In the first reading, we continue the story of Hannah and Elkanah, the parents of Samuel, and we remember that they had a hard time bringing forth an offspring, a child. They prayed, and especially Hannah prayed. She poured out her heart to the Lord, and she went to a place called Shiloh, which, before the Temple in Jerusalem, was the spiritual centre for the Israelites.
There she beseeched the Lord, and she made this beautiful prayer in the form of a vow: “O Lord of hosts, if you look with pity on the misery of your handmaid, if you remember me and do not forget me, if you give your handmaid a male child, I will give him to the Lord for as long as he lives. Neither wine nor liquor shall he drink, and no razor shall ever touch his head” (1 Sam 1:11). She remained long at prayer before the Lord.
A priest named Eli was sitting nearby. He saw her lips moving but heard no sound, and so he thought she was intoxicated. This adds greatly to our imagination of how she may have been praying, perhaps with her eyes closed, almost frozen in time, pouring out her heart before God. This was not a casual prayer; it was the intensity of her distress. She could only pray in silence, from the depths of her heart.
So too with us when we pray. How do we pray? How do we turn our hearts to the Lord or lift them up? At every Mass, the priest invites us, “Lift up your hearts”, and we respond, “We lift them up to the Lord.” We present our petitions before God, and then we say, “Thy will be done” (Mt 6:10).
The Lord rewards the prayer of Hannah. We are told that she conceived, and at the end of her term bore a son whom she called Samuel, “since she had asked the Lord for him” (1 Sam 1:20). The name Samuel means “the Lord has heard.” Thus begins the story of the first prophet of Israel.
In today’s Gospel, we hear of another beginning: the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. He has already gathered some followers, and on the Sabbath he goes to the synagogue and teaches. The people are astonished, “for he taught them as one having authority, and not like the scribes” (Mk 1:22). In the synagogue there was a man with an unclean spirit, who cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God” (Mk 1:24).
Jesus rebukes him, saying, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” (Mk 1:25). The unclean spirit convulses the man and comes out with a loud cry, and all are amazed. Why does Jesus command the demon to be silent? In the Gospel of Mark, theologians speak of the Messianic secrecy. The people were not yet ready to fully hear, receive, and embrace who Jesus truly was.
This question will follow us throughout these readings: the identity of Jesus. It is the same question Jesus later asks the apostles: “Who do people say that I am?” (Mk 8:27). And more importantly: Who do you say that I am? Do you spend time with him as Hannah spent time beseeching God? Do you close your eyes and speak to him with your heart? Are you coming to know him more deeply by obeying what he asks of you?
Scripture tells us that this is how we know that we truly know God: if we keep his commandments (cf. 1 Jn 2:3). My brothers and sisters, let us have the faith of Hannah and entrust ourselves into the omnipotent hands of our loving God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What is beyond our reach and beyond our control is never beyond God’s. Just as Hannah pleaded for what seemed impossible, so too we remember the words spoken to our Blessed Mother: “Nothing will be impossible for God” (Lk 1:37).
May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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