1 SAMUEL 1:20-28
In those days, Hannah conceived, gave birth to a son, and named him Samuel, saying, “I asked the Lord for him.” After a year, her husband Elkanah went up with his whole family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and fulfill his vow. Hannah did not go up, but said to her husband, “When the child is weaned, then I will take him to present him to the Lord, and he will remain there forever.” When Hannah had weaned Samuel, she took him up to the temple of the Lord at Shiloh, bringing a three-year-old bull, a measure of flour, and a skin of wine. When they had slaughtered the bull, Hannah presented the child to Eli (the high priest), saying, “As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here praying to the Lord. This child is what I asked for; the Lord has granted me my petition. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord for as long as he lives; he is given to the Lord.” Then they worshiped the Lord.
The two books of Samuel narrate the vicissitudes of the people before the monarchy, when they were governed by the so-called “judges,” who ruled the tribes sometimes occasionally, when the intervention of an authority was necessary (among others, Deborah, Gideon, Samson, etc.). The last and most famous is Samuel, who will eventually anoint David as king. The two books are called “of Samuel” because he is the main protagonist of them.
Our text recounts his birth and his consecration to God, to serve in the Temple. Very famous is the hymn of Hannah, thanking God for the birth of the child, which inspired Luke to write the song of Mary that we call “The Magnificat.” The text is included in today’s feast because of its distant similarity with the presence of Jesus in the temple at twelve years of age, although the profound differences in the “consecration” to God of Samuel and Jesus are evident.
JOHN 3:1-2 and 21-24
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and we receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them; and by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.
The text is one of the gems of 1 John. The central message is that the essential thing, in God and in humanity, is love. The essence of God is not majesty, nor power. The essence of God is love. God is not just and merciful, God is not a lenient judge. Because He is not a judge, because He is much more like a mother. Hence comes our own essence: love, compassion, forgiveness, build humanity. Hatred, revenge, oppression, destroy it. And there is in the text a future announcement: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” The destiny of humanity, of each one of us and of the whole of humanity, is a dream of God that we cannot even imagine.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.