The Religious State: Together with a Short Treatise on The Vocation to the Priesthood

I.

We ought to conform to the designs of God in the choice of a state of life, whatever it may be.

It is evident that our eternal salvation depends principally upon the choice of our state of life. Father Granada calls this choice the chief wheel of our whole life. Hence, as when in a clock the chief wheel is deranged the whole clock is also deranged, so, in the order of our salvation, if we make a mistake as to the state to which we are called, our whole life, as St. Gregory says, will be an error.

If, then, in the choice of a state of life we wish to secure our eternal salvation, we must embrace that to which God calls us, in which alone God prepares for us the efficacious means necessary to our salvation. For, as St. Cyprian says: "The grace of the Holy Spirit is given according to the order of God, and not according to our own will"; and therefore St. Paul writes: "Everyone hath his proper gift from God." That is, as Cornelius a Lapide explains it, God gives to everyone his vocation, and chooses the state in which he wishes him to be saved. This is the order of predestination described by the same apostle: "Whom he predestinated, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified and them he also glorified."

We must remark that in the world this doctrine of vocation is not much studied by some persons. They think it to be all the same, whether they live in the state to which God calls them, or in that which they choose of their own inclination, and therefore so many live a bad life and damn themselves.

But it is certain that this is the principal point with regard to the acquisition of eternal life. He who disturbs this order and breaks this chain of salvation will not be saved. With all his labors and with all the good he may do, St. Augustine will tell him: "Thou runnest well, but out of the way;" that is, out of the way in which God has called you to walk for attaining to salvation. The Lord does not accept the sacrifices offered up to him from our own inclination: "But to Cain and his offerings he had no respect." He even threatens with great chastisements those who, when he calls them, turn their backs on him in order to follow the whims of their own caprice. "Woe to you, apostate children," he says through Isaias, "that you would take counsel and not of me, and would begin a web and not by my spirit."

II. The Vocation to the Religious State. How Important it is to Follow it Promptly.

1. Misery to which one exposes one's self by not corresponding to it.

The divine call to a more perfect life is undoubtedly a special grace and a very great one, which God does not give to all; hence he has much reason to be indignant against those who despise it. How greatly would not a prince think himself offended, if he should call one of his vassals to serve him near his person, and this vassal should refuse to obey the call!