Daily Meditation - Wednesday 16th Jan 2008 - LISTENING

[BarbaraTherese]

DAILY MASS READINGS
usccb.org/nab/011608.shtml

Meditation
wau.org/meditations/meditations.asp?month=01&day=16&year=2008&x=17&y=7

As this passage begins, the boy Samuel is living at the Israelite sanctuary at Shiloh and helping Eli, the priest, minister to the Lord. Samuel’s mother, Hannah, had made good on her vow to God that if she bore a son she would dedicate him to the Lord’s service. Now, we read how God called Samuel into an even deeper service than he or his mother had imagined. Counseled by Eli—a man filled with the wisdom of his years—Samuel responded simply, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9).
Eli’s words to Samuel are wisdom for us as well. When we begin our spiritual life, most of us are in awe over the fact that we can speak to the Lord and know that he hears and answers our prayers. It’s a blessing to rush to him and tell him of our needs, fears, and problems, as well as our gratitude and joy. When we first discover this, we tend to do a lot of talking and asking. In effect, we say, “Listen, Lord, your servant is speaking.”

However, as we grow in our prayer life, we gradually come to a point where we spend less time speaking and more time listening. We let God set the agenda. We trust that he knows our needs, so we don’t keep telling him about them. Instead, we find joy simply from being in his presence; we feel awe and begin to worship him for who he is. We savor his words and ponder them in the depth of our hearts. We let him change us rather than try to get him to change our circumstances.

Try it. Experiment with listening to Jesus as you pray, read Scripture, or listen to a homily. For your prayer and Scripture reading, choose a quiet place where you can calm your mind and spirit

. Afterwards, record in a journal what you have heard.

Decide how to act on the words God gives you. God longs to speak to us. He is only waiting for us to quiet down enough to listen.

“Lord, I will be still before you and wait patiently to hear your call. Speak your words of truth to me, so that I may know you, serve you, and bear fruit for the kingdom of God.”

 

[BarbaraTherese]

ocarm.org/lectio/annoA_eng/039eng.htm

• Jesus restores life for the service. After having participated in the celebration of Saturday in the Synagogue, Jesus went to Peter’s house and cured his mother-in-law. Once healed, she gets up and, with her health restored and having recovered her dignity, she begins to serve the persons. Jesus does not only heal the person, but he does it in such a way that she begins to serve life.
• Jesus accepts the marginalized. When it begins to get dark, in the afternoon, at the end of Saturday when the first star shines in the sky, Jesus accepts and cures the sick and those possessed whom people had brought to him. The sick and those possessed were the most marginalized persons of that time. They had nobody to whom to have recourse. They depended on public charity. Besides this, religion considered them impure. They could not participate in the community, it was as if God rejected and excluded them. Therefore, it can very clearly be seen in what the Good News of God consists and that which he wants to do in the life of people: to accept the marginalized and the excluded, and to insert them again to live together in the community.

• To remain united to the Father, in prayer. Jesus is presented to us while he prays. He makes a great effort to have the time and the adequate environment to pray. He rises before the others and goes to a deserted place, to be able to be alone with God. Many times the Gospels speak to us about the prayer of Jesus, in silence (Mt 14, 22-23); Mk 1, 35; Lk 5, 15-16; 3, 21-22). Through prayer he maintains alive the awareness of his mission.

• To maintain alive the awareness of the mission and not to close oneself up in the results already obtained. Jesus is known. Everybody follows him. This publicity pleases the disciples. They go to look for Jesus to take him back to the people who were seeking for him, and they tell him: All are looking for you. They thought that Jesus would go to the banquet. They were disillusioned! Jesus does not pay attention and tells them: Let us go elsewhere. It is precisely for this that I have come! Surely, they must have been surprised! Jesus was not like what they had imagined him to be. Jesus had a very clear conscience of the mission and wants to transmit this to the disciples. He does not want them to close up themselves in the results already obtained. They should not look back. But, like Jesus, they should maintain alive the conscience of their mission. It is the mission received from the Father, which has to orientate their decisions.

• It is precisely for this that I have come! This was the first misunderstanding between Jesus and his disciples. At present, it is only a question of a small divergence. Later on, in the Gospel of Mark, this misunderstanding, in spite of the many advertences of Jesus, will grow and will practically become almost a break between Jesus and the disciples (cf. Mk 8, 14-21. 32-33; 9, 32; 14, 27). Today also, there are some misunderstandings on the way of the proclamation of the Good News. Mark helps one to be attentive to the divergences so as not to allow them to grow until they produce a break.

Personal questions

• Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve. Peter’s mother-in-law began to serve. And I, do I act in such a way that my life is a service to God and to my brothers and sisters?
• Jesus is conscious, aware of his mission through prayer. And my prayer?