January 31, 2023 // Diocese
Listening to the Voice of God is Focus of Kickoff to Theology on Tap Winter Series on Identity
Father Andrew Budzinski kicked off the winter series of Theology on Tap on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the Historic Women’s Club in downtown Fort Wayne by speaking about identity and prayer, telling those gathered at the event that an individual’s core identity is that they are beloved sons and daughters of God.
Photos by Joshua Schipper
Father Andrew Budzinski speaks to young adults at the Theology on Tap initial session on Tuesday, Jan 24. The winter series, “Called By Name,” will continue with three more speakers, a different one each Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. through Feb. 14, with a celebration to follow on Feb. 21. For the location and more details, visit diocesefwsb.org/tot-fw.
“Then we are equipped for mission. We live in relationship with the Lord: we’re given our identity. And that identity helps us go on mission. Now the thing is, most people in the world reverse the order of these things. Most people in the world say, ‘Give me a mission. Give me something to do. Give me something to accomplish — something that I can be successful in. And then, I’ll have an identity. I’m accomplished. I’m successful. And then I’ll be equipped for relationship.’”
He continued, “The problem is, what happens if the mission fails? We lose our identity. But if you live in relationship with the Lord and receive your identity as a beloved son or daughter, the mission comes afterwards. So, even if the mission fails, your identity is not obliterated. You are made a beloved son — a beloved daughter — always.”
“Focus on living in relationship with God, through prayer, through the sacraments, through works of charity and works of mercy. Focus on your relationship with God,” said Father Budzinski. “When guys first go to the seminary, I tell them, ‘Hey, for the first two years, you don’t even need to worry about asking God the question, Am I called to be a priest? Just focus on living in relationship with Jesus. Discovering your vocation will not make you happy. Friendship with Jesus will make you happy.’”
“And it’s out of friendship with Jesus,” Father Budzinski added, “that our vocations are naturally known. Sometimes we can treat Jesus like the friend who has a lake house. ‘You have a lake house, so I’m going to be friends with you so I can be at the lake house.’” Using a friendship with Jesus in order to find vocation, he warned, is not the route to pursue.
“When I was a kid, the priests always said, ‘Pray to know your vocation.’ It’s obviously not bad advice, I’m not trying to say they are wrong. But actually, just pray to live in relationship with God because God is not a ‘means to an end.’ We can treat God like a vending machine. ‘I’m going to put in my quarters of prayer so that I can receive from you, Lord, the information I want to know about my vocation.’ And Jesus is like, ‘no, no, no, no, finding out your vocation is actually not the most important thing. Just being with me is the most important thing — live in relationship with me.’”
Father Budzinski summarized, “Live in relationship with the Lord if you want to find your identity.”
One participant told him that, during the evening’s small group discussion, her table talked about how to root their identity in Christ in a world that “feels so loud.”
She continued that there are “so many voices telling us, ‘This is who you are,’ whether it’s our culture, or different trends that you participate in, and you feel like, ‘Okay, I will belong, I will know who I am if I dress this certain way or act a certain way.’”
Father Budzinski responded by first touching on discerning voices that influence decision-making and identity.
“This is something that frequently comes up in my discussions with people in spiritual direction and things like that,” he said. “We should only ever really listen to the voice of God because all the others are frequently mistaken or frequently deceived.”
“And many times,” he continued, “you’ll notice that that’s a disturbing thought. That’s a disturbing voice. But we fall into the temptation of listening to it … Try to build a habit of saying, ‘Does this sound like the voice of God? Does this sound like what the Father would want to say to me right now in this instance?’ And if the answer is no, you say, ‘I reject this voice.’”
He said that, while one may not be able to stop or ignore these voices, “What you can do is you can choose to not indulge them. And then it just kind of takes practice … Just get in that habit. ‘Does this really sound like the voice of the Father?’ And you know the voice of the Father. Jesus has revealed the voice of the Father and the face of the Father in the Gospels.”
The winter series, “Called By Name,” will continue with three more speakers, a different one each Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. through Feb. 14, with a celebration to follow on Feb. 21. For the location and more details, visit diocesefwsb.org/tot-fw.
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