Dear Fred,

Your question is interesting, and will probably be helpful to many others because it makes us think about the relative importance of all the elements that make up our life and life-decisions.  

Lets start with the concrete case you mention. A man has a talent for professional sport, a quality given by God that he developed through much dedication and hard work. Thats only one part of the whole picture.  This same man also has other talents. One of them is spiritual. He has the talent to become a priest. In other words, God gave him the qualities and if he works with these qualities and uses the opportunities God gives him he will become a priest. If instead he dedicates himself to a professional career in sports he will never be a priest, he will have to give up that talent.

Which does it make sense to give up, if you cant have both?

It depends on the importance you give to each one, and also on the common sense fact that a successful sports career is by no means a given: injury, for example is a glaring reality that somehow never is part of the rosy picture we paint of the future.

A beautiful thing about life, something that teaches us so much about God our Creator, is that he gave each one of us multiple talents and abilities. God is not stingy with his gifts. He might want you to be his priest, but he does not make it so you dont appreciate or could not do other things in your life: sports, business, music, to name but a few and lets not forget marriage and being a father.  Now, if among all those talents he offers us the Pearl of Great Price of the priesthood, but which is going to mean giving up all the rest, it is not a misuse of our talents to use them as God wants and to sacrifice them so as to serve him and his people as a priest.

I guess the man in the vocation testimony you refer to, felt called and figured he could love Christ and people more by being always, as long as he lives, available to feed them Christ in the Eucharist, to teach them and to take away their sins in Confession, than by providing a few hours of excitement for them on Monday night football for a few years, until someone younger and talented enough bumped him off the roster.

What do you think?

God bless.