The bar and the bench in the light of Christ's law

Abstract

'Professional' is usually defined as man's working activity engaging the whole human person in a well-defined role in society. According to J.M. Aubert, professor in the theological faculty at the University of Strasbourg, the generic element, common to all the professions, is the 'global activity to which the person consecrates himself and dedicates his existence, an activity which he views as a call to him, a vocation'. The term 'vocation' is bound to strike a familiar note in the mind and heart of persons who call themselves 'Christian' and honestly strive to live up to all that that name implies. It cannot fail to recall to them the serious biblical exhortation, conveyed to Christians through the words of the Apostle Paul, to consider well and reflect deeply upon their profession, in order to discern and commit themselves faithfully to the activity by which they are called to achieve their fulfilment as men and as Christians through the service of God and their fellow-men. Such a thought process, engaged in with the seriousness it deserves, inevitably leads to and terminates in the source of the individual Christian's profession or vocation, as defined above, namely, the mystery of God the Father and his love, as revealed and communicated to men in and by the person of his Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, who being himself 'the image of the invisible God' and the perfect man, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.