The challenging choice: making money or doing good?

By Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.

A graduating senior from a Catholic university was interviewing with a prestigious business firm for a position. The youthful company recruiters explained that the work was challenging, and demanded about 70 hours a week, but that the compensation was outstanding.

After many hours in the elegant office setting, the graduate asked the interviewers if they enjoyed their work. The pause was awkward. Gradually came the truthful reply that the work wasn’t very enjoyable or meaningful, but that the salary and "perks" were considerable.

At that point the graduating senior decided that he would not accept the position.
He had a sense of vocation. He was seeking work that would reach into the deeper values he had learned, something that would provide a sense of meaning.
He desired more than a job that would pay the bills and carry a handsome salary.

He recognized that his ambitious recruiters had more than a job; they had made a commitment to a career. But he was seeking more than a career, more than financial security. He wanted work that would have meaning and make a difference for the common good.

Any solid education, especially a Catholic education, and a sound family faith formation would inspire such a decision.

Especially at graduation time is one’s attention directed to such a demanding decision, such a critical choice.

Before Christianity, Socrates raised the question, “What ought I to do?” The liberal arts tradition, Western education, and Christian humanism have always spotlighted this concern.

Christian spirituality frames the question in terms of vocation: “What am I called to become?” Graduates faced with multiple career options often falter and allow other influences such as family expectation, the opinion of peers, and the voices of the marketplace to dictate the shape of their lives.

Usually the course of career choice follows the pattern: figure out the lifestyle you want, estimate the level of income you need, and find a job that yields those results. There probably isn’t a worse way to discover a meaningful life.

It involves a faulty logic that runs backwards. It assumes that work is only a means to a financial end. Completely ignored is the possibility that work can be worthwhile because it calls on our unique talents and can actually make a difference in our world.

One young attorney lamented, “I hate spending 60 hours a week making rich people richer.”

Christianity offers a different “take” on vocation and advises us to use our eyes of faith to determine our personal calling, to discover our gifts and aspirations and apply them to the important needs of our world.

In the spirit of the Gospel, an authentic calling reaches beyond personal fulfillment to a concern for justice and peace that addresses the fulfillment of the needs of others, even if they are strangers. God calls each to heal, serve, and create.

Champions of the laity, like Blessed William Joseph Chaminade and others of the 19th and 20th centuries, and especially the Second Vatican Council, insist that the concept of vocation extends to all the baptized. All are equally called to holiness and to service for the realization of God’s reign in this world.

Dedicated followers of Christ follow the example of the Mother of Christ to pay close attention to the actual needs of the world and the Church in order to translate their desires into practical service.

Christ’s life made it clear that his followers should take their cues from the people they serve and not from their own needs.

Our Christian faith leads us to understand that the human desire to serve reflects Christ’s compassion. It is God’s desire for us to be concerned for healing the world in the circumstances of our family, job, and community. This is where we find God, and where God finds us.

There is no standard blueprint for life. We learn “on the job” to discern God’s will in our earthly pilgrimage. The result is that we eventually end up not with a road map but with a compass.

Our continuing challenge is: How can I sustain a vocation while pursuing a career?
We are called to educate ourselves to solidarity. The Bible’s concern for justice is rooted in love of neighbor and the realization of God’s covenant with humanity.

Consequently people of faith pay special attention to the suffering children of God.
When God’s spirit works in the depths of our being in order to help us become aware of our gifts and hopes, that same Spirit works through our experience to indicate what the world needs from us. The Spirit helps us to see problems that our talents are uniquely suited to address.

Without the light of faith and the honest awareness that we have been gifted by God, the world’s needs may seem an overwhelming burden. In that case, our talents and aspirations would be wasted on mere success.

(Marianist Brother John Samaha is a former catechist who served on the religious education staff of the Oakland Diocese. Now retired, he lives in Cupertino.)