In the first reading, we heard God call to Samuel and Samuel responds: ”Speak Lord, your servant is listening”. Some people have dramatic calls to follow Christ. Others find that call is in the “ordinary” of day. A war injury proved to be the catalyst in changing the life of St Ignatius of Loyola.
Lord, you have given us two eyes and two ears. Thank you for the ability to see and hear. Yet Lord, we can use our eyes to love what we see or to hate it. We can choose to be enveloped in its beauty or to miss the special uniqueness. We can use our ears to hear the love, the pain, the joy, the sorrow, the anger, the rejection or the loving of a correction by the one who speaks. We can allow the noise of our world to deafen us to anything beyond the shrill of the superficial. Thank you Lord, for eyes and ears.
In Psalms, we are waiting on the Lord, learning the true internal response of the obedience of his will --- “Here I am Lord.” We pray that ours may be ‘ears open to obedience’ to the Lord’s true call. May we be able to wait with patience through all the events of our lives, for your authentic call. Waiting calls for deep faith. I don’t really like waiting! Yet, you could wait, Lord. It is only with patience, with waiting, with faith that we respond internally to your call. You tell us with this internal response of obedience to your will is greater than any external response, even sacrifices and oblations. Your son, Jesus, said that his very purpose was to do his will. Nothing, neither the temptations in the desert, nor the praise and adulation of the people, nor the rejection of the religious leaders, nor the deeds of his own family or his own human needs, neither fear, doubt, sadness or anger could shake him from doing the will of the Father with resolute singleness of mind.
Help us, dear God, to hear YOUR call and your call only. May we respond with today’s psalmist: “Here I am, Lord I come to do your will”. Let me say every morning as I wake: “Speak, Lord, I am listening”. Speak to me Lord; speak to us. Forgive our lack of listening. Have patience with our weak response. We are here, again, today and we want to hear your truthful word. Help us to see with the clarity of Paul, today, where we are called to see our bodies as members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit. We are to shun immoral conduct and glorify God IN our bodies. (1COR.6) We are called to glorify you in our bodies. Help us to see those bodies are members of Christ and Temples of the Holy Spirit.
Above all, help us to see you as you “pass by” in our work, in our home life each day. Just as John saw you in today’s Gospel, and pointed to you as the “Lamb of God”. Help us be so at ease with you that we can hear you asking us, “What are you looking for?” May we also have the faith of those disciples to see you as Rabbi or Messiah and to ask you, “Where do you stay?” Thank you, dear Lord, I can hear you say “Come and see.” Fr. John Healy 1/17/2021