14/01/2024

I have never experienced the call of God as a voice that is definitely outside of myself. 

In today's first reading Samuel responds to the voice of the Lord by going to the person nearest to him, Eli. Eli has to assure him a second time before realising that it is the Voice of God that is calling. IAMIAM is not a result of speculation or of imagination; he is not an abstract concept of the All Perfect, the All Knowing, the All Good, the All Free; he is a person,  Our Father whom Jesus called "Dad". 

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit reveal that God is a Trinity. This fact about God is revealed first of all to Mary at the Annunciation. She, born without sin, is to bear the "Begotten not Made". The conception of the Son is the Eternal, before time began or ends, will of the Father Son and Holy Spirit.

A human being is the  height of God's creation. He has given us the ability to say "yes" or "no" to his call. Samuel and Mary answered "Yes" but most of us do not hear the Lord calling in the night, nor receive a messenger from God. Most of us do not have the Baptist to point out to us the "Lamb of God". 

We are those blessed believers who have never seen and yet listen for and search out the authentic voice of the Lord. St Paul saw the Risen Lord not as a vision but the Risen Body, begotten not made, one in being with the Father and knew that he belonged body and Soul to "Our Father in Heaven".

From that moment he knew that, although he was a freeman he was a "slave" to God and shared with us that message which to ignore is to bring death. "You are not your own property, you have been bought and paid for. That is why you should use your body for the Glory of God".

Dear Lord, help us to avoid the meaningless fleeting pleasures that are the sins of the flesh. Human science has controlled the consequences of bodily delight and thus billions of us have ignored the seventh commandment. Help me to be truly penitent for all my sins and acknowledge that all my sinful behaviour was done knowing that I was deliberately disobeying my inner voice that is you calling to my soul. May the prayers of Mary and all the Saints bring to us the grace to resist the power of our bodies and the forgiveness that saves our souls from the ravages of sin.