In today’s gospel we hear that two disciples of John the Baptist begin to follow Jesus after John identifies him as “The Lamb of God”. Jesus asks them, “What are you looking for?” And when they asked him where he is staying, he replies, “Come and you will see.” And so, they followed him.
If I were to ask each one of you who are here today, including those who may be watching livestream, “Why are you here?” and “What are you looking for?” I would probably get a wide variety of answers, but I would hope that they all boil down to one common answer, that you too want to follow Jesus. And that is such a blessing that can only come from the grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through our baptism we are all called to follow Jesus in one vocation or another. The only questions are, first, are we able to hear and recognize God’s voice amid all of life’s other distractions? And secondly, are we willing to answer that call?
In our 1st reading from the 1st Book of Samuel we heard God’s call to Samuel. Samuel wasn’t at first attuned to God’s voice. God called him three times before he became spiritually enlightened, with the help of Eli, to recognize God’s voice.
This story of Samuel’s calling reminds me of my own calling to the deaconate. I know I’ve told a few people about it, but I’m not sure if I’ve shared the story publicly. It was about 18 years ago; I had reached a point in my life when things were going really well, and life was good and comfortable; and I started to get this feeling that I needed to be doing more to be of service to God. Then one night I had a dream about being a deacon. The dream was very strange for two reasons. One, I remembered the dream very vividly. Usually when I first wake up in the morning and I know I was dreaming, as I slowly become fully awake, the dream fades away until I can’t remember it. But this one I remembered quite vividly. The second reason it was strange is, because 18 years ago I had no idea what a deacon was or what being a deacon meant. I had known, very vaguely, of two other deacons, but I didn’t know them well and had no idea what the ministry of a deacon entailed. So, I filed the dream away in memory as just a strange dream and tried to forget about it. But then I had the same dream again——–and again. Over the period of about a year I had the same dream 5 or 6 times. And each time I just tried to forget about it. Then one Sunday morning here at St. Michael’s, I was in the sacristy preparing for Mass. Someone came in to help me and they asked me, “have you ever thought about being a deacon?” That moment was more than just an “AHA” moment. It was more like a hard swift kick in the rear moment. I just looked up & said, “OK, I get it.” And then without even thinking or realizing what I was saying, I answered, “How did you know?” Sometimes, like Samuel, it takes someone else to help us recognize God’s call. And they may not even realize their role in God’s plan. Samuel is obviously on a far different level than I am, so it took God a lot more than three tries before I heard him. If we allow ourselves to be distracted by all the noise in the world, we might not hear God’s call. But it’s nice to know that God keeps calling us, even if at first, we don’t answer him. God will never give up on us. If we open ourselves up to the graces of God, the Holy Spirit will enlighten us to be able to hear his call, even if it’s through someone close to us.
God calls each of us into the path of life where we can best serve him. Usually when we think of God’s callings, we think of Moses, or Samuel, or Isaiah, or Jeremiah; or on a closer level to us, we may think of callings to religious life as a priest or deacon, or even consecrated life as a sister or brother. Although these are callings that we certainly need to listen for, they are far from the only callings by God. The concept of religious vocation has a much wider scope. Marriage is a calling from God; to embrace a life of sacrificial love, when entered into as a sacrament. Being a parent is a very big calling; the responsibility of raising children in the Light of Christ. Single life can be a calling in its own right. Our jobs and careers can be a calling. The question is whether we work just for the money, to build up our own riches here on earth, or are we sincerely working to be productive members of society working for the good of humanity and for the good of God? Sometimes our calling is just to come to Church; to follow him a little more closely. Maybe the Lord wants us to lead someone else to him; someone who has become estranged from him; leading them back to him through our words and our actions, or our simple kindness. Following God’s call has an impact, not just on our lives, but on the lives of those around us, and possibly even the lives of people we don’t know because we may not know how our walk with Christ impacts others around us. We are simply called to walk with Christ in all that we do.
I’d like to read to you a short writing that I first read when I was in formation; which I still keep a copy of on my desk. It was written by Cardinal John Henry Newman, a cardinal in England in the 19th century. He said:
God has created me for some definite service. He has
committed some work to me which he has not committed to
another. I have a mission. I may never know exactly what that
mission is in this life. I shall be told it in the next. I have a part in
a great work.. I am a link in a chain, a connection between persons.
He has not created me for nothing. I shall do good. I shall do his
work.. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of the truth in my
own place, even if I do not realize what I am doing. But if I keep
his commandments, I will serve him in my calling.
Cardinal John Henry Newman
That can be said of every one of us. What is your calling? What is my calling? The general answer to that question is simple, we are called to know and to love and to serve God. The big question that we each have search for ourselves——– is how. How are each of us called to serve God. Even as a deacon I’m still trying to figure that one out. The particular answer that question for each one of us may be a mystery, the mystery of our lives; but the mystery unfolds every time we pray, ——– every time we come to Church, ———every time we help someone in need.
Let us come before the Lord today to ask for the grace to attune to God’s call in our lives and let us pray for the courage to answer his call; to respond like Samuel, “Speak Lord. Your servant is listening.”