Readings of the day: 1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20; Psalm 40:2, 5, 7-8a, 8b-9, 10; Mark 1:29-39
Our readings
today feature two people, Samuel and Jesus, who were renowned for their
effective speaking and preaching. Samuel, our first reading says, became known
in “all Israel” as “an accredited prophet of the LORD.” Very early in his
ministry, Jesus discerned that he was called to preach in the villages of
Galilee: “For this purpose I have come.”
But have you
ever thought how speaking or preaching effectively; indeed any form of
Christian ministry, or simply being a
person of faith, is not so much dependent upon whatever ministry we do, but upon how well we listen, pray,
and discern God’s will for us?
A lovely phrase
in today’s Responsorial Psalm captures the primary importance of listening in
our prayer and discernment: “Ears of obedience you gave me.” According to the
Psalmist, God does not want our offerings of sacrifice so much as for us to
listen with “ears of obedience.”
We have all been
given by God the gift of “ears of obedience.” For various reasons: age,
infirmity, and so forth, we may gradually decline in our abilities for active
ministry, but this universal gift of “ears of obedience” still remains when we
are capable of little other activity.
I admit, though,
personally and culturally, how difficult it can be to listen with “ears of
obedience”; to pray; to discern attentively not only the joys, the needs, and
the will of other people but the will of God for me; for us. Add in the many
forms of electronic technology designed to keep us “connected,” and these
technologies can replace human interaction and relationship. We can end up, as
a culture, more disconnected, because we can end up less able to listen with
“ears of obedience”; with ears of discernment of human need and of God’s will.
Only if we
listen first with “ears of obedience” will we learn to trust God in all things.
Only then will we develop reverence and “delight” for God’s law. Only then will
we be able to announce God’s “justice” in our world. Only then will we be able
to cultivate human relationships and relationship with God. Only then will we be
able to discern, after Jesus, the “purpose” for which we “have come”; the purpose
for which God has made us and called us. Only then will we be able to answer as
Samuel did, and as our Psalm echoes: “Speak, for your servant is listening… Here
am I, LORD; I come to do your will.”
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