(Jeremiah 1:5 Ephesians 1:3-5) 

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5). 

Now compare that with these passages: 

· 2 Maccabees 7:22 - where a mother speaks to her sons: I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. 

· Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will... (Ephesians 1:3-5) 

an amazing truth 

It is worth your while reading over those passages again, letting them sink in. They are God's words and are capable of ushering us into a whole new dimension of thinking and of living. They pluck us out of our earth-bound thinking and free us, to enter into the life and dimensions and thought patterns of faith. These could be truly revolutionary words for you, they could turn your world upside down, they could mark a radical change in your life. Once they are accepted in faith. 

Let us go back over them to see what they say. But first, let us spare a thought for who is saying them. The words from Jeremiah's book are God's. Jeremiah is telling us what God told him when he gave him his calling. So they are words to be taken seriously; they are the real scoop, the source is completely reliable. No guesswork involved. Solid gold. Not to be easily dismissed. 

Jeremiah was like so many of us, with his nose stuck in the dust, busy with his own everyday problems, worried about where the next meal was coming from. Then God just burst in on his life.  

And how does God explain it? 

He does not say: How is this for a new plan for you I just came up with? Quite the opposite. He says something that quite simply amazes our human mind: Before ever you were even conceived in your mother's womb I knew you and I had set you apart for a special mission. In other words, the call you are only just perceiving now is not a recent, chance event - it has always been my idea for you. I never thought of you in any other way.  

Take some time. Go back over that slowly. Take the thought with you the next time you stop in and visit our Lord in the Eucharist, or go to Mass, or receive Communion.  

What God himself is telling us in Scripture is that he gave us life with an appointed task in mind. Our vocation goes back beyond our first encounter with a missionary or priest or sister, and much further back than that first thought of a vocation that wormed its way into our consciousness, that first "maybe" that perhaps shocked us. God's plan, our vocation, has deeper and more mysterious roots than that.  

That is why, when asking about a vocation, we often have to change our perspective and point of reference. Some people have "always known" their calling, wanted it from when they were extremely young, but for most it is something that has surprised them - whether by creeping up on them or suddenly popping up out of nowhere. Even in these cases, God tells us that in reality a vocation is something that was in his mind for us, from before we were born.  

This means that we cannot sort out or answer our questions about a vocation solely by looking at ourselves or referring to our "experiences." There is another dimension, there is a bigger picture that we have to enter into.  

the small picture 

It is our nature to look only at the smaller picture.  

· Abraham did, and laughed at God's message: My wife is old and I am advanced in years; in other words, What you are asking is impossible. (Genesis 17 and 18) 

· Moses did: "I cannot speak"; in other words, I am simply not cut out for the mission you are giving me. (Exodus 4) 

· Jeremiah did: I am but a child; in other words, it's too soon, I am not ready yet. (Jeremiah 1) 

· Jonah did: he tried to run away from God; in other words, Forget your plans, I've got other ideas for myself. (Jonah) 

· Isaiah did: Alas, Lord Yahweh, I am a man of unclean lips; in other words, I am not worthy of what you are calling me to. (Isaiah 6) 

The smaller picture is the one that our experience and our mind unaided by faith gives us. The small picture is our natural habitat, it doesn't require of us any change or effort. It is immediate, it seems more real to us than any other because it is the fruit of our experience. The smaller picture is what we live and feel and touch and hear and smell, and what we deduce from all of that experience without lifting our heads or our hearts any higher. In it we find our comfort and security. 

God's reaction  

How does God answer the prophets when they talk back to him, expressing their reservations by referring to their small picture? He says, it is me not you that has the key to this question. He rebukes them and gives them the big picture, the one we can only get when we look at things from his perspective. He does not retract his command or change the mission to suit their lack of faith. 

When Abraham, and then Sarah, laugh at the idea that they will have a child at their age, God asks them: Is anything too hard for God? and then he repeats his promise. 

God also asks Moses a question, Who made the tongue? and then he repeats his order, Go, I will be with you.  

Jeremiah gets much the same answer: Go, I will be with you.  

And Jonah fares no differently. God teaches him his lesson, and when the fish has put him on the beach again, God simply repeats his command.  

Isaiah has his lips purified and volunteers for the mission.  

Is it any different with the apostles and disciples? Scripture does not carry their words of objection, but from some things that Christ said we can suppose that even if they did not express their doubts, they harbored them in their hearts, and our Lord, who reads all that there is in the heart of man, said to them, When you are dragged before magistrates and judges because you are my followers, be not afraid what you will say on that day. I will put words into your mouths... Did they learn the lesson the first time around? Well, even after the resurrection we see them locking themselves up for fear of the Jews.  

the view from the top 

There is another piece of Scripture we should read now that we are on this subject, a truly beautiful passage which will help us greatly in gaining an understanding of God and our vocation. In it, God speaks about the Chosen Nation, but what he says can be applied to each of our souls: 

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt. But the more I called to them, the further they went from me; they have offered sacrifice to the Baals, and set their offerings smoking before idols. I myself taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in my arms; yet they have not understood that I was the one looking after them. I led them with reins of kindness, with leading strings of love. I was like someone who lifts an infant close against his cheek, stooping down to him, I gave him his food. (Hosea 11:1-4) 

Could he possibly have explained in a more beautiful and touching way his care and love for your soul? Can we read these words and then look back over our lives, and not come to the conclusion, and not be deeply moved by it, that God has watched over the life of each one of us with tenderness, compassion, forgiveness, love; undoubtedly with immense hope that we would someday recognize what he was doing and come back to him? That we would someday learn and accept the big picture? 

conclusion 

In other words, there is a bigger picture as regards your life, and it consists in what God has planned for it, what he has had in mind for you from all eternity. It is what he has been preparing you for and what he is gently leading you towards, insistently, but without forcing you and without destroying your liberty.  

It is, basically, what he wants to do through you.  

God knows what is in the heart of man. He is not deceived, he has known us always, we are no surprise for Him. He does not go by outward signs. He is not taken unawares by our ups and downs.  

Everything that has happened to you that is not fruit of your own evildoing is part of his plan. If you want to know what he wants, look at what he has been doing, read the signs and see what he has been leading up to. Open your heart as well as your mind. Do not be someone who has eyes (of faith) to see yet does not see, or ears (of faith) to hear and does not listen.