Most of the people on this planet would consider that they lead rather  ordinary lives  and that they are not very important  according to the world’s standards. Today’s  Readings   remind us that God considers each of us very special, important enough to call us to many significant  roles.

After the colourful liturgical celebrations of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany we have now entered the season of Ordinary Time, which gives us a chance to reflect on the very ordinary ways in which God is active in our lives.  Time and again Scripture shows us how God uses other people and ordinary events to reveal the divine presence, to speak a word to us, to call us forth.  Our challenge is to be alert to whatever word or inspiration is offered to us, lest we miss a God-given opportunity. 

What clogs my ears from listening to the Holy Spirit?

By reflecting on the first reading we can appreciate how God used the aged high priest, Eli, in the temple shrine at Shiloh, to teach young Samuel to recognise the word of God. Samuel had been given to temple service at a tender age by his mother Hannah, in thanksgiving for the birth of this long-awaited child. His arrival was certainly an answer to her prayers.

By reflecting on the first reading we can appreciate how God used the aged high priest, Eli, in the temple shrine at Shiloh, to teach young Samuel to recognise the word of God. Samuel had been given to temple service at a tender age by his mother Hannah, in thanksgiving for the birth of this long-awaited child. His arrival was certainly an answer to her prayers.  Eli encouraged Samuel to respond to God’s call with the words, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”.  Samuel learned to listen to his God and he was later called to become the last of the great judges of Israel and to help prepare  the nation for rule by kingship.  Samuel’s response could  become a daily mantra for each one of us if we want to be sensitive to the presence of God in our lives.

Is there a Hannah or a Samuel  in my life whom I am being called to encourage?

Am I listening for your word in the ordinary events of my daily life?

Just as Eli taught Samuel how to listen to the call of God, so, in our Gospel reading, we see John the Baptist directing two of his own disciples towards Jesus as he points him out, “Behold, the Lamb of God”. Having met Jesus and spent the day with him, Andrew hastens to call his own brother, Simon, to discover for himself  Jesus, the “Messiah”.   How clearly we see God using the Baptist to foster in his own disciples a new relationship with Jesus ~ a simple and ordinary meeting that becomes a deep call to discipleship.

The Apostles come to recognise that the Lamb of God is also the Saviour of the world and during the Sundays of Ordinary Time we will hear about the ministry of Jesus, his teachings and healing miracles and his compassion for the needy and oppressed of his time.

The important challenge for us, as it was for the first disciples, is to recognise the call of God in the ordinary events of daily life and to respond like the psalmist, as wholeheartedly as we can:      “Here I am , Lord, I come to do your will”

Denise Sullivan OP