Wednesday of the First Week of Ordinary time

Lectionary 307

At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD, because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet.
The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time.
Getting up and going to Eli, he said, “Here I am. You called me.”

A spiritual director once told me that we must learn to hear the voice of God. Unfamiliar to us, it may seem like nothing at all, as when one learns to taste tea or wine. The Christmas song, “Do you hear what I hear?” expresses the mystery because I may be hearing it but I have never noticed it. I might respond to that question, “Do I hear what? I don’t hear anything!”

It’s like noticing one’s vision or smell or weight. How do I notice something that has always been there?

The boy Samuel had grown from infancy at Shiloh where his mother Hannah left him. He was familiar with the smells of candles and oil, of the old priest and the crowds who visited the shrine. He could sing their songs and recite their prayers. He understood obedience well enough; it involved listening to his elders and doing what they asked. Like any child raised in a stable, safe environment, he took much for granted. But he was not yet familiar with the Lord. Perhaps he supposed that day would come but he could not imagine the sound or the sight, the smell or the touch that would tell him the Lord is near.

So when the Lord called him in the middle of the night, as he slept close by the Ark of the Covenant, in the familiar glow of the sanctuary lamp, he naturally assumed that voice was the old priest Eli.

Despite his lack of experience at that tender age, Samuel teaches us the right attitude, “Here I am.” This is a word we should speak in God’s presence in season and out. I am ready, eager, willing, alert, and open; I am your handmaid, footservant, gardener, chauffeur or dog walker; whatever you want, here I am!  

I might not “hear” the voice of God at every moment but that openness invites the Holy Spirit to move in me and I can always say, “Here I am.” That spirit might astonish me when, in a difficult situation, I know precisely what to say or not to say. Or I might just happen to show up at the right time in the right place where my particular presence is required. 

This was not my doing. It was the Lord who opened channels, cleared the traffic, or changed the light and placed me here. I can take no credit for that but I can be grateful that You have made me an instrument of your peace.