25/03/2024
My Discovery of the Purpose of God’s Call
By JO3 Joefrie B Anglo
Throughout my mission work as BJMP officer, I have always strived to be proactive about helping persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) and their families both during incarceration and on release. And I didn’t just want to talk about it and preach about it. I wanted to go out and do it.
When people are incarcerated it is easy for society to forget about them as having intrinsic worth and value. I talk to some of the most broken PDLs in the jail facility, the most rejected. They have been surrounded by drugs and crimes and there is a real sadness there. Although I hear very confronting things, I have to look past all that I hear and see that this is a child of God sitting before me.
Every human person is created in the image and likeness of God, and none of us are defined by individual acts or experiences. As a priest-in-process, I am called to cherish, defend, and protect those who are most vulnerable. This includes the protection of the dignity of the incarcerated as children of God.
Now more than ever, I’ve come to find a new, and a profound and reliable source for the deepest truths. The reliable source for the deepest truths is from the lives and words of those, who have suffered much. It raises the value on the dignity of my priestly vocation– which is integral, not incidental, to the Mission of God in the world.
Indeed, who I am and what I do matters–my gifts, my talents, my desires, my passion, and my work, whether it is paid or not. For me, the purpose of God’s call is to participate in God’s creative and redemptive purposes for the world, to enjoy, hope for, pray for, and work toward God’s Mercy and Love.
God is speaking in the depths of my heart right now. He is calling me to do something important with my life, and to undertake a mission, entrusted only to me. I know the Father has put this desire in my heart and He wants me to fulfill that call. I listen to His voice in prayer. I discern His voice and embrace my vocation, my mission to serve Him and His people.
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