Vigils Reading – Office for Vocations

THE CALL OF GOD

By Hans Urs von Balthasar1

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Every call of God is a proclamation of the eternal election by which he

“chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy

and without blemish in his sight in love”; by which he “predestined us to be

adopted through Jesus Christ as his sons”. It is an act of love, and its goal is the

holiness that is always a form of love. Because it has been formed and shaped

by the laws of love, it can be comprehended only in terms of love.

It follows that God can issue the commandment of love, which is the

essential content of every genuine call, in varying degrees of urgency and clarity.

For many, its sound is dissipated; they regard it as something to be taken for

granted, as something that does not require their special attention. Of course,

God demands love; of course there is such a thing as a first and greatest

commandment; of course every Christian is called to obey it, whether well or

badly, to the best of his ability. And God will help our weakness, and, we hope,

forgive our failings. So far as its content is concerned, the commandment of love

sounds plainly enough, but it strikes no answering chord in the one who hears

it. It compels him to no conclusions that could force him out of the rut he is in.

The call to love God boundlessly is always, at the same time, God’s

offering of his own love to the one thus called. Because this is so, the call bears

in itself the possibility not only of understanding, but also of responding to the

love to which it calls. Indeed every special form of the divine call contains also

the special grace of the response. All forms of God’s special call are forms of love

and, for that reason, different from the mere command that a master might

issue to his servant… The manner and the very sound of God’s voice can be9

different depending on…the personal love of God that is reflected in the

invitation to personal discipleship.