OT II [B] 1 Samuel 3:3-10, 19; 1 Cor 6:13-20; John 1:35-42

All of us here today want to know and follow God's will for our lives. Some more and some less, but all of us share, at least to some degree, that fundamental desire; it's one of the reasons we have come to Mass. This desire is in itself a sign of God's presence in our souls, a sign that he is guiding us. Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ have received the same baptism and Catholic formation that we have, and yet, they don’t come to Mass anymore. They no longer desire to follow Christ. But somehow God has kept alive in our hearts that prayer uttered so beautifully in today's Psalm: "Here I am, O Lord, I come to do your will."

We should be deeply grateful that God has kept that desire burning. But, on the other hand, how can we discover what God's will is? Today, God is reminding us of one of His most favorite methods of communicating his will: through human messengers.

The young prophet Samuel had been chosen to lead and instruct God's people and to anoint the first two Kings of ancient Israel. But when God first started to speak to Samuel's heart, the future spiritual hero didn't even know how to recognize his voice. Eli, his spiritual guide and a priest of God, had to teach him.

John and Andrew had been chosen by God to become two of the twelve pillars of the Church, the Apostles. And yet, Jesus walked right by them on the bank of the River Jordan, and they didn't even recognize him. John the Baptist had to point him out, twice, before they got the message and decided to follow their calling.

Many times, God speaks through human messengers. And sometimes God chooses us to be messengers of God for others. Ever since our baptism, we have all had the mission, the opportunity and responsibility, to be God's ambassadors, his loudspeakers in this fallen world through our words, deeds, and example.

God is trying to reach someone in our circle of friends, relatives, and acquaintances through each of us, just as he did with Eli and Andrew; he has a message for them. Have we been good loudspeakers lately, or have we been unplugged somehow?

John the Baptist pointed out Christ to his own disciples to acknowledge him as the lamb of God and to bear witness to him in an active enterprise. Knowing Jesus is a matter of experience. One could know the Catechism of the Catholic Church, all 700 pages of it, by heart, and still not know Jesus. Bearing witness to Christ, then, demands that we should have personal and first-hand experience of Jesus.  1. We get this personal experience of Jesus in our daily lives – through the meditative reading and study of the Bible, through personal and family prayers, and through the Sacraments, especially by participation in the Eucharistic celebration. 2. Once we have experienced the personal presence of Jesus in our daily lives, we will start sharing with others the Good News of the love, peace, justice, tolerance, mercy, and forgiveness that Jesus preached.

Two men, who had been business partners for over twenty years, met one Sunday morning as they were leaving a restaurant. One of them asked, "Where are you going this morning?" "I'm going to play golf. What about you?" The first man responded rather apologetically, "I'm going to church." The other man said, "Why don't you give up that church stuff?" The first man asked, "What do you mean?" His partner said: "Well, we have been partners for twenty years. We have worked together, attended board meetings together, and had lunch together, and all of these twenty years you have never asked me about going to church. You have never invited me to go with you. Obviously, it doesn't mean that much to you."

To be effective messengers of God we need to allow ourselves to be guided by God. How deeply do I really want God to guide my life? On any given day, how much do I pay attention to what God is trying to say to me?

God wants us to be eager to hear his voice in our lives, just as Samuel was in today's First Reading. We need constantly to make Samuel's prayer our own: "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." This is the attitude we need to adopt: to constantly listen, to actively pay attention, to God. Adopting that attitude requires a conscious decision. Most of us have probably made that decision at some point in our lives, maybe at a retreat or after a good confession. But unless we renew it periodically, it will get dusty and dull.

Why not renew it today, during this Mass, when Christ, through the sacrifice of the Eucharist, will be renewing his decision to give his life for us and for our salvation?

God speaks in so many ways, through so many messengers! We just need to tune in.  God likes to use messengers, especially messengers who stay focused on the message. Let’s ask for the grace to have the attitude of sharing our faith with those who need Christ and invite them to come and see him.