To be blessed to have a clear understanding of what God’s will is for our lives, is to live our faith with truth and accuracy. It’s like owning a spiritual golden nugget. With all that our world sends our way, it’s a struggle to remain grounded in a Christian way of life. Jesus is not one of many voices to possibly choose from. His is the lead voice, the voice that leads to a good life, even with all our suffering and ailments.
To shoot down his voice in any part of our lives, is to shut down the very voice of God. There’s no need for Catholics to suffer from separation mentality syndrome. To hear and listen to his voice is to be in tune with the many promises and joys that have come down from heaven, waiting to return with our souls. And then our bodies when Jesus returns for an encore.
These simple, yet touching words of Samuel in today’s first reading, they are path-setting words. A path-setting response on the road to salvation and the good side of life eternal. For this is the main business of the Church. Our business also includes many good works, abundant works of mercy, and not one and done works.
Is there a better experience of God’s love working in our lives than when we assist in caring for another brother or sister in need? But the first order of God’s Church is landing souls in heaven, while never separated from our abundant good works of love.
Samuel’s words place us on the correct path to our main business, and all other businesses in union with our main business; “Here I am. You called me. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” Listening to you, Lord, before all other voices.
Listening to your Word. Listening to you through the Sacraments. Listening to you through the cries of the poor. Listening to you through your Saints who listened to you with such precision. “Here I am. Speak to me, Lord. Show me. Assist me.” God’s will, and humility at its best.
The struggle for many, and one of the more complex parts of our western world, is what St. Paul teaches the Corinthians that keeps all of us on the path of salvation with relation to the goodness of our bodies. Very simply and sadly, our culture, including here in our nation, has lost its way with choices of the human body.
St. Paul teaches that what we do in the body matters to God. God created our bodies for holiness. The human body is a sacred piece of material.
Whether your belief is evolution, or Adam & Eve in a literal sense in the Garden of Eden, our bodies have been created by God for the resurrection, an event which claims Jesus as the firstborn of all creation. As Paul writes so correctly in today’s reading, our bodies are not for immorality. Our bodies are central to God’s loving plan of salvation. God raised the Lord Jesus in the body, and will also raise our bodies from the dust they will become, by his power.
The poor Corinthians, like some very misguided folks today, they had this separation mentality belief renting space in their minds and hearts. Some thought they could be true disciples of Jesus while living their former bodily pagan ways, making immoral choices in the body.
They could not have been more wrong in their bodily assessment. They strayed from the path of salvation in their bodily choices, as do those who conduct themselves in the same way today. As Paul reminds them, trying his best to bring them back to holiness, their bodies, and our bodies still, are temples of the Holy Spirit. Not the spirit of the age, but the unchanging Holy Spirit of God. “Here I am, Lord. Speak to me.”
In John’s Gospel, the first few Apostles are placed on the good path to discipleship in the pointing of John the Baptist. When John pointed and said to two of his disciples, “Behold, the Lamb of God,” he pointed not to a crowd of people walking by at the time of his point. It wasn’t like John was in a mall on Black Friday and yelled out, “Hey, there’s Tom Brady.” And everyone in earshot looked all over to see where Tom was.
John the Baptist had perfect timing. He waited until one man, one Divine Person was walking by, all by his lonesome, so no one could mistake the words of Whom he spoke, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” There was one Person walking by, because those words of John are meant for one Person only.
And then the following begins. To follow Jesus like Andrew did that day, and then go home to bring back his brother Cephas, now known as Peter, is our free response to embracing God’s will for us. These early disciples entered the presence of Jesus and spoke the words of Samuel, “Here I am. Speak to me, Lord.”
In a complex world of many voices seeking our attention, especially through the media and technology, pray for the awareness and keen focus of hearing Jesus’ voice. Through his Bride, the Church; through our faith in him; through the Holy Scriptures; through our many good works; and through our bodies that will be raised up. This is God’s will.