Did You Call?

Scripture Reflection for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (January 15, 2012)

Nowadays we seem to be dissatisfied if we are considered ordinary. We seek to be the first or the best, or at least to belong to the group that is first or best. Yet, most of us are really quite ordinary people living ordinary lives. Despite this, there need be nothing ordinary about being ordinary. With this Sunday we enter the interlude between seasons. Christmas with its excitement and glitter is behind us and the sober experience of Lent followed by the glory of Easter is in the future. In the liturgical year, this is the period known as Ordinary Time. It is the time during which we reflect on the very ordinary ways that God enters our lives, thus making them extraordinary.

The young Samuel lived in a religious shrine, entrusted to the keeping of the old priest Eli. One very ordinary evening he went to sleep and was awakened by a very strange occurrence. Who could have imagined that God was calling Samuel out of sleep? Furthermore, who would have thought that God would choose a young boy with no power or prestige, someone whose chief responsibility was making sure that the light in the sanctuary was kept burning? Surely there were others more qualified.

A comparable situation is described in the gospel passage. In it Jesus appears to be so unremarkable that John the Baptist has to point him out to two of John's disciples. In this account, Jesus does nothing that will attract attention. He does not yet have a following. And, unlike his depiction in much religious art, he does not look or dress differently. He is just an ordinary Middle Eastern man. It is only after the two disciples of John spend the day with Jesus that they realize how extraordinary he really is.

Perhaps what Paul describes in his Letter to the Corinthians is the most startling example of the extraordinary hidden within what is ordinary. He argues that ordinary human beings, by means of faith, are members of Christ. Their human bodies, thought weak and limited, are temples wherein dwells the Holy Spirit. He insists that the ordinary human body possesses extraordinary dignity because that very body was purchased by Christ at the price of his blood.

In these three incidents, the extraordinary was not at first apparent. It took eyes of faith to recognize it. At first, all of these people saw only what was obvious. However, in each instance God called them to deeper insight through the agency of another.

We are not unlike these biblical people. We do not always look beneath the surface, and so we often miss the extraordinary in what is ordinary. We do not hear the voice of God in the voices of others calling us to great things, to sacrifice ourselves for our children, to give of ourselves to aging parents, to show concern to friends or neighbors. We do not recognize Christ in the thoughtful people with whom we work, the honest people with whom we do business, the understanding people who help us in simple ways, the ordinary people with whom we live.

It takes only a little effort to attune our ears to hear the voice of God, to adjust our sight to recognize Christ in our midst. What we accomplish may not be as impressive as what was accomplished by Samuel, or the first disciples of Jesus, or Paul. Results are up to God. All we have to be concerned about is that we recognize the call of God in the ordinary events of life and we respond: 'Here I am. Did you call?'

This article was originally published at www.ctu.edu

Image: Samuel and Eli © www.BiblePictureGallery.com