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God has a plan for each person. The process of figuring out what God would like us to do with our lives is called “discernment.”
For some people, God’s call is crystal clear, and they follow the path they believe God wants them on. A good example of this is the call of St. Therese, the Little Flower. She felt God wanted her to be a Discalced Carmelite nun, and she was able to pursue that immediately.
Not all people have that experience. There is, for example, the “Samuel call” as we read about today (1 Samuel 3: 3b-10, 19). Poor Samuel was sleeping in the temple and heard the Lord. Thinking it was Eli, he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am.” Eli, however, said, “I did not call you. Go back to sleep.”
This happened more than once. But as Eli got to know the Lord and how the Lord works, he told Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So, when Samuel heard God call him again, Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
We then read, “Samuel grew up, and the Lord was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect.”
Like Samuel, I heard the call to ordained priesthood when I was about 4 or 5 years old. But God had a very twisting and exciting path for me to follow first. Often, on the path, I would say, “Okay, God, I’m ready to begin my priesthood studies!” God did not say “no;” he said, “Not yet.” Finally, one day as I was walking my little dog Patches by a lake near the University of Iowa where I was a professor, and praying the rosary, God said, “Okay, now’s the time. Get ready.”
So, that’s what I did, and now, here I am on a mountainside in Honduras with my dog Blackie serving as a missionary priest writing this blog post for you.
God works in strange ways…in case you didn’t already know it! But he certainly keeps us on our toes!
The Lord works in strange and wonderful ways.