Wednesday, January 12, 2022

 Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

(I Samuel 3:1-10.19-20; Mark 1:29-39)

One of Flannery O’Connor’s last short story “Revelation” describes the conversion of a bigot.  Mrs. Turpin, a baptized Christian, has a vision of people, whom she disdains, entering heaven.  Then she realizes that she has been called to join them.  But first she must repent of her prejudices.  Like the first reading says of its epoch in ancient Israel, such revelation is rare.

Revelations are rare when people do not orient themselves to God.  They attend to the world around them as if what they see and hear is all that is.  Eli, the old priest, still has an inkling of what true revelation consists.  He tells the boy Samuel to act on his perception of a voice calling him.  Jesus in today’s gospel heeds an inner voice calling him.  He is not to settle in any town as the local shaman.  Rather his mission is to preach the Kingdom of God in different places.

The Lord calls each of us through the Church.  He wants us to be his disciples-missionaries.  We are to study the ways of God.  Then we are to tell others about him.  It is not an esoteric mission.  First, we tell our children and those closest to us.  Then, as we discern more in depth our mission, we can tell others as well