Today there is much talk about vocations, or rather, of the lack of vocations to priesthood and religious life. Seminaries and novitiates of religious congregations, both male and female, seem to be almost empty. Are there no vocations like before? Are there no boys and girls who want to respond to God’s call?
This Sunday’s readings present us with the most basic itinerary of the Christian vocation. Not for the vocation to the priesthood or religious life but to the Christian life. Only those who listen to the voice of God calling them to the Christian life will later be able to think whether they will have to live that life as a married lay person or as a priest or as a religious. But the basic requirement will be not to confuse the voice of God with the many voices the world offers us.
Little Samuel hears the voice of God calling him, but he mistakes it for the voice of his teacher Eli. He needed teaching, guidance and help to discern and realise that the voice that calls him is God himself. This is true of us in our times too. Samuel had the willingness to listen to his teacher. How often do I seek guidance and help on matters of faith?
The next stage of the Christian vocation is to follow Jesus and to listen to him. Better yet, to enter his house and stay with him, to listen to him, to share his feelings and ideals until we make them our own. That’s what those disciples of John who saw Jesus went ahead and did. “Master, where do you live?
The answer is clear: “Come and see”. There is no other way than to go with him and experience for ourselves. To know Jesus up close is a personal experience that no one can do for us.
Only when close to him will we feel that our life changes and takes a new and definitive direction because the Gospel becomes its centre. This is what is symbolised in the Gospel by Simon’s change of name. His new name “Cephas-Peter” is all about the mission he is given in the service of the Gospel.
The reading from the first Corinthians clarifies our call – that every Christian is called to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. May we listen to the voice of God who calls us to live in the service of the Kingdom that Jesus preached! The vocation to be priests, or to live in marriage or to commit oneself in religious life, will come as a consequence to our adherence to the voice of God.
For your reflection
Have you ever heard God’s voice calling you and inviting you to follow him? Have you preferred to close your ears because you felt that listening to him would demand too much of you? What do you think God is asking you to change in your life?
Father Fernando Armellini SCJ
Claretian Publications (bibleclaret.org)
Translated by Father John Ledesma SDB
Abridged by Father Jijo Kandamkulathy CMF
