Welcome to my annotated commentary on Sunday’s readings. The purpose of my commentary is to give you the background for each reading, a little better understanding of its message and the message that all of the Sunday readings together provide us. I hope you find it helpful!
1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19
As we return to Ordinary Time – time that is ordered by God for our salvation – this Sunday we will hear about the calling of Samuel to become a prophet. You may recall the birth of Samuel to Hannah, who had been sterile (cf. 1 Sm 1:1-28). Shortly after his birth, Hannah dedicated Samuel to God by bringing him to the temple. We begin the season of Ordinary Time with a classic vocation narrative. For those who know the story of his early life, Samuel’s call is not much of a surprise. His mother was Hannah, a woman dearly loved by her husband. Like Abraham’s wife Sarah or the Virgin Mary’s relative Elizabeth, she was a saintly woman who could not conceive a child. Hannah took matters into her own hands and went to the temple and, in the words of the Letter to the Hebrews, she offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears, begging God to grant her a son.
Eli, the priest, watched and assumed she was inebriated. When she explained herself, he told her to go in peace because God would surely hear her prayer. She then bore the child she named Samuel. In thanksgiving, she promised the child to God; once he was weaned, she left him with Eli in the temple (1 Samuel 1:1-28).
All of this helps us to place this Sunday’s reading in the proper historical context. Let’s look at the Biblical Timeline and you will see when this all happens – around 1000BC. Samuel lived at the end of the era of the judges and was the one who anointed the first two kings – Saul and David. The story is about Samuel being called to become a prophet and, as is usually the case, it prepares us for the Gospel account, where we hear of two of the disciples of John the Baptist being called to follow Jesus. With all that as background, let’s examine this Sunday’s first reading.
3b Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was.
4 The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.”
5 He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.” “I did not call you,” Eli answered. “Go back to sleep.” So he went back to sleep.
6 Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli. “Here I am,” he said. “You called me.” But he answered, “I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep.”
7 Samuel did not yet recognize the LORD, since the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
8 The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time. Getting up and going to Eli, he said, “Here I am. You called me.” Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth.
third time: notice the number three; it was at the third calling that Eli understood that it was the Lord who was calling Samuel.
9 So he said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’” When Samuel went to sleep in his place,
10 the LORD came and stood there, calling out as before: Samuel, Samuel! Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
19 Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him, not permitting any word of his to go unfulfilled.
John 1:35 – 42
Whereas the three synoptic gospels recount Jesus’ baptism, John’s Gospel does not directly speak of it. It does seem to imply it, however, as part of an extensive report of the encounter between John’s and Jesus’ disciples. We will hear a few verses of these encounters on Sunday. Of course, you may be wondering, “Why are we hearing from John’s Gospel? Isn’t this year dedicated to Mark’s Gospel?” You would have good reason to wonder but, as you will recall from Mark’s Gospel, there is hardly a mention of John the Baptist in Mark’s Gospel, nor in Matthew’s Gospel. So, to show the transition from the Old Testament – remember, John is the last prophet of the Old Testament – into the New Testament, we hear from John’s Gospel this Sunday – just as we heard verses 29 – 34 last year on this Sunday, to act as that bridge. Next week, we will begin to hear from Mark’s Gospel. For complete background on this Sunday’s reading, let’s read all of chapter 1 as well as 3:22 – 4:3.
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples,
two of his disciples: although they are not named, they are traditionally thought to be Andrew and John who, along with Peter, became Jesus’ three closest followers
36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”
Lamb of God: It is only in John’s Gospel – and only on the lips of John the Baptist – that we hear this title given to Jesus; we see it here and earlier in 1:29. It has clear sacrificial overtones and was well understood by the early followers of Christ. We use it every time we celebrate Mass as the celebrant presents the bread and wine turned into the Body and Blood of Christ. As we see in the footnote for 1:29, the ancient Jews would be familiar with this image, associating it with the sacrificial lamb of the Passover meal, and the suffering servant who is led like a lamb to the slaughter as a sin-offering (cf. Is 53:7). This is the same image we see throughout the Book of Revelation (cf. 5 – 7; 17:14).
37 The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.
38 Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?”
“Rabbi,”… “where are you staying?” these two responses acknowledge that they were looking to him as a teacher. Their question, “Where are you staying?” was also a way of saying, “We want to know more about you.”
39 He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon.
“Come and you will see,”… four in the afternoon: Jesus invited them to get to know him, grow into a relationship with him. Then the Gospel tells us it was around four in the afternoon; the implication is that the two disciples went home with Jesus, ate and spent the evening. We could call this the day of their “first Communion.” It was the first time they heard Jesus talk about his vocation, his dreams and his mission. It was the first time they broke bread with him. The Gospel lets us know that they were changed forever by what they encountered in him. They had trusted John and now they came to trust Jesus. Their curiosity is beginning to be satisfied; their deepest yearnings filled.
40 Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.
41 He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed).
42 Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).
you will be called Cephas: as we see with Abram, whose name was changed to Abraham, and Sarai, whose name was changed to Sarah, and Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, and Saul, who became Paul, the name change in ancient time represented a significant change in their lives.
1 Corinthians 6:13c – 15a, 17 – 20
Paul’s letter, written some time in 56 or 57AD, about five years after Paul had established the Corinthian community, is intended to help the community – living in the midst of a multi-cultural, commercial city – to recognize who they were. In the passage we will hear on Sunday, Paul is addressing the opinion of some Corinthians that sexuality is a morally indifferent area (1 Cor 6:12–13). This leads him to explain the mutual relation between the Lord Jesus and our bodies (1 Cor 6:13b) in a densely packed paragraph that contains elements of a profound theology of sexuality (1 Cor 6:15–20). Let’s begin with vs. 12.
13c The body, however, is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body;
14 God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take Christ’s members and make them the members of a prostitute? Of course not!
16 [Or] do you not know that anyone who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For “the two,” it says, “will become one flesh.”
17 But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
18 Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body.
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
20 For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.
This reading speaks powerfully to us today, as well, when there are so many who deny the morality of sexual activity, saying it is just part of who we are as members of the animal kingdom. We would respond that we are made in the image and likeness of God and so are called to glorify God in everything we do.
This week’s readings lead us into the season of Ordinary time with a call to reflect on our vocation – our call to listen to God calling us and to respond as Samuel did, as Andrew and John and Peter did. It requires and listening heart and an open mind, and a willingness to step out in new directions. And, notice that there are two ways to be called, either by God himself, as Samuel, Andrew and John were, or by a follower of God’s ways who comes to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, as Peter was. Most of us didn’t feel God’s call directly; we heard it through the invitation of our parents or someone who was already following God’s ways. We are all called to do the same – to call others around us to follow the Lord.
“What are you looking for?” God responds through the Scriptures and the needs of our times. It is ours to decide if we want to accept the invitation to come and see — and be changed forever.