We could talk about vocation and mission this weekend, with the help of the Sunday readings. These days, there is a lot of talk about mission, especially in these formerly Christian lands, because we can see the Faith withering before our eyes, and too often among our own family and our circles of friends. So, we want to go on the mission a little, but (good heavens) we don’t know how. We’ve missed a few steps. The bishop has been going on for some time now about establishing a close encounter with God, before becoming disciples, and finally missionary disciples. And we often think that we’ve gotten past that second step and we are disciples enough, so we are prepared to go out and make other people into disciples.
Well… I wonder sometimes if I am a good disciple. Disciple is Greek for student, for one who sits at the feet of the Master day after day. It means study, it means attention, it requires time. Much more time that most of us are prepared to give it. It means going beyond the usual rote of prayer and worship – a greater commitment to silent prayer and perhaps entering into the Mass in new ways. It means ending quickly anything that may affect negatively our relationship with the Holy One, such as negligence, impurity and sin. Think of the Confiteor we recite at the top of every Mass: I confess that I have sinned in what I have done and in what I have failed to do. And that brings us to the first reading, which has suffered an almighty snip-snip in its form in the Mass.
“…the Lord called Samuel again, and again he rose up and went to Heli, to answer his summons. But still no summons had been given, and he must go back to sleep again. Till then, Samuel was a stranger to the divine voice; the Lord had not made any revelation to him. But when a third time the persistent call came, and Samuel went to Heli, still ready at his command, Heli recognized at last whose voice it was the boy had heard. ‘Go back to sleep,’ he told Samuel; ‘and if the voice comes again, do thou answer, Speak on, Lord; Thy servant is listening.’ And Samuel went back to his bed and fell asleep. And the Lord came to his side, and stood there waiting. Then, as before, He called him twice by name; and Samuel answered, ‘Speak on, Lord, Thy servant is listening.’ And this was the Lord’s message to Samuel: ‘Here is doom I mean to bring on Israel that shall ring in the ears of all that hear of it. For Heli it shall bring fulfilment of all the threats I have uttered against his clan; from first to last, they shall be accomplished. Warning enough I gave him, I would pass eternal sentence on that clan of his, for his sons’ wickedness that went ever unchecked; and now I have taken an oath against all his line, sacrifice nor offering shall ever atone for their sin.’ Samuel slept on till morning, when it was time for him to open the doors of the Lord’s house; and fear withheld him from telling Heli of his vision. Then he heard the voice of Heli calling, ‘Samuel, my son Samuel!’ ‘I am ready at thy command,’ said he. And Heli asked him, ‘What message is it the Lord has sent thee? May the Lord give thee thy due of punishment, and more than thy due, if thou hidest from me any word of the message that was given thee.’ Thereupon Samuel told him all that was said, keeping nothing back from him. ‘It is the Lord,’ answered he, ‘that has spoken; let Him do His will.’ Samuel grew up, still enjoying the Lord’s favour, and no word he spoke went unfulfilled…”
First book of the Kings (aka. first book of Samuel), 3: 6-19
What’s missing from the reading at Mass is the reason God calls Samuel: it was not to make Samuel feel all warm and happy as one who has been called. The reason Samuel is called is to prophesy to the high-priest Eli that he and his sons are in big trouble, because they have broken the holiness code of the Hebrew priests. The sons have actually done this, but Eli has failed to correct them, and God is not impressed. Samuel, before he grew up and before none of his words fell to the ground, was to notify Eli of the impending death of his sons, who were bad priests. Horrible, horrible… but it demonstrates to us how important holiness and purity are to God. He wants us as His disciples to be stellar, to be a light to the nations, to be little christs to the people around us.
And one of the biggest problems we have in our society and culture today is an extraordinary level of impurity and especially sexual impurity, to the point that we start to think that it is normal, that this is humanity, something to be borne with rather than changed. But today Paul tells us that the body was not built for fornication because it is to be dedicated to God; for Christians this is more significant, because our bodies have been consecrated in baptism as temples of the Most High, so any abuse of our bodies is a desecration.
“Have you never been told that your bodies belong to the Body of Christ? And am I to take what belongs to Christ and make it one with a harlot? God forbid. Or did you never hear that the man who unites himself to a harlot becomes one body with her? The two, we are told, will become one flesh. Whereas the man who unites himself to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Keep clear, then, of debauchery. Any other sin a man commits, leaves the body untouched, but the fornicator is committing a crime against his own body. Surely you know that your bodies are the shrines of the Holy Spirit, Who dwells in you. And He is God’s gift to you, so that you are no longer your own masters.”
First letter of S. Paul to the Corinthians, 6: 15-19
How can we approach the light of the Presence of God while in a morass of unrepented and unconfessed serious sin? That would make us very like Eli’s sons. In times past, we were taught that a regular sacramental confession of sins was important especially before Holy Communion, but that is often neglected now. And so, we must strengthen our commitment to become good disciples every day, and not assume that we already are. We should turn away from sin, avoid evil, and embrace good. The teaching of the Church has not changed for centuries; it has only been reformulated for newer times. So we know, even if only by hearsay, what the greatest sins of our day are. We must avoid them like we should the plague. In so doing, we can like the Apostles says to Christ, ‘Where do you live?’ His magnanimous reply is always, ‘Come and see.’
“The next day after this, John was standing there again, with two of his disciples; and, watching Jesus as He walked by, he said, ‘Look, this is the Lamb of God.’ The two disciples heard him say it, and they followed Jesus. Turning, and seeing them follow him, Jesus asked, ‘What would you have of Me?” Rabbi,’ they said (a word which means Master), ‘where dost Thou live?’ He said to them, ‘Come and see; so they went and saw where He lived, and they stayed with Him all the rest of the day, from about the tenth hour onwards.”
Gospel of S. John, 1: 35-39
The tenth hour was the Roman equivalent of 16.00, early evening, when the sun was beginning to make its descent in those lands. School-teachers would be closing their books as the light began to wane, and students would be preparing to return home. But in that late hour, and towards the end of every age, the Church sits herself down again at the feet of her Master.
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 