When I was considering the priesthood, I was a new and zealous Catholic, living my faith, going to daily Mass, enjoying my life, the sports I was playing, hanging out and enjoying my friends and many good and healthy relationships. My heart was being drawn towards the priesthood (I see that now) but I was also very caught up with my life and the easier thing to do was to dismiss or ignore the very quiet call assuming that this too was a sign.  I said “maybe later” and “maybe when I retire”.  I was a city bus driver before becoming a priest and having started young, I could retire when I was 52 – a great time to decide to become a priest.  But that’s not how the Lord calls us.  We are called to live our life with faith; to live it fully and completely, to live it joyfully.  When we do that we can be assured that the Lord will move our heart to discover our calling, our meaning and purpose in life.  We can be assured that He urges us on to this, because this is what every human being (whether they accept God or not) desires.  It’s hard, virtually impossible to figure this out completely without God but with Him, He will lead us to it!  We can be assured that while we pray for it, asking our God for it, that it’s the Lord desire “…who begins the good work in us, will bring it to fulfilment”.  It’s His desire but He needs us to desire it too.  Today’s Gospel reminds us that this “good work” is disrupted when we make excuses, when we find other things to do, when we don’t give back to God from the gifts he gives to us.  It reminds us too, who are living our vocation never to take things for granted, never to become complacent, not to undervalue what we’ve been chosen to do.  We are invited into a great life through our vocation – I see that in my own vocation to priesthood. Despite the challenges and difficulties and obstacles to faith in the world, I find different ways to evangelize through actions and through priesthood every single day.  My friends, I offer today’s Gospel as words of encouragement for all of us.  As hard as it might be, there is one less place in the world made better when we make an excuse not to live and give witness to Jesus Christ by our vocation.  The world we live in really can’t afford or be without that.  May God bless you.