The voice of god

SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
January 17, 2021

Doing God’s will is our greatest and most sacred calling. It is the very reason for our existence. Samuel, like each and every single one of us, albeit in very different ways, was called several times to that will and mission. He did not understand that it was the voice of God calling him until he did. And as soon as he did he responded without looking back. John the Baptism was a complete personification of the will of God beginning from his time in the womb. God’s will was for him to be the bridegroom’s best man, a voice that points to the Messiah, one that must decrease for the Messiah to increase. He was acutely aware of his mission and he lived completely faithful to it. By the time Jesus appeared on the scene, he knew that the time had come for him to cede the stage to Him, and that was exactly what he did. Immediately, he began to refer his disciples to Jesus since, as he told them, “He who is from above is above all” John 3:31. John’s commitment to the will of God earned him the tittle of the greatest of all men born of women by no less a person than Jesus Himself. Today’s Psalm reminds us in very unmistakable terms that our greatest calling is to seek and to do the will of God, especially as a delight rather than a burden. Elsewhere in the Psalms, obedience to Gods will is compared to the possession of riches: “I rejoice to do your will as though all riches were mine” Psalm 119:14. The highpoint of our Lord’s prayer was Jesus’s emphasis of the doing of the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven. Our lives are completely meaningless until we commit to the divine will and purpose for us in the same way that Samuel did. At the beginning of a new year, it is time for us to rediscover what is it that God wants me to do with my life. It doesn’t have to be anything extraordinary. It may be just doing ordinary things with extraordinary love.  It is never too late to do so. Yet, it is a task to which we must all commit, for in it lies our joy, our peace, and our salvation, Amen.