1 Sam 3:1-10, 19-20 / Mark 1:29-39
God calls Samuel: Samuel said, “Speak, Lord; I am listening.”
Robert Moffat was a Scottish missionary in South Africa. He returned home to try to recruit other people to join him in this work. One cold night, only a few old women and a boy showed up to hear him preach at one of the churches. He was terribly disappointed. He thought to himself, “It’s hardly worth my while to give this talk.” But Moffat put his heart and soul in it anyway.The boy was thrilled by the challenge. He never forgot it. When he grew up, he became a doctor and went to work as a missionary among the un-reached tribes of South Africa. That boy was the great Dr. David Livingstone.
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Do we try to teach young people how to listen to God’s word to them? “Let us listen to the Gospel as if Christ himself stood before us.” St. Augustine
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We all know that the Church is the house of God. The house of God is also the house of love and among other aspects it is the house of God's healing love. Even the house of Peter and Andrew was transformed into a house of healing love because of the presence of Jesus, the Healer who heals with love. The love of Jesus is also a love that searches for those in need of God's healing love, so that was why He insisted on going to the other villages. God's healing love also ignites the flame of love in a house that has gone cold without love.
In the 1st reading, it was mentioned that the lamp of God in the sanctuary had not yet gone out. Through the young Samuel, the flame of God's love was ignited again to heal the faith of His people. God wants His house, the Church, to be a house of love and healing, to be a sign of salvation.
We are the living stones making up God's house. Yet God has also made His home in us.
As we gather in God's house for the Eucharist, may we be healed of our sins and may the flame of God's love burn bright in our hearts, which is also the house of God.
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Today’s first reading tells us the beautiful story of Samuel’s vocation. He is the man attentive to the signs of God’s presence, hearing the inaudible, seeing the invisible, where others do not hear or see anything. He is in contact with God, like also Jesus withdrawing in a lonely place to pray. We hear God best when all is silent in us.
The Gospel shows this compassion of Jesus to those afflicted with all sorts of ills and the broken-hearted. He is committed against death and misery. Isn’t it that this is the mission he entrusts also to us today?
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Opening Prayer
Lord, our God and Father, you call us to listen to the word of love and mission which you speak to us in this Eucharist. Make us receptive to your word and let it stir our hearts. Attune us also to your voice speaking in people and events. And make us also attentive to your silence. We ask you this through Christ, our Lord. Amen
