John Carlin, 28
Archdiocese of Detroit
Second-year Theology
MEET YOUR SEMINARIANS
In the World for a Reason
I
first thought of becoming a priest when I
was in eighth grade. I remember the exact
seat that I was sitting in, in Mr. Vincent’s
homeroom class. (I guess many priests also
remember vividly the first moment God called
them.) I remember feeling like I needed to
answer a question, but I didn’t even know what
the question was. Then, boom! I discovered
the meaning and purpose of life.
In eighth grade, the meaning and purpose of life, for me, was
other people.
The way I saw it, if God wanted us to get to Heaven, he could have
just put us in a maze or given us a test where we could figure out
the answers and—we’re there! But that’s not what he did. Rather,
he put us in a world where we can affect other people’s salvation
and they can affect ours. So, other people must be essential to the
purpose of our own lives.
I also felt I had a strong foundation in faith and strong
16
Sacred Heart Major Seminary | Mosaic | Fall 2017
relationship with God. Faith was always first in our family. While I
saw faith become less important to many of my friends, I found it
to be a great source of peace for weathering hard times.
It was this foundation that I wanted to give to friends and people
who had never even heard the gospel. I wanted everyone to have
what I had—a relationship with a God who loves them. This led to
the idea to be a missionary, but I reasoned that the best missionary
is one who can offer the Eucharist, and that is a priest.
I held onto this dream through high school and college, and
I became very involved in the pro-life movement. I saw it as the
greatest cause worth fighting for, and I wondered if my life wouldn’t
be better spent in fulltime pro-life ministry than as a priest.
It was Christmas time 2012 when I was at this crossroad and
listened to the Christmas carol, “I Wonder as I Wander.” I had
heard it many times before, but this time I heard it in a new way.
The song beautifully describes how Jesus came to die for our
sins. That was his vocation—the man with all the power to stop
all the evil and injustice in the world saved the world by being
crucified and rising. The song gave me permission to respond to
the invitation that had been there all along, his invitation to be a
priest, and to know, also, that I did not have to save the world—he
already saved it! Nobody needs John Carlin to do more stuff.
My first day of seminary felt a lot like home in that everyone
wanted exactly what I wanted, to know and follow God’s will for
our lives. Now, beginning my fourth year of seminary (Theology II),
I still feel that same strength and peace as when I began seminary
and when I first heard God’s voice in eighth grade.