God knows us by name, He calls us! But we don’t always understand what He wants from us, what He’s calling us to because we go through dramatic situations! We need to get to know God, to listen to Him, to understand what He expects of us, what He asks of us. Like Samuel, God comes to us and calls us! Understanding God’s voice implies openness, realizing that God loves us and wants us well, that He invites us to holiness.
Despite serving the Lord in the temple, Samuel didn’t know His voice! How often God calls us and challenges us, but we don’t know; we’re not ready to listen to Him. There are so many distractions–family life, work, friends, our moments of rest–that we’re so absorbed by so many commitments that there’s no room for God in our lives.
But God is there! Even though Samuel didn’t realize that God was calling him, the Lord kept calling and didn’t give up until Samuel understood His voice. God doesn’t give up on you or me! After realizing that God was speaking to him, Samuel’s response was clear and assertive: “Speak, Lord, and your servant will listen” (1 Samuel 3:10). His life became one of service and dedication to God, making him an extremely important prophet.
OPENING OUR HEARTS TO GOD
We need to stop! We need to “waste time” to meet God, to understand the Lord’s will. Samuel met God in the temple, in the silence, in the night. We need spaces in our lives to welcome Him, to pray, to read God’s word, for intimate encounters with God, where we tell Him about our lives, our problems and our joys, where we let off steam when we don’t understand Him. Samuel’s testimony should serve as an example to us all.
When we listen to God, when we realize the vocation to which we are called, we must follow God, who doesn’t treat us as just one more, who doesn’t consider us dispensable, but a loving God who knows each one by name and who is capable of keeping ninety-nine sheep and going in search of one lost sheep (Matthew 18:10-14, Luke 15:4-7). Being called and loved by God is a marvelous gift you and I have received!
Listening attentively to God gives rise to an intimacy with Him in our hearts that allows us to live and serve the Lord in our lives with simplicity, generosity, and authenticity. Living God to the full does not mean that we will stop sinning, that we will only have qualities, or that we are perfect beings. Living God implies knowing Him, experiencing Him, loving Him, and knowing that despite our limitations and imperfections, God loves us and never gives up on us.
In Samuel’s vocation, it is extremely important to understand the role of Anna, his mother, and Eli, the priest. His mother offered the child to God, full of confidence that God’s love is the greatest gift we can have, a love so great that He gives His life for us! A mother wants the best for her son, she wants him well. Samuel was God’s gift to his mother, so she gave him to God, fulfilling her promise to the Lord.
In the same way, Eli helped Samuel to hear and understand God’s voice; with his wisdom, he was a true spiritual companion for the young Samuel. A vocation is a unique and personal gift. Yet God continually uses others to speak to us. We need to live God in community, in our communities where we identify ourselves as brothers and sisters in the faith; we need to be a light for others and help those who pass us by to encounter God; we need to witness to God by our example; we need to see God in others, in their examples, in their lives.
CALLED TO GO
Each of us, like Samuel, receives a call from God. Listening to His voice, discerning our vocation, and following the plan He has for us gives meaning to our lives and allows us to find happiness. So it is with Maria Augusta Pires, a Comboni Lay Missionary, who shares her short testimony with us:
“I’m a Comboni Lay Missionary, my name is Maria Augusta. My first missionary adventure was in Mozambique where I arrived in 1997. I worked in a public school, teaching Portuguese. In 2008, I was assigned to another mission, this time in the Central African Republic. I lived in a community with other Comboni Lay Missionaries, consisting of one Italian and two Portuguese. We served the Pygmies tribe because they are very poor, marginalized and exploited. Our job was to help them integrate into society, go to hospital and school, and be welcomed and treated like any Central African citizen.”
