Luke Walker: A life filled with talent, not thoughts of priesthood

Made For More Feature – Luke Walker

You see me now in my white shirt-jack, but four years ago, priesthood was not an option. I was an altar server at St Ann’s Parish and a head prefect at St Mary’s College, but was best known for playing pan in the front line of Invaders’ Steel Orchestra. My sights were set on a professional music career.

I was the last of four children in a family of very artistic people. I started learning pan, piano and music theory by four years old, joined Invaders by eight and got to travel to Europe playing with choirs and orchestras by sixteen. I also competed internationally on the national judo team. My supportive parents made me aware of my giftedness but equally aware of the need to humbly give back.

Faith surrounded me growing up: rosaries prayed with the family, devotions at school, doctrine classes at an Opus Dei centre. Prayer was even an unalterable fixture of the Invaders’ practice sessions.

I remember one rainy Saturday evening when I was about thirteen, eager to go to the beach the following day, I earnestly prayed the rosary for good weather. When the sun came out in the morning, I think a childlike trust in Mother Mary settled in my heart, never to leave.

Faith that quietly took root

I began altar serving right after First Communion and though I was often distracted or dozing off in the sanctuary, I believe the consistency of assisting at the Sacred Mysteries each Sunday formed in me the idea that Mass should be the central axis around which the rest of my life revolves.

Somewhere in my teens I woke up to the reality of what was happening before me. I gazed at the Eucharist, serving for Benediction one evening and thought, “that really is Jesus.” This discovery was surely aided by my mother taking me often to the St Ann’s Adoration Chapel as a boy.

Faith was real, but I never considered priesthood for myself. My mind was set on a career in music.

Harvard, ambition, and a deeper encounter with Christ

To my great surprise I got into the Harvard Berklee Dual Degree Programme which allowed me to pursue my passion for music at Berklee while also earning an academic degree from one of the best universities in the world.

At Harvard, I majored in Data Science because I enjoyed it and was enticed by the job opportunities. In the statistics department, I was one of many and not the smartest, but in the music department, I was one of a kind.

As the only steelpan player, I had an innate confidence in my own voice and a duty to carry my culture to the world.

The perception that the atmosphere at a liberal Ivy League college is hostile to the Christian faith is not incorrect, but you’d be surprised at the lively Christian campus ministries like FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) missionaries that are producing saints even now (look up Michelle Dupong).

It’s very easy to gain the world and lose your soul at a place like Harvard, but thanks to the prayerful and vibrant Christians there, I learnt that what I gain by knowing Christ is infinitely richer than any personal achievement (cf Phil 3:8). They led me from a very mediocre Christianity when I entered, to a firm commitment to discipleship.

When God changed my plans

For one as ambitious as I am, the first glimpses of a genuine desire for priesthood, as it dawned on my horizon four years ago, shocked me. My last semester at Harvard, I was in a period of intense spiritual growth after a breakup had caused me to reevaluate my relationship with God. I noticed a passing thought that if I was experiencing so much joy and healing from Jesus in the Eucharist and Mother Mary in the rosary, then I would be happy as a priest.

I was quick to dismiss it, firmly convinced it was impossible, but I eventually admitted reluctantly that a real desire was burgeoning.

A few months later, I was shocked again by a desire for celibacy. Though I had beautiful experiences dating, the intimacy I was experiencing with the Lord in prayer as a single man awakened me to the value of celibacy, which I learnt is more about living out the goal of every human soul to be mystically united with God in Heaven than about following some archaic rule of the Church.

The next shock lasted an entire year and was a daily struggle. I was thriving in my Master’s programme and even had a job offer for after graduation. While my life’s dream was becoming a reality, I struggled to reconcile it with my desire for priesthood and the growing sense that God had other plans for me. This tension reached its climax when I decided to turn down that job offer and move back to Trinidad to join the seminary.

The greatest adventure

The shock of noticing these new desires was the initial proof that this call originated outside myself as they were so counter to the plans I had for my life. Admitting the possibility of God calling me was the first step.

A few more steps down the road took me through the doors of several seminaries and religious households for “come and see” visits and one definitive but haltering step took me through the doors of the pre-seminary in St Joseph. I somehow knew that this was the right place.

For the first year, God also graced me with great moments of consolation and peace, slowly intensifying my desire to attend seminary.

Taking the first step

When you discover that you aren’t the main character of a story that you are writing but a minor yet irreplaceable character in the epic that God is writing, your life takes on a whole new horizon.

I could have become the most famous musician in the world, but if I didn’t allow God to use me, that story would eventually come to an insignificant end. Yet, orienting my life to following God means that everything I do has eternal significance.

Whether as a musician, a priest, both or neither, becoming a saint is my goal and is the only thing that will satisfy my desire for greatness.

The gospel invites us to embark on a great adventure. Don’t be discouraged by the high ideal that is being asked of you. Know that it is possible.

You don’t need to be a priest or a Harvard graduate to start being God’s instrument today.