AM I NOT MORE TO YOU THAN TEN SONS?

⏰Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time Year 2 (13 January 2020)

📖1 Sam 1:1-8; Ps 116:12-13, 14 and 17, 18-19 (R.v.17a); Mark 1:14-20

🎤”AM I NOT MORE TO YOU THAN TEN SONS?” (1 Sam 1:8)

My dear, I welcome you back fully to the ordinary time of the year. As we have always noted in this forum, there is nothing ordinary about the Ordinary Time; it is just the way of talking about the orderly way in which it is arranged in 34 weeks. Again, in ordinary time, the green colour is mainly used at liturgical celebrations. Green is a sign of vegetation. So it is a celebration of the hope that God will make our life greenish and fruitful as well as an invitation for us to bear good and lasting fruits (cf. John 15:16).

On this new working day in this new, beautiful and promising working week, the misfortune and the disgrace which Hannah suffered is presented to us to teach us that no matter what we are passing through in life, God is always there to comfort us.

Can you not hear God speaking to you through the voice of Elkanah, the husband of Hannah, when he asked her comfortingly, “Am I not more to you than ten sons?” (1 Sam 1:8). In my present traumatic situation, I can hear God telling me, “Fr. JohnBosco, I’m bigger than your problems.” What of you?

If you are among those seeking to hear that soothing voice again in your life, you must begin by following Jesus as he goes around fishing men for the kingdom of God. He invites us to also become fishers of men (cf. Mark 1:17). One way to do that is by helping him to alleviate the pains of others instead of adding to it as Peninnah, the co-wife of Hannah tried so much to do to her (cf. 1 Sam 1:7).

May God visit you in whatever difficult situation you are in today, to comfort you and grant answers to your prayers. Amen.

Have a smooth running and miraculous new working week. Peace be with you.