By Msgr. William Carr
I Samuel 3:3-10,19; I Corinthians 6:13-20; John 1:35-42
Everyone of us has a call from God. It is not only a call “in general” to be holy. It is a specific and concrete call to serve the Lord in a special way.
From all eternity, God called each of us to serve him in a way which is unique; no other person who will ever live can serve the Lord in precisely the same way as we do! The problem is that we do not hear the voice of the Lord, as Samuel did. Jesus does not talk to us in the same way that he spoke to Peter and Andrew. We must pray, and ask the Lord to make known to us how he wants us to serve him.
The first reading is the call of Samuel. Samuel was a “child of promise.” His parents were childless in their old age. They promised that, if they had a child, they would dedicate him to the Lord. Samuel was reared in the temple. He did not recognize God’s call at first; but finally, he said “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”
Our bodies are members of the very Body of Christ; we are temples of the Holy Spirit. The motive for Christian purity and modesty is that we belong to Christ. We should not want to involve Christ in impurity. Our call from God includes a call to purity.
The gospel is John’s story of the call of Peter and Andrew. (This is quite different from the call which Mark describes in next Sunday’s gospel.) Peter and Andrew were disciples of John the Baptist. John points out Jesus as the Lamb; Andrew spent the day with Jesus, and then brought Peter to Jesus.
Let us seek to know our call from God. Let us pray especially that many of our young people will recognize that God is calling them to the priesthood and to the Religious life.