A Disposition of Love: Our Baptismal Calling

The following meditation was recorded in front of a live audience.

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on how a disposition (or willingness) to love is required to fulfill our baptismal calling and common vocation to follow Jesus Christ.

Drawing from the Gospel account of the rich young man (Matthew 19: 16-30), Fr. Peter explains that while the young man had lived by the commandments, he lacked the detachment and disposition necessary to fully surrender to Christ. Fr. Peter emphasizes that this detachment is not merely about material wealth but about offering ourselves entirely to God, allowing him to transform our hearts and bring our baptismal vocation to full maturity.

Because the rich young man rejected Our Lord's invitation to follow him, the young man was filled with sadness and unable to be a witness to others. If we want to be Christ's witnesses, we must learn to overcome our disposition to self-love, and chip away gradually at all that separates us from God.


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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins, and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

Lord, as we focus our attention on you, we want to talk to you about our common Christian calling or vocation. That we all have the same vocation, which is sort of the common foundation, and all of us are called to a specific way of following Jesus. What is the genesis, what is the root of this vocation? It is when we were, some maybe as adults, but probably most of us as uh, little infants, that, if the water was cold, it was probably a traumatic experience that we forgot. When water was, cold water was poured on our heads. 

Why-why do I think of these things? Because we priests are trying to warm up the water in the winter, so the baby doesn't have to suffer so much, and we forget. And the baby, you know, just jumps and you know, he was smiling a second ago and once he is brought into the church, into the Mystical Body of Christ, he's crying like there's no tomorrow. Because- not because he's in the Mystical Body, but because the water is quite cold. So, we try to warm it up a little bit of so it's less traumatic. 

But anyway, when we were baptized, we received a power, a power that has no limit. And I- why do I say power? Because Jesus uses it. And St. Paul associates being a disciple with power. And we're going to look at, we’re going to explore that a little bit. And Jesus is- uses that word “power” when he invites his disciples to do something humanly speaking, outlandish, or how, or in the words of the younger generation, insane. 

Okay, how you doing? It's been insane. What does my professor want in this term paper? Whatever, he you know, his demands are insane. All right? Well, maybe they thought that too about Jesus when he said the following, “When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you shall be witnesses.” No, I'm sorry, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses for me in Jerusalem and all Judea, Samaria,” which is enemy territory, “And even to the very ends of the earth.” That's 2000 plus years ago, no planes, no trains, no cars, and their only experience was, you know their environs within you know a five-mile radius of their villages. 

And the Lord is asking, then the Lord says, you're going to receive some, you’re-you’re going to receive serious power from the Holy Spirit. And that's what happens in baptism. We receive power. And what- what kind of power? Well, he says, you shall be witnesses. What does that mean? Well, you're going to be like me. You're going to prove that I'm real. There's something- there's going to be a radical change in you. That you're going to start radiating my very light. And that's the power you're going to receive. 

And so why do we say that our vocation originates in baptism? Now, the Lord uses analogies of seeds. What happens- what's the vocation of an apple seed? I don't mean to insult intelligences here, but I'm trying to make a point. It's to become an apple tree. Is the calling of an apple seed to be a little sapling? No, I want apples out of that tree. Okay, I don't want, I don't want a little sapling. If I want a sapling and get some flowers. And what's the purpose of a tomato seed? Well, it's in my display case. Look at that seed. That's, you would say, I think you need a little bit of a help, my friend. If that, if you keep putting seeds on display. Why? Because they should be planted and develop and give off tomatoes. I don't want a tomato plant. I want tomatoes, okay?

And so that's with every seed. Every seed is called to grow to full maturity. In baptism, we have been reborn again. We've got two lives. We have our natural life, natural individuality, and grafted on to our natural life is a new life, which is the actual life of Jesus. It's there. So we- but that life just like a seed, that's why the Lord uses the analogy of the seed, needs to grow. That little life of Jesus, now, when you say he or she is a baptized Catholic, there is a pejorative implication to that phrase. There shouldn't be, but it means that that’s all that person does. That person was bap- that's the only time that person darkened the church. He- they were baptized, and that's it. And their faith is completely irrelevant. The only thing they have of the Catholic faith, or Christian faith, is baptism. Other than that, it's as if Christ didn't exist. So, there's a little pejorative implication here. 

But being baptized means that we have, uh, we have been grafted onto the life of Christ. We've been reborn into a new life that's- there's, all right now, what we want to ask you Lord is to help us meditate on what we must do to facilitate that life so that it grows. Jesus says, you, you are my witnesses, which means, just in case I lull everybody to sleep, it means basically I'm called to be a saint. And we may be tempted by false humility, “Well, I got issues,” or “I got a temperament that is not conducive to holiness,” or “my track record isn't so hot.” You know, we can come up with all sorts of reasons. And you know, it could be certain, certain circumstances that should bare considering, but the Lord, under no certain terms, uncertain terms, says you're called to be my witness. 

God has a sense of humor. I was, not because I was a good athlete, just fortuitous or providential, or whatever you want to call it. I, in my younger days, I was the chaplain for the Chicago Bears. And God has a sense of humor. It was always traumatic to have lunch with these guys, because I felt like such a wimp. They had, you know, I can't believe how much a man can eat. But anyway, so the Bears acquired a player who was All-Pro for the Miami Dolphins. There's a point I'm not, you know, I'm not changing the topic. This is about sanctity and our Christian calling. It's not about NFL football. 

But anyway, so they acquired a linebacker who was an All-Pro linebacker for the Dolphins. He- there was a bit of misbehavior, you know, he needed anger management counseling, but he was very- he was an All-Pro player. And so, I was an eager beaver to watch him practice. Okay, I’ve got to watch that All-Pro linebacker practice, you know, he's going to really stick out. So, I go to practice and I'm on the sidelines, and he's the worst player on the team. You know, he's missing tackles. He's- the receivers are beating him out. He can't keep up with the receivers. He's huffing and puffing. He has a bit of a pot belly to boot. And I'm just kind of perplexed. This is All-Pro? I guess another losing season here. 

And then he comes off the field, and I'm there. He's kind of a mind reader, and he says to me, “Okay, Father, I had a bad practice.” I didn't want to answer him, because I was afraid of him, so I just looked at him. He said, “But come back. You know, you got to watch me in a month from now, and you'll have fun watching me, all right, but right now I'm not, I'm not good. Okay? And let me explain to you.” So, he explains to me why he's not good. He says, “I didn't, you know, I- the off season everybody's working out, everybody's lifting weights, they're doing wind sprints, they're jogging. I did nothing. All right, I let myself go, you know, I have a good job. I have a contract, so, but give me a chance.” I said, “Okay,” you know, didn't want to disagree with him, okay? And a month later, yep, he looked All-Pro. He was really good.

He gets to the facility at 6:30 in the morning, he would be pumping iron. He’d be doing wind sprints. And you know, he was- definitely stuck out as a very good linebacker. Now, what does that have to do with holiness? Well, you know, we- he's, these guys were freaks of nature, you know, in terms of speed, in terms of agility and strength. I mean, God, they've got a gift. But nevertheless, this, that's, you know, look at this, concentrate on this guy. Focus on this player. He had a gift to be All-Pro, and he was All-Pro. But because he didn't work at it during the off-season, he was a bad player. And then he recovered it by working at it. 

So, we need to- we're like that player. Jesus says you've got power. You have power to be a witness, and you have power to spread the Gospel. You have it, baptism, you've got the DNA. And if you don't have the DNA, no matter how much you work at it, it's not going to amount to anything. But if you have what it takes, if you have that potential, you can apply that to anything, academics, art, performing arts, whatever. And that's why I want to use him as an example. You know, Paul likes to use sports examples, so you know, and why not? Right? 

Let's look at maybe a template of this Christian vocation and this famous encounter between Jesus and the Gospel, says, rich young man. And this rich young man is, you'll see that he's a really good kid. And he asked the Lord, what must he do to be a saint, you know, what must I do to obtain everlasting life? What is everlasting life? It’s Jesus himself. It's the joy, it's the wisdom, it's the patience, it's the kindness of Jesus Christ. It's Jesus Christ. The power to love is Jesus Christ. It's a happiness that the world cannot give. It's a peace the world cannot give. He wants to know, what must I- it's a very American-esque question. Give me the bottom line, give me the help menu, and make it short, what must I do? 

And okay, and I could ask Our Lord here in the tabernacle, “Alright, Lord, I'm baptized. I got this power. What do I- what do I need to do? What's my part in this?” And Our Lord will say, “Well, it's well, you know, it's the grace of God that transforms you. But you, you're, you're involved with this. Your dispositions are key here.” “Okay, Lord, what dispositions do you want me to have?” “Okay, well, read the Gospel and- and be one more character in the Gospel,” as St. Josemaria teaches. Alright, let's read this here, “And behold, a certain man came to him and said, ‘Good Master, what good work shall I do to have eternal life?’” What do I need to do?

And he said, “Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good, and he is God,” and I want to turn to Mark because Mark, there's a certain accuracy in Mark because he heard it from St. Peter. So, let's look at Mark real quick. “Why do you call me good? No one is good, but only God.” All right, well, let's look at this. Superficially, or at face value, seems like God's contradicting himself, or God is saying something, or Jesus is- he's God, so we'll say God. God is saying something that doesn't - is not reasonable. And I think at face value, it's not reasonable, at face value. And it contradicts scripture too, because one of the first passages of revelation in Genesis, every time God created something, he said, I- he saw it, and he saw it that it was good. And when he created the first human beings, he said he saw that they were very good. 

So Lord, you're contradicting yourself here. You know first, first revelation is that everything you did was good. Now you're saying that only God is good. Well and- and also my experience is you're all good. You know, improvement is needed, but you're all good. The weather is good for winter. It's sunny. You know, usually the lights go out on Halloween, and they come back on Easter, as long as the Easter is later. But you know, weather's good. Pizza is good, if you like that. Your talents are good, your achievements are good, your parents are good. Why does he say only God is good? 

Well, he's telling us that from another perspective. He's not saying that that vaporizer there is not good, you know, or this, these rooms, this- this center's not good. It is, it's a pretty place, homey place. But he's saying that only God could fill you up. He's the only good that could fill you. And Aristotle is on record saying the same thing, even though he wasn't exposed to divine revelation. He says there's a lot of goods that are deceptive. He says that the human person pursues, sins he or she believes that that good could yield happiness and fulfillment. That is Aristotle here. He says, fame, pleasure, money, health, these are goods that can be deceptive, that people pursue these goods in order to be fulfilled. 

And he, basically, Aristotle says nothing works. He says, none of these experiences work, none of these goods work. And that's as far as he got. You know, don't forget, he didn't have the Bible. He said there the human person could only be fulfilled, he said, by a universal good, a good that takes it every kind of good. Well, and then Aquinas goes one step further, you know. And just, you know, makes the lay-up. Aristotle feeds him the ball, and then Aquinas dunks it. Okay, slam dunks it. He says that universal good happens to be God and happens to be Jesus Christ, in his divinity. That's the universal good. 

And so, and so the rich young man goes, Jesus gives three steps. The first step is to realize that only God could fill you up, all right. Now, God is everlasting life. The kid asked, well, how do I get it? You know, well, Jesus says only he could do it. And, you know, the Gospel says he's a rich young man. First of all, he's young. You think you're always going to be young, but, you know, just take it from me, you won't, you know. And young people enjoy partying and everything, and God bless them. Older people, maybe not as much, because they got to go to bed early. I always wanted to skydive, but maybe in the afterlife, but I don't want to do it now, all right. But maybe he wanted to skydive, you know, and he played a mean game of golf. 

I mean, let's translate, you know? Uh, good kid, didn't use foul language, you know? He- he wants to know what he has to do, you know? And he's rich, and that's a sign of a blessing from God in the Old Testament. And so, Our Lord says to him, all right, that's step number one, that only God can fill you. And he's telling him that for a reason, because he's going to ask a lot of the young man. And he says, step number two, if you want to have life, keep my commandments. And nothing original here. And basically, this is Jesus saying, be a virtuous man. You've got to turn the corner on your anger, because if you're angry, you don't own yourself. 

You’ve got to turn the corner on your lust, because if you're lustful, you don't own yourself. You've got to be honest in your communications, because if you're false, you're a slave to falsehood. You’ve got to turn the corner on your greed. These are the 10 Commandments. You've got to have a good relationship with your family, honor your mother, that's what he's saying here. And you must love your neighbor as yourself. You must be good to people, and you treat people the way you want to be treated. I mean, I mean, this is a tall order. This is the- you know, this is not, you know, just filler. Because this is normal to live the commandments. But it's not common. 

And he's, so we- he says “All these I have kept,” it says that the young man said to him, “All these I have kept what is yet wanting to me?”  What's next? I've done it. And, I don't know, he probably said it with a little bit of pride. You know, I know most guys don't live all these commandments, but I do. I don't use salty language. I'm a gentleman on a date. I’m my teacher's assistant. I am looking for a good Jewish woman, open to life. You know, he's checking all the right boxes. And Jesus wants him on his team, especially with the motley crew he has. 

You know, there's people with anger issues, and there, and probably, you know, substance abuse. You know, Matthew threw a party and scandalized everybody's too much drinking there, and loose women and on and on. So now I have a good kid. I mean, these guys are a work in progress. My first pope is going to betray me, you know. So, you know, not the not the best team. And he looked at him and loved him. Oh, man, I would really like you on my team. You know you're living the commandments. 

And why does the Lord want him to live the commandments? Why is that the first step? Well, because then you own yourself, because the Lord's going to ask him to give of himself. I can't give of myself if I'm, if I have resentment in me, if I if we all have a little something, but if it's holding me back, I need to turn the corner on it. Through, you know, through purification and confession. And so, what does the Lord say? The young man said to him, “All these I have kept what is yet wanting to me,” and this is for all of us, no matter what specific vocation we have. Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, perfect, on the order of love, if you want to be happy, if you want to really reflect my life, you need a certain kind of disposition. Go sell what you have and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven.”

And you notice that this is a little bit of a leitmotif. It's not in your face. But throughout the Gospel, even with the motley crew, you know, Matthew was the eyes of the people was a despicable character. You know, he was a tax collector, and he got rich extorting money to the detriment of his own people. And the Gospel of Matthew and Mark said, well, Matthew left all things. And Peter wanted to break away, ah he said, “I'm a sinful man.” And Jesus, he says, “Do not be afraid. I'll make you a fisher of men.” And the Gospel says, “And he left all things.” And so that's sort of the light motif. That all the followers of Jesus, even though, you know, they needed a lot of repentance and purification, well, you know, take your pick. Mary Magdalene, St. Paul, Zacchaeus, all had to leave all things. 

And leaving all things, sell all that you have, all my- my prized possession, we all have a prize possession. It's not money, it's more than that. It's ourselves, it's me, I mean, myself. And Jesus says that you got to put me first. You know, I could ask you for that, because I'm God and I'm your Savior, and then you'll have everlasting life. There's only one way to have everlasting life, and Lord, increase my faith, because you're telling me that I can only reflect your light by least having that disposition. Lord, I want to give you, I want to give myself totally to you. And I got to work at it, probably in installments. But you know, the, you know, I want them to run the marathon. So, I got to start working out. I need a plan to run that, you know, by next, whatever, October, to run that marathon. Or I want to learn French. Okay, what's my plan to learn French? But first I need that desire. Lord I- and Our Lord said, “Do you want to be an apostle? Do you want to spread the Gospel? And the hope of the church is you.”

 I don't know that, but I- it's not an act of faith. It's an act of experience. Young people are bringing young people and and and the young people who bring young people are witnesses. Well, why? Because they have also, in a very ordinary way, said, “Lord, I- I'm going to give you myself totally, I'm going to put you first.” Uh, whether you know, most people will be called to give themselves totally in marriage, some in celibacy, the important thing is to tell the Lord, yes.

But when the young man, he had too much going on. But when, you know, he's, poor kid, “But when the young man heard the saying, he went away sad, for he had great possessions.” So, you know the Gospel says, well, he couldn't be a witness because he was sad. The Holy Father says that, you know, the New Evangelization is, you know, being sincerely authentically joyful. You know, not perfectly, that's heaven. And that joy comes from embracing Jesus. You know, last time he checked, he's the life, he's light, he's good news of great joy. And he wants his joy to be in us, and that our joy may be full. He's peace. 

And we can finish up going to the Blessed Mother, asking her to ingrain these points of the way in our minds and hearts. And he says (St. Josemaria) here in The Way, “Why don't you give yourself to God once and for all. Really, now.” And then another point and then we’re done, “’Go preach the Gospel. I will be with you.’ Jesus has said this, and he has said this to you.” 

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations which you have communicated to me in this meditation. I ask your help to put them into effect. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.