Have you ever wondered why God seems to stay so hidden from us? As a Christian trying to live a life of prayer, sometimes it can seem like God doesn’t want to be known at all. Or maybe it can even seem as though God just doesn’t exist.

But God does exist—and he longs to be known! But God draws us to himself more mysteriously. We get two great examples of this in today’s readings. First, when God is calling Samuel, it takes Samuel three times before he finally realizes God is speaking to him. And in the Gospel, Jesus simply tells his disciples, “Come and see.”

“Come and see.” This is the method of God. He doesn’t just want to give us answers, but to live life with us. When the disciples follow Christ, the Gospel says that they “stayed with him.” When we stay with God, we can begin to hear and see clearly, and begin to find him in the quiet of our hearts.

First Reading Reflection

1 Samuel 3:3b–10, 19

This reading from 1 Samuel is often used for Masses which celebrate the taking or renewal of religious vows and continues to  touch  the  hearts  of  religious  brothers  and  sisters      who have heard it read at their ceremonies of profession. The story of the  call of Samuel has become a standard depiction of God’s call to us all.

God’s call comes to Samuel three times, perhaps to show its divine origin. The first two times the young Samuel, who hasn’t heard the Lord’s voice yet, goes to Eli thinking that the old priest is calling him. After the second call, Eli realizes that the Lord is speaking to the boy and instructs him to answer, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” Responding in this way, Samuel is given a prophetic message by the Lord for Eli, and Samuel’s vocation as a prophet is underway.

This reading reminds us of the importance of readiness in responding to God’s call. Samuel speaks the phrase “Here I am” four times in this passage, demonstrating his eagerness to serve—and he is eager both to serve Eli, the representative of God, and God himself. This can also teach us the importance of obedience to the Church in responding to our vocational call.

Second Reading Reflection

1 Corinthians 6:13c–15a, 17–20

“The body is not for immorality, but for  the  Lord,  and  the Lord is for the body.” St. Paul is not just telling the Christians of Corinth to behave: rather, he is informing them of the dignity of the body which God has bestowed on it. The next line refers to the resurrection of the body as a proof of this dignity: “God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.” The dignity of our bodies is made clear by their heavenly destiny. Unlike anything else on this earth, our bodies will be glorified by God to participate in the life of Heaven.

A Protestant minister, after attending his first Catholic Mass, remarked to a friend, “Now I know why God gave me a body!” Our bodies are for the worship of God. Jesus himself offered the perfect act of worship to the Father by offering his Body on the Cross. Therefore, sins against the body, like fornication, are evil, not because sexuality is bad, but because our bodies are holy! They are “for the Lord,” as St. Paul says. It should not be surprising, then, that our vocations (those ways in which we live out our commitment to the Lord) should have a bodily component. Chastity, that singular offering of one’s whole self to Christ, the Church, or to one another, is the bodily expression of the singularity of our devotion to God. By chastity—celibate or married chastity—we live out our common Christian vocation as temples of the Holy Spirit.

Gospel Reading Reflection

John 1:35–42

The place of this meeting is “Bethany across the Jordan,” where John was baptizing. This is thought to be the place where the Israelites crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. Now under the leadership of a new Joshua, which is the Hebrew form of the name Jesus, Israel is about to cross to the shore of a new Promised Land, the eternal Promised Land of Heaven.

Jesus, upon meeting the two disciples asks, “What do you seek?” (RSV) or  “What are you looking  for?” (NAB).  This is similar to the question that Jesus will later ask those who come to arrest him in the Garden of Gethsemane and Mary Magdalene when she first meets the resurrected Jesus. But instead of answering directly, they answer Jesus’s question with another question: “Where are you staying?” The word stay used here is from the Greek meno, and means to “abide” or “dwell.” It is used again and again by Jesus at important times to describe the way in which he will remain with those who follow him.

Jesus answers simply: “Come and see.” In response to Jesus’s invitation, the disciples “went and saw where Jesus was staying, and they stayed with him that day.” We may learn from this that by faith, a disciple will remain in the Lord and the Lord in the disciple.

DIGGING DEEPER:

Discernment of Spirits

St. Ignatius of Loyola is known for his ability to provide a roadmap of the spiritual life. He put together something called the Spiritual Exercises, a compilation of prayers meant to help people deepen their relationship with God. In these exercises he lays out his Rules for Discernment. These rules are very practical spiritual advice about navigating the different parts of our relationship with God in prayer. Encourage participants to look into these Rules and to start trying to apply them to their prayer life. You could also print out a short version of them to hand out.

PRAYER:

Let’s turn back to the Gospel, where we see Jesus calling the disciples so mysteriously. Ponder the scene where they come to him seeking answers, and he draws them in to intimate friendship with him. How is Jesus calling you into deeper friendship with him right now? Take a word that comes to mind and reflect a moment on what it means to you personally. For example, you might have been attracted to the words “they stayed with him that day.” Ask yourself what they mean in your own life. When do you find yourself wandering from Jesus during the day? How can you stay with Jesus more in your daily life?

RESOLUTION: 

Later in his Gospel, John records Jesus saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus alone is the way we must travel, the truth we must see and proclaim, and the life we are meant to live. Take a moment and ponder over how you live these words in a typical day in your life. How often do you see with spiritual sight? Do you instead live as though God were not real? How can you open your eyes and ears to God working in your life? What practical thing can you do this week to bring the Lord to mind more consistently, and live a life that proclaims with St. John the Baptist, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

Reprinted from  Opening the Word at Formed.org .
Click here (subscribe for FREE, enter code: 9de851)  to get the full content of Opening the Word, including video reflections, study guides and journals for the Sunday Mass readings of the year.

Click image to get started!