“Responding to
the Word”
Marion
Bond West, an inspirational writer and mother of hyperactive twins was
in
the kitchen frying chicken for dinner one busy day. As she stirred the
chicken pieces sizzling in the pan, she heard an inner voice commanding
her: “Go, look for your boys!” Astounded, she paused and finally
concluded, “I must be imagining things”. But the inner voice came back
with insistence: “Go, look for your boys!” Reluctantly, she switched off
the stove and, leaving the chicken pieces soaking in the oil, went to look
for her highly energetic young twins. When she reached the laundry room,
she almost fainted. One little boy was crouched inside the electric dryer
with an astronaut’s helmet on his head. The twin brother was ready to
blast him off as in a rocket ship. Marion’s ability to listen and respond
to the inner voice paid off.
After focusing on the mystery of the Lord’s
incarnation during the Christmas-Epiphany season, we now enter into the
ordinary season of the liturgical year. In today’s liturgy, the Church
invites us to delve into the meaning of the call and response to the Word
of God. We hear in the first reading (I Sm 3:3b-10, 19), the moving
example of God’s call of the young boy, Samuel, who was serving in the
temple of the Lord. There is humor in the boy’s running back and forth to
the old priest Eli, with his eager, “Here I am, you called me.” The
narrator succinctly explained the situation: “At that time Samuel was not
familiar with the Lord, because the Lord had not revealed to him anything
yet” (v.7). After the third time, the priest, Eli, perceived that the
voice was coming from the Lord. He then taught the young boy how to listen
and respond to the summoning voice. In his limpid innocence and energetic
readiness, the young Samuel becomes for us a model of receptivity and
openness to the voice of God. “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”
was his response to the Lord who came and revealed his presence to him.
The text of the first reading skips verses 11-18. These verses, however,
are necessary for a better understanding of the concluding verse: “Samuel
grew up, and the Lord was with him, not permitting any word of his to be
without effect” (v.19). The omitted passage narrates the Lord’s message of
indictment to the house of Eli and Samuel’s unpleasant role of
communicating this painful message to Eli, who humbly resigned to God’s
justice by saying: “He is the Lord; let him do what he thinks is good”
(v.18). Indeed, the young boy, Samuel, would grow up to be an honest and
truthful prophet. He would always proclaim the voice of the Lord
courageously and never leave it unheeded. In this light, today’s
concluding verse about Samuel, “not allowing any word of the Lord to be
without effect” (v.19), evokes the powerful proclamation of Yahweh in last
Sunday’s first reading: “My word shall not return to me void, but shall do
my will, achieving the end for which I sent it” (cf. Is 55:11). Indeed,
the word of the Lord – God’s dabar – is dynamic and efficacious. It
demands a personal response of which Samuel’s committed response is a
model.
The Gospel reading (Jn 1:35-42) is taken from
John whose gospel prologue contains the marvelous declaration: “And the
Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (Jn 1:14). The Incarnate
Word Jesus Christ is also the “Lamb of God” pointed out by the precursor
John the Baptist to two of his disciples. Indeed, the title “Lamb of God”
sets in our hearts images of the sacrificial lamb, the suffering Servant
in whom Yahweh is well pleased, and the Good Shepherd. Typically, Jesus
Christ initiates the dialogue of discipleship: “What are you looking for?”
The response of Andrew and his companion is not totally an answer, but a
question pregnant with meaning: “Where are you staying?” According to the
Benedictine writer, Demetrius Dumm: “They are certainly not asking for his
address. Their question means, ‘Where can we find you and learn from you
about our true home?’ Jesus says in reply, ‘Come and see.’ He does not
give a pat answer; he offers instead an invitation to walk with him and to
learn what living in hope means, what the journey means – to learn of its
pain but also of its joy, and most of all of its happy ending, its true
homecoming.” Indeed, the positive and ready response of the disciples to
the Incarnate Word’s invitation is extremely inspiring: “They went and saw
where Jesus was staying, and they stayed with him.” As the Word made flesh
dwelt among us and stayed with us through his eternal healing presence, so
the first disciples remained with Jesus, the incarnate Word and divine
Teacher.
Having experienced the life-giving intimacy
and power of Jesus, the Word of life, the disciple Andrew became a sharer
of the Word. His inevitable response is to find someone else to share the
joy of his personal encounter with the Messiah. His mission of sharing the
Word bore fruit. According to Basil of Seleucia: “Andrew was the first to
become an apostle … Taking Peter with him, Andrew brought his brother to
the Lord, thus making him his fellow-disciple. This was Andrew’s first
achievement: he increased the number of apostles by bringing Peter to
Christ, so that Christ might find in him the disciples’ leader.”
The
Christian response to the Word can be better understood by looking into
the message of Paul to the community of believers in Corinth (cf. II Cor
6:13c-15a,17-20). Paul vehemently reminds the Corinthians that their
bodies are members of Christ. Adrian Nocent remarks: “Paul is vividly
aware of man’s destiny; he knows that we do not belong to ourselves, that
our bodies are for the Lord, and that our true life is in eternity. For
these reasons, we must preserve the integrity of our bodies. We do not
belong to ourselves, because our calling has made us temples of the
Spirit, and our baptism has incorporated us into Christ.” Indeed, the
baptized Christian’s life of intimate discipleship and union with Christ
involves profound moral obligations and demands a lifestyle in total
coherence with his saving Word. The body of Christ cannot be adulterated
or prostituted.
II. POINTS
FOR THE EXAMINATION OF THE HEART