the feast as an “eloquent icon” of the total offering of one’s life through the evangelical counsels – the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience taken by many religious.
“If we don’t have light from Jesus, we cannot be a light to the world,” said Cardinal Goh. He further emphasized that priestly and religious vocations require a profound encounter with the Lord.
“The vows and the work you do will be meaningless without a relationship with the Lord,” he said.
Jesuit regional superior Fr Francis Lim echoed Cardinal Goh’s sentiments, affirming that religious life is a personal call from God rather than a pursuit of personal fulfillment.
“In order to persevere in a vocation, one must always return to that original call from God, especially in times of challenges in living out religious life,” said Fr Lim, 55, who has been a priest for 13 years.
Fr Lim, who also serves as the newly-elected president of the Conference of Religious Major Superiors of Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei, shared that religious congregations in Singapore plan to collaborate more in the formation of their young members.
