2nd Week in Ordinary Time 2024 - Tuesday - The heart of a shepherd

 Over the last week, we have read in our first readings the call of Samuel and the defeat of the Israelites at the hands of the philistines and the loss of the ark. Samuel rallys the Israelites and takes lead of their army and subdues the philistines. After a period of some relative peace in Israel, the Israelites go to Samuel, in his own age, and ask for a king. And this was a disappointing request because it illustrates israel’s failure to allow God to be their king.

But God tells Samuel to give in to this request, and they receive what they asked for. A man named Saul from the time of Benjamin is anointed king—a king of some successes and some failures, but ultimately he is disobedient with God. Yesterday, we heard how Saul’s disobedience—his rebellion against God—has leads to him being rejected by God.

So, today’s reading opens up with Samuel being sent by God to Bethlehem, he encounters Jesse of the tribe of Judah, and Samuel chooses, not the strong first born son of Jesse, but the scrappy red-cheeked youngest of Jesse’s sons as the new king, the shepherd boy David.

God wants a king who doesn’t just appear to be strong, or simply physically strong—God is not interested in physical attributes but in interior purity of heart.

This isn't the first time God shows special favor to shepherds: Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses were shepherds. Shepherds make good kings. And God’s favor of David is certainly evident, for as he is anointed, God’s Spirit rushes upon David. 

David, the anointed shepherd king, foreshadows of course, Christ our Lord and king, who identifies himself as the Good Shepherd in the Gospels.

God loves shepherds. Shepherds love for their sheep is not unlike God’s love for us. After all, David will later compose that most-loved psalm 23, “the Lord is my shepherd”.

But if God loves shepherds, and Jesus is the good shepherd, and we are to imitate Jesus, then we do well to consider what it means to become more shepherd-like. We are to cultivate gentle-loving care for sinners, courage in retrieving the lost sheep from evils of the world, diligence and focus, purity of heart, who considers the good of the flock, the church. With the heart of a shepherd, we are to protect, guide, and nurture, and lay down our life for the ultimate spiritual good of others for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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To God the Father Almighty we direct the prayers of our heart for the needs and salvation of humanity and the good of His faithful ones.

For the holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her.

For the peoples of the world, that the Lord may graciously preserve harmony among them.

For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief.

For ourselves and our own community, that the Lord may graciously receive us as a sacrifice acceptable to himself.

For our beloved dead, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024 - Speak Lord, Your Servant is Listening

 For those of you who attend weekday mass or who reflect upon the weekday scripture readings, this is the second time in a week that we read of the call of Samuel from the first book of Samuel. And it’s such a powerful story. 

First Samuel opens in a dark time in Israel's history. The twelve tribes which had settled in the promised land had ignored the warnings of Moses.

On the precipice of the promised land, God spoke to the Israelites through Moses, commanding his people to “faithfully keep and obey all these orders which I am giving you, so that you and your children after you may prosper forever, doing what is good and right in the eyes of God.” God wants his people to prosper and gives them what they need to prosper. 

And yet after the twelve tribes make their way into the promised Land, the Book of Judges records the troubling statement that instead of doing right in the eyes of God everyone was doing what is "right in his own eyes". That is a way of saying—what?—they had adopted a competing morality—they had given up on the ways of God and were determining for themselves what is right. 

When an individual insists on only doing what is “right in his own eyes” – scripture shows us, over and over, that the result is misery. When a whole nation is doing that, it’s so much worse. This explains a lot of the misery in our world today—when we only do what is right “in our own eyes”—turning our eyes and ears and hearts away from the Lord—failing to raise our children in the ways of the Lord—there is misery on a local, national, and global scale.

And so as a result of their unfaithfulness, the Israelites were living in a very dark time, of their own making. We even see those themes of darkness and blindness in the first reading. Samuel tells us that revelations and visions from God were uncommon and infrequent, as if there was this veil of darkness and faithlessness between God and his people.  Eli’s vision was so weak he couldn’t see, and Samuel is stumbling in darkness, he’s confused, God is calling out to him, and he doesn’t even recognize God’s voice. 

As the story begins, Samuel is so spiritually hard of hearing—his faith is so weak—that he is unable to recognize that it is God—the God of his ancestors—calling out to him. It’s like his faith is so weak, he can’t even fathom that God could be calling to him, he thinks it’s Eli calling to him—he keeps running back to Eli, “Here I am, what do you want?”

Anybody relate to that? In our spiritual infancy, we don’t really pray as we should, we don’t really serve as we should, but as we grow in spiritual maturity, and we begin to put more effort into our spiritual lives, we gradually come to discover God’s presence with us, we come to discover our vocation in Christ.

Like Samuel, we are often a little slow to believe, a little hard of hearing, a little unaccustomed to the sound of the voice of God. But God keeps calling out to us. And as we begin to take more seriously the call to pray, the call to serve, the call to engage in works of charity, the call to repentance, we begin to respond to God with greater and greater willingness to serve.

I bet there are people in this church who have very little idea of what God is calling you to. You are here. That’s wonderful. After all, God is calling you to go to Church every week. There are many people in our world and neighborhood who aren’t doing that. But there’s more to the Christian life than going to church once a week. Of course. God is calling, are we listening? Are we responding with the same willingness and zeal that Samuel eventually develops.

In the Gospel this week, we read from the opening chapter of the Gospel of John. And there are some parallels between our first reading and Gospel. John’s Gospel in fact begins acknowledging that prior to coming of Christ, the world was in darkness, and Christ was born as a light shining in darkness, for the darkness has not overcome the light of God.

And then as we heard today, God is so good, that amidst all of our present darkness, Jesus enters directly into our lives and draws people to himself.

Andrew, the brother of Peter, had been a follower of St. John the Baptist. So immediately you know something about Andrew. Andrew was willing to follow John the Baptist--this wild prophet, who ate locusts and wore camel hair and lived out in the desert. Andrew was willing to go to great lengths to seek God. Andrew was a man of hope. He hoped that the coming of the Messiah was right around the corner and he was doing everything he could to prepare for it. 

And when John pointed Jesus out to him as the Lamb of God, Andrew immediately begins to follow Jesus. And after staying with Jesus he goes to his brother Peter and tells him the Messiah is here. It’s time. 

Those beautiful attitudes that we read about in our scriptures this weekend—pf openness to God and readiness and willingness to serve God and allow God to draw us deeper—are to be cultivated in our lives. The readings challenge us, don’t they? Do I have the courage, like Samuel, to say to God, “speak Lord, your servant is listening”—I am at your complete service, I will go wherever you send me, Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will? Do I have the zeal of Andrew, to speak about Jesus and the importance of following Him to my family?

 God is calling, are we listening? If you don’t hear him, you might need to listen a little harder, because he is speaking, calling us to serve, and to cultivate virtue, and to utilize our spiritual gifts for the sake of the kingdom, to bear the light of Christ amidst the darkness of the world for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

1st Week of Ordinary Time 2024 - Friday - Earthly Kings and Personal Responsibility

 As I explained earlier this week, from now until Lent, our weekday first readings will be taken from the historical books of the Old Testament: I & II Samuel, I & II Kings.  

I Samuel opens in a dark time in Israel's history. The twelve tribes which had settled in the promised land had ignored the warnings of Moses and Joshua. They had been urged to  “faithfully keep and obey” the commands of the Lord. Instead of doing what was good and right in the eyes of God, they turned away from the covenant demands. 

Yesterday’s reading contained the account of how, as a result of Israel's infidelity to the covenant, the Philistines defeated Israel and carried away the ark of the covenant. But then, Under Samuel’s spiritual leadership, Israel repented of their sins, defeated the Philistines, retrieved the ark, and built new shrines for the worship of the one true God. 

Everything seemed great, when, as we heard in the reading today, the people make a disturbing request: “appoint a king over us, as other nations have.” This is not the first time the Israelites asked for a king. They had made the request of the judge Gideon to rule over them and to create a royal dynasty, but Gideon refused. Why is this a disturbing request? 

It was Israel's vocation to be God’s divinely chosen people and to be set apart from the other nations of the earth. They were not supposed to be like the other nations of the earth, which had earthly kings to dictate their lives. By asking for a king, by asking to be like the other nations, Israel is rejecting its true king and its own special vocation.

So we heard how God tells Samuel “Grant the people’s every request. It is not you they reject, they are rejecting me as their king.” And we know the rest of the story, how Israel is going to have some decent God fearing kings, and also some wicked kings that bring terrible suffering, who lead Israel to abandon the covenant, to worship false gods, to engage in forbidden immoralities. The rejection of God’s kingship over and over leads to israel being conquered by foreign powers, having families ripped apart and marched into exile.

This story reveals a very sad tendency, the tendency to abandon the responsibility of being God’s chosen ones, to give up the personal responsibility of living with God as your king. 

Yes, we have God appointed authorities in the church and we do need to obey legitimate authority, but no one can force you to live with God as your king, no one can force you to be a saint. If you live with God as your king, your life, your soul will prosper. But it really doesn’t matter who is Pope, who is president, who is mayor, who is pastor: if you personally do not make God your king, you will be miserable, you will be paralyzed.

But Jesus commands the paralyzed in the Gospel today, to get up and walk, walk in the true freedom of the sons and daughters of God, walk as a true subject of the Divine King, and the world will be astonished, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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That the preaching and teachings of the Pope, Bishops, and clergy may be a source of strength and guidance for the Holy Church.

That those in civic authority may submit their minds and hearts to the rule of Christ, the Prince of Peace and Hope of the nations.

For the liberation of those bound by evil, those committed to sin an error, those oppressed or possessed by evil spirits, and for the conversion of the hardest hearts.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

1st Week of Ordinary Time 2024 - Wednesday - Speak Lord, your servant is listening

 As I explained yesterday, from now until Lent we will be reading sequentially through the initial chapters of the Gospel of Mark. We will hear of the Lord’s healings and teachings and miracles and exorcisms.

We will also be reading a lot from the historical books of the Old Testament up until Lent: I & II Samuel, I & II Kings.  

I Samuel opens in a dark time in Israel's history. We even see those themes in today’s reading: revelations and visions from God were uncommon and infrequent, Eli’s vision was so weak he couldn’t see, and Samuel is stumbling in darkness, straining to discern the voice of God.

These dark days in Israel were partially a result of their unfaithfulness. 

Prior to the Conquest of Canaan, the Israelites were commanded by God, “faithfully keep and obey all these orders which I am giving you, so that you and your children after you may prosper for ever, doing what is good and right in the eyes of God.”

And yet at the conclusion of the conquest, the Book of Judges records the troubling statement that everyone was doing what is "right in his own eyes". The Israelites were in direct violation of their covenant obligation to act as God commanded.

When an individual insists on only doing what is “right in his own eyes” – his spiritual blindness brings him misery. When a whole nation is doing that, it’s so much worse. This explains a lot of the misery in our world today, a lot of the darkness—when we only do what is right “in our own eyes”—turning our eyes and ears and hearts away from the Lord—failing to raise our children in the ways of the Lord—there is misery on a global scale.

Anyway, God is so good, that in times of misery and darkness, God raises up prophets, workers, teachers, priests, to bring individuals and nations back to God. And that’s what we find God doing in today’s reading. We read of the call of Samuel, God raising up Samuel who will be sent as a prophet to Israel. Notice, that as the story begins, Samuel is so spiritually hard of hearing that he is unable to recognize that it is God talking to him. Wisely, he learns from Eli to humble himself and surrender to whatever God wishes to tell him. Samuel goes on to play a very important role in the history of Israel; when Samuel spoke, all of Israel listens, but only because Samuel first learned to listen to God.

As I’ve said before, God has chosen us to be his prophets in this dark age. It is a vocation and mission each of us has received at baptism. Like Samuel, this is a call we might only come to realize gradually, but God IS calling us to call the fallen back to wholeness in God. But first we must learn to listen to God, through prayer, through the discernment of truth by meditating on God’s word. May we each respond to God as Samuel did, “speak, Lord, your servant is listening” for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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That the preaching and teachings of the Pope, Bishops, and clergy may be a source of strength and guidance for the Holy Church.

That those in civic authority may submit their minds and hearts to the rule of Christ, the Prince of Peace and Hope of the nations.

For the liberation of those bound by evil, those committed to sin an error, those oppressed or possessed by evil spirits, and for the conversion of the hardest hearts.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

1st Week in OT 2020 - Wednesday - Prayerful listening that we might hear

Prayer is an integral dimension of the Christian life. We profess our faith in our Creed, we celebrate our faith in the liturgy, we conform our lives to Christ through the moral life, but prayer cultivates the vital, personal relationship with the living God.

Prayer, certainly is as St. John Damascene explains, “the raising of one's mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God." We speak to God in prayer using the words of the Psalms, or memorized prayers composed by the saints, or from words that spontaneously arise from the depths of our hearts and minds.

While speaking to God is certainly part of Christian prayer, listening to God is just as necessary.

In the first reading, Samuel is in the temple, but he was not accustomed to listening and identifying the voice of God. It takes an elder, Eli, to help Samuel discern whose voice he was hearing. And that’s wonderful—our prayer veterans should assist the young in developing an ear for God.  But it takes Samuel a few attempts to finally hear God clearly.

Prayer involves listening, developing an ear for God. We cannot hear if we do not listen.
Our daily prayer should consist of speaking and listening, just like our breathing entails exhaling and inhaling. Ah, and when we do--when we listen to God, we begin to hear the sound of living water rushing into our souls. The more we listen for God, the more we will hear. So let us cultivate that often neglected dimension of prayer: simple listening.

And when we develop that habit of prayer, we will also begin to hear God’s voice more clearly directing our moral choices, speaking in our liturgical celebrations, even ringing in our profession of faith. We might even hear him speaking using our own voice, when we comfort someone in pain, or explain the Gospel to those of weak faith. We might even hear Him calling us by name to endeavors we once thought impossible.

St. Paul says, “we do not know how to pray as we ought.” So let us become silent in prayer, with our ears turned toward God, that the Holy Spirit may teach us to pray and fill us with the wisdom and life of God for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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To God the Father Almighty we direct the prayers of our heart for the needs and salvation of humanity and the good of His faithful ones.

For the holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her.

For the peoples of the world, that the Lord may graciously preserve harmony among them.

For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief.

For ourselves and our own community, that the Lord may graciously receive us as a sacrifice acceptable to himself.

For our beloved dead, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

1st Week of OT 2020 - Tuesday - Pleading for New Life

For the next three and a half weeks, our first readings will be taken from the first and second books of Samuel. Of all the books in the old testament, why does Ordinary Time begin with Samuel?

Throughout the books of Moses, we read of the formation of the nation of Israel: we read of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Exodus from Egyptian slavery, and the wandering in the desert for 40 years. After the desert, the Jews enter into the promised land, under the guidance of Joshua, who does his best to replace Moses as spiritual leader, as the twelve tribes embark on a, more or less, military conquest of the promised land. This gives way to the leadership of the judges, who are sort of these warrior chieftains who arise when Israel gets into trouble and needs to be delivered from her enemies.

First Samuel is a sort of prologue to the rise and development of kingship in Israel, a transition from the period of judges to the period of the monarchy.

And first Samuel, as we heard yesterday, begins with a barren woman, Hannah. She is a woman of virtue, loveliness, godliness, but she is barren. And today, we heard her weeping, copiously, pleading with God for a son. She refers to herself as the handmaid of the Lord, and promises to consecrate her child to God.

Hannah certainly reminds us, she foreshadows, the virgin of Nazareth, the handmaiden, full of grace, who submits her life to God, whose son shall be wholly consecrated to God. And yet, in her barrenness, she also reminds us, and foreshadows Elizabeth. Moreso, because Hannah’s son Samuel, will be a sort of precursor to the kingship, like john the Baptist, son of Elizabeth, was the precursor to the king of kings, the Christ.

Throughout Ordinary Time we read from the various books of the bible. We meet the holy men and women of the Old Testament, like Hannah and Samuel. And perhaps Ordinary Time begins with this story of God bringing life into a barren situation, because throughout Ordinary Time, as we read and study the scriptures, and practice virtue in our ordinary circumstances, God wishes to bring new life in us—in our family relationships, in our parish relationship, in our relationship with strangers and the poor.

May we, like Hannah, weep copiously, pleading with God for new life, placing our lives, entirely in His service, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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To God the Father Almighty we direct the prayers of our heart for the needs and salvation of humanity and the good of His faithful ones.

For the holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her.

For the peoples of the world, that the Lord may graciously preserve harmony among them.

For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief.

For ourselves and our own community, that the Lord may graciously receive us as a sacrifice acceptable to himself.

For our beloved dead, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

2nd Week of OT 2018 - Tuesday - "Not as man sees does God see"

“Not as man sees does God see, because he sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart." In both of our readings today, God shows how he works in ways that are mysterious and surprising to us mortals.

In the first reading, Jesse of Bethlehem presents seven fine, strapping, capable sons for Samuel to anoint as the next king of Israel. The first son, Eliab, had “king” written all over his face—he was lofty and handsome. But the Lord, rejected him, and rejected each one of fine young men Jesse presented. Rather, God chose the most unlikely candidate: the eighth son, the child too young to take upon him the major responsibility of running a kingdom with this crazy, anti-king, Saul opposing him.

It’s challenging and comforting at the same time, isn’t it, that God isn’t preoccupied with outer images, with social conventions. How different our world would be if, like God, we valued inner character over outer appearance; the moral corruption of Hollywood elites would certainly have less effect in our culture.

Over and over in the Gospels, Jesus shows himself to be quite a different Messiah than people were expecting. When they looked at Jesus, they saw, “Joseph, the carpenter’s kid”, not the incarnate son of God. The Pharisees saw an upstart, a heretic, a fool; the Romans saw a nuisance.

Jesus, walking through the grain fields with his disciples, picking off the heads of grain to eat, appears to be violating the Sabbath law, but through his grasp of the truth of the Scriptures and the will of His Father, Jesus reveals himself to be Lord of the Sabbath. He reveals, too, that God is working in ways that man does not initially expect.

In Jesus, God’s power and might, are revealed, not in military victory, but in humble self-sacrifice and unrelenting mercy. Victory over death is accomplished through the embrace of the cross. What appears to the world as defeat, to God, is victory.

In a society where it seems everyone is out for themselves, Christians need to trust in the ways of God: preaching the truth unabashedly, reaching out to the needy unreservedly, practicing forgiveness unconditionally. We are to adorn ourselves and our lives not with the riches of the world, but knowing God looks to the heart, we are to adorn ourselves with the wisdom of God and with virtue, especially faith, hope, and charity, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That all members of the Church may live out their baptismal call with greater conviction and faithfulness.

That those in civic authority may submit their minds and hearts to the rule of Christ, the Prince of Peace and Hope of the nations.

That the March for Life in Washington D.C. this Friday will help to transform our culture and inspire many to adhere to the Gospel of Life.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord

Monday - 2nd Week of OT 2018 - Saul's unacceptable sacrifice

Very early on in his kingly career, Saul shows himself to be far from the ideal ruler. He is brash and impulsive and disobedient to God’s commandments. As the story progresses his becomes increasingly irrational, volatile and hostile to the commandments, he attempts to murder the Lord’s anointed, and becomes a practitioner of the occult.

In the conversation between Saul and Samuel this morning, we even see Saul adopting sort of a mocking tone. Saul claims to be doing the will of God: from his military conquests he even brought back all these animals to be sacrificed to God, even though this was contrary to the divine mandate.
Samuel reveals that Saul’s heart is far from surrender to the divine will of God: these supposed sacrifices were not pleasing to God because they were offered by a disobedient arrogant heart. Samuel equates these empty sacrifices with idolatry and sorcery, sins most contrary to right relationship with God.

We are reminded of how the sacrifice of Cain was found unacceptable to God for the same reason. The unacceptable sacrifice is a mockery; it pretends at being rightly ordered, like many Catholic politicians and leaders who claim to be Catholic all the while forwarding a morally corrupt political agenda.

But this is also a danger each of us must be on guard against, that we don’t go about play-acting at Catholicism, but that our intentions might be purely for God’s glory.

In every celebration of Mass the priest says, “pray brethren that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father”, and the congregation responds praying that the sacrifice at the altar be found acceptable. These are prayers touching on the heart of the Christian life, that our sacrifice, our lives might be rightly ordered.

The Eucharist is the acceptable sacrifice because it is the sacrifice the Son obediently makes of himself to God. It is the sacrifice offered from the humblest heart.

May our days and deeds be rightly ordered to the humble heart, the self-sacrifice of Jesus Our Lord for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That all members of the Church may live out their baptismal call with greater conviction and faithfulness.

That those in civic authority may submit their minds and hearts to the rule of Christ, the Prince of Peace and Hope of the nations.

As our nation observes Martin Luther King Day, we pray for an end to racial prejudice and bigotry, for racial harmony and justice for all people.

That the March for Life in Washington D.C. this Friday will help to transform our culture and inspire many to adhere to the Gospel of Life.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord

2nd Sunday of OT 2018 - Awakening from Spiritual Slumber

The great theologian Origen of Alexandria said that every detail of the scriptures is meaningful and should be treasured and savored like you treasure and savor every morsel of the Blessed Sacrament. So, let’s savor and treasure some of the details of our first reading this weekend, for within it contains some tremendous insights into the spiritual life.

The story of the call of Samuel begins with Samuel asleep. Sleeping is a great biblical theme for spiritual inattentiveness. Here’s Samuel, in a holy place, in the temple, like us in a church, and what’s he doing? Is he praying, is he worshipping, is he devoting his attention to God? No. He’s sleeping.

We begin the spiritual life asleep, inattentive to the presence and will of God. We are here this morning because someone woke us up to the importance of faith, to the importance of religion, to the truth of Catholicism. It may have been the religious practice of your parents in your home growing up that helped to wake you up to the presence of God, it may have been the example of a fiancé or a spouse; perhaps a beautiful piece of sacred art or architecture helped you to realize that there is something greater than yourself.

You likely know people who are wide-awake to their career, to the statistics of their favorite athletes, to the intricacies of their favorite movie franchise, to the fluctuations of the stock market, but are sound-asleep to the things of God. When you are asleep to the spiritual realities, you are missing out on an entire dimension of human existence.

Contrast Samuel snoozing away in the Temple to the image of the Magi from Epiphany Sunday last week: the Magi, scanning the night sky, looking for signs of God’s will, leaving the comfort of their homes, traveling a vast distance to come to know God. The Magi are awake, “woke” as the kids say these days; Samuel is asleep, and needs to wake up.

Next, we read of God calling out to Samuel, but Samuel was convinced it was the voice of his teacher Eli and so he goes back to sleep. The second spiritual lesson is that God is calling out to us, over and over, and it often takes many attempts for us to wake up.

For those asleep to the spiritual realities, whose ears are unattuned to the voice of God, it takes a while to wake up and finally get it. When we are sharing our faith with non-believers, we need to be persistent; they might not get it the first time. Or family members who have fallen asleep to the obligation to attend Mass every week; it’s going to take a few attempts to wake them up again, and we shouldn’t lose heart at their spiritual grogginess. As faith permeates our culture less and less it’s going to take more effort, not less, to bring unbelievers and fallen-away Catholics to spiritual awakening.

How many times have you had to confess the same sin over and over in the Sacrament of Confession? Spiritual awakening takes effort, takes many attempts, takes perseverance, and that’s okay, as long as we continue to seek that awakening.

It becomes problematic when we stop going to confession and just surrender to our sinfulness. This is why it is Church teaching that we do not present ourselves to receive Holy Communion if we have not confessed our serious and mortal sins. For when we approach Holy Communion, we are not to be surrendered to sin, but surrendered to God.

 Notice, next in the story how Samuel, confused by the strange voice of God, Samuel turns to the wisdom of the priest Eli. As we begin to awaken to the spiritual realities, as we begin to attune our ears to the voice of God, turning to the spiritual masters becomes extremely important. We need spiritual supports if we are going to wake up and remain awake.

Coming to Mass every week is an obligation for Catholics because without it we begin to fall back asleep. But even when you do come to Mass, there is a further obligation to be as attentive as you can to the spiritual realities that take place here. Vatican II said that we need to strive for full, conscious, and active participation in the liturgical celebrations: that means to actively listen to the scriptures and prayers, to actively engage in the dialogues, to sing the psalms and hymns to the best of your ability. The hymns are not just religious background music, they integral parts of the Mass. Again contrast Vatican II’s full, conscious, active participation to Samuel snoozing in the Temple. Full, conscious, active participation isn’t easy because Mass is different than watching television or going to work, it requires the exercise of a different set of spiritual muscles.

We also need the spiritual support of a personal prayer life throughout the week: reading the writings of the spiritual masters, the saints, meditating on sacred scripture, meditating on the mysteries of the holy rosary, making frequent confession, are vital spiritual supports.

Finally, the last spiritual lesson from Samuel’s story, notice that after awakening to the reality of God,  Samuel hears God calling him by name and responds with the desire to serve God. It is a life-changing moment when we go from unbelief to actually experiencing God calling us by name.
God not only loves humanity in general, he loves us each uniquely. To experience his profound love for you personally, will change you forever. But you have to dispose yourself to this through the effort of the spiritual life.

Samuel responds to this encounter with God’s love for him, with the desire to serve, and that is the sign of spiritual awakening. In Scripture, God calling his servants by name: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Daniel, Elijah, Ezekiel, Amos, Peter, James, John, Paul. And the calling by name transforms these people into powerful instruments of his Divine Plan.

God’s call is persistent and personal. Pray, pray, pray that you may hear God calling you by name, and when you do, pray in the words of Samuel, “Speak, for your servant is listening” that you might become an instrument of spiritual awakening for others, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

1st Week of OT 2018 - Tuesday - Spiritual Growth in Ordinary Time

As we begin the season of Ordinary time, it seems to be strange to be wearing the color green in the middle of winter. The green of the grass is covered by the snow, and the green leaves on the trees and plants will not begin to grow until spring. But liturgical green reminds us that the Christian soul is meant to grow in faith, hope, and love, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, throughout the whole year despite the earthly seasons.

Another strange facet of Ordinary Time is that of our scripture readings. For the Weekdays of Ordinary Time the Lectionary has a two year cycle of readings — Year I and Year II. The Gospel reading is common to both cycles; so no matter the year, we read from Mark chapter 1 verses 21 to 28 on Tuesday of the first week of Ordinary Time. It’s the First Reading and Psalm which are different.
And what seemed strange to me this morning, is why, oh why, do we begin Ordinary Time, Year II, reading from the first book of Samuel. I have no idea. The first and second books are part of the Old Testament known as the Nevi'im consisting of the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, and also the latter prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the minor prophets

This part of the Old Testament spans the time from Moses’ death to the time of the Maccabees 150 or so BC. So First Samuel is not even the first part of this narrative section of the Bible. Why would Ordinary Time start with this book? I really don’t know, but these are the things I think about at 7 o’clock in the morning.

But we’ll be reading from these books until Ash Wednesday, so we might want to think about them a bit.

First Samuel begins with the story of the barren woman Hannah, who after fervent prayer gives birth to a son, the prophet Samuel, the last of the so-called Judges, who will anoint the first king of Israel, Saul. It is the story of a new age emerging in the history of Israel, the time of a king uniting and ruling over a disparate people. So perhaps, it is fitting for the beginning of this new liturgical season.

We are going to be reading how this transition for Israel is also riddled with problems, much like our own life—many rebellions against the will of God, attacks from outside enemies, personal pride getting in the way of righteousness, but all the while, God is at work urging Israel to faithfulness to his commandments and trust in his providence.

So, not a bad way to start Ordinary Time. Spiritual growth certainly involves surrendering our rebellious wills to the grace of God. May our Ordinary Time be blessed with growth in a knowledge of God’s word and a faithfulness to it, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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To God the Father Almighty we direct the prayers of our heart for the needs and salvation of humanity and the good of His faithful ones.

For the holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her.

For the peoples of the world, that the Lord may graciously preserve harmony among them.

For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief.

For ourselves and our own community, that the Lord may graciously receive us as a sacrifice acceptable to himself.

For our beloved dead, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.