How to hear the voice of God: Homily for Sunday, January 14, 2024

It seems that God has a tendency to speak when people are asleep. God speaks to Samuel when he's asleep. Joseph, twice, hears the voice of God in his dreams. But what's really important is when God speaks, do we know that it is God who is speaking? As we begin this church year with a focus ahead in terms of our own life, we have to ask ourselves, do we really recognize the voice of God? Because that's what's really going on here in both of the readings that we have. Samuel is a person of very interesting story. His mother Hannah and his father were barren, which was a point of tremendous shame in the culture of the day. And Hannah goes desperate to the temple to pray and is crying and is speaking out to God. And this very Eli that we see in the first reading, he thinks she's drunk because he can't really hear what she's saying. And she must have been making quite a scene. But it's in that brokenness that God speaks to her and in turn to her husband. And Samuel is born. It's a very interesting thing though, because despite the fact they had gone their whole lives without children, when Samuel is born, his mother takes him back to the temple and gives him to Eli. The very gift she received from God, the gift of her son Samuel, she then in turn gives back to God. And Samuel is raised by Eli, which is why he's here in the middle of the night. And God speaks and Samuel is very logical. Well, I heard a voice in the middle of the night. It must be Eli, so he goes to Eli and says, here I am. You called me not once, not twice, but three times before Eli finally figures out that the lad is being called by God. And we know that Samuel has a privileged position. Because it's Samuel who helps God to make clear to the people that even when they reject him, he will continue to love them. Even though they rejected God as their king, he will still be with them through his anointed Saul and ultimately through his anointed David, from whom comes the Messiah, Jesus. The question for us as we start the beginning of this year is, how do we recognize the voice of God in our lives? See, I think the church in the United States needs to face some hard realities. And here's one example of what I mean. We had a Dominican friar who sent out to our listserv, which is where we communicate with all the other friars of the province, an article about how Nigeria is the most dangerous place to be a Catholic in the world. Unbelievable martyrdom is occurring in Nigeria. And it's interesting that there's that backdrop. People willing to die for their faith because Jesus has made such a difference in their life. Now to be sure, that's always the case with martyrs. That's why we call martyrs on the seed of Christians, the beginning of churches. Martyr means to witness, and they are witnessing to their faith in a very powerful way. And then there's the statement the bishops needed to make in this country that said, heaven forbid we have to go to Mass twice in two days. We have to go to Mass for the fourth Sunday of Advent, the 24th, and for Christmas, the 25th. People willing to die for their faith because it's so precious to them, it's so valuable to them. And we who are saying, do I really have to go twice? I think it's a damning thing in our country. Now I realize there's a lot of things that go on that cause people to make decisions. That's not my point. But my point is that the whole purpose of the liturgical year, the whole purpose of what we do when we worship is to deepen our relationship with Jesus . . . On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.