Is That You, God?

Is That You, God?
January 17, 2021 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi

I’m sure we all have our pet peeves - those things that we find particularly annoying.  My pet peeve is – robocalls.  You know the ones; the prerecorded messages trying to sell you something.  Even though I am on every “do not call” list available, inevitably I will get a few of them every week.  The worst? The ones that begin with “we have an important message for the owner of…”, or the ones which are in some sort of Asian dialect I can’t understand.  Of course there are also the ones which threaten to arrest me if I don’t pay my fine with an Amazon gift card within the next 24 hours.

It is so bad that if I don’t recognize a phone number, I usually won’t answer the call and will let it go to voicemail. Unfortunately, every now and then I miss an important call where they do NOT leave a message. Especially if it is from some customer service department that I really need to speak with.  And they rarely leave a call-back number; which leads us to today’s readings – answering God’s call.

“Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

How often have we used those words in our prayers?  I mean, they are the words that are used most often to show a response to the call to discipleship – “Speak Lord, for your servant is LISTENING.”  

But it can be really hard to hear God.  God doesn’t shout at us, but He speaks to us in whispers.  It’s not like we get a phone call or text message; and the last time I checked, Jesus hadn’t “friended” me on Facebook. I’m sure He doesn’t have a Twitter account, and I know He doesn’t follow me – I know all eight of those who do.  Even if he did call, I’d probably not recognize the number and so would let it go directly to voicemail - and God is one of those I wouldn’t expect to leave a recorded message.  (I saw the movie “Oh God” with George Burns and John Denver and nothing God said in court was on the recorder.) If he doesn’t reach out and touch me using the latest technology, how do I know He’s calling me?

Even if we think God is calling to us, those closest to us might not understand and misdirect us.  In today’s first reading, Samuel hears God’s call but doesn’t know what it is so he turns to Eli, his boss – his mentor – thinking that it must be Eli who is calling to him in the middle of the night.  Eli, a man of God whose life is focused on serving God, at first tells him to “go back to sleep”.  I can understand.  If my kid woke me up in the middle of the night saying, “Here I am, you called me”, I would respond in the same way, “You’re dreaming.  Go back to sleep – and leave me alone.”  (I still say that to my dogs when they wake me up, but then again I’m sure it’s Mother Nature and not Father God calling them).

But God is calling us.  Every day.  If we listen, we can hear Him in the stories we read, in the people we meet, in the things that we see.  

Sure, there are lots of distractions in our lives that keep us from recognizing God’s call to us.  Even in church:  noisy distractions from children; cell phones that haven’t been turned off, and especially the noise in our heads from all those thoughts about what we need to do after Mass.  We become impatient and our mind gets so busy that we forget that we are supposed to be listening for God - listening TO God.

In fact, do we even listen to ourselves when we pray?  Sometimes we rattle off a Rosary like a machine gun: HailMaryFullOfGraceTheLordIsWithYou.  A priest friend of mine tells a story about a man who wanted to buy a horse.  He asks the owner if he would sell the horse and the owner says, “I’ll GIVE you the horse if you can say the Lord’s Prayer without interruption.  The man replies, “OurFatherWhoArtInHeavenDoesTheSaddleComeWithTheHorse…”

Let’s face it.  We live in a world today that is so full of distractions and noise and busy-ness that it takes an extra effort to hear God’s call.  But if we just listen, we will.

So, how do we prepare ourselves to hear God’s Call?

By setting aside time to listen. Making time for spiritual reading.  Meditating on Scriptures. Prayer.  When we do these, we invite God to speak.

“Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

So we’ve invited God to speak to us, but do we really mean it?  Are we really listening?   Sometimes I think when we ask God that, we really don’t expect, or even want, an answer.  I mean, it’s kind of like meeting a person and saying, “Hi, how are you?”  If we’re even listening for a response – and frankly, most of the time I don’t think we do – we expect to hear, “Fine” or “OK”, or something equally quick and positive.  But we’re uncomfortable hearing, “Terrible” or “Not so good.”   We dread having someone launch into a long litany of complaints that hold us hostage, or that drag us down.  Even worse than that is when we are asked to do something that makes us uncomfortable – to go somewhere, to give something, to help someone – to Make A Commitment.

But when we extend our invitation to God to speak, we are asking God exactly that, and God wants us to act like we mean it.  Look at today’s Gospel.  Jesus says, “Come and you will see” and they drop everything and go with Jesus.  Jesus says, “Follow me”, and away they go.

How about you?  Would you drop everything and walk away from it?  Job, car, family – leave it all behind and head off with just the clothes on your back, to follow a charismatic preacher?  

Maybe a more important question should be, “Does God require you to abandon everything in your life to follow Jesus?”

The answer is, “NO”.  God has a plan for each of us.  He has provided us with the gifts and the graces that He knows we need to accomplish that purpose, and He has placed us right where He wants us.  But that doesn't mean that God isn’t calling to us to follow Him.

Pope Francis once said, to the effect, that being called doesn’t mean we have to change “who” we are, but how we use who we are to respond to God’s call.

And We MUST respond to that call.

Opportunities abound for us to respond.  There are many opportunities  through St. Paul’s various ministries to serve God, even during these trying times.  There are stories in the news every day calling to us.  But in order to know how to respond, we must first listen to God.

You know, being “Called” doesn’t just mean that God is telling us to do something. Think about when we “call” someone.  It isn’t just to tell them to do something;  we call them to see how they are doing; we call them to share something good that has happened to us or to someone we know; we call to ask them a question or for guidance.  Maybe we call just to tell them we love them.  God’s call to us is all of these – and more.

And one of God’s most important calls is the Mass.  It is a celebration of God’s Love for us, and it is an opportunity for us to share His stories and to listen for God’s personal messages to us.  While right now it is difficult to gather as a family, we must fight the tendency to think of the Church as a place that we are obligated to go to instead of a family that we belong to.   Even during the trials of social distancing and live-streamed services, we can still share God’s love.  Like a family, our church communities can be messy, demanding – sometimes boring – but we should never forget that we are bound together with Love – God’s love.  

But what if you are alone?  You are still part of the body of Christ, and maybe the call you receive from God will be to reach out to others who are lonely too.  You’d visit a family member who was sick, wouldn’t you?  Even if you cannot be there physically because of social distancing, you can still "reach out and touch someone," like the old AT&T commercials used to say.  The number one illness in our country today is not the coronavirus, but loneliness, and with the isolation imposed upon us by the pandemic, it is worse than ever.  Do not be afraid to answer the call to love.  Share your love with your family, your friends, even strangers.

God often calls at what appears to be an inconvenient time, but He always calls us out of Love, and His call is always important.  If we are preoccupied, if we are not listening, we may miss His call, His message.  So take time to LISTEN.

And then be ready and say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”