Called to Mend Shoes and Souls
“Vocation” is one of my favorite concepts in theology. Stemming from the Latin word vocare, “to call,” it means the calling of God to all Christians (and, some would say, all people) to participate in the care of the world and people God loves so much.
Often when we talk about vocation, we are referring to someone’s job or profession. I know a great real estate agent, for instance, who feels her calling is to help people find a home in which they can flourish. But as this very example indicates, even when we talk about a job as one’s vocation, it’s never just the job or even what the job accomplishes. It’s about relationships. After all, the real estate agent I’m thinking of does her “job” precisely by getting to know her clients, caring about their unique attributes and needs, and dreaming with them about their future.
We sometimes overlook that – how central relationships are to all of our various vocations, whether paid or volunteer, whether as students or citizens or parents or neighbors. But perhaps the central call God gives each and all of us is just that: to care about those persons God has brought into our lives.
I thought about this again when I saw this short video by Dustin Cohen called “The Shoemaker.” This brief film describes the life and career of Frank Catalfumo, a guy who’s been mending shoes in Brooklyn since 1945 simply because, at least at the beginning, his family needed him to. Nearly seventy years later, he not only mends shoes souls, but also the souls of the people he encounters and, indeed, of the community of which he’s been a part.
I hope you have four minutes to watch and listen to Frank’s story, and then I hope you can find a few more moments to think about where – or, really, to whom! — God is calling you.
The Shoemaker from Dustin Cohen on Vimeo.
Notes: 1) If you are receiving this post by email, you may need to click here to watch the video. 2) Thanks to Open Culture for featuring this piece.
Amazing. God bless him!