Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
The theme of today's principal readings is that of 'Call', or vocation. The call of Samuel was a favourite with Novice Masters (and, we must presume, with Novice Mistresses!) throughout the country. Perhaps the fact that Samuel, the young Novice, mistook the voice of Yahweh for that of Eli, his Novice Master, had its own appeal! Samuel's call is a rather dramatic one, typical of the call of the prophet in the Old Testament. Even before his 'call', he has already been 'set apart' for the service of God. Since he stands in the tradition of the prophets, he may expect difficult times ahead. As the spokesman for God, he will have to give voice to some very unpalatable and unpopular truths and judgements. Samuel is not the type of man to whom contemporaries will flock in the expectation of hearing Good News!
The New Testament call of the two disciples is entirely devoid of such drama. That great figure, who became so familiar to us during the Advent season, once again shows the way in today's gospel. We have learned from the Prologue of John's Gospel that John the Baptist is 'not the Light, but only a witness to speak for the Light.' The gospel makes it clear that, up to this point, these two men were John's disciples. They belonged to John's community. The Baptist actively encourages them to follow Jesus. He points out Jesus to them, referring to him as Lamb of God, with its connotations gentleness but also of his sacrificial destiny. Here John fulfils his role as 'a witness to speak for the Light'. Throughout the Advent season, John the Baptist had held centre stage. Now we see him withdrawing to the wings, his life's task finally accomplished.
We cannot but notice the marked contrast between the call of Samuel on our Old Testament reading, and the call of the two disciples as recounted by John. In the call of the two disciples, we are not dealing with a mysterious disembodied voice, but the homely invitation of one human being to another: "Come and see!" John adds prosaically: "So they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of that day." This simple narrative goes to the heart of the Christian calling, to the Christian vocation. As we heard again during the Christmas season, the Incarnation is at the heart of the Christian way. It is a religion of the flesh, a religion with a human face. The day of the disembodied voice has gone. The Word has become flesh. To this day, many good people who profess to be Christian have not really grasped this central Christian truth. They are much more at home with the disembodied voices, with spurious heavenly messages of doom and gloom. The notion of the flesh being central to salvation is abhorrent to them. This strange 'spiritual' strand cannot bring themselves to view the flesh as being a worthy vehicle of salvation.
Some teachers among the Christians at Corinth also held the flesh in low esteem, but arrived at remarkably different conclusions. Since the flesh cannot be part of the redemptive project, then it is irrelevant how we use the body, they reasoned with impeccable logic. Paul wrote to correct them. Far from being useless and irrelevant to the 'project of salvation', Paul remind the Corinthians that 'the body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit.' With the Incarnation of Christ, the distinction between material world and the spiritual world has lost its validity. The whole person and the whole world has been redeemed by Christ. We must try every day to witness to this conviction and this teaching. It is a joyful, optimistic teaching. We will never do full justice to it in our preaching or teaching. This conviction will be conveyed most effectively by authentic, joyful witnesses