Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
Well now what? After all of the joy and wonder of the past few weeks, we have now entered ordinary time through the bookend of the Christmas season that is the Baptism of the Lord. It is through the waters of baptism that we enter a life of discipleship. Our discipleship can sometimes get lost in the day to day grind of living, our own “ordinary time”. Today’s reading is a guide of how to be alive in a ways that lead us to serve the Lord faithfully.
In this familiar first reading, we encounter a young Samuel in the service of the Lord through Eli. God keeps calling Samuel quietly during the night, yet he perceives the call as coming from his spiritual master Eli. Neither Samuel nor Eli, recognize the origin of the call immediately; Eli eventually realizes it is God speaking directly to Samuel. Ironically, Samuel’s response to Eli models the response we would do well to use with God. Eli wisely gives Samuel an answer to God’s call. “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” (1 Sm 3:9) When God calls us, how do we respond?
Today’s gospel shows us a few of the many ways of how Jesus models listening to God’s will. After praying, Jesus entered Simon Peter’s house to find Simon’s mother-in-law sick. He healed her and many others that were brought to him that evening. Not only did Jesus heal various diseases, he also drove out demons. The next day, Jesus went out early to pray in a deserted place. When the apostles came to find him, they wanted him to return to the village and continue his healing ministry. After his prayer, Jesus led the apostles throughout Galilee to preach and heal.
Although we know that Jesus was God it is no small witness to us that even God’s Son needed to spend time in conversation with God. This conversation was in a deserted place to symbolize the quiet that can be needed to pray. What person among us would not want to have quiet time to pray? Prayer is lifting our minds and hearts to God. A deeper reflection on the readings reminds us that prayer is also listening. In our noisy world, prayer as listening seems to be a radical departure. Today we are reminded that Jesus, Eli and Samuel understood the need to take time to pray and listen to God. It is from this foundation of prayer that we can be the merciful disciple to which we are being called.
As we go about the tasks of our day, help us take some quiet time to recharge our batteries. “Lord, we offer to you this day our brokenness; we ask you to help heal us, open our ears, minds and our hearts, so that when you call us we might respond, Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will. Amen.”
-Michael Montgomery