During the time young Samuel was minister to the LORD under Eli,
a revelation of the LORD was uncommon and vision infrequent.
If we aren't used to hearing from the LORD we might need some practice in order to recognize his voice. We are meant to be sheep who do know his voice and follow him. But sheep gain the ability to recognize that voice by long familiarity with the sound of it. It is length of exposure that helps to differentiate between the voice of a shepherd and the voice of a stranger.
Samuel ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.”
We might expect to be so overawed by the voice of God that we would be unable to misattribute it to anyone. Yet this was not the case for Samuel. To him it was indistinct enough that it might have been the voice of Eli. Unlike what apparently happened to Samuel we are not frequently blessed to hear an audible voice speaking to us, but we are nevertheless still meant to be attentive to the voice of the Lord. We must scale back our expectations from dramatic storms, earthquakes, or fires and instead expect the small still voice that speaks quietly from within. When we hear it we can begin to practice distinguishing it from our own thoughts or thoughts that arise from other sources.
So Eli said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply,
‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’”
Much of Samuel's internal dialog of thought was probably formed by listening to Eli and modeled upon him. Eli himself acted as best he could as a spiritual director and helped Samuel learn to distinguish that new voice. How was it different? One way was how surprisingly it came to him. It was not something produced by a series of prior thoughts, not a fervor he worked up within himself. It was not the voice of Eli, though Eli's voice had in some sense prepared Samuel to hear it. This new voice was not familiar to him but it was eventually recognizable. There was something about the way his name was called, "Samuel, Samuel", that demonstrated how completely he was known, comprehended, and even loved. There was an echo in it of the Lord's words to his chosen agents in past ages, for instance, "Abraham! Abraham!" (see Genesis 22:11). Listening to the stories of God's people, found in his word, being trained by his own spiritual master, all of this helped prepare the way for him to hear the Lord and respond. But it was ultimately something that could only be personal, unique, and to some extent incommunicable to others.
Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him,
not permitting any word of his to be without effect.
What was Samuel's secret to being so effective for the LORD's work? It was that once he learned to hear him he kept listening, and responded to what he heard. He learned to open a space in his heart for the voice of the LORD and ordered his life henceforth around that place.
Rising very early before dawn,
he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Even Jesus himself demonstrated the necessity of prayer. Even for him who was true God from true God his mission was not expressed without reference to the Father or the Spirit, not as though there was some sort of independent identity for him apart from them. If that was so for Jesus how much more should we work to avoid the temptation to self-sufficiency. How much more should we ourselves make prayer the basis of our lives.
What if people thought of us as those for whom God's word was frequently and powerfully present, as it was for Samuel? What if we too, like Jesus, could bring healing to mind, body, and especially soul? Probably we would find everyone looking for us, that is for the presence of Jesus himself in his Body, the Church. We would know the deepest purpose for which Jesus came and which we now share.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
As healing is received it is not a matter of resting on our laurels and enjoying it so much as it is an invitation to service, to take our part in a story that is larger than ourselves. Healing cascades forth, bringing with it now only health, but renewed purpose, hearts that live by repeating, "Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will".
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