2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Cycle B)

January 18, 2009

by Reverend Deacon Lawrence A. St. Onge

        The theme of today’s readings is that of vocations. In the first reading we have Samuel’s dramatic call to service. It should illustrate to us that God’s call can come at any moment, in any place and in any circumstance. We may not always readily discern God’s call at first, and just as Samuel needed the help of Eli in discerning God’s call, so to we may need assistance in understanding and responding to God’s call to us. It should be noted that sometimes, our response to God’s call requires us to have a change of perspective: those changes of mind and heart, attitude and lifestyle that are a necessary consequence of that call from God that we call vocation.

        Samuel in today’s 1^st reading actually had a call within a call. We are told that he was already serving in the temple, but God called him to change his lifestyle and his venue from that of the relative serene confines of the temple and to go forth and enter into the harsh world of Israelite politics. There, as God’s prophet, he would represent the truth of God’s word to rulers and those being ruled, to the willing and the unwilling, to the good and to the bad. And through it all, because of his willingness to make God’s perspective his own, Samuel was assured of God’s presence; as we heard: “the Lord was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect.”

        Once upon a time, a derelict that had just found and consumed a full bottle of wine happens upon a baptism service one Sunday afternoon down by the river. He proceeds to walk into the water. The minister turns and notices the stranger and says, “Mister, are you ready to find Jesus?”

        “Yes, Preacher, I sure am.” The minister then dunks him under the water and pulls him right back up. “Have you found Jesus?” the Preacher asked.

        “Nooooo, I didn’t!” he sputters. The Preacher then dunks him under again, brings him up and says, “Now, brother, have you found Jesus?”

        “Nooooo, I did not, Reverend.” The preacher now disgusted holds the man under for a longer time, brings him up and asks, “My good man, have you found Jesus yet?”

        And the man answers, “Are you sure this is where he fell in?”  

        When one really does find Jesus, it becomes a life-changing experience. We are never the same again. In today’s gospel story, John the Baptist and two of his followers happen to bump into Jesus one afternoon. Jesus invites Andrew and the other disciple over to where he was staying, and they end up staying with him forever.

        The disciples of John the Baptist had no idea of the radical change that would occur in their lives by their seemingly innocent question to Jesus: “Rabbi, where do you live?” Yet, the response launched them on a path from which there was no turning back. When they accepted Jesus’ invitation to “come and see,” they left behind all that was familiar to follow this incomparable rabbi. Simon soon joined them, and immediately received a new name, Peter, which means “Rock” in Greek, which foretold a future he could never, never have imagined. Once they said yes to the invitation, “their lives were never quite the same again.” 

        Today’s gospel offers us yet another perspective on vocation that has occurred over and over throughout the ages. And that is few can escape the disruption caused by a call from God. Some are like tidal waves, seeming to turn one’s world upside down and inside out, like I experienced in my own life; but others are less dramatic, but no less real. Always, once God has spoken, and we respond, things are never quite the same again.

        Some may be thinking, “But nothing that dramatic has ever happened to me; my life is pretty ordinary.” Although many may not be called to the extraordinary; we are all called to do the ordinary, extraordinarily well. We can never, ever doubt that God does speak to each and every one of us. And how are we to recognize the voice of God? Well, we cannot necessarily expect to hear God calling us as he did Samuel. God chooses many ways to speak to us; and one of his favorites is in silence. In the Old Testament Book of Kings, the prophet Elijah was only able to hear the “still, small voice of God” in silence. It is not always easy to find true silence, since we live in a sea of noise, as it were. We have to make a conscious effort to create a space of silence and solitude from time to time – so that our hearts may be able to receive God’s word, because we are simply not wise enough to know God’s will for us. God only invites, he never compels or forces us to respond. He promised that he would be with us all days, even to the end of time. So what we need to do is to come to him in this space of silence with the prayer of Samuel in our hearts: “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

        Through the proclamation of today’s gospel in our hearing, the risen Jesus invites us to respond to his vocational call. He invites us to a vocation of holiness, to become more then we are. We are called to be imitators of God’s beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who was the willing and submissive servant to the will of the Father. We are called to become holy as He is holy by becoming servants to one another, and by loving one another as He loves us.

        We should never be embarrassed or apologetic for responding to God’s call in our living and life. For some, it is to the religious life; to others the ordained ministry; for most it is the call to either the married state or single life, to the Christian vocation which each receives through the sacrament of baptism. None is better than the other. God calls each according to His plan in the manner of His choosing. The only important thing is for each of us to respond to that particular call in the manner of God’s choosing.

        It may be that our curiosity may sometimes cause us to wonder who Jesus is, or to marvel at him like a character in a novel, or like a hero we set on a pedestal to admire from a safe distance. But when we do this, Jesus challenges us, “Come and see where I live.” “Come and stay with me and me within you.” “Let our time here together around the bread of the Word and the bread of the Eucharist transform us.” “Make my mind your mind; my will your will; my thoughts your thoughts; my eyes and my ears your eyes and your ears.” “Come,” Jesus challenges us, “be my disciple, come and follow me.” What is our response to be?