2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
VOCATION: Jesus calls us - He calls you to follow Him, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and become a missionary disciple....
“The Lord is near to all who call on him!”
The young boy
Samuel heard in the night a voice calling his name. He did not know that it was
the Lord calling him. He learned this from the Lord’s priest Eli, who served in
the Temple of the Lord. Eli was not a good man and displeased the Lord.
Notably, he failed to discipline his two sons. They abused the Lord’s Temple
and had no respect for God or for others. Still, Eli did a good thing in
guiding young Samuel to learn to listen to the voice of the Lord.
Have you ever heard
the voice of the Lord? I haven’t; at least, not with my ears. What’s really important
here is not whether or not we hear the voice of the Lord with our ears, but
whether we are even interested in listening for the Lord’s voice within our
spirit. We all have voices inside of us: our own conscience, voices we
remember, like those of our parents; the voice of our spouse, of friends and
relatives, or even voices we dread, like that of our boss. Most important among
all the voices echoing inside of us is the gentle, quiet voice of God.
“Here I
am, Lord; I come to do your will!”
Dear brothers and
sisters in Jesus, I should get down on my knees and ask your forgiveness for
the neglect of all the pastors and priests you have ever known; forgiveness for
all the ways in which we have failed to coach you in learning to listen, to discern
and recognize, and to obey the voice of the Lord… deep down within your spirit.
The Holy Spirit is close to every human being, whether we realize it or not.
This is in part because God is our Creator, and it is the will of the Father
alone which brought us into being and which sustains us in being. Without the
stable and loving will of the Father that we should exist, we would simply
disappear without a trace, without even a puff of smoke. We would simply
vanish.
“The
Lord is near to all who call on him!”
The fact that we
exist is evidence that God exists, and that He also wants us to exist. In the
Bible’s perspective, our very breath is not our own, but it is God’s breath
which He breathes into us. Further evidence of the great and unconditional love
with which God loves us is the free will with which we have all been endowed. Our
free will is a very great gift indeed.
However, we don’t
always like the fact that we have free will. We would much prefer God to wipe
out in a single stroke every hint of evil, violence, pain, poverty, and
suffering in the world. Isn’t that right? Hello? We don’t realize that if God
did as we wish and wiped out all evil doers, illness, violence, natural
disasters, pain, and suffering, we would no longer be free. We would simply be
a bunch of robots, programmed machines, like ChatGPT, with no free will.
Family, love, friendship, and caring for others, especially those in need; none
of that could exist if there were no free will, no possibility of freely
deciding to make acts of love and caring. Would you really want to live in a
world like that? I would most definitely not want to live in that world.
“Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will!”
Sadly, there is another
reason for me to get on my knees and ask for your forgiveness on my behalf and
on behalf of all the clergy you have ever known. It’s not just because we have
failed to coach you in learning to know God personally and to relate to God
personally every day. In addition to this, we have given you the impression
that all you need to do to enter into Heaven when you die is to be a good
person; to avoid committing crimes, and to do some good deeds. This is all
good, but it is only part of what God expects of us. Our Creator cares a great
deal about his Creation, and especially about all his human children.
If we don’t freely decide
to learn how to also care a great deal about God’s Creation, and especially
about all of his human children; then how can we possible stand to live in
God’s company for all of eternity in Heaven? At times, aren’t we already allergic to
people who, we may think, are too holy, too devout or too good. Such people give us to feel a bit uncomfortable. Unless we change, it won’t get any better in Heaven; in
fact, it will only get worse. We won’t want to be in Heaven.
“The Lord is near to all who call on him!”
A few minutes ago, we
heard St. Paul declare that in order to be in sync with God, we need to hold
our bodies and the bodies of others in great respect; even reverence. That
means there is no room for sexual hanky panky; no room at all. More important
than this, though, is that God is calling each and every baptized person to do
as John, Andrew, and Simon did. We are all to follow Jesus and become his
missionary disciples. We may feel weak, imperfect, and fragile, yes, and that is what we offer, but the Lord brings to bear his power, holiness, and divine mercy; so in this partnership, God can do wonders and in fact does wonders through us. Jesus wants to fill us with the life and love of the Holy
Spirit and send us out into the world to bring his good news to all those poor
people who are starving and thirsting for the good news that God loves them
unconditionally.
In our day, we have no excuse. Anyone can own a
Bible as well as a copy of the Catechism. Anyone with a computer or smart phone
with internet can read the Bible, the Catechism, and even listen to the Liturgy
of the Hours and read along. The Lord, in the Word He addresses to us today, is testing us, scrutinizing our spirits, to bring to light our willingness to let Him work in us and bring about his holy will in us, for our own good and for the good of others. We have everything at our fingertips.
“Here I
am, Lord; I come to do your will!”
“Mary
Mother of God, St. Joseph, help us walk in
the steps of Jesus. O my
Jesus, I trust in You! Thank You; You who are God, the
Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
In silence now, the Holy
Spirit helps us to unite our offering of ourselves to that of Jesus….
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