As we fulfill our vocation most of us get some immediate or earthly rewards that quite frankly are an incentive for us to keep going. Those who are married get the reward of companionship. They know they have a companion, they know they can build a home together, they know they can make plans together, if they travel or they go out to dinner or to the movies, they enjoy their spouse’s company. If they are not invited on Thanksgiving Day or on Christmas day or on Easter Sunday they can still celebrate somehow. Parents also are rewarded as their children express their love for them and as they achieve their academic goals and most especially when parents realize that their children turned out to be good people. That’s very rewarding. Priests and religious also get rewarded as they fulfill their ministerial duties. Most priests and religious are loved and respected by the people they serve; most of them get a pretty good education and have more opportunities to travel than their average parishioner.
Saint John the Baptist, however, did not get any immediate or earthly reward. His life was extremely difficult, not to mention his death. He didn’t get any reward that would motivate him to keep going, he didn’t get any incentives, but he kept going anyways. In spite of all the difficulties and the extreme circumstances, he persevered until the end, he didn’t give up, he didn’t get discouraged, he didn’t even complain. The conditions in which Saint John the Baptist fulfilled his mission were harsh, cruel, and inhumane.
We tend to complain about the hardships that come with our vocation. We like the perks that come with our vocation but we hate the disadvantages. Jesus didn’t tell anyone that his vocation was going to be an easy one. We want our vocation to be easy to fulfill, to give us lots of perks, to be an enjoyable one, we even want to be recognized for our achievements but we should remind ourselves that nobody was promised an easy vocation. We say yes to God, we say yes to a vocation expecting things to go well for us and when they don’t, we complain. I hear quite often people complaining about their spouse or their children, how stubborn they are, or how lazy they are; I hear priests complaining about their communities where the serve, how they don’t put enough money in the collection basket and how much work is expected of them.
I think we all have a lot to learn from Saint John the Baptist. Let us pray through his intercession that we might have the resolve and the endurance to keep fulfilling our vocation even when we face adversity, even in the midst of conflicts and scandal. May we all, following the example of Saint John the Baptist, may persevere until the end. Fr. Hernando December 2020