PERFORMANCE TASK IN THEOLOGY

GUILE DEO LAGUMBAY

12 STEM C

We spend so much time as young people trying to figure out our vocation that it unwittingly
mixes with the drive to find the proper job and career. Katie O'Neill's piece brilliantly
encapsulates the core of Christian vocation it begins with our baptism, not with our
professional choices. The call of the Gospel is the cornerstone of all our vocations as
Christians.

As theologians, my colleagues and I spend a lot of time talking about our "vocation" in the
academy, the university, and the Church. The complexity of living in these many groups may
be intimidating for younger researchers, like myself. When we realize that our vocation is not
"theologian," but "Christian," a beautiful but demanding unity develops in the understanding
that accepting one's destiny is to answer to a summons from God. When one realizes this, the
drastic differences between a The distinction between a vocation as a nurse and a vocation as
a theologian begins to dissolve. And, the pressure to get it “right” as if it then becomes a
closed subject fades in light of the Christian’s ongoing call to discernment and conversion.

Personal experience has taught me that determining my vocation to be a theologian is only the
beginning; deciding HOW to achieve that and WHAT that implies necessitates a constant
openness to the call of the Gospel. When I was asked to provide guidance on end-of-life care
as a moral theologian, I came to grasp both the complexity and simplicity of my own calling.
My grandpa suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and died after 7 days in critical care, just as I was
starting my dissertation. Those seven days felt like an eternity, filled with agonizing
decisions, awful medical realities, and a lot of waiting. I got my first "request for help as a
Catholic moral theologian" a few weeks after his death. A family member contacted to seek
my professional opinion on how to care for a dying family member in light of Church
doctrine. It was the combination of my academic theology understanding and my experience
with end-of-life decision-making that enabled me to give pastoral care at that time. This
practical, pastoral function of the moral theologian in human relationships had never occurred
to me as part of my sense of my vocation. In my mind, questions of medical ethics and
specific situations tended to include medical ethics committees and the like. I hadn't
considered the moral theologian's pastoral function as separate from that of a priest, parish
minister, or counselor. During that one month emotionally agonizing and professionally hard
I learned to enjoy "being a moral theologian" in a new way.

How can I live a life of discipleship as an essential component of any vocation? And how can
we build a just and trustworthy community? When we start with our Christian vocation as the
basis, we may be less prone to tie our calling to a profession or to create a hierarchy of
competing vocations. By doing so, we increase our chances of accepting our own vocation
with humility and appreciating those of our neighbors, and thereby incorporating this into the
larger lifetime process of discernment and continual conversion. This is a major issue for all
Christians, but it also relieves a lot of pressure to "get right" that "ideal point that is one's
particular calling."