Today’s First Reading for Mass is taken from the First Book of Samuel (3:1-10; 19-20).
In this story, Samuel, awakened from sleep goes to his mentor, Eli, saying: “Here I am. You called me.” This happens three times, and finally, Eli realizes that it is the Lord who is calling Samuel. He advises Samuel the next time this happens to say: “Speak, for your servant is listening.” In these repeated visits of Samuel to Eli when God is calling him, we can learn the role of the Church and religious wisdom in helping each of us to understand and clarify the voice of God at work in our lives.
Right now, the Church wants to listen to us. Pope Francis has set in motion a process of synodality, of consulting and listening to all God’s people about their experience of Church and what they would like the Church to be for them. At the same time, in this process of synodality, Pope Francis is inviting all of us to listen to one another, to value one another, to accept the differences between us, and not to judge others because they do not think and feel and act as we do.
Have you heard the voice of God?
Listen to Pope Francis and the Church and enter into the process of synodality, saying, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”
Sister Rosemary Fry
