Sunday Homily, January 14, 2018, 2nd Ordinary Time
Readings:
Samuel 3, 3-10, 19, The call of Samuel by Yahweh.
Psalm402, Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will.
1 Corinthians 6, 13-15, 17-20, Your bodies are members of Christ.
John 1, 35-42, What are you looking for?
Thanks, John, for celebrating this week while Rosemary & I had a wedding for her youngest sister's son, Sean, in Mount, Laurel, NJ, just east of Philadelphia.
The reading from First Samuel tells a story of Samuel’s call by God and how difficult it was to hear it. The Gospel reading tells a story of the call of Peter and Nathaniel by Jesus. These stories are both dramatic in their details and their telling.
But even kids seem to hear a call on some level—they seem to identify with things bigger than themselves. I remember my grandson Leo, at about age 3, saying: “I want to be a scientist”, or “I want to go to ‘space university’”. At that same age, we heard how strongly he identified with something bigger than himself. Joey would tell Leo that he was going to go to Texas U.(her college), and Daniel would say that he was going to Oklahoma State (his college).
Sir Charlie, I don't trust you so close.
Leo’s speech was still rudimentary then and when we said, “Leo, when you grow up, you’re going to Texas U.”, Leo would say with great determination, “No, I’m going to ‘okeenokee steak’. Without even knowing what it meant, Leo, so young, had listened, heard a call, and strongly identified with a parent’s alma mater. He became a follower.
In the olden days, today’s readings about a call from God would be used to talk up vocations to the priesthood and the religious life. Though the church still suffers from a clerical culture and a vertical patriarchy, we know all are called to priesthood, to minister—to serve and care for one another. So some calls are special, some are dramatic, like Samuel’s and like Peter’s and Nathaniel’s.
Hi, Beth, Hi, Emma. So nice to see you.
I echo Stack in that the call to serve, to care, to follow—is most often a small voice, usually inaudible. We have to be listening for it. Problem: having a ‘habit of ‘listening’ is not automatic. We’re not born with it. But we can all learn to ‘listen’ and, by practicing listening, we all can develop it into a habit.
So, when we ‘listen’ daily to what we read or to what others say, or become attentive to random daily situations, we are developing the habit of listening. Our practice at the beginning of Mass to pause and ‘listen’ can be the beginning of developing the habit of listening.
Hi Tori, Hi, Zoe, So nice to see you girls, too.
There was the story on TV this week of a man who saved a stranger’s life by pushing her away from an oncoming car which then hit and killed him. This man and this woman had both stopped to help out another driver whose car was stalled. Like Samuel’s and John’s stories, this is a dramatic and amazing example of someone hearing a call, it’s a hero story—difficult, if not impossible, to identify with.
What the newscast doesn’t tell us is the back story, how this man and this woman likely lived their lives—my guess is they had a habit of listening for the many small daily calls to care about others in small ways, in ways we all can. This is within the reach of all of us: to develop a habit of listening for those small everyday calls to serve and to care for others.
The Girls, Cheryl & Marilyn
The question: Can you hear those small daily calls? And have you developed the habit of listening?