the call and the response

often we think of "call" as the vocation or occupation that is meant for us to fulfill in our lives. but is the vocation we choose in response to the call the totality of our call, or only part of our call and therefore only a partial response to the call? we are called to love and serve God, and others, as they are in a real sense one and the same. Jesus said "love God and love your neighbor as yourself." and He said "what you do to the least of these you do to me" - what clearer affirmation of the unity of love - to love God is to love others, to serve God is to serve others. and as teresa of avila wrote long ago, "if you say you love God but do not give care to your neighbor, you deceive yourself." thus the call is one - but the response are manifold.

how then is it possible that our service to God should be limited to one occupation, or for that matter, compartmentalized to the sunday liturgy or even a daily hour of prayer? doesn't every action we take, to one degree or another, either serve God or not? i suppose if we were honest, we would have to admit that everything we do is either an answer to the call to love or the opposite. every action either becomes a sacrament or a profanity.

"do onto others as you would have them do to you", if that indeed is the whole of the law and the prophets as Jesus said, then it requires of us much reflection and discernment before we act, that our actions may truly express our response to the call. i am thinking of a book i read by rabbi david cooper entitled "God is a Verb". he says that before one does anything one should always ask this question - "to what degree does the balance of the universe depend on my next action?" surely if we asked this of ourselves before any action we would likely think more, and act less; and when we did act we would more often act in wisdom.