Hearing the call of God: Toward a theological phenomenology of vocation

This study contributes to the development of a theological phenomenology of vocation. In so doing, it posits that the distressing condition of existential unrest can be a foundational motivation for the vocational search and argues that the discovery of one’s vocation, which necessarily entails an engagement with existential mystery, is served by attentiveness to what is termed the “pneumo-somatic” data of embodied consciousness. Hence, the study does not canvass the broad range of phenomena that would contribute to a comprehensive phenomenology of vocation. Rather, it seeks to highlight an aspect frequently overlooked in the vocational search, namely the value of attentiveness to one’s experience of the body in the context of prayerful engagement with the mystery of God. The questions addressed by the study arose from my experience of working at the interface of psychology and spirituality. People who have been subjected to extreme suffering frequently find that their usual modes of self-experience and of relating to the world have been stripped away. They experience agitation and restlessness. They are exposed to a mysterious and disturbing void at the core of their being and a profound existential selfquestion arises from that experience. Existential concerns have been addressed throughout the ages, engaging as they do both an interior experience of mystery and an ensuing selfquestion. Hans Urs von Balthasar explores these dynamics and articulates the self-question as “Who am I?” Another to address these issues is Bernard Lonergan who asks what it is to “be oneself.” For Balthasar the question is answered only by the discovery of one’s Godgiven vocation and mission. For Lonergan the question is answered by the authentic exercise of one’s capacity for self-transcendence. Ultimately, I suggest, both approaches are complementary. Both Balthasar and Lonergan envisage the possibility of lives lived in obedient attentiveness to the mystery of God’s grace. For Balthasar that attentiveness will result in alertness to the vocational and missionary calling with which God uniquely addresses each person. For Lonergan such attentiveness will result in being in love with God and in a life oriented ultimately towards the mystery of God’s love for us and our calling to serve in love. Balthasar and Lonergan complement one another in showing the full range of dynamics that constitute