Individualized Call!

Saturday, June 7, 2025

Acts 28:16-20, 30-31; Jn 21:20-25

Today’s Gospel highlights the individualized nature of Christian vocation. 

When Peter asks Jesus regarding John, ‘Lord, what about him?’ Jesus redirects him to look into himself and examine the quality of his response to ‘his’ vocation. 

Peter’s question and Jesus’ answer fall into several layers that need unpacking. 

1. The question of Peter reveals that he is distracted. In fact, the adjective ‘distracted’ best describes our modern living. Along with Peter, we are called to reflect on how we wonder pointlessly about what happens to others. More often than not, we think more about others than ourselves. 

2. Peter’s question reveals his tendency to compare with others. The tendency to compare can be a distraction too because we get busy with knowing if we are inferior or superior to others without bothering to become who we are called to be. In making comparisons, either we limit ourselves or shrink from the greatness that is our due. 

3. Peter’s question overlooks God’s plan for John. In posing the question, Peter wants to know some insider details about John’s future. Jesus has to remind Peter that God’s plan for John could be radically different from his own. Thus, Jesus curtails Peter’s curiosity and helps him get busy with his vocation and discipleship. 

4. Jesus’ response to Peter reminds us of the individualized nature of Christian vocation. Jesus’ ‘You follow me’ takes us to ‘Who do ‘you’ say that the Son of Man is?’ (Mk 8:29). The emphasis on the ‘individualized’ nature of vocation is not to grow in selfishness but to be grounded in our experience of the Lord, so that such depth would help us grow more neighborly. 

Let us pray that we may be empowered by a right understanding of our vocation to spend ourselves in God’s mission. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar