The opening verse of chapter three of the First Book of Samuel is both startling and revelatory at the same time. The sacred writer begins the story of Samuel’s call by stating: “During the time young Samuel was minister to the LORD under Eli, the word of the LORD was scarce and vision infrequent.” Though the books that precede First Samuel are filled with stories of the patriarchs and matriarchs of Israel hearing God’s voice in various circumstances, the history books of the Hebrew Scriptures tell us that the relationship between God and the people of Israel seems to have grown cold. Samuel, one of the most important personalities in the histories, is destined to bring them back to the Lord.
Samuel is portrayed in this instance as a naïve and inexperienced young man. This is Samuel’s first experience of vision, a familiar state of altered consciousness that is frequently used by God to communicate with one who has been chosen by God to act as God’s agent. Even if the visuals are missing, as it seems to be in Samuel's "vision," he is aware of being in an altered state of consciousness. He is also aware of being in the presence of the Lord, and the Lord communicates with him. The Lord speaks, and Samuel listens.
Another naïve and inexperienced young man figures prominently in the Gospel today, a man destined to become one of the Twelve, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. The evangelist uses Andrew’s experience as a lesson in evangelization, a user’s manual if you will, teaching us how to spread God’s Word. First, a believer in Jesus, in this case John the Baptist, points another person or persons towards Jesus. Second, he calls Jesus by a special title, in this case, “the Lamb of God.” Third, the evangelizer leads the convert, in this case Andrew, to Jesus. Fourth, Jesus sees the newcomer and confirms his decision to follow him. Finally, the conversion is sealed and the new disciple stays with Jesus. To make sure that we understand what we have just heard, John repeats the process and has Andrew do the same thing to his brother Simon. Andrew points Simon towards Jesus and calls him “Messiah.” Jesus confirms Simon’s conversion by calling him Cephas. If we were to read a little further, John actually repeats the process two more times with Philip and Nathanael as the converts who are evangelized and whose discipleship is confirmed by Jesus.
This process is not used by happenstance. John’s Gospel was written at a time when missionary activity was becoming a concern. The Good News about Jesus was reaching far beyond Judea and Galilee. John’s Gospel ends with a pointed reference to those who will hear God’s Word long after Jesus is no longer on the scene: “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” John is very much aware of the fact that the disciples of Jesus have been entrusted with the task of bringing the world to faith.
These two stories make a very important point for all of us. When Samuel realizes that God is speaking to him, he says: “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” For those of us who espouse to be agents of God in spreading the Good News, this posture of listening is so important. Hearing is only the beginning of the process. Listening is the posture that we are all called to embrace.
The Gospel story adds a second important point to the listening posture. Another frequent theme of John’s Gospel is that of “remaining” in the Lord. When Andrew approaches Jesus, he is invited to “Come and see.” The evangelist tells us that John and his companion went, saw and stayed with Jesus that evening.
We are all called to be evangelizers, people who point out Jesus to others. If we hope to be at all successful in that endeavor, then we need to listen to and stay with God through prayer and devotion, two of the pillars of Franciscan life.