Hearing God's Voice in our Midst

Second Sunday of Ordinary Time: 17th January 2021

Readings: 1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19; Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10; 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20; John 1:35-42

(Lamb of God, Photo courtesy: creativecommons)

Please click here to listen to my audio reflections

I. Learning to listen to the voice of God

“Look, the Lamb of God” the pointed remark of John the Baptist at Jesus should intrigue us. John the Baptizer's job was to point people to Jesus, their long-awaited Messiah. Looking at both the prophets Eli in the first reading and John the Baptist in the Gospel, the prophets knew and recognised the longing for the call of God in their lives and the coming of the Messiah, the hope that had been passed from generation to generation. But this did not begin suddenly; rather, it grew and developed in them as they learned to listen to the voice of God. They learnt the art of discernment that is to know the Will of God. Samuel was no exception. God’s voice is not always easy to discern because it is seldom loud and never brash. It is much more likely to come to us quietly, in the quiet, maybe during the night, as Samuel found.

Today people are looking for someone to give them security in an insecure and obscure world. Our job is to point them to Christ and to show that he is the one whom they seek. We might try to answer the problems or try to clarify them today. However, all our human efforts to find solutions to the problems of humanity are futile and useless. Often they end up nowhere. Because they are all temporary and fragile moreover human. 

II. By living out faith in experience gets strengthened

These new disciples used several names for Jesus: Lamb of God (1:36), Rabbi (1:38), Messiah (1:41), Son of Go (1:49), and King of Israel (1:49). As they get to know Jesus, their appreciation for him grew enormously. They stick to him until the end.  The more time we spend in getting to know Christ, the more we will understand and appreciate who he is. We may be drawn to him for his teaching, but we will come to know him as the Son of God. Although these disciples made this verbal shift in a few days, they would not fully understand Jesus until three years later (Acts 2).  What they so easily professed had to be worked out in experience. We may find that words of faith come easily, but deep appreciation for Christ comes with living by faith.  

One of the two disciples was Andrew (1:40). The other was probably John, the writer of this book.  Why did these disciples leave John the Baptist? Because that's what John wanted them to do-he was pointing the way to Jesus, the one John had prepared them to follow. These were Jesus' first disciples, along with Simon Peter (1:42) and Nathanael (1:45). 

When the two disciples began to follow Jesus, he asked them, "what do you want?" Following Christ is not enough; we must follow him for the right reasons. To follow Christ for our own purposes would be asking Christ to follow us-to align with us to support and advance our cause, not his. We must examine our motives for following him. Are we seeking his glory or ours?

Andrew accepted John the Baptist's testimony about Jesus and immediately went to tell his brother, Simon, about him. There was no question in Andrew's mind that Jesus was the Messiah. Not only did he tell his brother, but he was also eager to introduce others to Jesus (6:8, 9; 12:22). 

Jesus saw not only who Simon was, but who he would become. That is why he gave him a new name-Cephas in Aramaic, Peter in Greek (Petros the name means "a rock").  Peter is not presented as rock-solid throughout the Gospels, but he became a solid rock in the days of the early church, as we learn in the book of Acts. By giving Simon a new name, Jesus introduced a change in character.

III. God's call never stops from being unheard

Ultimately, for we are not our own, but belong to the Lord, as Paul says in today’s Epistle to the Corinthians. God’s call can be easy to ignore, for a shorter or even a longer time, even for many years, but it is quietly insistent and never goes away fully. And it’s not only heard in the form of a voice but can come to us in other ways, too – through friends, through circumstances, through moments of beauty and of crisis. God is constantly calling to each of us—personally, by name (Isaiah 43:1; John 10:3). He wants us to seek Him in love, to long for His word (Wisdom 6:11–12). We must desire always, as the apostles did, to stay where the Lord stays, to constantly seek His face (Psalm 42:2). And, like Samuel, we will always be able to find, sooner or later, a wise elder to help us to make sense of it all. Sometimes we might be like Samuel hearing God's voice again and again, and the young boy Samuel did respond as directed, beginning a life-long relationship with his Lord. These scenes from salvation history should give us strength to embrace God’s will and to follow His call in our lives.

We must have ears open to obedience, and write His word within our hearts. We must trust in the Lord’s promise—that if we come to Him in faith, He will abide with us (John 15:14; 14:21–23), and raise us by His power. And we must reflect in our lives the love He has shown us, so that others too may find the Messiah.

Questions for Reflections:

1. Do you find it difficult to hear the voice of God in your life?

2. Where might this call of God have been sounding in your own living? 

3. When is the last time that you heard God's call? Perhaps you could try and hear and get some sense of that call of God, through today's reading.

4. Did you get some hint of that call – being called by your own name, called to a fuller, more authentic life? Or perhaps you long to hear such a call but are not aware of it yet. Maybe it’s been there already, but you need to find some stillness, some quiet, to hear it, really. What are the feelings that emerge in your heart at this moment? Take them to the Lord who calls; take these feelings to him, ask him to fulfil the longing you have.

Prayer:

Gracious Lord, You are the source of our true peace. In this fallen world of ours, there is so much alienation through hostility, enmity, strife, anger, unforgiveness, impatience, selfishness, envy, slander and malice. And this lack of peace in relationships spreads like a virus to larger social arenas. Help us Lord to listen to your Spirit of wisdom and love. Straighten our relationships with you and with my brothers and sisters. Thus I may recognize that you are my true Messiah, the anointed of God.  Let your boundless love, mercy, forgiveness and compassion may transform me and become your beloved child. AMEN.

- Olvin Veigas, SJ

16th January 2021