We are all called into eternal  life

By Msgr. John Wynand Katende

Posted on: Friday, 18th September 2026

Commonly speaking, we tend to refer to those who join the priesthood or religious life at a later stage in life as late vocations. This kind of chronological description is typically human. But God’s mind and ways are different from ours. Jesus elaborates on this concept in the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. Although they had labored for different lengths of time, they ended up receiving the same wage (Matthew 20:1-16). 

The parable teaches us about God's Generosity and unearned grace. It shows that everyone in the kingdom of heaven receives the same ultimate gift regardless of when they come to faith. In other words, those who work their entire lives in the kingdom and those who only work during the last hour will receive the same wage. The same wage is eternal life.

The parable reveals that God calls people in His own time, meaning the "late" label applies only to human timekeeping, not divine timing. Those who discover the divine call at a certain age know that there is no time for God. What is important, as in almost everything, is quality and not quantity, but quality. The fruit of the correspondence to the vocation received will depend in essence on the quality with which it is developed, and to a lesser degree on the quantity of such development. 

In actual fact, experience has shown that individuals with the so-called late vocations often bring valuable professional skills, maturity, and deep life wisdom to their ministry. Laypeople often connect more easily with priests who shared similar life struggles

From the point of view of faith, even with the sacrament of matrimony, if it were received in the maturity of life, it could only be humanly qualified as late, because divine grace and the sharing of married life with God are not quantitatively measurable.

Moreover, once a vocation has been received, it is shaped little by little, and each thing in its own time. The sense of fulfillment, doing what I must do and being in what I do, is inherent in the response to that vocation. And to be fulfilled is to be happy. Because indeed all humanity has a call or vocation, which is called

In this life, we need to know what we have been called for, for happiness in heaven. A life that is coherent, consistent with what it should be lived for, and which will always be something good in itself, is a happy life. According to Christian theology, perfect happiness awaits every soul in heaven.