Are you ready to answer the call?
Our readings this Sunday all remind us that each and every
one of us is called. We all have a vocation – from the Latin vocare, to call – a way God calls us to
act in concert with God’s will, to serve God’s mission here on earth. Do we respond, like Samuel, Here I am! Do we then act on our yes?
Samuel is called in the night as he minds the oil lamp in
the temple, the flame that allows God’s presence to be known. From the time God appears to Samuel, calling
him to intimate relationship, Samuel turns toward the Lord; God is and will be
his sole focus for his entire life, because he has attuned his inner ear to
hearing the Lord’s call. His ears, as
Psalm 40 suggests, are open to obedience;
to do God’s will is Samuel’s delight.
And it’s not just our spiritual essence that has to respond
to God’s call: as Paul reminds the
Corinthians, our physical bodies have a responsibility to engage as well. Having its origin in God, the transformation
of our physical body should be in the direction God intends: your
body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, Paul says. All that is energy within us, including
sexual energy, must therefore be channeled not to our own ends, but to God’s,
so as to bring honor to God. Jesus
understood this: at his own baptism,
John tells us in the Gospel, Jesus devoted his entire self, body and spirit, to his Father’s
will: Behold, the Lamb of God, John the Baptist says to his disciples, behold the sacrifice, the suffering
servant, called to offer himself for the sake of all others. Even at this early date, the disciples
understand the significance of Jesus’ physical presence: where
are you staying? they ask him, willing and able to follow the teacher, body
and spirit, willing to respond to the call.
Are we ready to follow Jesus, body and spirit?
Are we ready to answer the call?
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.Image source: Wordle
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