Reflection This Week
FOR EVERYONE THERE IS A MISSION

Years ago psychotherapist Viktor Frankl, who in his practice dealt with many, many people who seemed to have lost their way or felt that they were mere cogs in someone else’s wheel, if even that, made this observation. “Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated; thus, everyone’s task is unique as his specific opportunity.”

   There are times in the lives of each one of us when we pause, take a step back and reflect on what our life is all about. We wonder if we are making a difference in this world, if the world would miss us if we should suddenly die, even if anyone would care. It’s not that we have such a poor self-image so much as it is that this world is so very large and we are so very small, so, it seems, so insignificant.

   In our pondering we can come to the conclusion that even if we are doing a fairly good job of whatever it is we are doing, someone else can probably do it better, faster, whatever. That may well be so. That does not mean, however, that we are useless. It simply means that we can do better, should do better, and then need to get on with doing so. It certainly does not mean that we are failures.

   Frankl’s point is not only that the world would be less without us but that the world depends on us to fulfill our mission, our vocation, to the very best of our ability. The world needs you. They world needs me. And, whether or not Frankl would concur, the truth is that God needs us. The reason why God created us in the first place is to fulfill a need that no one else can.

   That should give us pause, should make us sit up and take notice of just how important our vocation is at this moment in time and at this moment in our lives. Perhaps the reason why we sometimes doubt ourselves is that we tend to compare our vocation, whatever it is, to that of others, especially those whose vocation is the same as ours. If, in our estimation, we come up short, is it any wonder why we may have self-doubts.

   Yes, someone else could be (fill in the blank, namely, our particular vocation). Someone else may very well will be once we have moved on and departed this life. But at this moment in time no one else has been called, has that particular vocation, that each of us has. God created us to discover and then fulfill the mission that is uniquely ours – and no one else’s! And while it is an occasion for pride to realize just how important we are, it is also an occasion for humility as well. No matter how good we are, we can always be and do better. No one is perfect.

   It behooves us every once in a while to step back and take a closer look at our vocation, examine the mission in life that God has created us to fulfill. It should be a time for honesty, for humility, for pride. It should not be a time for self-loathing or feeling a sense of failure. We don’t fail. We simply do not, at times, live up to the expectations God has for us and we should have for ourselves. What this means, of course, is that there is always time and room for improvement.

   May we take that time and make that room.    WJP